My Life... busy changing

Christmas has come and gone and with it my family. They were down from Dec. 23 until yesterday - conviently matching up with the dates that I didn't post. We had a great time, lots of cooking & eating. We opened presents and visited Washington Crossing State Park It was fun and when they left yesterday, Bridgette sat in the living room and said "I miss your family".

Like Christmas and my family heading out, things are changing in a lot of ways in my life right now. We spent some time yesterday going through all of our baby stuff, from clothes to bedding to toys to "products". We have a lot, but at the same time realize how much more we still need. Babies are expensive propositions.

But in addition to this change, which seems to be preoccupying my mind more and more lately (as it should, being about 5 1/2 weeks away from the due date) there are changes occuring in my thinking theologically. I'm thinking more and more about missions and ecclesiology. I'm thinking about the witness of the Church to Christ, the unity Jesus prayed for in his followers to witness to the unity of Jesus and God the Father.

As I'm trying to write my paper for CH330 (Litrugical Year) about John Mason Neale and the Oxford Movement and their redirection of the Anglican Church back toward Rome, I can't help but connect it to my paper for TH330 (Reformed & Lutheran Confessions) which will be about their understanding of ecclesiology. But I also can't help but thinking of this missionally. Which goes to my sermon on New Years Day which will be on the Magi visiting Jesus and about what we do with Jesus & Christmas... after Christmas. It's not completely missional, because I'm going to be talking about responding in worship and changing direction...

Which makes this come full circle. Because my sermon, the clincher for me in the text of the Magi is that end, the part where they return home by a different route. They return but differently they don't allow Herod to co-opt the awe & worship that they have given to Jesus. In light of what they have seen, in light of what they have given, they change their plans to reflect that.

I believe that I have seen and learned some really good stuff this semester. I believe that I'm in the process of giving God myself - and hopefully my best. And I think that this is going to force me to change how I go about doing what I'm going to end up doing. I think this is going to do a lot more than inform my ministry, I think that I'm going to be thinking more theologically about "church" and "mission" and I'm looking forward to their continued convergence. As it happens, I know there will continue to be a lot of change in my life. And I think I'm going to get a lot more experience "changing" in a few short weeks...