Matthew, Mark, Luke and Susan
We’re glad you’re here!
Welcome to the weekly blog for Burlington East Presbyterian Church.
First things first: feel free to fill in your name instead of Susan. John might already be taken.
Here, you’ll find a weekly reflection which I hope will give you an opportunity to stop for a few minutes, to see yourself in God’s story of our own lives, of the community, and of creation. We’ll be thinking about what it means to live in God’s love for each of us, to grow as disciples and to follow Christ. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to email me at [email protected].
Looking forward to journeying with you.
Peace in Christ,
Susan
November 26, 2024
Hope and Boxes
A reading for this week :Romans 15:12-13 (the ‘root of Jesse’ that is talked about here was the apostle Paul referring to Jesus).
We’ll light the first candle of Advent on December 1 this year. It’s often called the candle of Hope. But today, I’d like to start with boxes, if we could. They might be a little more of a familiar object around this time of year.
We talk a lot about boxes—physical and metaphorical. Is a box big enough for what we want it to hold? Is it made of the right material? What will we do with it after we’re finished? Can we collapse it down and break it down, or should we use it again?
We see the boxes all over the place. Stacked in recycling bins, labels betraying what was once inside. And then a small child will ask for the box and turn it into a car, spaceship, time machine, bed for a doll. An unhoused person will use the cardboard to make a flat surface to sleep on. Grocery stores have piles of empty boxes to substitute for bags for larger items. Sometimes we have so many boxes we don’t even know what’s in them anymore.
On the other extreme, there are things we keep in boxes as collector’s items because if the box isn’t broken, the item is more valuable. Or so we are told.
There’s an old myth about Pandora letting loose all kinds of evil things because she opened a box. The only thing left in the box, before she shut the lid, was hope. That was the only thing she (and humanity, we’re told in the myth) got to keep.
As we get closer and closer to Christmas, we see more and more boxes. And perhaps less and less hope. So we try to grab on and guard each things that gives us hope, and safeguard it.
But that’s not the way God works. Hope we have in God is not a thing to be trapped, packaged, held. It always leads somewhere and its value is seen best when it gets let loose. It’s not the container that holds hope that is important, but it might help hope get from one place to another. However, that box that hope comes in is always meant to be opened. Here’s some examples:
- Hope comes in a box of food—and when that box is opened, having a full stomach, and what one could do with that energy.
- Hope comes in a closed medicine vial –and when that vial is opened, it allows a person to be protected against disease.
- Hope comes in a bag of gently used clothes and blankets—and when that bag is opened, there’s enough to stay warm for a night and look differently at the world the next day.
- Hope comes in a box of wood holding hay –and when that manger is empty, there is a place for the Son of God.
- Hope comes in a box of human skin and bones – and when we hear words and stories and grace coming from God who is our hope, we can move forward, out of our own boxes, into the real life God gives us.
Hope was never meant to be safeguarded. It’s meant to be out of the box.
God never tried to safeguard Godself.
God was meant to be out of the box.
That’s why Jesus came—because it’s what no one expected God would do, coming to where no one expected God to be.
So here are the questions for this week: Where can we embrace the unexpected nature of God, break down the boxes we so carefully build, and see hope? Where can we let hope loose on the world in the name of Christ? What will that look like for you, and for me?
May you experience the gift of a rush of joyful hope and ‘open boxes’ as you journey this week.
Peace in Christ,
Susan
Photo and content © Susan Kerr 2024. May not be reproduced or circulated without permission of the author.
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November 7, 2024
Epilogue
John 21:24-25 This reading takes place at the end of the gospel of John, and it’s kind of wonderful.
The disciple is the one who told all of this. He wrote it, and we know he is telling the truth. Jesus did many other things. If they were all written in books, I don’t suppose there would be room enough in the whole world for all of the adventures.
So admit it–how often have you saved that last handful of popcorn for the scenes after the closing credits in a movie? The scenes that hint at the next sequel, reveal a story only mentioned in the plot? And how often have you been disappointed when there aren’t scenes after the closing credits?
Epilogues, for me, are one of the most fascinating parts of a book or movie. They are the resolution of what happens after–sometimes years down the road, sometimes immediately after. Traditionally, the epilogue doesn’t introduce anything that wasn’t hinted at in the story already, even though we (or some of the characters) may have missed those hints.
True epilogues grow out of the stories that were already there. In the gospel of John, the disciple (probably John) has told a story to his community that is passed on. But in writing the truth, we see that in all of the gospels, we only have a part of the story. Jesus’ life and ministry have so many other parts that we have never heard about. So the gospel writer leaves us with an epilogue: There is so much more to this Jesus. Keep going. Keep discovering. That word is written for all of us as we live out our lives in Jesus Christ. We’re not all perfect–but Jesus is still doing many other things in you and I and in the world today.
You and I are part of a story that spans eternity. As Christians, we are an epilogue whose elements were planted in the life of Christ, and the story never ends.
We’re going to need more popcorn.
As we munch, we can take more time to humbly share and listen to the stories that flow out of our life in Christ. As we are made in God’s image, we are given choice. What parts of the Jesus story are planted in you, and how are we living them out?
Where have we chosen to step out of the story? Here’s the good news: Jesus Christ loves it when people step back in. Have a look at Luke 15:11-32.
This week, as we celebrate Remembrance Day, as we think about elections and what comes next, as we try to figure out what next steps to take in our lives, there are a lot of stories swirling around, and it can be confusing to live in all those narratives at once, important as they are. So as we think about the epilogue in the gospel of John, be blessed by this: Jesus’ story is still being told in you and I as we seek to follow Christ. You are an intrinsic part of the “what happens after” epilogue in God’s story because Jesus loves you and gave his life for you. You are needed in this story, wanted, loved, called to be here–and all of the elements for your hope and life are already in the story God has for you. It will have joy, sadness, hope, lots of grace, a love that can conquer anything, peace, challenge and will change the world.
Peace in Christ,
Susan
Photo and content © Susan Kerr 2024. May not be reproduced or circulated without permission of the author. Artwork “Yield” © Susan Kerr 2012
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