The peh Factor
“Seeking balance in a polarized world”
It was 1982. I had been Youth Pastor at Fremont Presbyterian Church in Sacramento for 5 years. It had been a challenging and wonderful time with wonderful people. But that time had come to an end and I had transitioned from working with youth and young adults to become the Pastor at Friday Harbor Presbyterian Church in Washington. The wisdom given me by one Elder in Sacramento had been prophetically true. He had said, “When you leave here and arrive there you will be 5 years older. We have seen you as a ‘youth’ pastor. They will see you as the leader, ‘senior’ pastor.
It was Christmas Eve, 1982. I don’t remember much about that day although the setting sticks in my mind. It was an old building, nearly 60 years old. There were five cables running through the upper walls in the sanctuary holding the walls in place so the ceiling would not fall in. The pine wood floors creaked. The choir sat in arms reach from the pulpit. It was my first Christmas Eve service. The sanctuary was full.
The sermon, the central part of worship in Reformed Tradition churches, escapes me, but the texts and the stories have remained the same over the past 42 years. The prophetic words from Isaiah and Micah of the Old Testament would tell of the coming of a Messiah. The place would be Bethlehem in Judea. The mother would be a young woman, a virgin. The hope would be a kingdom that would bring peace to this crazy, war-torn world. We would live forever in a peaceable kingdom where God’s Kingdom had come and God’s will would be done.
The New Testament would add the names of the key players: Zechariah and Elizabeth and their child John; Joseph and Mary and their child Jesus; The Angels; The Shepherds; The Magi; Simeon and Anna; The people who had hoped and dreamed of freedom from all forms of bondage: political, physical, emotional, relational, spiritual. The setting would be filled out as well: A journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem; No room in the Inn; A manger; Angels singing; Shepherds coming; A star leading. The story is embedded in my conscious and subconscious mind. The hope of the Old Testament prophets became a reality centuries later in a historic event. That fulfilment laid the foundation of our hope of another intervention, an eternal intervention when Jesus will come again, at the conclusion of human history, to end the craziness of a world that has rebelled from God’s intention from the beginning of creation.
It has been an honor over the 41 years of my full-time pastoral work to share this good news. I have been blessed to build upon the proclamation made by those who have preceded me for over two millennia. I am grateful for all those who have trusted me to be a bearer of God’s Good News and shared in celebrating it as we have gathered to remember, worship, and hope. I am confident that those who are proclaiming the Good News this year will be used by God as I feel I have been used.
Even though those who have proclaimed the hope and wonder of the birth of our Lord have changed over the years, the message has remained the same.
Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For, unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. Luke 2:10-11
Just as we remember our Lord’s birth, let us also remember the promise that has been the central theme of the church since his birth to this very day:
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16.
Merry Christmas my friends. May the baby of Bethlehem be born in you afresh this year.
Pastor Paul
Comments