Thursday, December 8, 2016

The Game's Afoot!

From a few folks who raised the question about how to reach out to the community at Christmas time, to the dream team who brainstormed ideas, to the whole staff who took those ideas and began to shape them, to Mallory who had a vision of how things should look and work, to the folks who set up stations and donned costumes, Christmas Is Afoot! was brought to life, and powerfully so! This is the way to work together, to build something beautiful and meaningful in order to welcome our community. As always, there were a few hitches along the way, but we got our giddyup going and overcame them. I am so proud of all of you, of all of us.

The title of the event came as a reference to when Sherlock Holmes would say to Dr. Watson, “The game is afoot!” as he dashed out the door to pursue clues. In a way, we were saying to our community, “The games afoot! Let us go out to see the ways that show how God has come among us!” The Creator of all that is has come among us as one of us, reaching out hands and feet to draw us close, to welcome us in to the expansive, eternal heart of grace and mercy.

This is the story which finally began to draw the old miser Ebenezer Scrooge out from behind the close-fisted, churlish, and ungenerous walls of his counting house and of his heart. The chains he had fashioned began to become tenuous as he visited his past. This week brings him closer to the possibility of life and hope.

It is to this gleam of life and hope that I will cling. Into the darkness, a great light has shone.

Isaiah 9:2
The people who walked in darkness
   have seen a great light;
those who lived in a land of deep darkness

   on them light has shined.

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