A.D.V.E.N.T.: E is for Emmanuel

Has God ever come to you in a dream? Have you ever heard God in another mysterious way? Did it require you to defy social convention, or was it an easy request? Did you dismiss that call, or did you respond? When was the last time you stepped out in faith, beyond a Facebook post about Phil Robertson or a Twitter rant or an email forward?

Read Isaiah 7:10-16 & Matthew 1:18-25.

This is how Matthew describes the birth of Jesus – from the perspective of Joseph. Imagine all the feelings that Joseph must have been feeling. He was a righteous man, and here was his pregnant fiancé. He must have felt foolish, embarrassed, angry, scandalized, cuckolded – like the husband who hears Maury declare “You are NOT the father!”

Yet righteous Joseph defies social convention because of God’s call to him in a dream. He ignores ‘what other people might think’ and stands by Mary – he continues to be with her, to share in her journey to Bethlehem and to birth. Joseph responds to a higher righteousness, one that goes above and beyond in response to God’s call. And he could do it because God was with him.

In the birth of Jesus, God chooses to be with us. God acts out of love, and a little baby is born. A little baby is born, and a righteous man responds to a higher righteousness. A righteous man responds, and a pregnant woman is not left alone in her time of need. A pregnant woman who is not left alone births a bouncing baby boy, and this boy saves us from our sins and continues the relationship of “God with us.”

And God was not just with our biblical ancestors – God is with us today as well. How have you experienced God with you? Goosebumps? Things coming together? Dreams and visions? Protection? Guidance? Camp Heartland? How have you experienced “God with us” at Trinity? How can we continually prepare for God to be with us?

God has promised us Emmanuel, and God keeps God’s promises. May we see beyond the reality tv show drama, beyond the tinsel and the trimmings, beyond the commercialism and the family drama, to behold the babe in the manger – to behold “God with us” yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Amen.

Grace and peace,
Pastor Kate

A.D.V.E.N.T.: A is for Anticipation

As we start A.D.V.E.N.T. this Sunday, what does the A stand for? A is for Advent, or anticipation, or await, or arise. A is for almost there, or arriving, or about to happen. A is for alertness, or awareness, or assurance, or attention. 

Read Isaiah 2:1-5 & Matthew 24:36-44.

How do those readings make you feel – anxious, apathetic, angry? Assured or afraid or annoyed? It may seem strange to begin the season of Advent, the church new year, with grown-up Jesus talking about his second coming instead of six pound eleven ounces sweet baby Jesus. It may seem strange to begin Advent looking past Bethlehem; to begin Advent by looking toward the future instead of the past. 

But as the Rev. Dr. John Burgess reminds us, we are living between the times – between Christ’s first and second coming. We are living between the times: “Advent reminds us of God’s promises to Israel of Immanuel…Advent also calls us to anticipate the day on which this Immanuel will return as King of kings and Lord of Lords.” As we consider the anticipation of Advent, consider what we pray every week in the Lord’s Prayer: “Thy will be done, Thy kingdom come.” What does it mean for God’s kingdom to come? Does that align with Jesus’ second coming – with judgment day? 

Rev. Burgess goes on to describe the two usual ways of seeing judgment day: 1) as a moment of rapture (like the Left Behind series) where some are taken away and some are left behind; 2) as a moment at each individual’s death where we will have to stand before God and account for our lives. 

Maybe there is a third way of hearing Jesus’ words about the end times: that each day is a day of judgment, that we should always be examining ourselves each day – are we following Christ? As we continue our day-to-day work, have we been distracted from our hope, from our calling? Or are we being taught in the ways of the Lord, are we walking in his path?

As we look toward the manger, we must see it through lens of hope – hope that our work and discipleship today matters, but that we are not on our own. We must look with hope to the future, that our Judge is also the one who took our judgment on the cross. So let us anticipate the advent of Advent – for tomorrow might be the day that we all catch a glimpse of God’s kingdom. 

Grace and peace, 
Pastor Kate

Prepare Your Home for Your Homecoming

How is your decorating coming?  Do you have enough room for your Christmas tree, your wreaths and garlands and Christmas knickknacks?  Or do you have to make room by moving chairs, tables, and your everyday "stuff" out of the way?  Are the presents wrapped and ready to go in the mail or under the tree?  How many parties involve bringing goodies?  Are the stockings hung over the chimney with care?
Am I touching a nerve in your busy, perhaps frantic schedule?
These are not the most important questions of course.  The bigger, more significant questions are:  "Have you made room for Jesus in your days - in your space - in your schedule?  Where do you squeeze him in?  Will you fling wide your front door if you open it and there he stands?"

Old Testament prophets speak to us when they promise:  The Lord is already in our midst (Zephaniah 3: 14-20) and the Lord will bring us back home for a great family gathering (Isaiah 12: 1-6).  How do we respond to these promises?  If the corners of our rooms and hearts and minds are too full, will we have to look for Jesus out back in our sheds or between the cobwebbed baskets/tools/recycle in the garage? Do we even recognize our Lord in our midst?

Our home is more than our space and the things that fill up our space, no matter the size of our spaces.  Our home is where God is - wherever and whenever we continue to nurture our relationship with Jesus.  So, both prophets Zephaniah and Isaiah encourage us to make room, recognize, and welcome our Lord.  Because they lived before the birth of Jesus, they're projecting their hopes, which we find realized and incarnated in Jesus the Christ.

Let us join them when we sing, shout, rejoice, exult, celebrate, raise the rafters with our joy, and proclaim the Lord's name with all that we do and share and serve through this season of thanksgiving for the birth of the Babe, who enters into the very real humanity of our lives - God with us - Emmanuel.

Grace and Peace,
Pastor Shelleyhttp://bible.oremus.org/?ql=222333236

We Are Not the Light

Have you tried to tell someone who you are by saying who you are not? In John 1: 6-8, 19-28, John the Witness confesses to the religious authorities who grill him: No, I'm not the Messiah. No, I'm not Elijah. No, I'm not the prophet. Instead, with great understatement, John identifies himself as the one called to point us toward the coming of Jesus Christ - to witness to him. John says of himself that he cries out in the wilderness and that he's unworthy to untie the thong of the sandal of the one who is coming. Like us, John waits in the dark for the coming of the Messiah, who will bring light into the world's darkness. John's "I am not" self declarations contrast to Jesus' later "I am" statements.

John's self understanding arises out of his relationship to Jesus as the coming Messiah. Who John is and what he's called to do (witness to the coming light) depends totally on belonging to Christ. One way to think about our own relationship to Jesus is that Jesus is both sun and Son. We are the moons which circle around the sun/Son, reflecting the light of the sun/Son.

This distinction helps us understand that we're neither the Christ, nor are we God. God is Creator and we are God's creatures. Like John, our call - our work - our service - is to prepare the way so that Christ's light might shine out into the world where darkness seems to prevail.

Hebrew Bible Prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 61: 1-4, 8-11 draws a powerfully poignant picture of the kingdom here on earth that will come to pass where people respond to God by:

• preaching good news to the poor
• healing the heartbroken
• proclaiming freedom to captives
• releasing prisoners
• comforting those who mourn.

Isaiah pictures the year of Jubilee in which land is returned to original owners, debts are cancelled and slaves are freed. Anticipating slates wiped clean is accomplished through the light of the world shining in the dark, never to be extinguished by the darkness. Jesus Christ is the bringer of eternal Jubilee.

While we wait, we can witness to the slivers of light and the bounteous light that we see whenever and wherever we serve in Christ's name. What good and great news this is!

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Shelley

Divine Absence: Longing for God’s Saving Help

As we enter the season of Advent, we’re also entering the season of advertisements – featuring Black Friday, pushing all our emotional buttons to desperately want their products. What have you longed for lately? What have you wanted more than anything else What calls to you, deep to deep? Maybe it’s the latest version of the iPad. Maybe it’s a desire for a quiet, peaceful house. Maybe it’s a desperate prayer for a sick loved one to get well. Maybe it’s for reconciliation in a relationship. Maybe it’s for something that you can’t quite put your finger on, something that is missing, a hole in your life.

Our Scriptures for the first Sunday of Advent begin with Isaiah 64:1-9 and Mark 13:24-37.

This may seem like an odd way to begin Advent. Isaiah is declaring how God has hidden God’s face from us and that we are a sinful people. The reading from Mark looks not toward the precious warm Christmas image of the sweet baby Jesus, but with the challenging, confusing proclamation that Christ will come again, with cosmic signs and fig trees.

Both Scriptures speak to the separation between God and Her people, which is where we start with Advent. We start from a place of longing, of realizing just where we are and who we are apart from God. We start from a place of desperate need, of being in a hole with no way out. We start at the same place of John the Baptizer and our faith ancestors – in great need of a Savior, of the Messiah to arrive. But we also start from a place where we can cry out to One who cares, because we were, are, and always will be God’s people.

For Advent is not just about preparing for Christmas, shopping the great sales, or listening to all our favorite Christmas hymns. Advent is not just hanging the greens or Christmas pageants. Advent is a call to keep awake – to be alert – to make Advent a part of who we are every single day. We are called to work and to prepare for the second coming of Christ. God has sent God’s Son with all the saving help we need, and we bask in the hope that is the promise of the return of Jesus.

Grace and peace,
Pastor Kate