Happy New Year!

I hope you had (and are still having) a wonderful time of giving thanks to God, because for we who are believers, Thanksgiving isn’t simply a holiday…it’s a way of life in which we stay awake to the goodness of God. And as we look to the church’s New Year, which is this Sunday, Advent 1, we may find it harder to stay awake in that way. The pandemic, which so many of us thought might last a month or two, is still very much here, election day didn’t end our country’s divisions, and people are suffering due to ongoing economic struggles. As a wise someone said, ‘these last 8 months are the longest Lent I’ve ever kept.’ And if that’s how the spiritual landscape has been for you (as it has for me and my family), then the habitual spiritual asceticism of Advents past may not be what is most helpful for us to ‘stay awake’ to the presence of Christ this year. Maybe plunging in right now to the joys of decorations, carols, and movies, all the while lighting our Advent candles, can give our spirits the buoyancy and energy to stay on the lookout for Christ’s coming (at Christmas and at the end of time) in a way that sustains us and enables us to better love our neighbor. Because that’s our prime directive, love God, self, and neighbor in real and generous ways…everything else is gravy.

And if lowered spirits are not the case for you, then maybe staying with the more traditional keeping of Advent is what’s fitting. The point is…this beginning of our church year is different in ways we couldn’t have imagined, so it’s okay to meet that beginning in ways that we may not have practiced before. I’m of the mind that whatever works to keep us doing love is what needs to happen. So not that you needed it, but you have your rector’s permission to do everything from put up your tree right this second to not whipping out one single ornament until Christmas eve. “You do you,” as the kids say…as long as you do love. And Happy New Year!

(Luke 5:33-39, meditation verses…the Message Bible version is great for this!)

Blessings and great love,
Mo. Nikki+