by Rev. Eric Folkerth

I’ve been genuinely challenged by what to say to you in a newsletter article this week. Our nation endured a deeply troubling attack on our Capitol on Wednesday. We’ve used the words “unprecedented” so many times these past four years.

It has happened again.

Never in our history has our Capitol been under siege in this manner by our own citizens. And while we are looking forward to potentially calmer times after January 20th, it’s hard to have faith that truly challenging moments will not still unfold in these coming days.

I pray it will not be so. But you and I now know enough to be on guard.

Since my own wisdom feels limited right now, I will refer you back to our message from last week…and wisdom of the Magi that God calls us to follow:

"Follow the star,

Keep to the trail God gives you,

Put one foot in front of the other,

Don't freak out."

Maybe we will need to repeat these words, over and over in the coming days?

I also am grateful to Ken Kelley for reminding us this week of a favorite poem about the days after Christmas. It’s from the great Howard Thurman, and it describes our continuing call:

“The Work of Christmas”
When the song of the angels is stilled,
when the star in the sky is gone,
when the kings and princes are home,
when the shepherds are back with their flocks,
the work of Christmas begins:
to find the lost,
to heal the broken,
to feed the hungry,
to release the prisoner,
to rebuild the nations,
to bring peace among the people,
to make music in the heart.
— Howard Thurman

Yes.

To that end, this afternoon as temperatures drop across our city, I’ll again be out in our church van…on your behalf…gathering up homeless brothers and sisters, and getting them to shelter for the coming four days.

This is a part of that “work of Christmas” that God still calls us to, even in these troubling times. Thank you for being a part of this effort.

The second words come from WH Auden. They are from his great Christmas Poem: “For The Time Being.”

Auden’s words below describe the post-Christmas feeling that we have…in any year, really…but they feel especially poignant right now:

“The happy morning is over,
The night of agony still to come; the time is noon:
When the Spirit must practice his scales of rejoicing
Without even a hostile audience, and the Soul endure
A silence that is neither for nor against her faith
That God’s Will will be done, that, in spite of her prayers,
God will cheat no one, not even the world of its triumph.”
— WH Auden

Yes.

We are still called to “The Work of Christmas.” And we do the work, we trust, through our faith in God, that “God will cheat no one, not even the world of its triumph.”

Lean into your faith during these times.

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