"Why were you searching for me?" he asked. "Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?" But they did not understand what he was saying to them. [Luke 2:48-49] I’m probably guessing that Joseph and Mary were not too thrilled to have the Gospel writer Luke include this story. What kind of parents would accidentally go off and leave behind their child? This is a passage I preached on the Sunday after Christmas. The episode is not as bad as it sounds. Back in those days, families travelled in caravans, large groups, so it would not be too unthinkable that a parent would lose sight of their child amidst all the travelers. And this was the message of that sermon, that we too can lose sight of Jesus in all our busyness. The part of the passage that always gives me pause for thought is Jesus’ response to Joseph and Mary: “Why were you searching for me? Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” According to Jesus, it should have been obvious as where to find him in Jerusalem. He was going about his Father’s business. Luke’s narrative states that they did not understand what he was saying. What exactly was Jesus doing as he was going about his Father’s business? And what should we be doing as we seek going about the Father’s business? The start of the New Year, with its opportunities for a dawn of a new lease on life—a transformation from the same-old-same-old, a time to put the past behind and move in a more healthy, upright direction, is an appropriate time to consider and to challenge ourselves to break away from the business-as-usual routine of our lives. Seeking God, searching for answers, deepening our relationship with Christ, letting God provide meaning in our lives, learning of God’s promises, experiencing the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives, impacting others with the love of God through our acts of compassion and mercy, these are the things of going about the Father’s business. Directing our passion to God is what kept Jesus back at the temple instead of hitting the road back to Nazareth as soon as the Passover was over. As we start this New Year, we in our own ways want to be transformed. The Father’s business assumes that God is doing something before we know it. So, our task is not to get God to do what we think needs to be done, but to become keenly aware of what God is doing so that we can join in, participate, and delight in so doing so. I hope that all of us, individually and together as a church, will find the desire in our hearts to be transformed by going about the Father’s business—to be committed to the one who is committed to us. The One who is so committed to us holds back nothing, not even His son, to show us how He cares for us. Through deepening our relationship with God we can allow ourselves to be transformed, to be enriched, to be rid and cleansed of our faults. And in so doing we can help, through the love of Christ, in transforming the world. We have something valuable in Christ, something that needs to be stirred up in us, renewed or discovered for the first time, a passion for knowing and possessing. A fresh New Year lies unblemished before us. How will we resolve to go about the Father’s business? #aplaceforgrace

For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. [James 2:26 NKJV] This is the time of year that the topic of discussion is resolutions. So, what is your New Year’s Resolution for 2022? I received a devotional from my former pastor in Dallas, Rev Eric Folkerth. He is not against making resolutions, but says if you want to do great things in 2022, don’t make them public. “Announcing your plans to others satisfies your self-identity just enough that you’re less motivated to do the hard work needed. The psychological path goes something like this: Resolve to be a runner. Tell everybody. Rush out and buy running shoes. Admire new shoes, and brain says, 'Hey! I’m a runner now.' Thus satisfied, never or rarely ever do actual running.” Neurologists say that thinking about something is in a way exactly the same as doing it. It releases the same amount of dopamine that makes you feel good. So how do you make progress on your resolutions? It’s simple. Nike understood it. Don’t talk about it. Just do it. It’s one thing to publicly claim your deeds, but another to put them in action. It is the heart of what the Apostle James says in James 2:14-17, "“What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”" Pastor Eric calls it Shawshanking your way to your resolutions. Tim Robbins’ character in the film Shawshank Redemption is Andy Dufresne. Dufresne spends decades in prison for a crime he did not commit. But all during those years, he’s secretly tunneling out, through the walls and underground, using nothing larger than a handheld rock hammer. Day by day, he chips away at overwhelming stone. He never quits. He never stops. And he never tells another soul what he’s doing. At one point Dufresne says, “There are things in this world not carved out of gray stone. That there’s a small place inside of us they can never lock away, and that place is called hope.” We all need small victories along the way. We need to continuously chip away at our spiritual life and never get to the point where we feel we are done. These small victories will light the path of our future hope, instead of depressing us that we have not traveled farther. As Pastor Sue said in her sermon this past Sunday, we need to become more and more like Christ every day. We are called to a holy life—just be nice, kind, gentle, full of peace, good, and joyful. So, throw out your New Year’s resolutions and focus on these. Lift your tiny hammer and start chipping away. By next year, you’ll be amazed how far you’ve come. #aplaceforgrace #resolutions

In those days Caesar Augustus declared that everyone throughout the empire should be enrolled in the tax lists. This first enrollment occurred when Quirinius governed Syria. Everyone went to their own cities to be enrolled. Since Joseph belonged to David’s house and family line, he went up from the city of Nazareth in Galilee to David’s city, called Bethlehem, in Judea. He went to be enrolled together with Mary, who was promised to him in marriage and who was pregnant. While they were there, the time came for Mary to have her baby. She gave birth to her firstborn child, a son, wrapped him snugly, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the guestroom. [Luke 2a:1-7] The prophet Micah had prepared us long ago that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem. Mary and Joseph made it to Bethlehem in time before Jesus was born. The shepherds were right where they were supposed to be, in a field, guarding their sheep, when the angles showed up to share the news. Only one person missed the opportunity of a lifetime. The innkeeper. Now scripture gives us little information about this person, so that does give us license to wonder why that person responded in the way he did. Was there really no room in his home or establishment or was he just saving space for someone with more status or prestige? Had he promised that space to his wife’s cousin, so he pushed the young couple out into the stable? Why didn’t he offer his own bed? Mary was clearly pregnant. The one thing we know is this, he missed an opportunity to help host the Son of God into this world. Back in the fall of 1775, the manager of Baltimore's largest hotel refused lodging to a man dressed as a farmer. The hotel manager later learned that the man dressed as a farmer was in fact Thomas Jefferson, then Vice President of the United States. So immediately he sent a note inviting the Vice President to come back to the hotel. The Vice President responded with this, ''Tell him/tell the manger that I have already engaged a room. I value his good intentions highly, but if he has no place for a dirty American farmer, he has none for the Vice President of the United States.'' As we all prepare for Christmas Day, make sure you are leaving room for the Christ child in your heart. Don’t let the busyness or distractions of the festivities rob you of the opportunity to celebrate what is most important. Jesus, Son of God, has broken into this world to redeem us and bring us peace. #aplaceforgrace #advent #christ #makeroom

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus . [Philippians 4:7 NRSV] Multiple times in Scripture the name of Jesus is linked with peace. The words of Isaiah 9:7, which are well-known in this season of Advent, foretell the coming of the Messiah. He will be named “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” In Luke 2 the angels came to the shepherds tending their flock by night to give them the good news of the birth of Jesus. They announce, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!” In John 14:27 right before Jesus is taken up on the cross to be crucified, he leaves these parting words to his disciples, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.” After Jesus has been crucified and has been resurrected from the dead, the disciples went into hiding behind locked doors because they were afraid. Jesus miraculously appears before them. And what are his first words to them in John 20:19? “Peace be with you.” And what were his second words to them in John 20:21? “Peace be with you.” Wherever Jesus goes, he brings peace. The theme for the fourth Sunday of Advent is Peace. It seems that peace is something that is in short supply in our day and age—something we desire so deeply. Not only does it appear that peace is absent in our world today, but that even during the season of Advent we cannot seem to find peace. We have turned the Christmas season into a stressful time of the year with multiple activities and events happening simultaneously for which we do not have enough hours in the day to get them all done. So, we are tired and depressed. We need peace and we need it now. Many see peace as being an absence of conflict. When nations are no longer warring, we say that they are at peace. Many historians will argue that the longest period of peace, (meaning no wars) was known as Pax Romana, the Peace of Roman. It started around 31 B.C. and lasted nearly 200 years. Why was there peace in the world? Well, Rome had pretty much conquered every nation of people that existed in the Western world. You could say that there was no one left to go to war with. We could look at this period of peace as brought upon by military conquest. The peace that is the peace of Christ is not the same. It is not the absence of conflict but attaining a state of being “whole.” The Hebrew word for peace is Shalom. It is a greater peace than we can fathom here on earth. As the Philippians passage says, it is a peace that comes from God that “surpasses all understanding.” This peace is a peace that is hard to describe, for it is way beyond anything that our human experience can fathom. It is a peace that finds its advent not in mighty warriors but through a helpless infant, as the theologian Jürgen Moltmann describes. “It is not the pride and strength of the grown man, which are proclaimed on the threshold of the kingdom, but the defenselessness and the hope of a child. The kingdom of peace comes through a child.” It is a peace that we cannot produce or generate on our own— a peace that can only come from God, through the gift of a baby in manger. It is a peace that grows not in the soil of self-reliance but in the soil of surrender. A peace that surpasses all understanding. That came as a gift to us all, many years ago when God came to be with us and be one of us. That silent and holy night, the babe in the manger, sleeping in heavenly peace. #aplaceforgrace #advent #peace

You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand. Psalm 16:11 NIV As we journey through the candles of Advent for each Sunday during this season, we come to the third Sunday in Advent, which represents joy. It leads us to reflect on the joy that comes through Jesus’ arrival, and for the salvation and abundant life for which he has gifted us. It gives us pause to reflect on what gives us joy in our lives—true, sustaining, and everlasting joy. It is ironic that each year we celebrate the season of Christmas with a materialistic fervor, buying and spending for Christmas gifts, for decorations, and for Christmas attire. We do so while declaring that we certainly don’t find pure joy in “things.” Yet we strive after these “things” anyway. When I was a grad student at SMU in Dallas, I went to many of their home basketball games. During a break in the action, the cheerleaders would throw these small plastic basketballs into the stands for people to catch as souvenirs. Well, I was at a game one time when they started throwing these souvenirs into the stands. I thought it was all quite silly to be getting all excited about a little toy basketball you could buy at the souvenir stand for 50 cents. That is until I looked up, and lo and behold there was one of those basketballs heading my way. Suddenly I turned into a 7-year-old, and I wanted that basketball. There was nothing I wanted more in the world but that little red plastic basketball. The ball was thrown over my head, but I leaped up and caught it. It was mine! I was very proud and excited at my new treasure, but I could only savor my conquest for a few seconds, because I looked up and there was another one heading my way. Suddenly there was nothing more that I wanted in life than to have two of those little red basketballs. Well, I caught that one, too. Oh, what joy! But my joy was short-lived. I sat there and looked at my new prized possessions and pondered, “Why in the world would I want two little red plastic basketballs?” I was in my 30s, not a 7-year-old. They didn’t look so valuable anymore. So, I hesitantly turned around and handed them to the two boys behind me, and wondered to myself, why didn’t I just step aside and let them catch the basketballs in the first place? This is sometimes how we feel in chasing down things in life we feel will give us joy, only to find out that the joy is temporary, fleeting. The focus on Christmas is giving. God’s nature is to give, yet at the same time, to show us that those things in life we think we can’t live without – guess what, we can! And what God wants to do is to replace those things we think we can’t live without with things that last forever, things that give us deep joy—like salvation, peace, love, hope, contentment, and unburdened lives. When we really get down to it, the things we need most in life that bring us pure joy are those things that God wants to give us. Advent reminds us that Christmas is not simply about giving, but that God is the ultimate giver and He gives us the greatest gift of all, Jesus Christ. May we be filled with the joy of God’s precious gift to us this Advent season. #aplaceforgrace #advent #joy

(And Mary said,) “Holy is his name. He shows mercy to everyone, from one generation to the next, who honors him as God. He has shown strength with his arm. He has scattered those with arrogant thoughts and proud inclinations. He has pulled the powerful down from their thrones and lifted up the lowly.” [Luke 1:49b-52 CEB] Love is the theme for this coming Sunday, the second Sunday of Advent. In the upcoming Sunday services, we will light the first Advent candle, representing Hope, along with the second Advent candle, representing Love. If you are a frequent texter on your smart phone, you are fully aware that you must become knowledgeable with certain acronyms. These are abbreviations that cut down on the number of characters you need to type. I must admit that I am an anomaly when it comes to texting. I like to type out full words as well as complete sentences, with periods and commas in their proper places. But it is essential that you know some of these common acronyms when trying to read texts from others. I had a few embarrassing moments before I found out that LOL means “laugh out loud” and not “lots of love.” One acronym that I receive frequently is OMW. When you are texting someone and you are asking them when they plan to arrive, you get OMW, “on my way.” The answer is rather vague, I would prefer an exact time. But I feel it is intentionally vague. The person responding probably hasn’t left the house yet. Or maybe hasn’t even gotten out of bed yet, but are OMW. For centuries the Hebrew people had been waiting for a Messiah. When will he arrive? How soon will he appear? But they kept getting the answer OMW. Can you imagine the joy and exhilaration that the people of that day felt when they heard that the long-awaited Messiah is no longer OMW but is here? The people of that day had been living lives of darkness and despair. Oppressive rulers, where violence ruled the day, and disease, hunger, and calamities were commonplace. They needed a savior, a deliverer from the mess they were in. And then the whispers began, which turned into shouts of joy— today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. (Luke 2:11) We can ask the same question today, when will we be delivered from the mess that we are in? When will things change? The message of Christmas is that deliverance and change will not come from politicians or institutions or nations. It will come from a different ruler of a different kingdom. Jesus the Christ, who rules by mercy and grace. One who will pull the powerful down and lift the lowly. One who is already turning the world upside down through the power of his unconditional and compelling love. During Advent we are reminded of this, and we celebrate his arrival with joy. #aplaceforgrace #advent #joy

And Mary said: “My soul glorifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me—holy is his name. [Luke 1:46-49 NIV] Mary is told by the angel Gabriel that she will bear a son. He will be the savior of the world; he will be called “son of the Most High.” Mary visits her cousin Elizabeth who is also pregnant with John the Baptist. When Elizabeth hears Mary’s voice, Elizabeth’s baby “leaped in her womb.” Elizabeth, overcome by the Holy Spirit, proclaims that Mary and her child will be blessed. Upon hearing this, Mary bursts into song, a song which we know as the Magnificat. The promise has yet to come to pass but Mary is singing about it ahead of time. She is singing as if the promise has already occurred. She is filled with a sensation that she hasn’t felt in a long time, if ever—Hope. Hope for a world filled with desperation and despair. Hope that this child will extend his mercy to all, will be mindful of the poor state of the world, and turn the world topsy-turvy so that the mighty will be brought low, and the humble will be exalted. Hope is the theme for the first Sunday in Advent. It will be the first candle we light in the Advent wreath this coming Sunday. Hope is a word we throw around a lot in our conversations. In our everyday conversations hope has a level of uncertainty in it. For example, all year I hoped that the Tampa Bay Rays would make it back to the World Series. But that didn’t happen, no matter how much I hoped for it. Christian hope is different. Christian hope is when God has promised that something is going to happen, and you put your trust in that promise. Christian hope is a confidence that something will come to pass because God has promised it will come to pass. So much so, that the future tense has become the past tense. We can rest assured that it has already happened. The first message of Advent is to give us hope. I heard it best expressed in a quote from an unknown source, “Hope is the ability to hear the music of the future, faith is having the courage to dance to it today.” The hope of Christmas is the ability to hear the music of the divine, which leads to Mary bursting out in song, and us as well as we hear the music of the promises of God. We light the first Advent candle this Sunday to share the hope that is given to us in this season with the baby in the manger—the hope that leads to faith so that we can respond in celebration today. (But faith is the theme for next week, so, stay tuned...) #aplaceforgrace #advent #hope

Someone recently asked me what Christmas tradition helped me feel like the Christmas season had begun? That question perplexed me a bit having only experienced one Christmas here in Brandon. It made me realize I have no Christmas tradition here that I am anticipating. I realize I am in a strange transitional stage where I must create new traditions. This is hard for me because I am one who normally wants to cling to traditions of my past. That got me thinking, what does scripture say about traditions. Jesus actually addresses the issue of traditions in Matthew 15. Not necessarily Christmas traditions but other customs that were normally practiced in the first century. Some Pharisees came to Jesus because they were upset that the disciples of Jesus were not following a tradition that was normally important to Jewish people. In Matthew 15:2, the Pharisees approach Jesus, 2 “Why are your disciples breaking the elders’ rules handed down to us? They don’t ritually purify their hands by washing before they eat.” Now this is an odd little story that tends to distract those of us reading from the 21st century because of our understanding of the importance of hand-washing, but the point of this story goes deeper. Jesus responds to the Pharisees by pointing out that sometimes we make a tradition more important than we should. He uses the example of the law, pointing out that the Pharisees follow the law of God when it is convenient to them, but they practice the traditions with a vengeance. Jesus is pointing out that sometimes we mix up what is truly important. We worry more about maintaining traditions than practicing acts of righteousness, mercy, or grace. I think I have decided that I am not going to worry about creating new Christmas traditions. They will probably happen on their own with time. What I will be more concerned with is the gospel of Jesus Christ. As I walk into this Advent season, my focus will be on who can I love, who can I extend grace to, and who needs me to extend mercy. Have a Blessed Weekend, Pastor Jayne #aplaceforgrace

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." [Jeremiah 29:11 NIV] It is an extraordinary time at St. Andrew’s, for we find ourselves in the midst of remembering where we have been and, at the same time, where we are going. A review of our rich history and a glimpse into our promising future. An endearing look back and an excited look forward. This Sunday we will be celebrating the 55th Anniversary of this church. Founding pastor, Rev. JC Powell will be our guest preacher at our one and only service that we will be hosting at 10 a.m. in the Sanctuary. Then we will head over to the Family Life Center and do what United Methodists do best, eat and fellowship together. It is a day where we will be gathering together to celebrate what God has brought about in the life of St. Andrew’s. We await and anticipate where God will lead us in the future. The pandemic has, in a way, put us in a waiting game. But now God is reopening doors and breathing a fresh spirit into the church. A fresh spirit for this church to again share and spread the message of God’s love through Jesus Christ to our community and to the world in a powerful way. To do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to His power that is at work within us. Looking to times ahead, we asked our church community this past Sunday to make a commitment for the future. A commitment to support the mission and vision of this church through generous giving. And as expected, the faithful people of St. Andrew’s overwhelmingly responded. As of this writing, 87 commitment cards were received. Of those, 36 indicated that they were increasing their giving by 1%, while 63 indicated that they will give on a recurrent basis. This is a great response! It shows that for the people of this church, tomorrow matters. This church has a rich history—part of a grand divine story. Yet it doesn’t end with us and hopefully will continue long after we are gone. For when you give today, you support someone else’s tomorrow—for generations to come. For people we may never meet. We may never know what impact we will have on people in the future. Yet we are dedicated to the notion that St. Andrew’s is a vital part of the ministry of Jesus Christ, and we want to see it thrive. When we give, we are helping that unknown person who through a study here at the church will discover the love and saving grace of Jesus Christ. We are helping that person who is in need of basic food sustenance and receives it gratefully through our Food Pantry. We are providing someone comfort with a warm meal during a trying time with a tangible display of God’s love through Andy’s Angels. We're leading someone who is overwhelmed by the challenges in the world to discover the grandeur and hope of God through one of our worship services. We're connecting a youth or a child who feels neglected or forgotten to the openness and welcoming love of God through our Kids and Youth Ministries programming. Those who see division and separation in the world will be inspired to see how Christians can break down walls and gather as one. It is not too late to be a part of building the future of this church. You can still make your commitment to St. Andrew’s by filling out a commitment card in this Sunday's service or by completing one online . When we give, we are cultivating faith for our future. And because of this, we show that we wholeheartedly believe that tomorrow matters. #aplaceforgrace #cultivatingfaith

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, … [Hebrews 12:1 NIV] This Sunday we commemorate All Saints Day. It’s a day for us to pull out the old family photograph album and remember where we came from. On this day we will remember the saints in our lives, especially those in our church family, who we lost this past year. The ones who have shaped us, who have made us who we are. They may not have been well-known in the public sphere, they may not have a building or a street named after them, but they hold a special place in our hearts. It’s a day when we stop to bring to mind and realize that this didn’t start with us. We are linked with history and the past, and we realize and are reminded of the reality. The author Maya Angelou said that “We’ve all been paid for.” Every time we come into the church we have a sense of our forebears sitting on their perch staring at us: Abraham, Sarah, Ruth, Jacob, Stephen, Mary. And also the saints of this church who are gone, who for what they paid for in the past is why we are able to be here today. We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, as the book of Hebrews says. We are just a part of the divine story that started long before we got here and will continue long after we are gone. A bigger story that is richer and broader than our own little, personal part in the story. So, what is a saint? Read these words of author Barbara Brown Taylor as she describes a saint. “What makes a saint? Extravagance. Excessive love, flagrant mercy, radical affection, exorbitant charity, immoderate faith, intemperate hope, inordinate love. None of which is an achievement, a badge to be earned or a trophy to be sought; all are secondary by-products of the one thing that truly makes a saint, which is the love of God, which is membership in the body of Christ, which is what all of us, living and dead, remembered and forgotten, great souls and small, have in common." Think about the saints in your life. Most likely they are ordinary people with an extraordinary willingness to take belief and turn it into action, and an extraordinary willingness to make some promises that stretch out over the years to us, to persevere, to persist, to give their word and keep their word. Yes, we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses of those who have gone before us. And on this Sunday, we will rejoice and say a word of thanks for those saints in our lives and in the life of the church. We invite you to join us this Sunday to celebrate All Saints Sunday. At all three services we will remember those in our church family who we lost this year. Each person will be named and a candle will be lit in their honor. Then you will have an opportunity to light a candle in remembrance of someone significant in your life who you may have lost just recently or years ago. #aplaceforgrace #allsaintsday

I was in meeting this week and the ice breaker question was what was your favorite Halloween costume? I immediately remembered the costume I loved the most. For the majority of my elementary Halloweens, and later into my teens, my mom didn’t really enjoy Halloween. She didn’t view herself as creative and we often didn’t have money to purchase costumes. She simply instructed us to find stuff around the house. It just wasn’t her thing. But one year she went all out. I don’t know why, but my older sister and I had matching witch costumes which was pretty radical for our family because we were conservative in our faith and my parents were at the time uncomfortable as Christians with the practice of Halloween. Personally, I have always loved Halloween. I like having kids come to my door for candy and I loved helping my daughters choose their princess costume each year. Last year, I was new to my neighborhood. I put a table out in the driveway and had safer COVID treats for everyone who stopped by. Throughout the evening I met three of my neighbors, saw a few church people, and passed out a ton of candy to all kinds of kids from little ones to teenagers who were simply roaming the streets. It was an evening of meeting my community. Have you ever considered Halloween as a space for practicing community? An opportunity to share the love of Jesus Christ? I wish I could say that idea came to me naturally, but that would not be true. I read an intriguing article this year on the theology of Halloween. The author suggested that Halloween is an opportunity to practice Christian community. When was the last time you were given the opportunity to celebrate all children in your neighborhood, not just “your” children? When have you seen your neighborhood as an opportunity for intergenerational community? Maybe, all the folks who come to your door this year are a snapshot of what your neighborhood actually looks like. Wouldn’t that be worth seeing? The apostle Paul in Romans 12 admonishes us to practice community with enthusiasm. “Love should be shown without pretending. Hate evil and hold on to what is good. 10 Love each other like the members of your family. Be the best at showing honor to each other. 11 Don’t hesitate to be enthusiastic—be on fire in the Spirit as you serve the Lord!” What if we all saw Halloween this year as an opportunity to serve our neighborhood? #aplaceforgrace #community #halloween

Carry each other’s burdens and so you will fulfill the law of Christ. If anyone thinks they are important when they aren’t, they’re fooling themselves. Each person should test their own work and be happy with doing a good job and not compare themselves with others. Each person will have to carry their own load. Galatians 6:2-5 CEB In this passage, Paul is writing to a fledging church in Galatia, a church that he had planted and nurtured, yet he was still trying to get them to grasp what it was to be a community of the faithful—a body of Christ. In verse 5 we hear Paul telling the faithful in the church that each of them has personal responsibility for their lives, each must carry his or her own load. And how true that is. Yet look back at the second verse of Paul’s passage. It says that in order to fulfill the law of Christ we should bear each other’s burdens. Now what is the point that Paul is trying to get across? Seems like he is contradicting himself. In the same passage he says that we should bear each other's burdens yet we are responsible for our own load. Or as one translation says, everyone must carry his or her own pack. Are you familiar with the Good News Bible ? I think it came out in the 60s and was intended to be a more up-to-date presentation of the Biblical word. What I remember about the Good News Bible is the very elementary illustrations of stick people scattered throughout the text. And if you go to the 6th chapter of Galatians, you will actually find one of those stick figure illustrations of a column of backpackers. But if you look ever so closely, you will see that the stick figure person behind each of the backpackers is ever so gently holding up the pack of the person in front of them. I think this may best illustrate the point that Paul was trying to make. We might say that it is a creative tension—that both are really true. We are responsible for our own load, yet we are to bear each other’s burdens. Not dependence or independence, but interdependence. That is what it is to be the body of Christ, that in the Christian community, the body of Christ, the church, our lives are not lived in indifferent independence or smothering dependence, but in a wholesome interdependence, as one author stated it. Sometimes we need to be the care receivers, sometimes we need to be the caregivers. Sometimes we need to minister, sometimes we need to be ministered to. Sometimes we need someone that will listen to us, sometimes we need to listen. Sounds rather simple. But why is this sometimes so threatening to us? Why is it so hard sometimes to reach out and bear someone’s burden? Why is it so hard to admit that we have a burden to bear? Bearing burdens means living out the Christian life and letting it get personal. God speaks to all, yet He also speaks to individuals, personally, one-on-one. Likewise bearing each other’s burdens is relational, person-to-person, making God’s love real in the life of someone else. It means putting our timetables aside, stooping to bend over to help someone, giving up on our own posturing for gain. And it also means allowing yourself to admit when you are the one carrying the burden. For God gave us the means to help each other through the tough times. He gave us each other—sharing, expressing the love through Jesus Christ that can comfort, strengthen, soothe, unburden, and liberate the chains that bind us, unlike anything else in the world can. For God created us not only to be in a loving relationship with Him, but also to be in loving relationships with each other. #aplaceforgrace #sharedburdens