Now What?

[The Midweek Encounter is a ministry of Encounter Church in Kentwood, MI. These posts are reflections on Sunday's message, which can be heard here each week: http://myencounterchurch.org/#/messages-media]

We embarked on our first Bupp-Family-Real-Christmas-Tree-Adventure this year. As a kid, I remember hours of hunting (and forty lost mittens) to find the perfectly formed tree. Perhaps as a reaction to all of those hours, or because our kids are so small and it was so cold, we cut down the third tree we considered. It seemed perfect. Inside our house it was…different. It was MUCH larger and wider and crookeder and taller and everything-er than it seemed outside. It is spectacular.

How does a tree grow into a shape like this!? The biologist in me has considered all of the formational influences that molded the tree into its shape: shifting soil, weather, critters, pruning, and the surrounding trees. All the time, by so many devices, the tree was formed into this fantastic shape as it grew.

The same is true of us as well – we are always being formed by something.

We are formed by our family, by culture and the media, and when we’re intentional, by the Bible, the church, and our community. The seasons of advent and Christmas offer easier opportunities to be formed by Christ. So many things regularly turn our minds toward Christ and His coming; Christmas carols everywhere from malls to church, and advent devotionals and reading plans on the Bible App that seem to go hand in hand with lights and ornaments. Without much effort, many of us are enjoying a season of being formed into the image of Christ.

But now my vacuum bag has more needles than the tree branches do; Christmas is over. Derek reminded us this week that when we arrive in this after-Christmas-lull, most of us ask – whether we realize it or not – Now what? We’ve enjoyed being shaped by God over the last month, how can that continue?

God broke into the dark and sent His Light. The Word came, and He made His dwelling among us. Hope is alive. Now what?

Now we are called into holiness, into godliness, into a deeper and fuller and more life-invading relationship with Jesus; He is dwelling with us. Now we pray for the Holy Spirit to continue the work of formation, instead of packing it up with the ornaments. Now we seek to have not only our Decembers formed by Jesus Christ, but our Januarys and Februarys and Julys as well!  

Now we get uncomfortable.

Derek reminded us, from Colossians 3:12-17, that formation and discipleship happen within community. As we find a sense of belonging with each other, we learn the stories of God’s faithfulness to His people historically, and to His people today, and our hope grows. In community, we are called and equipped to transform the world to the glory of God.

This kind of community – faith forming community – is beautiful and necessary; but to engage in it, we’ll have to get uncomfortable. So many of us look for and long for community, and are frustrated when we feel without it; but we seem to want community to magically happen to us while everything else about our lives remains unchanged. I’m so comfortable in my usual routines, in my normal avenues of faith (and let’s be honest, on my couch doing nothing about my faith!). The idea of intentionally getting uncomfortable and out of routine to make room for new community, for new ways of being formed and discipled (and for forming and discipling others!) seems intrusive.

  

Smiling and saying hello to acquaintances over the coffee pots is comfortable, and gravitating to our close friends on Sunday morning feels safe. Making new friends can seem intimidating, especially if they are older or younger or have kids (or don’t!), and it can seem uncomfortably vulnerable to share a story of God’s work in your life right now with any friends, new or old. Sunday morning is the normal routine; a weeknight for Bible study or kitchen group or another ministry will cramp your style. And the older we get, the more uncomfortable it is to admit that we are still being formed; it’s far more comfortable to let our faith remain unchanged and unchallenged.

As we clear away the manger scenes and tinsel, can we also clear room in our lives to meaningfully engage with our church family? Are we willing to get uncomfortable, to be people intentionally seeking formation and discipleship as a community?

Our Christmas tree won’t fit back through the front door, so I’m getting ready to throw it off the deck next week; it makes me think of the things I’ll need to throw out of my heart that get in the way of real, deep community: the fear that makes me hold back parts of myself, the self-reliance that prevents me from reaching out, the selfishness that makes me want to stay home and do my own thing. None of my excuses are worth missing out on the fuller life that Christ offers to us within the body of believers.

Jesus has come; Emmanuel, God with us, is here in our midst. Now what?

Now we clear the clutter from our hearts and schedules and deliberately engage in formational community; now we embrace discomfort until community becomes our routine. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, let’s help each other be formed more and more into the image of Christ. 

[Robin Bupp is married to Caleb, and they are from many places east of the Mississippi (but are calling Michigan home for the foreseeable future). A former high school science teacher, Robin is slowly turning the two Bupp kiddos into tiny nerds while they teach her lots of things, especially humility and patience.]