Light

 Dear Family in Faith,

This week’s picture in the upper right-hand corner comes to us from First Presbyterian Church, Boise, Idaho.  The sanctuary there is adorned mostly with stained glass windows that are red and blue hues, except for one, that happens to provide the “light” to illumine the manger …when the sun is in the right place, at the right time—and only for a few fleeting moments.  My friend Andrew serves as pastor there—and wrote this week about his returning to work after the Christmas and New Year’s holidays: 

There are many ways I’m feeling the bleakness. Directly or through shared pain…. Uncaring neighborhoods. Raging pandemic. All too many deaths of friends and congregation members and family. Challenging diagnosis. Lack of resolve to remove toxic patterns. The cold wet mud sucking reality that this is a hard world. 

This image is holding my center however. Shared to me by a friend and coworker, this happened late afternoon today. The manger is still on our chancel for Christmastide before it gets replaced by the baptismal font for the Baptism of Jesus Sunday this weekend. And it’s being bathed in the yellow glow of one of our stained glass windows. But it’s not just any window. All the windows on that side are red and blue.. except one. One bright window of whites and yellows on a wall of deep reds and blues. That window? It’s the “I am the Resurrection” window. That’s right …like the star in the sky for the magi of old that light is shining into the bleakness to remind me that hope is born anew, and joy comes with the morning. 

Like Andrew, I returned to work this week too.  In addition to knowing about surgeries and medical treatments, family setbacks, and stressful situations, I was caught up by at least a dozen Facebook posts by church friends across the country, announcing to the world that they had tested positive for COVID despite having been vaccinated and boosted; all to add to a growing collection of heart-wrenching stories of people I know suffering from post-COVID complications and conditions.  At a board meeting, the board President reminded us that he, too, had contracted COVID, in spite of two vaccines, the booster, wearing a mask in public, and social distancing—and was clueless about where or how he became infected. There are COVID cases among our Church members, again, over the holidays.  …Frankly, “In the Bleak Midwinter” seems to more appropriately describe these daily realities. 

I know that all of us are tired of hearing the news about the pandemic—just as we’ve arrived at the height of it!  Yet despite all the reasons some people offer for us to be or feel afraid, I’m stubbornly trying to cling to the hope of the good news that the angels announced to the Shepherds at Jesus’ birth—“do not be afraid!”  Jesus hasn’t stopped being the LIGHT the World!  This is STILL God’s GOOD creation.  Even so, I know that what we all wanted for Christmas was an end to the pandemic wreaking havoc on our daily lives and our ability to move freely in others’ company indoors and outdoors, on planes or trains, in homes and especially at Church!  I know all of us are tired and exhausted and desperately want to move on. 

In such bleakness, it’s easy to turn to the fatalism of, “whatever will be, will be”—or, “if I get it, I get it”—or, worse, “if I get it, it must be God’s will” …simply because it offers a kind of prophetic certainty that we are victims of circumstances we can’t control.  Instead of giving in, or giving up—our faith insists that God loves each of us and calls all of us to life, in abundance.  This last weekend while I was away, I heard a sermon in which a Catholic Priest encouraged his congregation to resist the “covid-isms” we’ve come to live with, like mask and vaccine mandates, because they are Satan’s tools meant only to ruin believers’ souls.  He refused to acknowledge that the Christian gospels testify to Jesus teaching over and over to defend the weak, help the suffering, and our serving others’ needs before our own—including healing the sick, feeding the hungry, comforting the afeared, AND calling us to “follow him.” 

I’ve said this before.  The hardest parts of COVID …may be yet to come.  I still believe following Jesus includes defending, helping, and serving others—like Jesus does; and doing what we can to continue to try and stop the spread of this disease!  It’s exhausting work …calling for more sacrifice, demanding more of our attention, forcing us into behaviors we want to resist yet insists instead that we focus on our neighbors’ wholeness and needs rather than our own.  Because that’s what Jesus did …and this is clearly who Jesus is when he declares that LOVE is laying down our lives for our friends. 

We should not be afraid.  We walk in faith knowing that the one who has come—is coming again; so that we can defy anyone or anything that brings oppression, pain, death, or destruction.  This disease is insidious; we don’t want it to control our ability to love one another.  If you can, get a vaccine—both doses; and a booster dose.  Wear a well-fitting, high-quality mask indoors.  Practice physical distancing and good hygiene.  Be kind to others—in bleakness, all of us need that. 

REMEMBER: We are people called to be LIGHT and LIFE and LOVE; following a star, testifying to hope born anew and that joy is coming.  However forgetful we become, God remembers.  However weary we are, God does not grow tired. However things seem to be falling apart around us, God is still creating.  Our stories aren’t over.  Christmas isn’t just a birthday party; Jesus’ whole point, might be as simple as “love one another.”  In the bleak midwinter, something so simple has never been more important!