Celebrate!

Such a joyful, hope-filled word! At Celebration United Methodist we find reason to hope and take joy in the gospel of Jesus as it can transform lives and communities. We believe that the depth of God's love is so great that we can only grow in that love. As a church, we seek to nurture each other in our daily  lives of faith through worship and small group studies and intentional prayer. It is through our daily interactions with one another and with Jesus that we are grounded in Jesus all the more and transformed and empowered to change the community in the love of Christ. 

Thoughts from Pastor Holloman

It is a new year.  Many are wishing to forget this last year.  The stock markets are down in the neighborhood of 40%.  People have lost their jobs.  We want to know what went wrong.  We want to know who is to blame so that we can feel better knowing we didn’t do this to ourselves.  But the unfortunate problem is that while some may have done some really dumb things, I think all of us are to blame.

When I say that I mean that we as a society and a world have lost our way and we are in the midst of trying to find the right path.  Some of the things that are happening are painful, but healthy.  We are moving away from an economy that is based on people spending more than they have.  We are moving back to the idea that you only borrow what you can afford.  We are moving toward back to the idea that we purchase for need, not desire.  These are good things. 

But they are not necessarily all the moves we need to make.  For the church, we need to recover what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ because the church has lost its way too.  Jesus Christ came into the world for just the very thing we are experiencing this year.  We are in this mess because of sin in our lives.

I know when I write that, there are some who would say, “Oh, there he goes with that sin stuff again and that’s too simple an answer.”   And people react that way because they have been taught to think of sin as only doing “bad” things.  But sin goes much deeper than simply doing “bad” things.  Sin is what separates us from God.  Sin is as simple as saying we don’t need a Sabbath because I know my limits.  Sin is saying that I don’t need to be burdened down with “God’s rules and regulations” because I know what is good for me.  Sin is simply separating our selves from God because we know better.

And the more we live in sin (separated from God), the more we live in darkness, unable to see clearly what is right and what is wrong.  The line between the two becomes blurred.  And that is why Christ came, to be a light to the world.  It is a point made over and over in Scripture.  In Isaiah 60, he writes, “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you.  See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the LORD rises upon you and his glory appears over you.” 

God’s ways and his teaching are not meant to be a burden, but freedom from burdens.  Surrendering our lives to Christ does not mean giving up life but living life to the fullest.  And Scripture teaches us that this is best done in community.  That is the purpose of the local church, to be a community of believers sharing life together in Christ.  It is freely giving as we have freely received.  It is walking alongside one another.  It is not just a Sunday morning thing.  It is a way of life lived together.

Before a nation can turn around, the churches must first turn around and come together.  And we as Christians do that when we seek to come together, not just for worship on Sunday, but together in all things.  It means we seek to find God’s purpose for our own life.  We seek to use the gifts God has given us.  And when we do this, we let our light shine and that light is Christ.

As we move into this next year, let us let our light shine before one another so that this community may see that there is a hope in Christ.  For if we have not hope, how can we share it.

Blessings and Peace