A Letter from Lindy Dec 25

Merry Christmas Beloved Pilgrims,
 
One of my teaching pastors used to remark that one of the heart of our Christian confession is that God saw fit to join us in our mess. Actually, his rendition was a bit snarkier in that God finally got fed up with humanity not comprehending God’s love and faithfulness with/to their beloved creatures after Torah, Land and Prophets that they decided the only thing left to do was to come be among us. Maybe then we would learn! However we come to make this confession, it boils down to the same essence.
 
Of course, theologians from the get go fixated on how messy our mess is and why that matters. Sunday in and out, we tell the story of the mess of God’s people and God therein. From the beginning, this idea of divine participation in the human story was animating and inspired  many of our beloved hymns, carols, poetry and spiritual writing. Our Christmas story that we have been sharing the whole of Advent, which will usher us into Christmas, brings them together in a cacophony of word and song.
 
Even if today “the Christmas spirit” does not translate into the most powerful truth claim of Christmas—becoming instead stories of goodwill toward humankind that close out every evening news, they too can fit snugly people of faith, for they point toward the transcendence of holy breath among us.
 
The hope I want us to cling to most is that God would join us. The Word became flesh. The evangelist John is telling us something profound, true and engaging: Holy becoming flesh in something unexpected and genuinely new. The enfleshed, incarnate Word that compels us and draws us in. What does this mean to us? This is the crux of our confession of faith. As miraculous as divine presence is, it’s not complicated…as much as we may want to make it. The Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory. 
 
Could there be any more profound claim we make on this most holy of nights? What we have in this babe in the manger is God’s new thing—and we are witnesses, called to behold it!
 
I pray we do so. Merry Christmas.
 

Pastor Lindy (she/her)whypronouns matter
 
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