In America, October is pumpkin season; November is Thanksgiving season and everything after that is the annual holiday ramp up. From the moment the turkey comes out of the oven, the pace of life quickens, schedules get over booked, and The Holidays are upon us. We are bombarded with controversies about Starbucks paper cups, public nativity scenes, and endless commercials. It is sensory overload season.
It is not so in the Church. We spend October getting Jesus ready for Holy Week, which we will put off until April in 2019. November is about end times. December is all about waiting and watching. The order of the Church's calendar does not sync up with greater American society. Sigh.
In truth, the Church spends December preparing for Christmas, a holiday ( holy day) that America begins celebrating as soon as the turkey roaster is back on the shelf. As the final strains of Silent Night fade away, the Church begins 12 days celebrating the new promise which is the birth of the Christ Child, while the rest of the culture is wrapping up a month of insanity and begins putting it all back in storage the moment the last bit of wrapping paper is recycled. January 6th when the Wise Men arrive at the stable, most nativity sets have been packed away. Then the Church begins to celebrate the bright light of Christ while the rest of the northern world settles in for a long winter nap and the football playoffs. We are out of sync.
Just to be clear, I don't have any other suggestions. It simply leaves me as a preacher with parts of scripture which should be accompanied by dramatic music and a sense of danger ahead, as folks are settling in for pumpkins, turkey, family and football. Even as I write this, I know that whatever message comes to us through the Spirit is in competition with the ever-present messages that come from the World. Yet for me, it is October and November which seem so terribly out of step with everything else.
Just possibly the problem isn't the dissonance of October and November, but the seeming lack of tension throughout the rest of the year. Of course the message of Christ is out of sync with the world. Dramatically out of sync. This makes these last stories so very important, for they describe the struggle that is the act of following Jesus. They speak about wealth and sacrifice. They speak about glory in servanthood and ruling from the feet up. They speak about total trust in a higher power.
In these last weeks Jesus asks some hard questions and would-be disciples are making some difficult discoveries about this path called discipleship. Perhaps they are exactly the stories we need to hear as the world powers up to claim all our attention, our loyalty and, if possible, our money. Perhaps I have been looking at this all wrong. Hmmmm.
What does it take for us to confront our own bondage to the world's mindset?
What portion of scripture can better highlight the dissonance between God's thinking
and our cultural practices?
and our cultural practices?
Is this the year we radically re-orient and focus on the Divine Message, with supporting
roles played by culture and tradition?
roles played by culture and tradition?
Lots of questions this morning to consider with your pumpkin spice latte. What are your answers?
*** 64 is the countdown from Oct. 22nd when I wrote this. Sigh.
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