Godspeed In Your Travels

A Message from Pastor Dave
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“Okay campers, rise, and shine, and don't forget your booties ‘cause it’s cold out there… it’s cold out there every day.” – Groundhog Day
December 8 is listed on my calendar as National “Pretend to be Time Traveler” Day AND National Brownie Day! Fun!
Pretend to be a Time Traveler Day suggests wearing clothes from the past (no, not your underwear from yesterday); and it invites people to be appropriately confused by certain technology. Like technology from the stone age – oh cool!, a Paleolithic hand axe! Over the years I’ve read time travel books including A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle; The Time Machine by H.G. Wells (both books I read with a book club I was in); The Magic Treehouse series by Mary Pope Osborne (read with my kids); A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain (read in high school). A lot of you think we read from a time travel book every Sunday in worship because of how ancient and out-of-touch-with-our-culture Jeremiah and John the Baptist and Jesus all seem. A lot of us have also enjoyed time-travel movies like “Groundhog Day,” “Back to the Future,” and “Star Wars”/ “Star Trek.” And maybe you’ve seen or been interested in seeing “Manifest” on Netflix which is being watched by David Wagoner’s Sunday school class. So while you’re pretending with me, while eating a brownie of course, where would you travel to? Back in time or forward in time? What is your favorite Time Traveler story or movie?
But let’s flip the script for a moment. Let’s reverse the directional arrow of our time travel. Let’s remember today, and these Advent days, that - while we look back (travel back?) to Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem, and while we look ahead (travel forward) and prepare to celebrate Christ - mass 2021, and while we travel even further forward (we might hope) to look for Christ to “come again in glory to judge the living and the dead” (Nicene Creed) – let’s remember that it is always God moving towards us, coming to us, coming to dwell with us (John 1, Revelation 21), coming to be God with us (Emmanuel).
This stubborn, insistent, tenacious time-traveling God incarnate, is the Light of the world that keeps overcoming darkness, is the joy in the morning following a night of weeping. It’s the resilience of God’s kingdom rushing toward you, toward me, toward the whole world in love. It’s persistent perseverance and pursuit is fueled by the power of God’s Holy Spirit. Take hold of it again this day, this December 8, this “day that the LORD has made; rejoice and be glad in it,” for this kingdom has no end! It is never down for the count, never hopelessly stuck, never without resurrection.
So - Happy “Pretend to be a Time Traveler” Day! Godspeed in your travels. And, if you are Barb Glauer or Cooper Hatch - Happy Birthday today! Maybe you’ll receive a DeLorean time capsule (from Amazon) filled with baby photos and a recording of your first coos and cries; and a brownie with a candle on top. An Advent candle. Let your light shine as you travel back and/or forward with the grace of Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the power of the Spirit!
When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law.
Galatians 4:4-5