“Be Still (and let God form us)” – Sunday Preview for December 3, by The Rev. Stephanie Kendell

Magi Batet – Contemplant La Tempesta

Beloved Church,

Happy New Year! Really, I mean happy new church year; but, nonetheless it is a time for new beginnings. It is a time to take inventory of all the ways God is at work in our lives, and how we can connect and contribute to the many communities we are a part of. However, in order to see all the things that are at work in our lives, sometimes we need to figure out a way to be still.

Have you ever said, “be still my heart,” when something moves you so deeply? It usually happens around things like seeing a new baby, people falling in love, or people helping each other. What I mean is, we seek to be still when something so profound and beautiful happens and we are reminded that made and remade by an active and loving creator.

Our wants and needs, expectations and gifts, failures and success often keep us wrapped up in a world that seems all too human. And then something stops us down – the kindness of a stranger or the embrace of a loved one – and we are reminded that our humanness is nothing less than holy. This week’s scripture reminds us that within everything and everyone at work in this world is the spark of God’s creation.

O that you would tear open the heavens and come down,
so that the mountains would quake at your presence—
as when fire kindles brushwood
and the fire causes water to boil—
to make your name known to your adversaries,
so that the nations might tremble at your presence!
When you did awesome deeds that we did not expect,
you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.
From ages past no one has heard,
no ear has perceived,
no eye has seen any God besides you,
who works for those who wait for him.
You meet those who gladly do right,
those who remember you in your ways.
But you were angry, and we sinned;
because you hid yourself we transgressed.
We have all become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth.
We all fade like a leaf,
and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
There is no one who calls on your name,
or attempts to take hold of you;
for you have hidden your face from us,
and have delivered us into the hand of our iniquity.
Yet, O Lord, you are our Creator;
we are the clay, and you are our potter;
we are all the work of your hand.
Do not be exceedingly angry, O Lord,
and do not remember iniquity forever.
Now consider, we are all your people. (Isaiah 64:1-9)

Friends, being still this time of year can be hard. There is shopping to do, family to visit, and lots of emotions to process. So, when we lose sight of knowing that “we are all [God’s] people” we can take a moment to turn to another scripture and “be still and know that I am God.” (Psa. 46).

Friends, the new year is here and we are gifted the opportunity to be still and let God form us into the people we are called to be. Loving people. Just people. Broken people. Faithful people. We are The Park. We are created and recreated in the diverse image of Christ Jesus born again this coming month.

What a gift it is to be still with you.

Shalom Y’all.

Rev. Stephanie