How’s that for a title? Salacious enough for you? Sorry to disappoint, today’s B&P really is about trash and was a revelation for me. Let me explain.
Monday is trash day in good old PH, MO. First thing on Mondays I get the trash around and get the bin out on the driveway. The clean trash bag in the kitchen waste basket is testimony to my “adulting.” Monday, not ten minutes after I had the trash on the driveway, I began my post-breakfast cleaning of the kitchen. Part of that morning ritual is cleaning out the coffee pot. I pulled the filter out of the pot and turned to put it in the trash can, mind you, a trash can with a brand new bag in it. What? Am I going to soil my new trash bag so quickly after installing it in the waste can? Here’s something about me I’m not particularly proud of: I actually thought about taking the filter and grounds out to the trash bin so I wouldn’t have to mess my new can liner. Duh! Here’s where my revelation happened.
I realized that a lot of what we do as people is simply captured as a snapshot. Take trash for instance. When I take it out to the curb, nothing is finished. Trash still happens. What I’ve done is simply reset the trash situation to prepare for more trash. I realized that life is like that. Short of death, and as people of faith we can argue that too is a snapshot as we reset in eternity, our lives are a series of snapshots. We pause, take note, reset, then get on with it.
I'm thinking of that today, election day. There are all sorts of people who want to tell us that the world will end tonight if we don’t vote the right way. There are those who volunteer to become our enemies if we don’t fall lock-step into their way of thinking. There are those for whom truth is simply a concept. And yes, there are those who, frankly, must wear aluminum foil hats around home….
Here’s today's reality: the election is a snapshot of who we are as a people and how we feel about our situation. Yes, there has been a lot of extraneous noise, some of it without basis in reality, but, when the election is over, life goes on. Nothing is ultimately decided, nothing is finished.
The creation of a more perfect union continues. The lifting up of our better angels is still a priority. Holding those elected accountable is still the work of the electorate. If things did not go our way, if we believe our system in peril, if voices silenced need to be heard, then we get back to work.
Any given day, whether it be our faith, the church, or the body politic is a snapshot. We pause, we critique, we reconsider, we vision, then we move on, hopefully forward. For those who may be lamenting what you believe will happen today, take heart, take a break, then recommit to your vision.
Along those lines, we will spend some time in II Thessalonians Sunday. False prophets, with false promises and false warnings are afoot. Paul has some direction for the community which is good for us to hear as well.
See you Sunday,
Paul
PS-The Advent Study begins in two weeks. I’ll have information on how to get a book if you want to go through the church. Our resource is The Journey: Walking the Road to Bethlehem, by Adam Hamilton.