PJ’s Page –
Last month, during the second week of Advent, Luther Memorial was scheduled to host our neighbors at Broadview UCC for our second mid week Advent service. We had decided we would sing the beautiful Holden Evening Prayer service. In preparation, we hired a musician, secured worship leaders (thank you Kelsey and Bruce), and prepared the sanctuary to look especially lovely.
As the time for worship approached, we lit two candles on the Advent wreath, dimmed the lights, put the coffee on, and laid out the cookies for fellowship time. The musician began her prelude and people started to arrive for worship. But, as I stood to greet the assembly, I realized that only a very few people from LMLC had gathered. Besides the worship leaders, only three people from our congregation were in attendance. Three. We were easily outnumbered by our guests.
I’m going to be honest, this was a hard one for your pastor. My dear colleague, Pastor Gary Southerton, patted my shoulder and suggested I should have sent out a reminder email. I smiled weakly and told him that I had done so, with the Mid Week Update earlier that very day.
I returned home discouraged. Three….that was just not the response I’d anticipated or hoped for.
Then I remembered the story we are in the midst of re-telling: the birth of the Messiah. It is a story of grace entering the world in unexpected ways. The Savior comes as a baby born to an unwed mother in a barn out back. This must have taken everyone by surprise: Mary, Joseph, shepherds in the fields, Herod, the magi.
When the magi, who were people who studied the stars, not kings, saw the brightness of the star in the east, they set out to find something special. I imagine that the surprise of finding such an ordinary family with such a seemingly ordinary child may have seemed disappointing at first. But I like to believe that as they stood there, they had some glimpse of the wonder before them.
Eventually, that’s what I had to take away on that cold December night. That those of us who had gathered were in the presence of the mystery of the Incarnation, Jesus who has come among us and will come again. That the words we sang into the dark night sky were as true today as they have ever been: You who made the heaven’s splendor, every dancing star of night, make us shine with gentle justice, let us each reflect your light. Mighty God of all creation, gentle Christ who lights our way, Loving Spirit of salvation, lead us on to endless day.
In this season of Epiphany, we are drawn to signs and wonders that point to who Jesus is. Those very stories don’t always unfold the way people around Jesus must have imagined they would have. Still, no matter what….no matter how many….God comes among us again and again….and we behold the majesty of a tiny child, a refugee family, a teacher of unexpected lessons….this one we found when we followed the lights in a night sky.
See you in church,
Pastor Julie