Dearly Beloved,
We still have some Salvation Army Bell-ringer slots open this Saturday and next. Please reach out to the church office if you're able to sign up for one of those spots. Please remember to bring your Angel Tree gifts and drop them off at church by Monday. We'll collect socks through the New Year. If you're like my family and are working on the reverse Advent Calendar, I recommend donating those boxes of items to Salvation Army, the Loveland Resource Center, or House of Neighborly Service. If you bring them to church on January 4, we'll bless them and I'll drop them off at the Loveland Resource Center on the 5th.
This week is all sunshine and warmth! A stark difference from last week's cold and snow. Whatever the weather, time marches onward. Advent moves us towards Christmas. I've had someone ask me: why fear? Why are we talking about fear this Advent season?
I know. The fear is uncomfortable. Sometimes REALLY uncomfortable. Especially right now when everything seems to be joy, joy, joy, hope, hope, hope, presents, presents, presents. Fear, though, can stand in the way of us truly experiencing God's hope, peace, joy, and love. We numb ourselves in order to avoid feeling fear, so then we can't really feel anything. Or we may unconscious decisions to protect ourselves from that which we fear, and those decisions also mean we do not grow or we shut down opportunities for connection, true peace, justice, and love.
The reality of fear is that doesn't go away if we try to ignore it. If we try to stuff it down. Instead, we simply find ourselves frenzied, busy, rushing, spending, numbing and not able to feel the hope, peace, joy, and love that this season proclaims. We are talking about fear because the only way through it is to face it. Sometimes we think that naming our fears will make them stronger, but naming them actually allows us to choose courage and love in the face of those fears, not as we ignore them.
Our deepest longings (as we talked about on Sunday) are actually intimately connected with our deepest fears. My deep desire to belong accompanies fear that perhaps I don't (and never will) actually belong anywhere. Our longings for God's peace -- a peace different from the comfort and consumption that extraction culture offer -- often live beside our fear that we are actually impotent and can do nothing to change anything.
Even our simple desires to learn something new, heal old wounds, treat illness, begin a new relationship, or deepen an existing friendship all come with their own set of fears, not the least of which is failure. When we name our fears, we are able to see what is real and what is imagined. We are able to imagine -- and then live into! -- a reality in which our fear does not drive us. But instead, we act out of courage, compassion, and care.
Fear was very much a reality of people's lives leading up to the very first Christmas just as it is today in our city, country, and world. Zechariah, Elizabeth, Mary, and Joseph lived under the reality of Roman occupation and rule. Economic hardship touched many parts of people's lives in the midst of a *peace* that benefited the very wealthy and came at great cost to ordinary folks. This Sunday, we'll hear the story of another righteous man: Joseph. He learns that his betrothed is pregnant (and not by him!) and decides to break off the engagement quietly. Then an angel visits him in a dream. And invites him to go by a different way. I can't help but wonder the roles that fear and courage played in Joseph's story.
What different way might you be called to in this season? What fears are keeping you from saying yes? What does courage look like and how might these stories of fear and faith encourage you to be brave?
With love and hopeful anticipation,
Thandiwe
p.s. Want to dig in a little deeper? Read Matthew 1:18-25, which tells the story of Joseph.
