December 16, 2022
Hello everyone
As we head into the last week of Advent preparing ourselves for the Christmas season I would encourage us all to ask “How will the Christ Child be born into our community through our church this year?” Its not an easy question. It never is. Certainly our Advent and Christmas services will help. The story of Jesus’ birth needs to be told again and again. It is a story of love come down – a story of a God who breaks barriers and enters into the hearts and lives of people the world often thinks of as insignificant – an unwed mother and a carpenter with shepherds and animals as witnesses. The worship services tell the story in a variety of ways, inviting us, indeed encouraging us to live out the story in our lives.
As a church we share that love in several ways this year in supporting:
Food 4 Kids (their Advent Calendar suggests the following this week - Chicken noodle soup, Instant oatmeal packages, Canned chicken or turkey, Grocery Cards )
The Food Bank of Waterloo Region (10% of our Christmas appeal this year will go to the Food Bank)
Mite cans – Our congregation raised over $1,200 this year for our local mission partners
and the Gifts of Change initiative through Presbyterian World Service and Development where you could buy among other things, a goat for a family in a developing country.
All of this and much more is crucial for a church to do. But what about you? Buoyed by the love of God experienced in community, how will you respond? How will I respond?
Sometimes the simplest things have the most power in people’s lives. Coming out of COVID, two things have become clearer to me; One is a statement of hope. It comes from Maya Angelou who said “Every storm runs out of rain” I invite you to hold on to that hope as we travel through Advent, Christmas and into the new year.
The second thing is about kindness. On the way home on Wednesday, I was tired. I was driving north along Weber street and saw a woman in a motorized wheelchair stuck in the snow on the sidewalk. A teenager walking a dog seemed to be trying to help her. I said to myself, “its okay, she has help”. There’s nothing I need to do, and I continued along. But I couldn’t let it go. I turned around, found a place to park and went to help. The teenager seemed overwhelmed but he had already helped her turn around. When he saw me, he looked with pleading eyes and I said to him, “go ahead, I will help her now” I helped her out of the snow and safely across to the other side of the street where the sidewalk was clear of snow. All of that is minor. What is powerful is just the sheer connection. I wasn’t embarrassed – I had helped my mother in her wheelchair countless times. She wasn’t embarrassed. She just needed help. She looked at me with kind eyes. We shared a moment of mutual kindness. And as I walked away, suddenly the world seemed to be a different place. Kindness has that power. Simple kindness changes the world. Coming out of COVID, the world needs kindness – every day and in many ways.
If you have a gift to give this Christmas, may it be kindness – extravagant, reckless kindness. It is how Jesus is born in your life, in my life and in the community around us.
Here’s a poem entitled “Godburst”
When the Holy Child is born into our hearts
There is a rain of stars
A rushing of angels
A blaze of candles
This God burst into our lives
Love (kindness) is running through the streets
And for you diehards who love riddles, here are the answers to last week’s collection:
Leave and do an elevated broadcast – Go tell it on the mountain
Frozen precipitation commence – Let it snow, let it snow
Assemble everyone who believes - O Come all ye faithful
Oh, member of the round table with missing areas – O holy night (I know I groaned at this one too)
Obese personification fabricated of compressed mounds of minute crystals - Frosty the Snowman
And for good measure, here are a final few:
Our fervent hope is that you thoroughly enjoy your yuletide season –
May the Deity bestow an absence of fatigue to mild male humans –
A dream where everything is covered under a blanket -
I spied my maternal parent osculating a red-coated, unshaven teamster –
Tinkling metal spheres –
Take good care all of you,
Marty