fluffy snow out as far as I can see!
Last night "church cancellations" started scrolling across TV screens.
We've only had to "cancel" worship twice here in ten years, that I can remember.
Mainers are a pretty hardy group, weather doesn't stop us. Its just gets us going with ingenuity. Common sense does sometimes divert our energy.
So this morning at 9:00 AM with a clear parking lot, but several feet of powder piled against the doors and up the Torsey stairs, I find myself contemplating what "cancel Church" means.
The Roman Empire tried pretty hard to cancel church permanently just as church was getting started.
If we really cancelled church now, what would the world lose?
(Leave your thoughts in the comment section below!)
Maybe we can re-think church to where we are today, moving it instead of "cancelling it."
In fact, if we try using "church" as a verb rather than a noun,
we could be churching in any number of ways!
Maybe reading today's Gospel, John 1: 10-18, in front of a fire that echos the light of God filling our world.
Maybe humming "O Little Town of Bethlehem" as we clear the streets and sidewalks of our community for travelers. Maybe even thinking about others way to make our homes and world welcome source of God's loving light for all traveling life's journey. (I love the phrase in United Methodist Communication's recent mailing: ACT justly, LOVE mercy, WALK humbly.)
Maybe for those of us who'd really like to be imagining a warmer place, how about re-thinking church in a tropical theme? How would you worship on a light filled beach? hmmmmm.
Toay is the 10th day of Christmas, the end of the first ten years of the millenium. The news is full of dire descriptions of a difficult decade. But the light shines in the darkness and the darkness does not overcome it.
We may not be worshipping the way we usually do (which is, after all, not the way "its always been done"), but that's no reason not to seek Christ's light today. Or, to let that love light shine through our lives as we seek to serve him.
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