– Beth Hartfiel

I remember my first Gathering as a youth. We were going to Atlanta. We’d never taken a big trip like this. We weren’t just leaving Texas; we were going all the way across the country. The hours we spent on the bus ride there and back were the start of lifelong friendships for me. When we finally arrived, I remember the amazement I felt walking into the Dome for the first Mass Gathering and the awe of being part of such a great cloud of witnesses during communion.

Several years later, I was taking my own youth group to a Gathering, which also happened to be in Atlanta. I was blessed to walk alongside them as they experienced the greater church in a way they never had before. From my perspective as a leader, I appreciated the wide variety of ways the Gathering ministry reached high school youth: through DAYLE (now the tAble) and MYLE events, through the Interactive Learning Area, and through the awe of Mass Gathering experiences.

When I was asked to be involved with the Interactive Learning Area for the 2009 New Orleans Gathering, I jumped at the chance. I was excited about the opportunity to help form this experience that was always so meaningful to my youth and to me. With the Interactive Learning Area in 2018, we are continuing to explore new ways for participants to express their faith in action and to offer them unique opportunities to recharge in the midst of crazy-long days. I especially love using different learning styles to help youth connect with others from their own home congregation, with congregations they’ve met at the Gathering, and with organizations that focus on sharing God’s love in unique ways.

I look forward to seeing how God is revealed through the partners and participants in Houston in 2018!

John Hougen, Elkins Park, PA

Warm-up Question

Have you ever changed your opinion of someone after you got to know them? If so, was it because you found out the person had more or less in common with you?

Compassion For Our Own Kind

Recently, I was on a retreat where the leader combined two different meanings of “kind” to make the point that compassionate attitudes and actions can be motivated by a recognition of what we have in common with someone who, at first, seems “different” from us.

Kind (as an adjective) is defined as: “The quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate.” But, kind (as a noun) means: “A group of people or things having similar characteristics.” When we recognize that we “have similar characteristics” with someone who appears different, we are more likely to become “friendly, generous, and considerate” of them.

Today’s reading from Hebrews teaches us that as members of the human family, we all are brothers and sisters. We are “of the same kind,” and Jesus shares our “human-kindness.”

Hebrews 2: 14 -18 – “¹⁴ Since, therefore, the children share flesh and blood, he (Jesus, the “pioneer of their salvation” vs 10) himself likewise shared the same things…. ¹⁶ For it is clear that he did not come to help angels, but the descendants of Abraham. ¹⁷ Therefore he had to become like his brothers and sisters^[f] in every respect, so that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the people. ¹⁸ Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested.”

Jesus’ compassion, according to this passage, was due in part to his becoming human, becoming one of us, able to identify with those who needed his healing, his teaching, his saving grace. In Matthew 25: 31 – 46, Jesus teaches us that when we feed, clothe, or visit someone in need, we are feeding, clothing, and visiting him—further emphasizing his identity as one of us: one who loves, suffers, finds courage, feels pain. He is part of the human family. Both today’s reading from Hebrews and verses 8 – 9 from the first reading (Isaiah 63) make God’s ability to identify with and relate to humanity the basis for God’s compassion and mercy towards us. Perhaps it is our ability to empathize, to identify with other people, that enables us to act compassionately toward them.

Discussion Questions

Do you believe that all members of the human family (all of humankind) are sufficiently alike that you can have compassion for them when they are in need? Or, are some people just too different to understand, too different to be treated with compassion?  What differences, if any, disqualify someone from receiving your compassion?

First Sunday of Christmas

Isaiah 63:7-9

Hebrews 2:10-18

Matthew 2:13-23

(Text links are to Oremus Bible Browser. Oremus Bible Browser is not affiliated with or supported by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. You can find the calendar of readings for Year B at Lectionary Readings

For lectionary humor and insight, check the weekly comic Agnus Day.

Gospel Reflection

The Massacre of the Innocents Pacecco de Rosa. Purchased with the John D. McIlhenny Fund, 1973; The Philadelphia Museum of Art, www.philamuseum.org

Baby Jesus was a refugee.

Jesus was born into a part of the world plagued by terrorism: it still is. Matthew 2: 16 – 18 (from today’s Gospel reading) reports events that are paralleled in the same region of the world today.

Jesus was born in Bethlehem, a small town in Israel. The king of Israel, Herod, heard that a newborn was being called the “King of Israel.” Herod was afraid this child would grow up to be a threat to him and his royal family. When the Wise Men refused to identify this infant destined to be king (see Matthew 2: 1 – 15), King Herod ordered all the infants in and around Bethlehem to be killed. For the king, no atrocity was out of the question if it would save his throne, his power and his privilege.

Aleppo, Syria is only 330 miles north of Bethlehem, less than the distance from New York to Richmond or from San Francisco to Los Angeles.   Children in Aleppo are being slaughtered by bombs and troops sent by infuriated despots eager to stamp out threats to their power. The Bible story and today’s news are horribly similar.

Just as millions of Syrians have fled the civil war which has taken the lives of so many in their country, so too, Joseph, Mary, and Jesus fled the “Massacre of the Infants” ordered by King Herod. Matthew 2: 13 – 15 tells how the infant Jesus escaped King Herod’s slaughter: Jesus’ earthly father, Joseph, was warned in a dream to flee to Egypt. He did, taking Mary and the Christ child to safety. In the first months of Jesus’ life, he became a refugee, finding safety in a foreign country. In our times, this scenario is echoed in the news day after day, year after year: refugees from one conflict after another seek safety in foreign lands.

Discussion Questions

• Do you know anyone who has been or is a refugee? From their experience or the experience of others you have heard about, share what you know of the challenges refugees face: in the homeland they left, during the journey to their new homes, and as they adjust to living in a strange land.
• Do you think welcoming refugees into your community is risky? Discuss; then go online to find: Infographic: The Screening Process for Refugee Entry into the United States. This website outlines what is done to reduce the risk to your community. Is this information surprising to you?

Activity Suggestions

Find out about an effort to resettle refugees in your area, and ask how you can help.

Closing Prayer

God – the Compassionate and Merciful: Give us the mind of Jesus, who did not count equality with You a thing to be exploited, but left his heavenly throne to become one of us.* As we, like Jesus, recognize our common humanity with those who seem different, turn our compassionate thoughts and feelings into actions. Give us a Jesus-like capacity to identify with those in need. Give us Jesus-like motivation and courage to reach out to them as we would like to be helped if we were in their shoes. In the name of Jesus, who became Someone like us … and like them. Amen.

*See Philippians 2: 4 – 11

Diciembre de 2016

Por la Revda. Elizabeth Eaton

Recuerdo mi hogar cuando era niña. Estaba en el lado oeste de Cleveland. Todavía sueño con él. Era un lugar donde me sentía a salvo, donde estaba mi familia. Y guardaba maravillosos recuerdos navideños. Después, cuando cursaba mi último año de universidad, mis padres se mudaron. El sueño de todos los residentes del lado oeste de Cleveland era vivir junto al lago. Y al fin lograron llegar a la orilla del Lago Erie. Pero mi hogar ya no estaba. De hecho, tuve que preguntar cómo dar con la casa de mis padres para visitarlos en las vacaciones de Navidad.

Todavía sueño con aquel hogar. Aún lo echo de menos. Todavía puedo ver exactamente cómo era. Y me doy cuenta que todos añoramos profundamente el hogar. En Navidad, creo que a la gente le resulta especialmente emotivo y profundo ese sentimiento. Muchos de nuestros villancicos y canciones hablan de estar en casa en Navidad y de lo difícil que es no poder hacerlo.

Luego recordé que María y José no estaban en su hogar para Navidad ese primer año. Estaban lejos de su casa, lejos de su gente. Se hallaban en Belén, lejos de Nazaret. Se debieron haber sentido muy desorientados.

Pero la verdad es que María y José estaban justamente en casa en Navidad porque el niño Dios estaba con ellos. Jesús es nuestro verdadero hogar. Esa es nuestra esperanza en Navidad y durante todo el año. Nunca estamos lejos de casa porque Cristo está a nuestro lado, tan cerca como nuestro propio aliento o nuestros propios latidos. Así que, donde quiera que se encuentren este año, querida iglesia, recuerden que Jesús está con ustedes y que están en casa esta Navidad.

¡Feliz Navidad!

Reverenda Elizabeth A. Eaton
Obispa presidente
Iglesia Evangélica Luterana en América

-Sarah Mayer-Flatt

There’s a renewed ministry of the ELCA Youth Gathering that I am excited to be a part of for the second time as Team Leader: the tAble. Formerly known as DAYLE, The Definitely-Abled Youth Leadership Event, the tAble is maintaining many of the best practices of this ministry, while also focusing on different opportunities to include and support youth who live with disabilities within the ELCA.

Without question, this ministry is where my sense of call first took root. I was a young person in a wheelchair at DAYLE ’00 learning about the ways God could use even me. But explaining what a “definitely-abled” person became cumbersome as I grew into my leadership over the next 15 years through the event. This past January, a passionate group of people came together and heard new ways God is calling this ministry into being.

The new name is simpler, with a focus on where we most concretely meet God in our lives: God’s table of grace. As we hear in worship, the bread is broken for all people, and the cup is the new covenant in our lives—signs of grace, of hope, of community—where all are welcome.

The community of young people with disabilities is growing within the church, and there isn’t always a place for us. As a pastor with a disability, the first questions I am always asked in any congregation are about accommodations. The tAble hopes to help reinforce that the kingdom of God has a need for abilities of all kinds, even if our buildings are less than accessible.

Accompanying one another through the kingdom of God with all of its stairs, written words, untranslated language, and tight schedules, is all of our responsibility as children of God. The tAble will be a safe space for youth and their companions to experience God’s power in their lives, while being empowered to go out into the kingdom—first at the Gathering and then back to their congregations, synods, and communities, knowing that they are a vital part of the church.

 

The tAble (formerly the Definitely-abled Youth Leadership Event or DAYLE) is a pre-event to the Gathering that blesses and empowers young people who live with a wide range of physical, cognitive and emotional disabilities so that they might grow as faithful, wise and courageous witnesses. The event also gives participants the opportunity to acclimate and orient themselves to Houston and the venues in which the Gathering are being held. The tAble will be held June 24–27, 2018. 

There is no Faith Lens this week.

The Nativity story is challenging to wrestle with at times. Often we describe a peaceful birth scene, in a manger, in the little town of Bethlehem. The promised savior is born and greeted by an awesome host of angels, shepherds and wise men. Yet, this story neglects some of the historical realities of Jesus’s birth. His parents, Joseph and Mary, weren’t visiting Bethlehem for fun; instead by decree of the Roman occupying force they were forced to return to Bethlehem to be counted in a census. A near-term Mary probably wasn’t enthusiastic about her multi-day journey. And while the biblical narrative suggests that Joseph and Mary could have afforded to have stayed at the inn there was no room and they were compelled to rest in a humble stable. Jesus enters the world not with plush amenities, but to a stable, away from his parents’ home. Shortly after his birth, he and his parents are forced to flee to evade his killing. The Nativity tells the story of a Jesus, who comes to us marginalized by circumstances and under the domination of an occupying power.

Our church has affirmed that working for justice with people on the margins is doing God’s will. As a Christian, I view this as a moral issue—one that often hits the most vulnerable hardest. People with and without housing alike are a part of our church.  We know that congregations and shelter ministries perform amazing work in direct service and support in our calling to love our neighbor. Using our voices for advocacy and calling for public change is another way to serve that calling.

Housing and homelessness didn’t garner a lot of attention during the last presidential campaign. After such a rancorous and polarizing election, many of the issues brought to the fore of the debates now seem to be charged by partisan grudges and political gridlock. Over the next several years, homelessness and unaffordable housing will inevitably draw our attention because housing costs continue to rise sharply and many of us will be forced to struggle even more to keep a roof over our heads.

There is a good chance that you’ve noticed the rising costs of housing already. If you’re feeling really burdened by a sharp mortgage or rent increase, you’re not alone. The stability of our housing infrastructure is starting to fall apart around us. While the U.S. economy is still growing, spiking housing costs and leveled wages across the country are increasing instability for many hard-working families. This should concern us.

Affordable housing programs are often the best tools local governments can use to help people get off the street and back into a supportive community. They work remarkably well, and offer people with limited opportunity a chance to rise out of poverty. But housing programs are often the very last to see any increases in federal investment;   because of this, the cycle of poverty continues.

The support of shelter ministries by congregations is becoming even more essential for those struggling in the community. People of faith can also be instrumental in bringing leaders together. The people in our pews are Republicans, Democrats, and Independents. In a time when polarization raises barriers and reduces bipartisan communication, religious communities are uniquely equipped to be a bridge between two sides. Lawmakers care deeply about the work and needs of centers of worship in their districts, and must hear from their constituents that poverty is a critical issue.

So what should we do right NOW? We can begin by committing to public engagement and bringing more people into public life in the new year. It is never too soon to get involved.  Here’s how:

• Write emails to your lawmakers and urge them to get ready for work on housing. There are several was the new White House Administration and Congress could make a difference by addressing housing issues in 2017—This can start by passing a national budget that supports the most vulnerable.
• Find friends in your congregation and encourage them to connect with their lawmakers. The more people who express to their lawmakers the importance of working to improve homelessness the more likely the impact.
• Stay up-to-date on housing and poverty issues as they come through Congress by joining the ELCA Advocacy Network.

At the start of the Christmas story, Jesus began his life without a place to call home. He was not only our Savior, but also a teacher and an advocate. Jesus comes this Christmas not just for the healthy, but for the sick and those who need his embrace most. As we renew ourselves this Advent in the message about the amazing power of God’s redeeming love, I hope together we can rediscover that strong Biblical tradition and reflect on what we are freed through Christ to do in the coming year. If you are interested in engaging further on this issue and connect with other advocates, contact us on social media, or at washingtonoffice@elca.org. In the meantime, I wish you a very blessed Christmas, and start of the new year.

“We are called to ponder mystery and await the coming Christ, to embody God’s compassion for each fragile human life. God is with us in our longing to bring healing to the earth, while we watch with joy and wonder for the promised Savior’s birth.” (Unexpected and Mysterious, ELW Hymn #258)

In this season of Advent waiting, we pray that God stirs up God’s power among us: embodying God’s compassion for each fragile human life, reminding the world of the longed for healing that only God can bring to earth, and we watch with joy and wonder as we draw closer to the promised Savior’s birth in the beauty of the nativity at Christmas.

We wish each of you a blessed season filled with hope, wonder, and joy! We pray God’s blessings of great joy and expectation in this New Year!

Blessed Advent—Merry Christmas—Happy New Year!

The ELCA Worship Staff

Kevin—-John—-BethAnn

This Advent season is an opportunity to reflect on what faithful advocacy means. Join the ELCA Advocacy in our Advent Devotions Series. Please share with friends and family.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4w7cPM-Wjo&feature=youtu.be

This week’s devotional is given by Ruth Ivory-Moore. She works at ELCA Advocacy.

The lectionary readings for this Sunday are:

1. Isaiah 7:10-16
2. Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19
3. Romans 1:1-7
4. Matthew 1:18-25

Blessings

– Shawn Hannon

I was the kid whose parents had to drag him kicking and screaming to nearly every youth event, but whose parents also had to drag him kicking and screaming all the way home because I never wanted to leave. It was true for my first week of summer camp in 6^th grade. It was true for confirmation class and youth group. And it was even true for my experience as a teenager at the Youth Gathering in 10^th grade.

We had a small youth group at my church growing up, but we were tight. Our youth directors, Mike and Amanda, were my heroes. I wanted to be like my pastor, Pastor Billy, when I grew up. But when it came to boarding a plane and flying to St. Louis, well, I could think of better things to do. In hindsight, I was just afraid of something so big and so new. We boarded a plane just over the border from my western New York home in Pennsylvania. It was the first time I’d been on a plane in my entire life, and thank goodness they weren’t charging for baggage in those days. I definitely would have gone over the limit with the bag of nerves, fears, and worries I was bringing with me.

You know how this story ends. When we arrived in St. Louis the most amazing thing happened. Like he had so many times before, Jesus met me in my worry and reminded me that I was precisely where I needed to be—dancing at the crossroads. Tens of thousands of youth and adults were embodying love and celebrating community in Jesus’s name. When I heard people talk about the Youth Gathering before, I assumed it was a bunch of speakers and various Bible studies. And it is. But I discovered that it’s also so much more. The Gathering is the late night devotions with your church in your hotel room. The Gathering is splashing with strangers in a pool. The Gathering is high-fiving police officers on the street. It’s racing around a convention center trying to figure out how you can squeeze it all in. It’s skipping a meal and eating pizza at midnight so you don’t miss a thing.

Jesus used the Gathering to change the course of my life, and he would do it again several years later. I was still in school, but this time it was seminary instead of high school. I was given an opportunity to serve with the Safety and Security Team at the 2009 Gathering in New Orleans. Following that gathering I became the team leader, and I am very excited to serve in that role for the third time in Houston in 2018. I’m excited because, in hindsight, I was afraid of something so big and so new, but I’m not afraid anymore. I’m excited and deeply honored to be a part of a ministry where youth can so clearly see Jesus and become his body for the sake of the world. And I know now what the kid whose parents dragged to the airport 16 years ago didn’t. The Gathering is a bunch of speakers and some Bible study, but it’s so much more. It’s everything from the fundraising and getting ready to the going home and telling the story. And the work of the Safety and Security Team of the Gathering is to make sure that participants, like youth groups skipping dinner and eating pizza at midnight, still don’t have to miss a thing.

Houston is one of a kind, a great host city for the Gathering, and I can’t want to see you there.

Seth Moland-Kovash, Palatine, IL

Warm-up Question

How many times per week, would you estimate, that you make a choice of what to do or what not to do based on fear?

What Makes You Afraid?

Fear can be a highly powerful motivator. We can be afraid of consequences (from parents, teachers, coaches, school administrators) or we can be afraid of what happened last time we did that (a small child touching a hot stove). Some of us have phobias – fear of the dark, of spiders, of snakes (to name a few). Did you know that there is even a name for the fear of Santa Claus? Not surprisingly, it’s Clausophobia.

Sometimes fear motivates us in ways we’d rather not talk about. Sometimes we avoid doing something we’d otherwise do for fear of what our peers might think or say. Sometimes we avoid trying something new for fear of failure.

For some people, these fears can be crippling. PTSD (Post-traumatic stress disorder) and some phobias keep people from acting because of the strong painful memories and fears often associated with past experiences. Researchers in the United Kingdom and in Japan are working on techniques that might allow people to “re-wire” their brains and overcome those fear-filled memories.

Even if our fears are not extremely strong and limiting, fear affects all of us to some degree and can keep us from engaging in life to the fullness that’s intended for us.

Discussion Questions

• What kinds of fears do you have? What are you afraid of? Can you isolate why? Was there a specific experience that made you afraid?
• What are things you wish you could do but are afraid to try?

Fourth Sunday of Advent

Isaiah 7:10-16

Romans 1:1-7

Matthew 1:18-25

(Text links are to Oremus Bible Browser. Oremus Bible Browser is not affiliated with or supported by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. You can find the calendar of readings for Year B at Lectionary Readings

For lectionary humor and insight, check the weekly comic Agnus Day.

Gospel Reflection

Joseph was afraid. He was afraid to take Mary as his wife, because she was having a baby that wasn’t his. He was afraid of what it would mean for him; he was afraid of what others might think. But he also was afraid to publicly accuse her of infidelity, so he wanted to send her away quietly. But the angel knew what was going on and told him not to be afraid.

Not only did the angel command Joseph not to be afraid but he told Joseph to name the child something that could combat fear. Emmanuel means “God is with us.” God is with us. We are not alone. Perhaps knowing this and trusting this can help to combat the fears that are inside all of us.

Discussion Questions

• When do you need a reminder that God is with you?
• Who do you know who might need a reminder that God is with them?

Activity Suggestions

Make an Emmanuel rock. This can be as simple as taking a small stone and painting a cross (or other symbol) on it. Carry the Emmanuel rock in your pocket. It can remind you that Emmanuel – God is with you. Make tw0 Emmanuel rocks – keep one for yourself and give one away.

Closing Prayer

Good and gracious God, come into our world as Emmanuel. Come into our world and banish fear. Come into our world and banish darkness. Amen.