What’s Up with Pastor Todd 12-17-21
Some of you have heard me tell this story before. It’s one of my favorites. Context: My youngest daughter, Olivia, attended four different schools from second to third grade. It was in the middle of the Great Recession, and for employment reasons our family ended up moving from Indiana to Maine to Rhode Island. Little Olivia started out the school year at Hoosier Road Elementary (Indiana), beginning in December attended Milbridge (Maine) Elementary, and then finished second grade at a public elementary school in Cranston, RI that I can’t even remember the name of. Next fall she began third grade at yet another school–Community Preparatory School in Providence, RI. The good news is that Community Prep is an extraordinary school that ended up being a game-changer for both Olivia and her older sister, Fiona.
The story goes like this. It was Olivia’s first week at Community Prep. I picked her up after school. She threw her backpack in the back seat and climbed in after it, chattering the entire time. I asked her, “Did you make any new friends today?” Olivia replied, “Daddy, they’re all my friends. Some just don’t know it, yet.”
Our theme for the Fourth Sunday of Advent is “Those Who Dream Are Not Alone.” Here’s why: God is with us. When the angel visited Joseph in a dream to tell him that his fiance was pregnant with the Son of God, the angel quoted the prophet Isaiah: “‘Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,’ which means, ‘God is with us.’” I know what it’s like to feel lonely. I know what it’s like to feel separated from the one’s you love. The pain can be excruciating. In those moments remembering that the same God who was with Mary and Joseph is with me and my loved ones helped me sit with that feeling of separation long enough for it to transform into motivation to pick up the phone and make a connection. The love that is strong as death (Song of Songs 8:6) that nothing in the universe can separate us from (Romans 8:38-39) that binds all things together in perfect harmony (Colossians 3:14) is always and everywhere available to us. It means that we’re always already connected. Our job as Christians is simply to make that already existing connection real in the world.
My spiritual director likes to say that spiritual practice is about cultivating a “basic friendliness” toward ourselves and others. On this Fourth Sunday of Advent when we remember God’s love incarnate in Jesus, I invite us to remember that those who dream are not alone because God’s love always already connects us. When we’re feeling disconnected and alone, I invite us to consider Olivia’s wise words, “They’re all my friends. Some just don’t know it, yet.”
Todd Grant Yonkman 