Pastor Dan’s Musings
January
6, 2012
Lightshine
You’ve
known me long enough to realize that I am always trying to pay attention, and
ask the question: Where is God showing
up? On Wednesday we had our fifth
and final Advent/Epiphany worship time in the chapel. After we shared communion,
it was time to close the service. But instead of receiving a benediction, we
all filed out the front door. Each person grabbed a Christmas Eve-type small
candle, and we made our way across Carlos and around the Gower corner to
assemble on the sidewalk. We were
standing at the front steps of the Villas at Gower, the new housing project
which will soon be home to a number of folks with special challenges. Construction is nearly finished, and the
landscaping work is in process.
Security
guards were on duty at the front porch, and I explained to them what we were
doing. They looked a little suspicious,
but didn’t object. It was dark out. The normal traffic whizzed by on Gower, and a
few pedestrians walked past with quizzical looks on their faces. Amie Quigley
said a few words about who would be living in the Villas, including some of our
friends from the Lord’s Lighthouse ministry.
We lit our candles, some of them several times because one of those warm
LA breezes made it hard for them to stay ablaze. Inge Famularo led us in prayer
for the future neighbors that would move in, for healing that needed to happen,
for the space, for the light of Jesus to fill that facility, our church, the
neighborhood. The only reason we were
there was to pray for God’s light to shine.
Joel Karahadian and Eva Hendrix-Shovlin led us in singing Joy to the World.
I looked
around. The dark, the new building, the cars speeding past, the pedestrians. Seventy-five people, some candles and singing.
In the midst of a gigantic city, that one moment probably seemed insignificant.
If you had been driving by, you might have idly thought “What was that?” and
quickly dismissed it. And yet the new
pavement we stood on was holy ground. That
simple moment in the heart of a culture which, knowingly or not, longs for the
presence of God…was exceedingly important. “The light shines in the darkness, and
the darkness has not overcome it.” The music swirled up into the dark sky. One
of the security guards joined us in prayer.
Where is God showing up? Wednesday night it was on Gower Street, in
Hollywood.
See you soon,
Pastor Dan
