All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the
prophet: “Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him
Emmanuel,” which means, “God is with us.” –Matthew 1:22-23


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I can offer you no words that have not been said, no song that has been left unsung. We can only go back to the beginning, the beginning that starts tomorrow. Tomorrow is the day when our savior arrives. It is the newest day celebrating our oldest wish for when the sun climbs over our rooftops it will bring light into the world exposing our dreams for renewal.

Two thousand years ago a woman held her baby and perhaps she whispered a prayer quietly into her newborn’s ear. A prayer passing on her own dreams and speaking of the dreams she had for her boy. A prayer for calm. A prayer of an unending desire for peace. A prayer for concord rather than discord. A prayer for protection, a promise to be the protector.

Every day before that day and every day since that day, a mother has spoken that same prayer to her own child. A child, mere minutes or hours old, a witness to nothing serving as a witness to hope. Strengthened with her mother’s prayer, that child has the capacity to change this world for the better. Strengthened by his mother’s love, that child can bring renewal to a tired world.

The constancy of love passing from generation to generation is evidence of God’s intended consequence for all of us. We do not love God out of fear that if we do not, we will be punished or cast away. No, the consequence of loving God is God’s love. It is God’s love that can be shared with all of humanity.

Tomorrow is evidence of God’s love. Tomorrow is Christmas. Tomorrow is our charge to renew that love.

And from that love, comes hope. From that love comes the desire to enter into the world and share that love without judgement or stipulation, to tear down walls that impede that love, to lift up the lowly so that they might experience that love, and to love those who do not love us so that we might all renew that love.

And tomorrow, tomorrow and every day past and present, God has and will hold us in her arms again and whisper to us a quiet prayer. A prayer that says: “I love you.”

God is with us.

Post by Matt Handi

I wait

By Stacey Kohl
 

I wait.

As the days grow shorter and the nights longer, I wait.

As the wind blows more sharply and the world around me grows colder, I wait.

As the very earth seems to sink low into the darkness of winter, I wait.

I wait.  

I wait because I know someone is coming—because I know someone has already come.

I wait because I know this someone will take the darkness and make it light

Will take the cold and make it warmth

Will take the weight of so much pain,

so much anger,

so much loneliness,

so much hate,

and lift it away.

I wait because the one who is coming—the one who has already come—is love itself.

And love is always worth waiting for.

O Emmanuel

December 23, 2015

Reflection by Jane Hale

"Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel” (Isaiah 7:14)

Several years ago, I took a teen group on pilgrimage to Grand Teton National Park.  We camped and hiked in breathtaking mountain forests that were thick with buzzing wildlife, sparkling mountain lakes, and lodgepole pines that shot clear up to the sky.  To this crew of New Englanders, the vast expanse of forest around the Tetons felt like an Eden of sorts, a thin space where God seemed as close as the morning mist, or the mountain breeze.  We spent a good portion of most days hiking, and as we did, we could sense that every breath was infused with holiness.  One day, however, the trail that was usually bathed in lush greens, lead us into a strange and unfamiliar landscape. A forest fire had utterly ravaged the entire mountainside several years before, leaving nothing but a vast expanse of charred earth and branchless, blackened tree skeletons in its wake. It appeared, at first glance, to be a wasteland, and we sat together in silence, our hearts heavy with the burden of such indiscriminate destruction and loss of life.  But as we sat, we began to notice something we hadn’t seen at first glance.  There were tiny shoots of tender green pine trees emerging from the crevices between the charred, felled trees and rocks:  a sign of new life—tender, bright green, and shining— in the most unexpected of places. 

So it is with Christ:  a shoot from the great stump of Jesse; a peasant, infant king; compassionate companion to the outcast and oppressed; the crucified One that death could not contain; God-With-Us.

Where might you find Christ?

O come, o come Emmanuel.  Help us to seek you not only in the majestic and thin spaces, but also in the unexpected places, the hidden places, even the places that seem most devastatingly God-forsaken.   For there, we will find you—tender, bright green, and shining— a humble, and yet glorious sign among the peoples that God is truly with us, even now, ready to lead us into new and unending life. Amen.

Time for Work

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November 30, 2015 
Reflection by Phil Bjornberg 
 
“The Word is near you, on your lips and in your heart”…

How is the Other to call on One in whom they have not believed?”  And how is the Other to believe in One of whom they have never heard? And how is the Other to hear without YOU proclaiming it?  And how are YOU to proclaim what YOU have not been sent with yourself?

How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news...through the word of Christ (Romans 10:8b-15) Father, God, you created us and put us on earth for a purpose… your purpose. 

Jesus, you came into the world to redeem the world.  While I was still a sinner, you died for me, and now in life eternal, together with the Father, and by your grace, you call me to unity with the Godhead, to carry on your work of advancing the kingdom of heaven and restoring creation to yourself. 

Holy Spirit, you inform and empower me to carry out the work for which I was created and called.  In your presence and name, O Lord, God – Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer - I begin each day.  Inspire my thoughts, inform and guide my actions, and empower me to love in your Spirit; through Jesus the Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  Amen.