The 1st Week of Advent: Psalms 25:1-10; Luke 21:25-36
What is it like to be a tree without leaves?
Have you ever felt like that?
What keeps you going?
"2020 will be a super cool year," I said in 2019. I looked forward to it so much not because of any particular important reasons but simply the number "2020." It is a cool number, isn't it? Maybe it is not any more!
Well, the world surprised me and challenged me more than what I had expected and awaited. Did that happen to you, too? Our way of living, socializing, communicating, learning, working and planning the future have all changed due to the ongoing global pandemic of COVID-19.
Look at the cherry tree! All the leaves fell except some yellow leaves on a half fallen branch hanging by the trunk. Wherever I went, I felt like that cherry tree without leaves. They fell off too fast before I could gather my thoughts. The church building became purposeless and lifeless without the people of God. It was quieter, bigger, emptier, and darker.
Even though I often preach and teach the definition of a church, which is not a building, I couldn't help not to feel a sense of grief bubbling up each day. The definition of the word Church in Greek 'Ecclesia' means followers and believers summoned by Grace through Faith in Christ either gathered or scattered individually and communally.
As a leader of the church, my call in 2020 was to constantly remind myself and the people of God whom God sent me to serve that we were the church no matter how scattered we were. Instead of meeting in person, many phone calls were made; many personalized emails were sent; many intentional visits with masks on were paid, which we as the church sometimes neglected to do simply because we were too busy and caught up with everything else but not so much of meeting the needs of each individual.
As we begin a new church year from 2021 - 2022, how can we be a tree that is life-giving even though it doesn't have leaves? It seems lifeless but not through the eyes of faith. The fact is that God continues blessing those who feel at the end of their rope, who feel they have lost what is most dear to them, who are content with just who they are, who have worked up a good appetite for God, who care, who get their inside world - their mind and heart - put right, who can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight, and when their commitment to God provokes persecution. (Matthew 5:3-10, The Message)
Let us shout out loud, "O, my God, in you I trust!" so that we can hear each other through what we do and say, and know that no one is left alone but together, we stand up and raise our heads for our God is FAITHFULL AND GRACIOUS.
Thanks be to God. AMEN.
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