From the Pastor’s Desk

If you are a Dr Who fan, you know The Doctor’s infamous quote about time: “People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect. But actually, from a nonlinear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly, timey wimey stuff.” (Physicist Neil deGrasse Tyson might disagree.) For Christians, that may be no more evident than during this time of the year.

On these crisp December morning you drive to church through streets decked in their Christmas finest and tune into your favorite Christmas Carols. Then you walk into church and while there might be a Christmas tree, you hear the pastor say it’s the season of Advent and sing Advent hymns. You watch those beloved specials about Santa and Frosty and The Drummer Boy, then read to your kids or grandkids “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” But in church the scripture readings read tell of adult Jesus warning to stay awake during times of chaos and seeming disasters. And then there is this focus over Advent on this strange bug-eating, guy out in the wilderness who cries out ‘repent” and calling the people “vipers” –hardly “happy holiday.”

Starting December 26th, gifts are being returned for correct sizes as wilting Christmas trees start to appear on the street with a trail of dry needles marking where they came from. But then you are told at church that this is the first or second Sunday of Christmas. And in case you aren’t confused enough, you recall the pastor telling you the first Sunday in Advent that “that” day was the first day of the new year. Even as everyone else is preparing for New Year’s Day on January 1, 2025.

This “wibbly wobbly timey wimey” difference between seasons outside the church and what is on our bulletin covers can be disorienting. It sometimes cause tensions between congregations and pastors when people want to sing Christmas hymns during worship and focus solely on the baby Jesus, while the pastor insists on using those out-of-season Scripture lessons and singing those “weird” Advent hymns.

Yet this is also a time to practice the tension between living as Christian and living in the world: the two don’t always align. Sometimes what Jesus calls us to do, how God intends for us to live out the command to love others seems odd among the so-called norms of the world. Jesus and his disciples found the that it can even get you labeled as a threat, treacherous, or worse.

But other times, in a glimpse of the fulfilment of God’s reign of love and justice, the two align. There is something special about the quietness of Christmas Eve night, when the stores are closed, most people are home with loved ones, and the stars fill the sky (even if they are behind clouds letting snow fall.) Maybe that’s why so many who are unable to come on Sundays or aren’t sure why it even matters if they do try to come to Christmas Eve services. The Christmas story touches our deepest needs and desires. Our profoundest hopes. Why is it that this story cuts through with the same message that God calls every day: “Fear not!” These words from Emmanuel, God with us and among us. The One who is longing deeply that love and grace and abundant joy of life God offers to humanity reaches us, to reaches you. The God who wants this so profoundly to becomes completely vulnerable, reliant on those who will raise Jesus. A God who promises us that God is already involved, and will not allow evil, suffering, even death to have the final word.

Years ago I listened as another pastor spoke about how he lives in this “timey wimey” period when the church calendar and the rest of the world seem misaligned as a time to celebrate both the “Holy Days” and the “holiday.” On Sundays during Advent, as well as his personal practices of faith, he observed the holy days of Advents looking forward both to the birth of Jesus and to a future time when God’s reign is fully embracing the world in love, grace, justice, and peace (however that may happen.) He also took time to see, to look for a glimpse of times and people where that reign is already breaking through in our daily lives, then how he could become a part of that. Those times that early Advent scripture readings remind us that even when it seems like chaos, Jesus is standing with us, where God is already rendering reconciliation, joy, healing, and peace.

Then outside Sunday and his spiritual practices, he would celebrate Christmas. Christmas Trees are up and decorated both at home and in the church, Christmas luncheons and parties, and all the other trappings that can make this a joyous time of year.

I like that. I think we might even need a little more Advent. Times when we practice anticipating, expecting good and right in the world. Time when we practice living in those glimpses of God’s love and reign even when others think we are foolish, impractical, or worse.

So I’ll wait a little longer to wish you “Merry Christmas.” I will wish you a blessed Advent, and as always, pray that you see and experience where God’s reign is even now breaking into the world.


God’s grace and peace.
Pastor Deb Kunkel