When I was a young ministerial student (back in the day, as my college students might say) we would often joke that when a sermon got personal, confronting real issues, we had gone from preachin’ to meddlin’. I do that on a fairly regular basis in my college classroom, when I take social work values and ethics to the very personal level of the lives of my students. Many a minister has lost a job because their sermon was meddlin’ in the lives of their congregants.
I think that this is what my pagan friends miss. I have studied and learned about paganism and there is much to be learned there, in some of the oldest traditions of religion on the planet. Christianity was a departure from other traditions in one way really, getting personal with the Creator God. Jesus came as the example of what a one to one relationship with the Creator of all could really be. And, look how magnificent that was and how it changed the world.
My studies of many religions have again and again pointed out the difference noted above, that God wants to make it personal. So many good people, of all religions, miss this wonderful difference and joy. In the life of Christ, God went from preachin’ to meddlin’ really quickly. God loves to meddle in our lives. Now, before you start saying God puts us to the test or God is the reason anything happens to us, let me explain God’s meddling the best I can.
We are never promised an easy way, full of only joyous things. What we are promised is that God is faithful and is there with us through it all. His meddling is that he constantly inserts himself into our experiences. It requires that we but look to see where God is present in “the whirlwind”. God made it personal from the moment we entered into this life. We are the Beloved, each and every one of us. At this time of the year, Advent, it is us who are being born on the darkest day of the year. It is us who are the one spark of light in the world. We are the Christ child in the manger. We are God’s meddlin’ in the world.
Remember vacation Bible school? We held up our finger and began to sing: “This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine. Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine…..” On Christmas Eve, as we light the Christ candle, remember that you are the gift of light to the world. Find yourself in the small flame, flickering in a dark world.
TMM