Christ Our Shepherd Advent Devotion Series 2022
December 23, 2022
Pastor Miriam Beecher
A Christmas Eve Devotion 2022
It’s really a story. I hope you enjoy it!
As I was finishing cleaning the Love Feast cart to return it to its place, I thought about its journey over the previous 30 hours. The cart’s journey, not mine. Or, was it mine, too?
FIRST, a bit of a backstory…
In the spring of 2020 discussions had morphed into dreams, then research, then sketches, then contracts, then construction, then, it was ready! One could hear “oooo’s” and “ahhhhhh’s,” and maybe an “oh, my” or two.
Why? When? What? Did it ever really happen? YES, it did.
(more backstory) When Covid shut things down mid-March 2020, the world changed abruptly in big ways, little ways, awful ways, and yes, truth be told, some awe-filled ways, too. Questions and worries flew and blew and plagued our every decision. How to do worship? Where to, when to, if to do worship, pushing all our anxiety buttons at once, including one of the most basic things about worship – how will we gather people together in worship? When would we get back together?
So much happened…with everyone.
Once reality set in and we realized that the mid-March shut-down was going to stick around, we began to make lemonade from the proverbial lemons that Covid dumped in our laps. In-person worship was not to return anytime soon, nor would in-person meetings.
The first batch of lemonade had its meager beginnings within days, streaming a worship service in Pastor Fritz’s office with our cell phones. For a while, streaming worship had been a hoped-for ministry and now it got a kick-start.
- Side note: for purposes of reassurance, I haven’t forgotten the cart.
In addition to starting online streaming, another long hoped-for goal got its opportunity: a face-lift for the contemporary worship space.
With a perfectly timed financial gift, renewing the contemporary worship space finally got underway. By Thanksgiving, the dreams of construction mentioned earlier brought to life a new look for the contemporary worship space.
[* It sounds like “poof! here’s $$$.” Far from it! Rather, a humble, hard-working, loving, determined woman, a career high school German teacher who loved hymns, worship, handbells, and singing, shared the fruits of her labor with Christ Our Shepherd. Her tenacious faith and devotion to worship led her to include COS in her will.]- What about the cart?
WELL, as I was finishing cleaning the cart to return it to its place, I thought of two things: why we bought the cart in the first place and, second, what happened the First Sunday of Advent 2020.
It was a day or two before that First Sunday of Advent 2020. All was settled, most details were covered, the stage was ready – all, that is, except what were we going to do about an altar in this new-look contemporary worship space? Certainly the previous one would have worked just fine, beautifully, in fact. But it wasn’t the right one. Then a lightbulb lit up: Why not consider using (temporarily, we thought) the Love Feast cart?
It was called the Lovefeast cart because it was purchased specifically for the Moravian Lovefeast, to replace a smaller one, which was obnoxious with its squeaky wheels and annoying creaking sounds. This Lovefeast cart was larger and sturdier, with a clean, simple look. Why not use it? LoveFeast did not need it; it was all-virtual that year. So, we rolled it in, put it in place and instantly that was it! It felt right; it really did. A common wooden cart for an altar! It makes sense! Not just because of its clean, contemporary look, but because it was chosen and bought for a specific purpose: to serve.
You probably figured it out why that L O N G backstory is pertinent to the 30-hour journey of the cart. Here’s why: as previously mentioned, there had not been an in-person Lovefeast since 2019, but now, 30 hours earlier, we needed the Lovefeast cart again, for Lovefeast 2022! In-person Lovefeast had returned! So, now, all of a sudden, the reverse of the earlier question of “Why not use the Lovefeast cart for the contemporary altar?” led to the question: “Is it OK to use the contemporary worship altar (the cart) for serving Lovefeast?” Answer: OF COURSE!! And so we did! Lovefeast 2022 was outstanding!!
Now 30 hours later, after cleaning was finished, the cart was returned to its perfect place, to serve in a different way, as the altar for communion. Honestly, it had not dawned on me quite so vividly until right then how touching and profound a connection that is. Do you see it? The cart bought for Lovefeast, had become the table for the feast of love. A hundred times since Advent 1 in 2020, the Lord of Love himself has invited us to his feast. His LOVE-feast around that serving cart altar!! Perhaps, hundreds of times more! After all, the Lord of love and life will never stop inviting ALL of us to his feast of love!!
God has always taken what is ordinary and done what is extraordinary with it. A wooden cart to a Lovefeast cart, to an altar. Ordinary bread to the Body of Christ, ordinary grapes to the cup of forgiveness and redemption. It’s true with people, too!
- Therefore, here is our Christmas Eve 2022 charge: will we let the Lord of Love do extraordinary things with us and through us? Will we let the Lord of Love shape us to be like that ordinary wooden cart always in action year-round to serve love everywhere we go in every way that comes to us as an opportunity?
- Dear friends, I have many prayers for you and will continue to have them. There is one that rises to the top this Christmas and always and that is my prayer to God of gratitude, gratitude that runs deep, my gratitude to God for you!
May God’s peace and joy guide and strengthen you.
Love, Pastor Miriam
Merry Christmas!!
