Monthly Archives

December 2019

O BLESSED ONE!

The Mary Model

There must be some displacement before there can be any new “replacement”! Mary is the archetype of such self-displacement and surrender. If Jesus is the symbol of the gift itself and how God gives the gift, then Mary is the symbol of how the gift is received and treasured.

–Richard Rohr, Preparing for Christmas

 

Not long ago I was in conversation with a corporate bigwig who was/is somewhat stressed out because his company is changing their entire operational model. All the old hierarchies and reporting lines have been scrambled. Old language and labels are getting scrapped. My task, as a consultant, focused on finding ways to redefine the culture and reassign meaning to new frameworks. (This is what your pastor does when he’s not at Gather!)

My client said, “They need to let go. If we hold on to what we’ve always done—and done well—we’ll lose our leadership position.” (Sidebar: I hear this frequently.)

So I asked for an image of “letting go.” He replied, “I’m from a small town and when I go back, it’s always sad to see the prom king and queen hanging around, still living off of something that happened years ago. They need to let go, but they can’t. My people sometimes remind me of that.”

He paints a sad picture we can all relate to. (Have you ever flinched when one of your old classmates pulled out the yearbook?) But in this week’s Advent readings, the great Franciscan mystic Richard Rohr challenges us to let go. In his conviction that the “gift” we celebrate at Christmas must be received, he convinces us that perhaps there’s a little prom king or prom queen in each of us, holding on to false pride, elusive dreams, and illusory hopes.

The miracle of Mary is that she’s an empty vessel; she’s free to make space for the great gift placed with her.

Maybe she doesn’t have much to let go of. That’s the story we tell, isn’t it? She’s poor. She’s young. She doesn’t seem to have very much going on when the angel arrives and her destiny gets rewired. But who of us doesn’t have something they must release so that God can do the work God desires to do in us? No doubt Mary did. No doubt we do.

The Mary model is one of letting go. The pressures of society, fantasies of youth, strictures of religion, conventions of gender and sexuality, and the shame that so often arises from living our truth—they all conspire to urge us to hang on to what we’ve got, even if it’s not what God wants or intended. Yet Mary lets all that go, preferring the gift God deeds her to any favor and approval the world offers. And, not ironically, she ends up being the most highly favored woman in history. How’s that for validation?

Let go. There’s a gift God wants you to receive. Let go.

Don’t miss our final Advent study this coming Thursday evening at 7:30pm CST. We meet in person at Pilgrim Congregational Church, 460 Lake Street, Oak Park. If you’re unable to join us there, you can find us online at FB Live.

We need your help!

As we think about the future of Gather, please let us know what gifts you bring and would like to share with the community. There are many roles that have to come together to make Gather happen every week. This includes setup, technical support, worship, managing handouts and information, coordinating drinks, and teardown. We need your help. Please let us know what type of service you’d be interested in!

Watch God Work,
Tim & Shea

As we prepare to become a vibrant worshipping community, we invite you to enjoy a Spotify playlist that captures the kind of worship we hope to embrace. Give it a spin while you’re driving. Make it your workout jam. Add it to your devotional time. Most of all, feel yourself becoming part of a sacred village of believers who love their God and one another!
Check out the Gather Worship Playlist here.

DARKNESS AND LIGHT

Life in Contrast

This past Sunday we contemplated making room for Christ to the sounds of Mary Chapin Carpenter’s “Come Darkness, Come Light.” It’s a song I love because it draws attention to deep contrasts in the Nativity. Mostly it’s a nighttime tale with light breaking in, often in supernatural ways—bright stars, angel choirs, heavenly visitations. That surely means something, particularly after we recall there were no rules in how this event unfolded. God could have accomplished what happened in Bethlehem anywhere, at any time, with anyone. So that invites us to consider the intentions behind the specifics. It would be unwise to assume anything is coincidental.

“Come Darkness, Come Light” keeps pointing toward contrasts. “Come broken, come whole… Come doubting, come sure… Come running, come walking slow…” At first we might think of these as either/or dualisms—opposites, even. But as they settle, they remind us the Birth we prepare to celebrate is really a study in contrasts, not dualisms. Light and darkness coexist; there can’t be one without the other. Brokenness is really incomplete wholeness, and wholeness is brokenness remedied. Running doesn’t preclude slowness any more than moving slowly at some points in our lives prevents our quickness at other times.

“You must live in the present,” Thoreau said. “Launch yourself on every wave, find eternity in each moment.” It certainly makes for beautiful poster copy. But we can draw real meaning from it as we watch contrasts unfold in the Christmas saga. There are times of impenetrable darkness as the key players struggle to comprehend what’s happening. Then there are moments of startling luminosity: dreams and visions, unexpected guests who serve as confirming presences, the unquestioning support of distant relatives and far-flung magicians. Throughout, darkness and light come and go moment by moment, as it does in any life, as it does in our own lives.

Contrasts bring clarity. That’s their blessing. We gauge brightness by darkness and vice-versa. We recognize justice would not taste nearly as sweet without the bitter taste of cruelty and inequality on our tongues. We know one moment’s gripping doubt will have to yield to another moment’s liberating assurance. Rejection’s barbs and brambles teach us to appreciate the velvet comfort of unconditional love and acceptance.

God comes to us in the night in ways we often can’t comprehend. Yet God remains constant with us, at our most dismal and at our most brilliant. It is never an “either/or.” It is always a “yes/and.” Finding life in contrasts opens us to the power of always.

This week we’ll continue our dialogue with the great Christian mystic, Richard Rohr, in his Advent devotional, Preparing for Christmas. And our attention will turn to contrasts—living not in lightness or darkness, but lightness-and-darkness (and all of the grays that fall in between) Join us for Bible study at 7:30pm CST this Thursday. We meet at Pilgrim Congregational Church, 460 Lake Street, Oak Park. If you’re unable to be with us in person, you can join us online via FB Live. See you then!

We need your help!

As we think about the future of Gather, please let us know what gifts you bring and would like to share with the community. There are many roles that have to come together to make Gather happen every week. This includes setup, technical support, worship, managing handouts and information, coordinating drinks, and teardown. We need your help. Please let us know what type of service you’d be interested in!

Watch God Work,
Tim & Shea

As we prepare to become a vibrant worshipping community, we invite you to enjoy a Spotify playlist that captures the kind of worship we hope to embrace. Give it a spin while you’re driving. Make it your workout jam. Add it to your devotional time. Most of all, feel yourself becoming part of a sacred village of believers who love their God and one another!
Check out the Gather Worship Playlist here.

JOSEPH’S PEOPLE

Questions Hidden in the Christmas Story

There was no place for them in the guestroom.

–Luke 2:7

 

I come from a large family, with most of them living in Northern Alabama. But starting with my parents’ generation, the lure of better jobs and schools drew a lot of us away. Many went north, some went west, and quite a few relocated to larger cities down South. This means I likely have relatives near any major American city I visit. Should I land in, say, Phoenix or Miami or Boston and find my hotel overbooked, I know to call my people. In fact, because my family is steeped in Southern hospitality, I would be in big trouble if I needed somewhere to stay and didn’t reach out to them.

So where are Joseph’s people?

Recall how the story goes. Augustus Caesar decides to update the Roman tax rolls. Everyone has to return to their home villages to register, which means Joseph—a descendant of King David—has to return to Bethlehem—a.k.a. the City of David—to be counted. He arrives with his fiancée, Mary, who is nine months’ pregnant. They can’t find accommodations and end up in a filthy stable, where she gives birth to a little boy and lays him in a nasty manger.

The way this story usually gets told is deeply informed by American tourist mindsets. Presumably the hotel rooms in Bethlehem are filled when this young couple shows up. (Forget the Marriott—not even the Motel 6 has any vacancies.) But this telling, which has its own apparent set of difficulties, doesn’t answer the big question.

Where are Joseph’s people?

This is his hometown. His family comes from here. Even if they all moved away, they would still be need to return for the registration. Surely there are a few cousins or aunts or possibly even Joseph’s own parents with a little room to spare. Where are they?

This story is pressing us to look more deeply into the social fabric of its set-up. There are threads we need to pull so we can unravel some of the myth to get to harder realities. Why didn’t Joseph’s people come to their aid? Why didn’t they make room for this young and needy couple?

Luke (who’s writing to a Gentile audience) makes sure we understand that before the Christ Child even appeared there were deep-seated prejudices that put his life at risk. As we relish candle glow and carols, our own family and friends’ gatherings, the overly romanticized imagery of a clean baby cooing in a hygienically pristine barn stall, let’s not avoid the hard questions. The story is trying to tell us something about acceptance and making room for unwelcome wayfarers who pass through our lives.

May we enable the discomfort of these tidings to reach our hearts, even as sing of comfort and joy.

Join us this coming Sunday as we join together for our monthly worship experience. Our theme for December is “Make Room” and we will focus on often overlooked messages in the Advent and Christmas narratives. And—of course, being Gather—we will also practice joy and togetherness! Worship begins at 5pm CST in the Parlor of Pilgrim Congregational Church, 460 Lake Street, Oak Park. If you’re unable to join us in person, you can worship with us online via FB Live.

We need your help!

As we think about the future of Gather, please let us know what gifts you bring and would like to share with the community. There are many roles that have to come together to make Gather happen every week. This includes setup, technical support, worship, managing handouts and information, coordinating drinks, and teardown. We need your help. Please let us know what type of service you’d be interested in!

Watch God Work,
Tim & Shea

As we prepare to become a vibrant worshipping community, we invite you to enjoy a Spotify playlist that captures the kind of worship we hope to embrace. Give it a spin while you’re driving. Make it your workout jam. Add it to your devotional time. Most of all, feel yourself becoming part of a sacred village of believers who love their God and one another!
Check out the Gather Worship Playlist here.