Recipients of Cosmic Effort

December 24, 2019

Beloved:

          I could not be more grateful for another year of joyful ministry among the beloved community of University Baptist Church.  Your graceful hearts teach me so much and our life together is the most graceful place of service any pastor could hope for.  
          As chronos time winds down and down, kairos goes on forever in one endless loop. So we now loop back to the end of Advent (the time before time) and the beginning of Christmas.  
In our service this evening, prepared by our student minister, Laura Beth, I’ve been asked to share a brief reflection on the meaning of the moment to me.  Below is what I’ve written.  However, if you are local and you are able, I hope you’ll join us at 7:30 p.m. to share all the Lessons & Carols, along with the sweetness of the candlelight.  I look forward to another year of worship and service with you all. 

Peace & prayers, 
pastor annette  ​

Christmas Eve Reflection - 2019

Some years the whole season passes and it never happens once. 
Sometimes it happens when it isn't even Christmas time.
 
But every once in a while,
Usually if I am thinking about something else
or doing something else altogether,
 
Some splinter of the truth
of the Incarnation of God
in the human person  of a child    
 
Will suddenly slice through the noise of my mind,
Slip past the curtain of my heart,
 
And for just a moment -
I am overwhelmed . . . . 

The absolute perfection of it
Is perfectly plain to me.

Then . . . for hours,
sometimes even days, after that . . .
 
I cannot not believe it -
With all my heart and mind and soul and strength.
 
To be so loved takes my breath away.
To be a recipient of such cosmic effort -
Effort put forth . . . 
For the sake of my happiness . . . 
 
So that I can live fearlessly . . . 
In a terrifying world . . . .
 
To know myself so loved . . .
Leaves me helpless . . .
Wordless. 
Profoundly at peace.
Full of joy.
 
My eyes can see and my ears can hear
What they could not before -
 
A whole world -
Cats and silverfish and grass -
melting snow and traffic sounds -
Even my cranky neighbor scowling at my messy yard -
 
All of it
Positively radiating,
The whole universe throbbing,  
With that same love . . . .

Breaking through here and there to replace our broken hearts
With the happiness,
the peace -
The contentment,
meant for us at the start.
 
Think of that!
Just think of it . . .
For all our tinsel and our trying -
 
The perfection of the season is already ours -
Emmanuel . . . God with us.
Among us and within us.
The truest thing we know -
 
In the moments when we know, we know -
And all the others too.
Always there, waiting to break through -

In glimpses and in glances -
Which may be all we can ever manage -
And somehow also exactly enough. 

Amen?
Amen.