Greetings to all in the Love of Jesus Christ:
Years ago, two friends of mine organized a concert. The friends were very sophisticated musicians, and they organized an amazing concert. They promoted the concert, telling everyone they knew: “It’s going to be a good concert.”
Following the concert, someone came up to them and said: “That was AMAZING!!! That was INCREDIBLE!!! I wish you’d have told me how AMAZING it was going to be – I would have invited all my friends.” My friends looked at each other and thought: “We told you it was going to be good. Why didn’t you believe us? Did you really need all those exclamation marks?”
We live in a world of hype. Or should I say: “we live in a world of HYPE!!!” We live in a world which makes much ado about the lifestyles of the rich and famous, that celebrates pomp and circumstance, that wants everything to be the GREATEST EVER or the BIGGER AND BETTER.
And I think about the lessons of scripture. 1 Kings 19: God wasn’t in the thunder. God wasn’t in the earthquake. God wasn’t in the fire. God was in the silence. Matthew 13: The kingdom of God is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour. Luke 21: Truly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all. So many lessons from the Bible seem to be anti-hype. They tell of God at work in humble places.
As we prepare to celebrate the birth of a baby, out in a barn with the farm animals, we are reminded once again that God does not need to be hyped. God does not need a red carpet, a spotlight, or a suped-up sound system. God just needs us to be ourselves, to care for each other, to shine our little lights in our little circumstances.
God is here. God is with us. God’s presence is always with us. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness will never overcome it.
Dios les bendiga,
Pastor Jay
Regional Minister and President
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Arizona
