Filling the Room Created by 2020
POST BY MATT MCCOY
4 minute read
This blog is a preview of what we’ll talk about at the worship service this Wednesday at 6:30pm, Christmas Eve Eve in a barn in Bellingham and online.
This is a broken version of Spring Church. Spring Church should be in person, Spring Church should include eating together, and Spring Church should include the friendships that are formed as we connect over the table and in the gym and on our knees (all of which is worship). We’ve missed all the conversations that happen in the hallways, in front of the bathrooms, and on the walk to the parking lot. Meals that should have been shared around a common table have been eaten separately. Ever since this pandemic started, all we’ve had is a broken version of Spring Church.
In the events of 2020, our schedules, our plans, and our hearts have been broken, but in those broken spaces there’s been room for Jesus to fill. And every Christmas we remember that God does show up and fills the spaces where there is room for him. We’ve been asking ourselves how the Spirit is inviting us to participate in the room God has prepared through the events of 2020 since this pandemic began, and we’ve been amazed and delighted by some bright spots along this broken path.
Our Mission of “Uncommon Friendship and Common Discipleship” has continued in the online-only gathering space, even when it’s been hard and awkward to connect.
God has provided room for common discipleship through various small groups. I have a hard time imagining that any of these small groups would have existed without the extra space in everyone’s schedule created by the pandemic, combined with the desire many of us have felt to interact with each other in the spaces we can (even if it’s online). So we’ve delighted in Heading North, Healing Our Broken Humanity, and Advent Small Groups. As we’ve gathered together, Jesus has filled those broken spaces in our schedules, and we’ve participate in what God does in our midst.
We’ve discovered how storytelling can be a part of our discipleship as well. This blog started right after the quarantine began, because we weren't able to get together in person, and we were looking for a way to add some theological depth to those gatherings. The one-minute videos emerged as a way to help demonstrate how to talk about our faith to our uncommon friends who aren’t Christian. We launched the podcast as a way to help auditory learners gain access to this blog, and we’ve recorded a few webinars with our friends around the world. All of these storytelling elements began because we couldn’t get together in person and we wanted our mission to participate with the room created by the events of 2020.
I wonder what you would add to this list? Where have you seen Jesus fill the broken places in 2020?
Look, this is a broken version of Spring church, but Spring Church hasn’t been broken, because Jesus still shows up in our midst and fills our broken places, too. The Christmas story is one of Jesus showing up and filling the spaces where there is room.
So we remember that our waiting during advent has three essential features to it:
Our waiting has been active, our waiting has been with each other, and on Christmas we remember that God does show up as a baby in a barn. Mary and Joseph would’ve rather had a baby in the Inn, but they were in the barn, and putting your newborn in a feeding trough is such a poignant example of “making the best of the broken spaces.” You got this kid, you’re in a barn, you gotta play with the hand you’re dealt. The baby goes in the feeding trough. That’s a broken version of a nursery, and yet Jesus fills those spaces.
This isn’t some Christmas story where we take our eyes off our problems and just focus on the baby Jesus. The spaces we inhabit are still broken. This is still a version of Spring Church that is broken. But Jesus fills these broken spaces, because in the broken spaces is where we find room for him.
So, as the prayer for the first advent candle reminds us, “Take comfort, and comfort one another.” The prayers for the second and third candle take the brokenness of our situation very seriously, while affirming that we’re together, actively waiting for God to show up. The fourth candle draws our imagination to the beauty of God’s glory shining on all of us, and the intimacy of hearing from God directly. And, at Christmas, we light the Christ Candle to remind us that Jesus has come, and this miracle has begun. The light shines in the darkness. Take comfort.
Merry Christmas!
Who would you like to share this blog post with this Christmas?