I love to read Lutheran pastor Nadia Bolz Webber. She is earthy and organic and gritty and real in her preaching and writing. (Get her book “Pastrix” and you will see what I mean). In a sermon she wrote for Baptism of our Lord I love this quote…
“My friend Heather posted something on Facebook this week that I loved. She had just read a statement that the Church is losing its “particularity”, meaning people can experience God EVERYWHERE, not just AT church. She said she totally believes that. That she is all in. Christ is everywhere.What she wondered is…would we notice God’s presence EVERYwhere if we didn’t practice noticing it SOMEwhere? Going to a particular building on a particular day at a particular time helps her practice noticing God’s everywhere-ness. So she invited her Facebook friends to Stop and notice today. And if it is in their tradition, to go to Church. Church is not perfect, she said. It’s practice.”
I love this quote as I prepare for church this morning. I wonder where people find that particular “SOMEwhere” in their own spiritual lives…that one place that grounds them…where they take that pause. As a Christian minister, and again speaking only for myself, that Sunday gathering for me is that “SOMEwhere to help me find God in the EVERYwhere”. For me it is a place to fuel up on the kingdom…to listen, to sing, to greet, to reflect, to pause in silence as a means to go back out and find the kingdom or kin-dom in the world.
I need this time of centering, this need to re-focus, to re-root and re-boot. I reconnect each week with people and the Sunday celebration and it re-centers me in my ministry and vision. During these Sundays of Advent I have found little moments of profound encounter that have helped me immensely. May this day be an invitation to re-connect with your own spiritual needs.
And so we begin this day with this prayer…
O Holy One,
You call out to us…you name us, you invite us,
you desire to nourish our story of faith.
May we find those safe places to pray and gather
and may they be welcoming to our story.
May we find some small thing
that we might move out into the world to see you everywhere.
We ask this with open hearts. Amen!
