There may be no other time of the year that is so marked by traditions. What we do, where we go, what we hear, what we see, whom we think of, what shopping-mall traffic jams we get into … certainly up through two Advents ago, a lot of us had amassed a great many Things We Always Do and a great many Ways We Always Did Those Things.
And then, not to beat a dead horse, but … certainly in this past nearly two years (and perhaps for more it will be the case that) a great many Things Are Now Different. And there are a great many Things We Still Can’t Do, or at least Things We’re Not Comfortable Doing Yet.
Maybe that’s the reason you might be feeling a bit like a Grinch.
We’re not sure of the reason why the actual Grinch was feeling like a Grinch (Dr. Seuss never gets specific about that particular origin story) … but we might well be quite sure of our reasoning.
Half a year ago, COVID-19 conditions were beginning to look up. Without a Delta variant yet in sight, Sudbury UMC’s staff was looking ahead to this Advent season as one in which we could very well be returning to our usual practices.
So much for that.
Plenty of opportunities to wonder, forlornly, “will we ever [fill in the blank] again?”
Well, not to toot our own horn overly, but matters have begun to force us to invent new activities that might well become Things We Always Do.
Last Christmas Eve, at the end of our worship service, we gathered on the front steps of the church and in the parking lot to sing “Silent Night” because it meant we could gather safely, socially-distantly, and sing lustily. (You may recall that at that point, congregational singing was frowned upon by public-health officials.)
Who knows? Years from now, we may still be singing “Silent Night” outdoors, our dulcet tones carrying into the night sky, because it’s a lovely thing to do.
These online-blog versions of SUMC’s devotional writing collections actually began a year before COVID struck, but they certainly were useful afterward — a way of distributing our congregation’s lovely writings without the need for hand sanitizer.
But now, rather like our Sunday-morning live-streaming capabilities, those writings can be sent out into the wider world, possibly to reach more people than could be reached previously. All to the good.
Some of the writings that follow, here — posted every morning from now until Christmas Day — may be responses to questions drawn from a book that Pastor Joel is using as the centerpiece of his Advent season Sunday-morning children’s times: “The Heart That Grew Three Sizes: Finding Faith in the Story of the Grinch”, by Pastor Matt Rawle. And some may not be.
But as usual, they all will be written by members and friends of Sudbury UMC. One of those pleasant and rare examples of something that “we’ve always done this way” and which nonetheless continues to make sense.
(As is only possible with the online format, we have a few of the writings ready to go, but there is still quite a bit of “space” remaining … so if you’d like to have a go at writing something for inclusion here, BY ALL MEANS check out those writing ideas (https://www.sudbury-umc.org/s/AdventBlog2021_Instructions.pdf) and see what inspiration strikes you!)
Ready?
Off we go… again!…
-Rob Hammerton
Sudbury UMC Lenten Devotions 