I know WNIC started playing its 100% holiday music back at the beginning of the month. I also know I usually prefer to wait until we’re well into Advent before singing such songs, but, why not? So, feel free to join in singing a holiday classic with Bing Crosby and myself:

“Grumpy Holidays....”(you do the echo)

 I know I shouldn’t jest so. Especially since, as I write this, it really isn’t yet the “holiday season” – we’ve got three days to go!! But I have felt some grumpiness (why wait till Advent?).

 And why not feel grumpy? Our government seems to find plenty of money to bail out every other bank, but acts insulted when our American carmakers seek a loan. We don’t know what’s coming next. It’s a scary time. It’s a frustrating time – I don’t know if this newsletter will even get copied! And I won’t even mention the word football. Not this year. 

 Things stink. They stink because there is so much uncertainty to mix with so much bad news. We don’t know what the future holds. But we do know what the present holds: we received word that Emmanuel has had to turn people away from its food pantry, because demand has been so high.

 And on Thursday, it will be Thanksgiving Day. Some people will struggle to find things for which to be thankful. Then too, it’s hard to be thankful when feeling grumpy. It can be hard, anyway. Depends on what gets the last word – grumpy or thankful.

Before I answer that question (because I’m not sure how I’ll answer), I want to throw in another word: Advent. 

 Advent, of course, is the season that leads us to Christmas. It is the season of getting ready – getting our hearts ready, not simply to receive Jesus when he’s born (he was born a long time ago). I think our task is to get our hearts ready to see Jesus, now. Paul wrote of having “the eyes of our heart opened”. 

 That reminds me of another song – open the eyes of my heart Lord, open the eyes of my heart -- I want to see you. I want to see you.

 So, if Advent is about preparing our hearts to see Jesus... now....maybe our spiritual task isn’t to pretend that we are not grumpy. Maybe the task is to see Jesus right in the midst of grumpiness.

 The Jesus Way, after all, isn’t to deny humanity. The Jesus Way is to jump right into the middle of humanity right where it is. Even, especially when where humanity is in right in the middle of frustration and uncertainty.

 So maybe I’ve found something else for which I can give thanks. In addition to being thankful for this ministry, this congregation, my family (especially nephew Connor and baby Olivia), good health...(there really is a lot for which I offer thanks) I can add this: 

That God, who created us, does not abandon us – even when we’re grumpy. I give thanks that God is with us.  

 In Christ,