Tuesday, December 17, 2024
This devotion is the written accompaniment to a video Advent message that can be viewed on our YouTube Channel by clicking HERE.
Hey, my name's Tim. I'm the pastor here at Bazetta Christian Church. I have a quick devotion for you today, an Advent thought.
I want to start with a scripture from Matthew 7, verses 7 and 8 in the First Nations version, an indigenous translation of the New Testament. Let your prayers rise like smoke to the great spirit, for he will see you and answer you. Every step is a prayer, and as you dance upon the earth for the things you seek, the way will open before you.
In the same way, as you search for the true ancient pathways, you will find them. Answers will come to the ones who ask. Good things will be found by the ones who search for them, and the way will open before the ones who keep dancing their prayers.
And I ask this question, what are you looking for? What are you hoping for? What are you certain you know, or perhaps wondering? I learned many years ago while training to do search and rescue, to be a search and rescue team leader, that sometimes we can be really certain of the path we're on, because we know where we're headed, we know where our goal is, that we're so certain of the path we're on, and sometimes we can be certain of both and be completely lost. I had a wise mentor pull me aside in the midst of a training exercise. He knew we were lost, but he asked me where we were, and I was absolutely certain where we were and where we were headed, and we'd have never gotten where we were going, because I wasn't aware of where we were.
He invited me to take a deep look around and look a little bit more closely at what was going on around me, where we were in the terrain, in the geography, look again at the map and the compass, and I came to see that we were off course. I still knew the destination, but I had gotten lost, and I was leading a group of people, and because I was leading, we were lost. He took a good, long look at where I was and allowed me to see again where I was headed, and I think there's something important about taking a good, long look at where we are, because there's amazing things happening around us all the time, things that can fill us with love and hope and joy that remind us that God's promise is faithful, but sometimes when we get lost in the distractions of the world, we lose sight, and it's important to take a good look around.
I want to bring a reading from Oscar Romero, who had an incredible capacity to look at the reality of the world in which he lived in El Salvador in the 70s, in the midst of the conflict and the chaos and the violence, and speak a powerful truth, even calling out at times the sins of the church and its participation in what was going on in the world. He wrote this for an Advent message in December 17, 1978. By the way, if you're not familiar with him, he was assassinated in 1980 for daring to speak truth in the world, but he wrote this, how shameful to think that perhaps pagans, people with no faith in Christ, may be better than we and nearer to God's reign.
Remember how Christ received a pagan centurion and told him, I'll go and cure your servant. The centurion, full of humility and confidence, said, no, Lord, I'm not worthy that you go there. Just say a word and my servant will be cured.
Christ marveled, says the gospel, and he said, truly, I have not found such faith in Israel. I say, Christ will also say of this church outside the limits of Catholicism, perhaps there is more faith, more holiness. So we must not extinguish the spirit.
The spirit is not the monopoly of a movement, even of a Christian movement or a hierarchy or a priesthood or religious congregation. The spirit is free. And he wants men and women, wherever they are, to realize their vocation to find Christ, who became flesh to save all human flesh.
Yes, to save all, dear brothers and sisters. I know that some people come to the cathedral who have even lost the faith or are non-Christians. Let them be welcome.
And if this message is saying something to them, I ask them to reflect in their inner consciousness. For like Christ, I can tell them, the kingdom of God is not far from you. God's kingdom is within your heart.
Seek it and you will find. That reading comes from book Oscar Romero, The Violence of Love. And I come back to that question, what are you looking for? Because if you're looking for reasons to despair, you'll find it.
If you're looking for reasons to hope, you'll find it. If you're looking for reasons to love, you'll find it. May you find it over and over again.
Be blessed. We'll catch up soon. Take care.
Rev. Timothy McCollum
Bazetta Christian Church, Cortland