Tomorrow is our church’s annual Christmas Marketplace. We have been planning for it since, well, since last year’s Christmas Marketplace. It is a big fun-raiser as well as a fundraiser. Pretty much every man, woman and child gets recruited to be involved in one way or another. Tomorrow the church will bustle with people in every room looking over crafts, searching out used treasures, bidding up a friend at the Silent Auction, picking up preserves, finding a good used book or trying to decide between apple or raisin pie.
The Marketplace is a highlight for many of us at the church and it is a LOT of WORK. Yesterday, in a cynical moment, I said to the lead organizer, next year I am going to write a cheque and save the grocery shopping, baking, packaging, carrying, setting up, taking down … well, you get the idea. But in fact, I love the Marketplace and the energy and excitement that will begin to build this afternoon as we set up the rooms and will peak tomorrow morning as the doors open. It builds community within our congregation and it builds links to the broader community as people come in and chat and meet friends and generally enjoy the hospitality.
Many people who are not involved in the church often erroneously think of church as a stodgy bunch of Bible-thumpers. Well, I do like the Bible (at least parts of it) but more important to me is being part of a company, a band, a tribe, of people who engage in both the spiritual and the temporal aspect of living. Church is about faith and about community. It is about living well and living in a positive and productive way.
Jesus was such a great teacher when it came to living in community and working to the betterment of all. I think he would have really enjoyed our Marketplace.
I had such FUN at our Marketplace! It was so wonderful to see friends, old and new, come pouring through the door, looking for treasures, special gifts, sweet treats and a little sustenance. It more than made up for the hours on my feet baking and making up the little sweet treat bags! You are right that this day is so good for our sense of community. I feel blessed to be a part of it.