JR. Forasteros - May 24, 2015
Stone and Spirit
Sometimes it seems as though the Church and the larger world don’t have anything to say to each other, that they’re not even speaking the same language. But the story of Pentecost reminds us that the Church need not be afraid of the conversations our culture is having, that in fact she enables us to speak and to be understood. In the wake of Pentecost, we can engage our world with love and grace, confident the Spirit has gone before us and is inviting us to join in.
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Today is officially the last Sunday of 2020. And I know the general vibe is that we’re all so glad to be done with 2020 we can hardly stand it. 2021 looks so promising – the COVID vaccine is on the horizon, we’re through the election and we’re all still basking in the glow of the Christmas season.
So in light of the turn of the new year, I have some bad news and some good news.
The bad news is that nothing magical happens on New Year’s Day. The difference between 2020 and 2021 is totally arbitrary. The calendar is something we made up. It’s an artificial, imperfect invention (remember leap day?).
So I know we’re all feeling relief at almost having made it out of 2020, but it doesn’t actually mean much.
I know. Major bummer, right?
But I promised good news! Today is the third day of Christmas! And the 12 Days of Christmas is our feast, our festival celebration that extends well into the new year. Christmas is a celebration of change, a celebration of rescue. A celebration of hope.
In other words, it’s a holy festival that celebrates all those things we’re feeling about the new year. But rather than being grounded in the arbitrary flip of the calendar page, it’s grounded in God’s activity in our world.
We don’t celebrate because we have to get new calendars. We celebrate because Jesus is with us.
