New Hope UMC of the Northern Berkshires

Come and see.

When Nathaniel expressed his doubt about whether a poor rabbi from Nazareth could be the Promised One of God, Philip didn't tell him about the inspiring worship, or the food, or the healing, or the wisdom of Christ. He simply invited him to "come and see."

He knew that all it would take was for Nathaniel to experience Jesus.

As followers of Christ, we often have the opportunity to invite others. In fact, it's one of our deepest callings: to invite others into relationship with Christ. But too often, our invitation centers around programs, or worship styles, or sermons, or studies. Our invitation is to come to CHURCH, not to come to Christ.

When we invite others to "come and see," assuming we ARE inviting others, what do they see when they come? Is it Christ? Or something else?

New Hope worships live on Facebook and YouTube at 10am on Sunday.

Srsly, come and see!

The revelation of the angelic host to the shepherds at their flocks by night was startling, and wonderful, and, well, revelatory. But for those shepherds... was it life-changing? Or did they wake up in the morning with the same flock they'd left in the fields the night before when the angels from on high told them to seek the baby Jesus in a manger?

Did they wake up in the morning wondering, hey, that was incredible... but now what?

Come worship with us on Sunday morning at 10am and find out what!

The revelation has come again! And… it has gone. Some of us already have put away our decorations, packed up "Christmas" until next year, others of us are getting started, maybe this very day, on taking it all down. It's a let down, and especially in this time in which so much still remains uncertain, it leaves us wondering, what's next? For us? For our communities? For the church?

What's next?

Turns out, God has an answer.

There aren't really words for what we experience in the coming of Jesus into the world. We can, and do, try to express our wonder in words, but the words I use and the experiences I share may be significant to me, but they're not going to express your wonder. They may powerfully move me, but they probably won't move you the same way. And that is fine, for the other 50 or so services in the year, but it's not sufficient on Christmas Eve, when we celebrate the incarnation.

For each of us we have to wrestle with the miracle of incarnation for ourselves. Because that is the only way for us to begin to understand what God is doing in each of us that is different than what God is doing in everyone else. Christmas eve reminds us that God approaches each of us in unexpected ways, and with different, and contextual, blessings. Think of the differences in the way God approached Mary, and Joseph, and the Shepherds, and the Wise Men.

The best we can do on Christmas Eve is to shine a light on the wonder, and let the wonder of God shine back for us all.

Where do we encounter God? And where does God encounter us?

When King David offered to build a house for God, God told him no. It wasn't his job to build God's house. Rather, God would build a house for David, a kingdom that would endure forever.

We offer to build homes for God, but, like David, God reminds us that it is God who is in the building business.

After finding the mess and cleaning it up, what now? Decorations! We’ve got to make the place look great for those who are coming. We want our welcome to be beautiful and our hospitality to breathtaking. So where do we start? What do we include? What does it matter?

Why do we decorate? To make ourselves look good? To please our own eyes? Or do we decorate to extend hospitality and inclusion to others?

We reflect our inner experience with our outward appeal. When we are a place of joy and invitation and inclusion, our environment reflects that. When we are a place that understands the depth of pain and suffering, of the ugliness in our world, then our doorways open to a place of comfort and beauty and welcome. Having reflected on our need to address the mess, we now set about bringing beauty and light into the world.

Join us this Sunday at 10am on Facebook and YouTube as we talk about decorating to invite others to experience the one who is coming!

Many of our Christmas songs give us a feeling of quiet anticipation, of waiting in stillness for the coming of the Christ Child. But our scriptures call us to a different reality. While we are encouraged to wait, and to still our tumultuous spirits, both the prophet Isaiah and John the Baptist call us, not to stillness, but to action in preparation of the coming of Christ.

We start off the new Christian year on this first Sunday of Advent, understanding that Company's Coming on Christmas Day... but we're not ready. Because, let's face it, this place is a mess. We're a mess. We're not ready to receive Christ, and we wonder what we have to do to get ready.

But, then again, we don't have to be ready. Christ never requires us to be perfect, just to be willing.

And to believe.

There are natural pauses in life -- pauses in conversation, pauses in work, pauses in relationships, pauses born out of confusion, pauses that offer times for introspection. Sometimes these pauses are our own; sometimes they are not of our choosing.

But these pauses all give us precious moments for reflection. Moments in which we can take the time to see God moving in our world, and to wonder and reflect on where God is calling us to move in Christ's name.

This Sunday we talked about a bunch of different passages, seemingly different themes, that all go bunched together in the Sermon on the Mount. Why are they all together? Well, it turns out there are two things:

First, I can't recognize lilies.

But more importantly, we can trust in God.