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So, uh, this is embarrassing. After I published that first blog post here and included all that stuff about it being interactive and hoping you’ll leave comments…I discovered comments aren’t enabled. D’oh! My bad. We’ll see if we can get that changed in the future. For now, here is my letter from the second week of Advent.
In so many ways, this season (ok, this series of seasons: Advent-Christmas-Epiphany) is all about gifts. At the heart of it all is the incalculable gift of God giving God’s self to the world through the Incarnation in Jesus. As the song goes, “What if God was one of us?” Well, we believe God did exactly that—become one of us and thus forever put to rest the idea that this world is a place to be escaped. Quite the opposite, the Incarnation demonstrates that God blesses all of material reality; demonstrates that you and I and every person and every creature are a blessing.
Like our ancestors in the faith, we are blessed in order to be a blessing to others—and especially to our neighbors in need.
That’s why we give in all the ways we’ve come to expect:
- Purchasing Angel Tree gifts
- Serving meals at Daybreak Shelter
- Providing hams and turkeys for Helping Hands Food Pantry clients
- Sharing community and a meal at Senior Luncheon
I encourage you to think of other offerings as gifts too. Such as our Advent Devotional that explores the texts and themes of the season through scripture, poetry, music, and art. There is one for every person, so I really hope you will take one. Combine the devotional with time given to a weekly Advent Study and you’ve created the gift of community, learning, and growth.
Or the gift of songs sung and prayers lifted. The gift of time spent truly listening to a neighbor. The gifts of beauty and art that pepper our worship space. The gifts of hundreds of acts of kindness offered to our neighbors and to ourselves. The gift of remembering those we have loved and lost. The gift of time and space to grieve as needed. The gift of stillness, of silence.
All those gifts and more are weaving in and out of our times together and our projects of care. Won’t you come and experience them with us?
Image credit: A Sanctified Art LLC sanctifiedart.org