When the Time Comes

November 26, 2013

Dear St. Paul’s Family,

I have waited three months to tell you this story.  And now the time has come.

Back in August, I took the girls to the two Disney water parks in Orlando, Florida.  To photograph the memories without jeopardizing my camera phone, I purchased a waterproof, disposable camera, with an attached rubber strap that I could wrap around my wrist.

I can’t remember the last time I took a photograph with an old-fashioned film camera, one that did not have some kind of display screen.  I have grown so accustomed to seeing the photo the instant that I take it that it took me several shots before I stopped looking at the backside of the camera to see how the picture looked.  I used up all twenty-seven exposures, capturing images of the girls and I cruising down the water slides, floating on the lazy river, and rafting along some rapids.  With each click of the camera, I wondered how the pictures would eventually turn out. 

It took me the remainder of our trip to Florida - and even several days after we got back - before I could find a place that would develop the pictures. Having waited that long already, I opted for the express, one-hour service:  there was no way I was going to wait any more days to see those pictures. 

We have steadily removed the need to wait in our culture, haven’t we?  We have proven over and over that we will invent just about anything to reduce how long we have to wait for something to happen.  In so doing, we have also diminished those moments of richness and fullness that only comes with anticipation. 

But I do think there is something different about waiting for camera film to develop.  That experience carries a unique tension between the past and the future, between an event that has already taken place, and a forthcoming reliving of that moment.  Riding on the water slides with the girls had occurred weeks before, yet I was still eager for the Walgreens photo processor to hand me those pictures so I could see those memories in a fresh new way. 

I used to wonder why Advent makes things so complicated.  Why do we have to spend four weeks pretending that Jesus has not yet been born, when we know fully well that he has?  After all, advertisers and retailers would want us to believe that the Christmas season is already here.  So why prepare for something that has already happened?

Maybe Advent is a lot like waiting for pictures to develop.  Of all the seasons in the Christian year, it best captures the dynamic tension between the past and the future, in  way that fills us with hopeful anticipation in the present.  When we journey to Bethlehem, it’s not that we think that Jesus has not been born, and it’s not just that we believe that Jesus will come again.  It is about opening a freshly developed set of photographs, and allowing the past and the future to amaze us again in the present, as if the the arrival of Jesus was happening for the very first time. 

Advent is not a time of pretending that Jesus has never been born; it is a time of preparing for what that birth might mean for us today.  It is not a denial, but a darkroom: a chance to allow the fullness of God’s love to develop in our lives and be revealed in glorious Technicolor.  Over the next four weeks, we will traverse familiar territory, singing our favorite carols, and hearing the stories we have heard countless times over the years.  And along the way, I invite you to ask the question:  What will God’s good news look like to me when Christmas finally comes? 

This year, our Advent series is called “When the Time Comes.”  It will be a sweeping overview through the birth narratives of Jesus through the lenses of all four gospels.  We will learn how each gospel writer photographs a unique angle of the Christmas story, and explore why they chose to include elements that others left out.  By the end, you’ll have a working knowledge of which gospels contain the most familiar parts of the Christmas story.  And, we’ll see how the four gospels all affirm this one central theme, just like the first line in today’s Mid-Week Message:

God had been waiting a long time to tell us this Story.  And that time had finally come. 

When the clerk handed me my photographs, I tore into the envelope like a child ripping open a Christmas gift.  I had not even paid for the pictures yet before I began to relive each ride, each memory, each thrilling occasion for laughter and joy, in a way that made the past alive again. 

That “thrill of hope” can only come from waiting.  So, brothers and sisters, welcome to Advent. 

Grace and Peace,

Magrey

The Rev. Magrey R. deVega

St. Paul's United Methodist Church

531 W. Main St.

Cherokee, IA  51012

Ph:  712-225-3955

Email:  mdevega@sp-umc.org

“When the Time Comes”

An Advent Journey through All Four Gospels

December 1, 2013

“Mark: A Christmas Story?”

Mark 1:1-8

December 8, 2013

“Matthew: It’s (Not Such) a Wonderful Life”

Matthew 1:18-25

December 15, 2013

Children’s Christmas Program

December 22, 2013

“Luke: The Original Christmas Musical”

Luke 1:46-55

December 24, 2013

“John:  The Word Made Flesh”

John 1:1-14

2014 COMMITMENTS

Thank you to those of you who have turned in your commitment forms for 2014.  If you have not yet turned it in, they are available at the church office.  Your diligence in turning in your pledge will help the Finance Committee plan for another exciting year ahead.

ALTERNATIVE CHRISTMAS GIFT GUIDE

As you ponder your gift lists this year, consider giving a gift that will make a real difference.  Use this year’s Alternative Christmas Gift Guide to give someone a gift that supports the Heifer Project, Church World Service, Stan Sitzmann’s Needy Children Project, or Methodist missionaries Larry and Jane Kies.  Guides are available at the church, and order forms can be given to a Missions Committee member in the narthex on Sunday mornings.

SALVATION ARMY BELL RINGING

Sign up sheets are now available in the narthex for you to sign up for a slot to ring bells for the Salvation Army.  Ringing starts this Friday and continues through the four Saturdays in Advent.  Slots are available from 10am to 2pm, at Hy-Vee, Fareway, and K-mart.  For more information, contact Mary Jo Carnine at 225-6301. 

To subscribe to the Mid-Week Message via email, send a message to mdevega@sp-umc.org.  

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