The Christmas season has come and gone. Few reminders remain, aside from all the ‘After Christmas sales.’ The lights and holiday decorations have been removed, carefully boxed and stored away for next season. Once lively and bedecked evergreen trees now line the curbsides, dried and barren, ready to be hauled away. It’s always with a little sadness we say goodbye to this festive, Yuletide season. Yet, we prepare for next year, albeit twelve months in advance. We think about how to improve and enhance what was considered “absolutely perfect,” that is our Christmas celebrations at St. Nicholas. We play in our minds where we will put the strands of lights or what music to have at each of our Liturgies. Never too early to plan ahead, as long as we are ‘celebrating the feast,’ and not just working our way through it in order to get to the next event. These seasons, celebrations and feasts are meant to be savored and enjoyed. It is time given to us to take pause, ponder and rejoice in all that God provides us.
I do admit; Christmas has always been a difficult time for me, having lost my Dad and both grandmothers during the Christmas holiday. Yet, I do find great joy and peace in all the church celebrations, the hymns and carols, the wide-eyed children and the warm and loving smiles of the community that gathers. Thank you, St. Nicholas for re-creating the nature of Christmas for this one, solitary man. But again, the holly and ivy have been removed and the Tom and Jerry punch bowls and cups are all put back into their boxes and stored away in the basement closets and storage space. Christmas was…and we now focus on what will be coming up next.
The calendar provides us some significant events for which we look forward. This week, we celebrated and paid homage to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; a champion for civil rights and equality amongst all people. Such a simple dream; that we all live in peace…will we ever get there? Pray, we do. February rolls in and we will be busy. February 12th, Sunday, St. Nicholas holds its Annual Parish Meeting, complete with a pot luck luncheon. Bring your ideas, your voices, your conversations and your casseroles, too. We will meet immediately after the 10am Liturgy. February 14th, the love god Eros, will be busy, casting his arrows of amore. Later that week, the 18th, a Saturday, our Second Annual St. Nicholas Chili Supper is set…and I promise, less chili powder this time as I’ll wear my new reading glasses when reading the recipe! The following Wednesday, February 22nd, we enter the most holy of church seasons, Lent; a time that allows and invites us to move “inwards” as we reflect and meditate upon the passion of Christ, as we build enthusiasm and excitement for the great Easter feast. And of course, come May, with great anticipation and excitement, we welcome our sisters and brothers from St. Bede’s to their news spiritual home at St. Nicholas. As joyful a time as this will be, undoubtedly experience the pain and sorrow our St. Bede’s family will be undergoing, as they say goodbye to their beloved home. God will give us the time to build new relationships and create a new St. Nicholas.
St. Mark’s Gospel passage used this weekend has Jesus telling his followers that the Kingdom of God is close at hand and we are to be prepared. John the Baptist implored his followers to prepare themselves, for the Messiah is soon to come. We are to pay heed to both St. John the Baptist and to Jesus the Redeemer: for truly the Kingdom of God is close at hand and we are called to help build this kingdom here on earth and truly Jesus will return to us and we are to be prepared for the Messiah’s arrival. God gives us time to prepare and to help build God’s kingdom. Let’s use it wisely, with love and compassion, in service and in worship, in humility and with pride in our efforts. Time is God’s gift to all and it’s a gift none of us should ever wish to exchange!
Manny
