Warming Places

 Across our nation, a bomb cyclone of cold weather has descended, dropping temps into dangerous levels. I am especially mindful of those who are unhoused in these dangerous weather days. I am grateful for our churches who have opened their doors to those without shelter or heat!

The cabinet and I have been in Cody, Wyoming this week, preparing ourselves for the appointment season. Yesterday, as the temperature never rose above – 20F and had a wind chill factor of -50F, I noticed something as we broke for the day. The caretaker of the retreat center came to our meeting space and turned on the gas fireplace. I watched as the cabinet members all began to gravitate to the fireplace. Hands reached out towards the warmth. Conversation was both playful and meaningful as we stood around the fireplace.

In the midst of cold weather, we are a species drawn to warmth.

I have been thinking about this as a metaphor for our churches. This world can be so very cold—community is hard to come by; judgment and intolerance is often encountered; we feel isolated and alienated. Our spirits become brittle and break in the face of a chilly and unwelcoming world.

How is your church an oasis of warmth in the midst of a frigid world? Are people drawn to the warmth your congregation exudes? Will they find a place where they can allow their souls to defrost and be reformed in Love?

I am praying your church can offer a generous hospitality, so those whom the world has frozen out can be embraced with open arms that comfort and thaw even the most frozen hearts.

We Shall Overcome

 This past weekend, I am in Montgomery with members of our conference, participating in a Civil Rights Pilgrimage. It has been a sobering trip as we learn more deeply of the systemic terrorism and torture of African Americans, so deeply embedded in our nation’s psyche.  We were frequently brought to tears as we moved through museums and monuments that showed not only the violence of racism in the past but the way it continues in our present.

Lest we think that the legacy of racism is only a “southern thing”, we learned that lynchings occurred in each of the four states of our conference. Plus, monuments to the confederacy are found in three of our states, the most recent one erected in Denver in 2003 (https://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/wm5QAN_Colorado_Confederate_Veterans_Memorial_Riverside_Cemetery_Denver_CO) (additionally, we have a legacy of violence against Native Americans and immigrants and in addition Japanese Internment camps that were found across our conference).

One of the exhibits at Legacy Museum had slave pens which you could peer into. As you looked in, a holographic figure of an enslaved person appeared and spoke. It was very fleeting, and I found myself rooted to the spot, hoping to have them reappear so I could learn more of their story.

Are we willing to listen with open hearts to the stories of those whose lives have been impacted by racism, not only in the past but in our communities today?

I am struck at how Christianity was twisted to support slavery. What a defilement of a faith grounded in God’s love for all humankind, whose image shines from the face of every person.

Yet, Christianity also undergirded the civil rights movement. Clergy and laity together linked arms with others and put their very bodies on the line to push back on the forces of evil and oppression. The course of a nation was changed because followers of Jesus refused to allow injustice to have the upper hand.

The struggle continues today. Are you willing to listen and learn of life experiences that aren’t like your own, that are difficult, even painful to hear? Can you do so and not interrupt, not try to make excuses or try to discount the reality and truth of another’s reality?

We each are connected to one another as the Body of Christ. When one suffers, we all suffer. It is only when we listen and learn that we can work to ensure the dignity and humanity of all of God’s children. In this way, we build up Beloved Community and leave a better world for those who will come after us.

The Work of Christmas...

 

We are smack dab in the middle of the 12 days of Christmas, yet for many, Christmas is already over: the tree is shedding and the decorations are begging to be placed back in their boxes for another year. Christmas 2023 is quickly becoming one more holiday memory.

It is at this time I like to sit with the words of Christian mystic Howard Thurman:

“When the song of the angels is stilled, When the star in the sky is gone, When the kings and princes are home, When the shepherds are back with their flock, The work of Christmas begins: To find the lost, To heal the broken, To feed the hungry, To release the prisoner, To rebuild the nations, To bring peace among others, To make music in the heart.”

“The work of Christmas begins…”

I have been meditating on that statement all week. What is the “work of Christmas”? Are we willing to do it?

From Mary’s response to the angel Gabriel to Herod’s decree to murder all boys under the age of two because he found his power threatened by the baby Jesus, the birth of Jesus challenges those in power and upsets the status quo through God’s revolution of Love. The God who made us becomes one of us, to show us a better way to live, to challenge systems that keep us from living out our full God-given humanity, to ensure that oppression ends and justice reigns.

The work of Christmas begins…

As you begin to pack away Christmas decorations, how will Christmas remain in your heart? How will God’s love for humanity be visible in your actions? How will you live out your baptismal vow and “accept the freedom and power God gives you to resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves”?

Our faith does not allow us to hold a naïve view of the world. As we consider the possibilities of the New Year, we know that we will continue to be faced with violence, political division, a world on fire, inequalities, and hatred. How does Jesus’ birth provide us with hope, instill in us holy boldness, and compel us to take on the task of ushering in God’s Beloved Community?

The work of Christmas begins…let’s do this!