Time. Times. We live in a time, an age, and era. Our times are shaped by a myriad of factors. Analysts and pontificators, authors and narrators thrive on explaining our times to us. How much are we shaping our time, and how much is our time shaping us? Each authority has a theory, but some juries, including the one I sit on, are still out.

Time. Would that I could hold it in my hand, and take a look at it, at my times. In effect, that is what Dale’s Life Review Groups do. Each of the members remembers and tells their life story. As the stories are shared connections are made and insights into those lives are shared. These have become powerful and important experiences for the group members. For as one goes back over ones life there is the opportunity to reflect and identify the events that have shaped and transformed. It is an opportunity to actually observe times of growth, healing and wholeness. One might even see how their God given gifts have been used for great good.

This kind of Life Review activity is particularly important for a people of faith. As the community of the faithful experiences any event, no matter the emotions whether they be joy, shock, amazement or grief, it is important that the faithful take time to discern just what is the sacred or the holy in that event. Often, this requires, as in life review, a journey back through events that proceeded the immediate event. From this activity the group can then more easily see the sacred or the holy in the present.

That is just what both the prophets and the early Christian writers did, not only for the faithful of their time but for us now as we still endeavor to live within the faith story. They sought to solve the mystery of the meaning and the "why" of the times in which they found themselves. From their efforts come many of our favorite scriptures and stories. And as we read them, or hear them sung, or sing them ourselves, we find ourselves transported into sacredness.

As Isaiah and the Hebrew People were dealing with wars and rumors of wars, Isaiah became a super sacred sleuth. As people were realizing that their kingdom was coming to an end, Isaiah said in a loud voice something like the following: "Wait a minute! Remember, we were the ones who kept claiming that we needed a king and a kingdom. God’s promise was that we would be a great people. Look back. Look back at the people in the lineage of David; those who have come from David’s father Jesse. God has been with us. God is still with us, even though the earth seems to be shaking. God will continue to give to us. From that same lineage will come one who will amaze those around him. God’s spirit will dwell upon him. He will bring about justice, and righteousness. There is no peace now, but there will be a time of peace. The sacred and the holy will escape you if you do not learn to look for it. It is there, so keep the hope. You can be hopeful, because we come from a long line of sacred intervention and hoping."

Discerning the sacred in life takes a practiced eye and the knowledge of what to look for. In the scriptures the sacred and the holy are connected with justice and righteousness. So right smack dab in the middle of this passage is the statement that the one to come will wear righteousness like a belt around his waist. As we hold onto that, let us fast-forward to John the Baptist. Not an immediately appealing nor an ingratiating person, there he stands, one unkempt shaggy, smelly, ranting and raving personality. Yet there he is, calling for comfort of the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable. How dare he tell me that if I have two coats I should give one away! Then I remember, o yes, that is one of the indicators of the sacred. Then he talks about the one to come.

Let us fast-forward again to Paul and the early Christians in Rome. First, Paul is encouraging the Jewish Christians and the Gentile Christians to welcome their differences and to live together in the gospel. Then he helps them see God at work among them, unifying believers. From God’s work, comes hope. Again, as we identify God at work in our everyday lives or in our life story, we are filled with hope.

Perhaps it is the ordinariness of the sacred and the holy that makes it difficult for us to discern. When I was little, I imagined all the people in the Bible as rather like the angels. Their humanness escaped me. Everything therein was miracle and magic and all the people were heroes. So I fully expected that they would live constantly among the sacred and in fact be holy themselves. But that definitely did not include me. Perhaps it was the stories identified as appropriate for Childhood consumption. There had definitely been a sorting process used in the selection of stories told or read to me. I know that now. But in those days, it was clear to me that the sacred and the holy existed in a previous time, and now this age was just ordinary. It took me some time to discover the humanness of the Biblical characters and then even more time to realized that we all get bashed around a bit by life and without discovering the sacred and the holy in it all, we could actually could become battered and lose hope. One of my rude awakenings, or you might say revelations, came as I began to do a lot of small group work or ministry. The personal insights I gained were astounding and I experienced real transformation. As I began to lead these experiences for others, I watched this happen again and again. Inside my head roared the passage, ‘Wherever two or three gather in my name, there I will be also." These were indeed holy and sacred experiences in the midst of ordinary human interaction. People were able to connect these experiences with their faith and began to live their faith in new and exciting ways. Some took on whole new directions and were filled with hope before unknown to them. Here at CCC we are in the midst of a time of visiting one another. I am absolutely convinced that as these visits happen, the Holy Spirit will be present in them and many will become sacred experiences for those involved.

This time in which we are remodeling our church is on one level a very ordinary time. Building goes on all the time. In Silver Spring we are surrounded by it. But it is also a bit like John the Baptist; certainly inconvenient, more than a little bit weird and unsavory and at times overwhelming. Yet this has been a time in which we have gone back and reclaimed not just our history but what God has done in and through us over the years. We have in fact rediscovered and reclaimed some of the sacred and the holy in our past. That story gave us hope and direction for the future. Embarking on this project is and was an enormous statement of faith that God is still with us and will continue to do amazing things within this faith community and through this community of faith into the greater Silver Spring area.

I have had three separate experiences lately with persons or groups who have done an in-depth study of the program and mission of CCC. In each case, people stood before me with open mouths, in awe. "This is quite a church!" Said they. As I listened to stories of building shelters for the Poor Peoples Campaign to the beginning of one mission ministry to another and on to advocacy for justice, I smiled. We are standing on Holy Ground, you know, I wanted to say. It surely was not all pretty, but it was the hand of God in our midst.

Advent is a sacred time of hope. Advent is a time of remembering, retelling and reclaiming our faith story. It is a time to listen to the prophets of old and a time to become prophets ourselves. For this is the time, it is our time, to identify the holy and the sacred in our midst and point to it unashamedly! It is a time to reclaim our faith story and hold on to it tightly gleaning, every bit of hope from it that we can. So let us look back into our faith roots and into our personal history discerning God’s work there. Let us gather in celebration and expectation of the holy among us. Let us continue to be about justice and righteousness as the Promised one taught us. "And may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound In hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."