The people who walked in darkness

    have seen a great light;

those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness,

    on them has light shone.

3 You have multiplied the nation;

    you have increased its joy;

they rejoice before you

    as with joy at the harvest,

    as they are glad when they divide the spoil.  (Isaiah 9:2,3)

 

I’m not “feelin’ the love” today.

 

Oh, don’t get my wrong; all of you are awesome.  I’m so grateful for all of your caring and consideration of me.  You are truly God’s light in a pretty bleak time.

 

No – its not that at all.  Its frankly:

 

Just the weather.

 

You see, yesterday, Sandra called me and gently suggested that with the ‘travel advisory’ issued by the Weather Network that we should consider rescheduling the Session meeting to be held tonight.  I, not quite so gently, said back to Sandra a pretty firm ‘no’, and that we ought to wait until this morning before canceling the meeting.  I was pretty hopeful that the advisory would be lifted today.  Of course, Sandra was right and we should’ve canceled, but I just didn’t want to admit it.  You see – I love Session.  This is the ‘worship planning’ crew who do things like consider some of my crazier ideas and put the ‘made in Bethel’ spin on the activities.  And like all of the rest of you, they just pitch in and do things – there’s always willing hands to take care of stuff; you know, like checking all of the tealights to make sure they still work before I hand them out and expect people to light them.  Or, setting up all of the Communion elements so I don’t have to worry; which always means that someone has to hunt for that funny do-hickey thingy to fill the little communion shot glasses.

 

Besides which, I’m a raging extrovert, and so I just wanted to hang out with Session because I needed a little people time.  Often my day is alone; writing, researching and reading in order to prepare for worship on Sunday.  Just as an aside, I would say that usually, from start to finish, I spend between 20 and 25 hours a week preparing for worship.  Not all in one fell swoop, and not all during regular banker’s hours, but easily that amount of time.  While I love worship and, believe it or not, I love writing and researching and all of that stuff, I’m not really fond of spending all that much time alone.  So, when I get to go to a meeting, I’m really quite thrilled.

 

When I finally realized that it was a better solution to cancel Session than to hold Session, I was just. So. Disappointed.

 

It totally makes sense to reschedule a meeting when its not safe for people to drive to the church; but that didn’t stop me being just. So. Disappointed.

 

I’m sure you all can see the irony, then, when I started actually finishing up my sermon using the Isaiah 9 passage that says “

You have multiplied the nation;

    you have increased its joy;

they rejoice before you

    as with joy at the harvest,”

 

I actually said “Bah Humbug” out loud in my office.  Increased joy, increased schmoy…..

 

Sometimes life is really disappointing, isn’t it.  And sometimes, like today, I get really disappointed by things that happen that really aren’t that big a deal.  In fact, I realize that having Session canceled is, to quote Martha Stewart “a good thing”, because you all matter very much to me and I realize that I matter a whole lot to you; enough that you want to keep me safe and well.  And so, I wonder, if the problem is that I’m looking in the wrong direction at things these days, and if I need to instead “see the great Light” that is being offered.  The Light that brings joy and community.  The Light that shows that we really are trying to embody God’s love.  The Light that allows us to feel like we have a life of abundance, like when a good harvest of strawberries come in, rather than a life where we’re scrounging at the bottom of the barrel of root vegetables.

 

So ,join me today in looking for the joy instead of scrounging for the last turnip.  I’m going to get on the road as soon as my sermon is done so that I can be home before the snow flies.  But if you’re driving by the church, and you see my car in the parking lot, all by itself, feel free to drop in for a chat.  Bonus points if you bring cookies.

 

Blessings today, and remember you are Loved (even when Session is cancelled).

~Rev. Lynne