Scott Moore, Erfurt, Germany

Warm-up Question

When have you ever seen an image or video and suspected it was a fake? 

Is Seeing Really Believing?

Since the advent of A.I.-generated images, we have experienced fascinating examples of creativity. Mash ups of unlikely images, inspiring universes beyond the wildest imagination, and quite unnerving and even nefarious examples. We have seen people we respect and people we don’t displayed doing the things we are either shocked to see or confirmed in our biases about them. Quite often, though these images are not of something that really happened, they are presented as the news. 

With a few clever commands and maybe some raw images or video, one can simulate natural disasters or scenes of war. The various stock photo sites are scrambling to adjust. Do they refuse to share and sell uploads of events that have been faked, or do they share them and label them as A.I.-generated and fake? 

The average viewer is now faced with the challenge of what to do once they have seen these images the first time. Was it real? How does it support or challenge my existing views? Can I get the images out of my mind? What are my options in today’s fast-paced news cycle filled with powerful images, which may be legitimate or not. 

Discussion Questions

• Where do you see advantages in A.I. generated visual content?
• When is art generated by A.I. still art?
• What kind of guidelines do we need as we evolve along with A.I.?
• Which one of these images was created with A.I.?

Second Sunday after Epiphany

1 Samuel 3:1-10 [11-20]

1 Corinthians 6:12-20

John 1:43-51

(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

“In the beginning was the Word.” This is how John’s gospel starts. No shepherds, magi, donkeys, sheep, mangers, and the like. The gospel goes on to talk about this eternal Word that has become flesh,  and this flesh that was also a light. Sound, material, and photons: a mystical mix of life and energy that our senses can detect. The Gospel of John has the theme of light and darkness.  It also speaks of seeing, which is our sense which most readily detects light. This theme of seeing and faith that comes from seeing is woven throughout the gospel. (Work through the Gospel of John looking for themes of seeing/light/faith and bearing witness or testifying. It’s all over the place.)  

The gospel text for this week has a lot of seeing going on. “Come and see!”, “You will see greater things than this.”, “You will see heaven opened….”  The invitation to know who Jesus is comes with a simple, excited “Come and see!” The Word of God is now flesh and is a light for the world. Come and see! 

If the Gospel of John wants us to see Jesus for who he is, how does that translate into our world today? Is it enough to read a story about others who see God in Jesus? Does it suffice to hear someone tell about their experiences with God? What does the world need to have its eyes opened to the potential of God’s love, made known in Jesus and made known in our lives? If we have become so jaded by the twisting of words and images, where do we find our ability to share something authentic about our faith? 

Perhaps the answer lies in taking a look at our own experiences with God’s love, revealed in Christ, and sharing it. Others trusted Philip. He didn’t ask people who didn’t know him to “come and see!” He’d already created a  relationship  a foundation of trust. Maybe the gospel’s word for us today is to start with what we know and invite others to experience that with us. 

It isn’t, “Hey check that out,” but “come and see!” We bring others into our experiences of God and God’s love. That is authentic. It’s inviting. That is encouraging. This is what Philip models for us and Jesus promises Philip that he will see much more than he bargained for. That isn’t fake news. That is good news. 

Discussion Questions

• When did you most feel God’s presence or working in your life?
• When have you questioned your faith?
• Who has invited you into a deeper relationship with God/Jesus?
• When do you feel most authentic? And, where do you see a connection with that to your faith?

Activity Suggestion

Take a walk around your church and look for signs (with or without words) that are inviting or make you want to learn or know more about your church community or about God. Conversely, are there signs (with or without words) that are not inviting or even risk driving people away. 

Closing Prayer

God of light and love, open our eyes to see your beauty and grace the world around us. Inspire us to be our most authentic selves and let us be a beacon of light for those who are looking for you. Help us to embody a spirit of welcome and empower us to be voices of encouragement wherever we go. We ask this in the name of the Word made flesh, the light of the world. Jesus the Christ. Amen 

Alex Zuber, Harrisonburg, VA

Warm-up Question

What is the most urgent or pressing thing in your life right now?  (It could be a good thing or a challenge)

Tear It Open!

For all the build-up, Christmas just flies by too fast!  Some of us (me included) may have been singing along with Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You” since November 1, but Christmas is still over too soon.

I know I could slow down and savor the moment more, but I’m always far too delighted by the frenzied rush of Christmas morning.  It doesn’t seem to matter what age I am, when I get a package wrapped in bright, shiny, joyful paper, I just want to tear it open as fast as I can!  Whether you’re in a family that has everyone open their presents all at once, or one where. you patiently wait to open one present at a time, while everyone watches, there’s a magical thrill to tearing open the wrapping paper.

As joyful as this practice is each year, I always feel a bit of sadness as I carry huge garbage bags loaded with Christmas wrapping paper out to the street for the trash collection.  Not just because Christmas is over, but because this joyful tradition is inherently wasteful.  The site Brightly says, “The U.S. is estimated to produce 4.6 million pounds of wrapping paper every year, and half of that—approximately 2.3 million pounds—winds up in landfills.”

And it’s not just the paper in those trash bags! “Ribbons and bows are a problem, too: If every family reused two feet of ribbon, it would save enough to tie a bow around the planet.”  It pulls at my heart to balance  this joyful tradition of tearing open presents with the deep call I feel to better steward creation.  Perhaps we can have both.  We can all take simple steps to find eco-friendly paper, reuse some paper and bags, wrap more creatively with repurposed paper, and look into reusable cloth alternatives.

Discussion Questions

• What is your practice of present opening on Christmas morning? Do you tear into presents with urgency or not?
• Before reading this post have you ever considered the waste that is created by the holidays?
• What can you and your family do to take a more sustainable approach to the holidays next year?

Baptism of our Lord

Genesis 1:1-5

Acts 19:1-7

Mark 1:4-11

(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

Particularly as we read the Gospel of Mark, I can’t help but think of the urgency of tearing open gifts on Christmas, because Mark is a gospel that gets down to business quickly!  Christmas? Nope.  Magi and a star? No. Jesus as a child in the temple? Nah.  Mark doesn’t have time for such things!  Our gospel writer launches into the gospel with urgency, saying simply “The beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ,” and then doesn’t let up for 16 chapters.  (Even the Easter story includes  no original post-resurrection appearances by Jesus!  It just ends.)

In Mark, Jesus is on the move, and Jesus is in action.  He’s teaching, healing, casting out demons, and proclaiming that the Kingdom of God is near!  Before this happens, John the Baptizer appears, offering a baptism of repentance  and proclaiming the coming of one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.  Jesus comes to John and receives this baptism for himself in solidarity with the people, and just as he emerges from the water, the heavens are “torn apart and the Spirit descends like a dove upon him.” Did you hear that?  The heavens are “torn apart”, not merely “opened” as they are in Matthew and Luke.  This is a dramatic and urgent scene!

Jesus is always getting into the action, and Mark is particular about showing that God—just like a kid of any age on Christmas morning—is tearing open the heavens like wrapping paper to declare the belovedness of Jesus.  And you too, are beloved!

As John offered a baptism of repentance, we receive the forgiveness of sins through our baptisms.  We are washed in the Holy Spirit through the love of Jesus.  God proclaims over the waters of our baptism that we are beloved as well.  God is indeed pleased to call us God’s children.  And this baptized life calls us to walk with both a spirit of repentance,  which transforms our hearts, and  a spirit of  joy and hope for all creation.  Just as we can rethink the joyful practice of Christmas paper to better care for our world, so our baptism calls us to live into our belovedness by tearing apart the ways of sin which divide us from one another, and obscure the presence of God.

God is urgently, joyfully tearing open the heavens to be among us, to proclaim belovedness over creation through the joy and hope we share in loving one another.  Dear one, YOU are God’s beloved, and with YOU God is well pleased!

Discussion Questions

• Baptismal candidates declare “I renounce them!” to the powers of evil. What evil(s) do you renounce? (Mark 1:9-11)
• Jesus’ baptism was the beginning of his ministry; how was your baptism the beginning of yours? (Mark 1:10-11)

Activity Suggestions

• Make a to-do list this week, and then sort it by what is most urgent.  Then read the five points of the Baptismal Covenant, below.  Discuss with a friend how these things can be done through each of the urgent tasks you’ve identified.  If it’s hard to imagine these things reflecting your baptismal covenant, how can you reprioritize, or reimagine these activities as an extension of your baptismal calling?  (Covenant: to live among God’s faithful people, to hear the word of God and share in the Lord’s supper, to proclaim the good news of God in Christ through word and deed, to serve all people, following the example of Jesus, and to strive for justice and peace in all the earth)
• Baptism is our adoption into God’s family as God’s child, and God is “very pleased” (Mark 1:11) that this is so.  As a way of testing how your life would be affected if you always had a reminder of that gracious truth, take an index card and write the words of verse 11, starting with your own first name, “_____, You are my beloved child;  with you I am well pleased.”  Fold this index card and carry it around with you all week, in a pocket or purse where you will come across it often.  Then pay attention to how hearing this word from God – a reminder of your adoption – changes the way you think about yourself and the world around you. (Credit: Dave Delaney, VA Synod, ELCA)

Closing Prayer 

We give you thanks, O God, that through water and the Holy Spirit you give us new birth, cleanse us from sin, and raise us to eternal life. Stir up in us the gift of your Holy Spirit: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord, the spirit of joy in your presence, both now and forever. Amen. (From the “Affirmation of Baptism” liturgy in Evangelical Lutheran Worship)

There is no Faith Lens post this week

“He came to his own home, and his own people received him not.

But to all who received him he gave power to become the children of God” (RSV)

By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day [God] rested from all his work.

Here in Genesis 2:1, we learn about the continuing of creation, flora and fauna, rest from the six days God created the skies and the earth and humanity.  

We’ve heard this Scripture countless times, in pithy sentences, in expectation for an abstract time in the future where we would pause and reflect. But, when the appointed time comes, many of us continue ticking things off the to-do list, doing one last thing before rest, continuing the cycle until we realized we haven’t actually rested. We admire the Creator for building this seventh day into our default weekly flow, a pause, a hiatus from production. Production is fruitful for our humanity and society as we work together to address hunger and inequalities, as God made creation to work together. But what if we thought of rest not as mutually exclusive from this week of creation, but an essential part of the weekly rhythm? 

For a little while, especially since the beginning of this global COVID-19 pandemic, the distraction of social media, the news cycle, and the endless doom scrolling impeded my rest. Bad news penetrates my phone and computer and even when I try to take a break, the convenience of my phone sending alerts makes it difficult. Constant production and consumption have eclipsed my daily rhythms, leaving no room for true rest. It is addictive to contribute to or learn more about the people and communities, using the ruse of being connected and informed, but this type of connection is not supposed to be constant.  

Back in October, I had the opportunity to attend Blue Mountain Center, a residency in upstate New York to give artists and activists time to rest. The location of the center was rest in itself, there was no Wi-Fi or cell service, so my usual distractions – email, social media, streaming – were eliminated and I was able to meditate, share meals and create. There were hours, days sometimes, where I cleared my brain of both production and consumption, and allowed my mind to wander. It was a reset. 

Our newsfeeds report constant disaster, from the recent tornadoes in Tennessee, the ongoing water crisis in Mississippi, and international humanitarian crises, especially the conflicts in Gaza and Sudan. With news like this, rest feels like a luxury, not essential. How can we rest when the global community needs support from each other? 

Rest, however, is one of the ways we cultivate resilience in our work as disaster workers. Our work often does not allow us to rest, because disasters and their fallout are unpredictable. That’s when we lean on our community and solidarity we’ve built so we can take time to rest. Our partnerships with ELCA synods, community organizations and disaster coordinators are essential to fit into our rhythms of work and rest. Resilience in disaster works when there are many people and organizations who play specific roles. 

When God created the seventh day, God did not rest because God did all the work of creation in the six days prior. God rested because rest is intrinsically built in the rhythm of life. That means, if we choose Sunday to be the seventh day, then no matter what happened the past week, whether we fall to illness, or lose track of time, or projects and schedules fail in the many ways they often do, we still must rest. Rest allows us to be human, understanding that production may not work the way we need it to, but days of work will always come back around.  

We’ve built the December holidays as a regular rhythm of rest. We reflect on the birth of Jesus Christ, slow down a little at work, make plans to visit family, even arriving a few days early to help pick up turkeys and hams, hang Christmas lights and place snowmen around the house, share old recipes and create with family and friends we may not see. Or for others of us, we may take the time out to reflect alone by catching up on reading or television shows we’ve missed. No matter how we choose to spend the time, we are, like God, creating this time to rest our minds and hearts from production and consumption. 

I hope we take this time to truly rest, whether it is a few hours away from the phone, a few more minutes spent in meditation, or taking a few days from meetings and emails to reset our human rhythm. 

Emma Akpan (she/her) is the regional representative for the Southeastern region on the Lutheran Disaster Response Initiatives team. Emma was inspired to dedicate her career to public service after graduating seminary and organized and advocated for women’s reproductive rights, voting access and racial justice. Just prior to joining the LDR team, she worked in political technology and helped advocacy organizations to use creative ways to reach people impacted the most by changing policy decisions with technology. 

Linnea Peterson, Minneapolis, MN

Warm-up Questions

• Have you ever tried to talk about something that happened to you and had someone refuse to believe you? 
• Do you think some people are believed more than others when they talk about their experiences? What do you think leads to that difference? 

Believe Me

A couple of months ago, pop star Britney Spears released a memoir, The Woman in Me, bringing her back into the national spotlight. Though her most popular songs came out over 20 years ago, Spears has received attention in recent years with the #FreeBritney movement, which was an effort by Spears and her supporters to end the conservatorship that gave Spears’ father, Jamie Spears, legal control over Britney Spears’ life, medical options, and finances. 

As with movements such as #MeToo, the #FreeBritney movement had at its heart a commitment to believing women. In this context, the title of Spears’ memoir seems deliberate, particularly the use of the word woman. She could have titled the book something like The Adult in Me or The Grownup in Me to signal that she is no longer a teen sensation and has matured. Focusing on her womanhood, rather than just her adulthood, indicates not only that she is now an adult but also that her gender is important to her. Perhaps it serves to remind readers that her gender has played a significant role in how others treat her, as well. 

As with many societies around the world and throughout history, our society has an unfortunate tendency to discount or dismiss women’s stories, even when those stories are true. In the case of Britney Spears, it took a long time and a lot of public pressure for the legal system to take seriously that she was competent to make her own decisions and that her father was misusing his control over her. 

Through the efforts and belief of many of Britney Spears’ supporters, as well as Spears’ advocacy for herself, the conservatorship was finally ended. In the time since, Spears has been able to reclaim her voice enough to write and publish a memoir. 

Yet Spears is far from the only woman who has been disregarded and disbelieved.  Many situations, from small interpersonal discussions or disagreements, to group projects and business strategy, to large, complex global conflicts, would benefit from paying more attention to the perspectives of women.  That only happens if women speak up and men create space and listen well. 

Discussion Questions

• Have you ever felt like your gender has affected the way other people treat you? What about other aspects of your identity? 
• Have you ever noticed yourself treating someone else differently based on something about their identity? 
• In many ways, a conservatorship locks an adult into the legal status of a minor. What might justify such an arrangement?  When should it be terminated?
• Do parents and guardians currently have too much control over the lives of their children or other minors in their care? If you think there should be changes to the balance of power between parents/guardians and minors, what should those changes look like? What is the ideal balance of freedom versus safety for those under 18? 

Fourth Sunday of Advent

2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16

Romans 16:25-27

Luke 1:26-38

(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

What stands out to me in this gospel reading is that Luke does not in any way question or cast doubt upon Mary’s insistence that she is a virgin. Surely people who knew Mary during her pregnancy or during the early years of Jesus’ life must have wondered whether he was Joseph’s son, since he was born during Mary and Joseph’s betrothal. This would likely have been a topic that some people found scandalous and gossiped about, but Luke does not engage in any such speculation. 

Matthew reports that Joseph had a dream where an angel told him that Mary was still a virgin, that her child was of the Holy Spirit, and that Joseph should marry Mary, even though she was pregnant with a child that was not his. Luke does not contain this story. In Luke, the only testimony we have that Mary was a virgin when she conceived Jesus is Mary’s own testimony. It is significant that Luke chooses to believe Mary about her virginity at the time of Jesus’ conception. 

While Christianity sometimes fails to live up to this standard of believing women, we would have a very different religion if we did not believe Mary’s account of how she became pregnant with Jesus. The story of Jesus and our theology about him are influenced by the fact that we view Jesus to be of divine origin, something that we believe, in part, because of Mary’s account of how she became pregnant. 

The church has too often silenced women, a tradition that began with some of the New Testament epistles forbidding women from speaking in church. Such a prohibition, along with many of the ideas about what constitutes Christian behavior found in the epistles, was an effort to appear blameless to the rest of Roman society, a strategy now known as “respectability politics.” 

The ELCA and its predecessor Lutheran denominations have been ordaining women for 53 years. This is something to celebrate, and I am deeply grateful for the many female pastors I have had throughout my life. It is, however, worth noting that the first American Lutheran woman of color was ordained just 43 years ago, 10 years later than the first white American Lutheran woman, and also that women in same-sex relationships have only been eligible for ordination in the ELCA since 2009. Both LGBTQ+ women and women of color wait significantly longer, on average, for calls in the ELCA than their white, straight, male counterparts. There is still plenty of ground to cover as we strive to listen to more women in the church. 

Discussion Questions

• How do you think Christianity would look different if we chose not to believe Mary about Jesus being of divine origin? 
• Would Jesus still be special if he had been conceived in the conventional way?
• Have you heard of “respectability politics”? Can you think of other behaviors that the letters in the New Testament mandate or ban that you think fit into this pattern? 

Activity Suggestions

• The United Church of Christ and the Unitarian Universalists have created a comprehensive sexuality education curriculum called Our Whole Lives, which some ELCA congregations have also started to participate. Look up the Our Whole Lives curriculum and see if there is anything in it that you think would be beneficial to your congregation. 
• Gather supplies to donate to a local women’s shelter. Hygiene and menstrual products are often greatly appreciated. 
• Listen to the Britney Spears song “Stronger” and discuss how the lyrics relate to or differ from the gospel passage for today. 

Closing Prayer

Gracious God, you created us in your male and female image. You know the truth, and you believe us when we tell you or others about what we have experienced. Guide us to believe others when they share the truth of their lives with us. Remind us to listen to those who might otherwise be disbelieved or ignored.  Strengthen us to keep speaking up when we are the ones in that situation. Amen. 

In honor of International Migrants Day, Racial Justice invited guest writer Rev. Menzi Nkambule to share some thoughts on being a migrant in the United States.

What is your response when someone asks, “Where are you from?” Mine is a joke and reality. I often reply with my Eswatini accent, “I am from Decorah, Iowa.” I was raised in Eswatini, attended Luther College in Decorah and Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minn., and am now a Lutheran pastor in Jersey City, N.J. For most people in America, “Where are you from?” is a tricky question. We need a different question if we are to be hospitable to one another.

When you ask people where they are from, you receive complex answers. Many Americans have lived in several parts of the country and, in some cases, the world. For example, some grew up in military families, moving from one base to another. Others grew up in a pastor’s family, moving from one church location to another. Like a plant, they were dug out of the ground and transplanted to a new place. Therefore, whether you were born in the United States or Eswatini, the question “Where are you from?” is, at best, challenging. At worst, it feels invasive and presumptuous, especially if asked of those born outside the U.S.

But do not worry; with generosity of spirit, there is nothing we cannot get past. Humor and genuine curiosity can generate a good conversation and help us connect in our similarities and differences. However, I find that, instead of “Where are you from?,” the question “Where is home for you?” embodies the generosity needed to spark instant connection.

In my experience, this alternative question reflects the kind of generosity that Leviticus 19:33-34 asks of us when it says, “When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the native-born among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.” Ask someone “Where are you from?” or “Where are you really from?,” and that person may hear you saying that they don’t belong. But ask someone where home is, and you will have treated them as if they belong. You will have given them the joy and ease they need to put down roots in your community.

When I first came to the United States, I was 22, had never seen the doors of a Lutheran church and never in my life thought I wanted to be a pastor. Understandably, I was feeling out of place. But then the question “Where is home for you?” transformed me. My campus pastors were the first to ask me this question. It brought a much-needed shift in perspective, from home as a data point to home as the people with whom I feel safe attaching roots and exploring.

As time passed, I began to see Decorah as a community of belonging. By my senior year in college I had explored Lutheranism and gotten baptized at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in town. I spent so much time with the pastors that I began to think I, too, could be a pastor. I studied management and made a leap to seminary and ordained ministry. Because I felt at home in Decorah, I belonged, planted roots and thrived.

Ultimately I am from Decorah and other places because I feel at home there. I believe that those transplanted across the globe or from one state to another need nothing more than for us to be their home. They need us to be what God calls us to be — the soil where the immigrants among us can take root and be at home in our communities.

The Rev. Menzi Nkambule is an ELCA Fund for Leaders alum serving as pastor of St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church, Jersey City, N.J. He enjoys cooking and cycling.

Dennis Sepper, Rosemount, MN

Warm-up Question

How do you react when things do not go your way?  How do you get though the rough times in life?  

Hope in the Wilderness

Bernhardt Ingemann was born on May 28, 1789, the son of a Lutheran Pastor who died when Ingemann was 11 years old.  Bernhardt entered the University of Copenhagen in 1806.  The following year, when the British attacked Copenhagen to prevent Napoleon from taking the Norwegian-Danish navy, Ingemann helped to defend the city.  His apartment and his early works were burned in the siege.  In 1809 he lost his mother, three brothers, and a niece in a tuberculosis epidemic, a tragedy reflected in much of his later poetry.  Ingemann was a sensitive, soft-spoken person with few friends.  However, as a writer of children’s stories, he was second in popularity only to Hans Christian Andersen, whom he counted among his friends.

In 1825, Bernhardt Ingemann wrote a Danish hymn for the season of Advent.  Its themes include expectant song, light through darkness, ransom, and rejoicing—many of the Advent themes.  The hymn is still popular today.  We know it as “Through the Night of Doubt and Sorrow.”

From elementary school all the way through college;  school teachers, principals, student life staff and counselors teach students how to be “resilient.”  Resilience is defined as “the capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties” in life.  Resilience is a good quality to have.  No matter what our age might be, we have to face some challenging circumstances or experiences.

This Third Sunday of Advent has been known as Gaudete Sunday or the Sunday of Joy.  Sometimes this Sunday is represented in the Advent wreath by a pink candle instead of the usual blue or purple.  In our second lesson text, Saint Paul encourages us to “rejoice always.”  This is where the characteristic of resilience comes to be a strength.  Facing tough times and coming through them often leads to personal growth and even a stronger resolve of character.

In addition, as Christians, we have the faith and the promise of God that no matter what happens in the world or in our lives, Jesus is with us to bear us up and carry us through.  We can manufacture joy by playing a favorite game or eating a favorite food, but those do not last very long.  Our joy, our resilience, comes from God and Christ.  That is what helped Bernhardt Ingemann not only cope with the difficulties of his life, but also gave him the strength to write the words to a hymn that is as meaningful to us today as it was to him and those around him back then.

Discussion Questions

• Read the words to Ingemann’s hymn (ELW 327, LBW 355).  Where do you see words of hope?  Words of joy?  Words which would reveal resilience?
• Hope and light are major themes of Advent.  Where do you see signs of hope today?  Where is there light shining in the darkness?
• What  hymn or song  instills hope in you?  What hymn or song  brings you joy?

Third Sunday of Advent

Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11

1 Thessalonians 5:16-24

John 1:6-8, 19-28

(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

People tried to avoid the wilderness.  Yet, people were willing to enter the wilderness to seek John the Baptist.  Sometimes entering the wilderness is what people do in order to gain something like peace or joy.  We cannot always avoid facing a bad situation or somehow make it better.  The best we can do is pray and remember the promise of God and Jesus that they are always with us, no matter what has happened.

Notice that some of the people in today’s gospel text believed that John might be the promised messiah or the prophet Elijah coming back into the world.  One of our tasks in life is to figure out who we are called to be.  Who are we in the world and in our communities?  Most times the people closest to us help us figure that out.  They tell us what they see as our strengths or what talents they see in us.  But sometimes people place expectations on us that are not as good for us.

That is what  happens to John the Baptist.  People really want him to be the Messiah, the Chosen One.  They would accept John as the Christ in a moment.  However, John knows his place.  The Bible says “He [John] confessed and did not deny, but confessed, ‘I am not the Messiah.’”  John knows he is a witness to the coming of Jesus, the true Messiah.  

Sometimes we humans forget our place.  We fool ourselves into believing we can fix any problems that come our way, forgetting that we are God’s creatures and it is God and Jesus who can get us through the troubled times.

In the opening verses of today’s Gospel text, the author John refers to Jesus as “the light.” Later in John’s Gospel Jesus refers to himself as the “light of the world” (John 8:12).  In a world where electricity did not exist, light in the darkness was a blessing.  Jesus, as the light entering the darkness of the peoples’ lives and giving light to one’s path forward, is a powerful symbol of what Jesus means to the people and to the world.  When we find ourselves in times of darkness, the light of Jesus can give us hope and see us through whatever difficulty we are in.

Discussion Questions

• What are some of the wildernesses in the world today?  Are people willing to face and enter the wilderness in order to grow and gain strength?
• How do we Christians bear witness today to the presence of Jesus?
• Is the symbol of light still a powerful one in our day?  Why?

Activity Suggestion

As children we sang the song “This Little Light of Mine, I’m Gonna’ Let it Shine.”  Think of one of your gifts or characteristics that you can let shine for your friends and your community.  Identify a gift in one other person and tell them how that gift is shining for others.

Closing Prayer

Loving God, let the light of Jesus shine in our lives, in our communities and in the world.  Help us to be like John the Baptist, knowing our place before you.  Help us also to be like John in bearing witness to Christ and the hope Jesus’ presence can give.  Guide us in the Advent days ahead until we sign the carols and hymns of Christmas announcing the birth of Jesus.  Amen

On December 10, 1948, the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), written to address the atrocities committed during World War II. Since then, the United Nations and other bodies have adopted additional documents on human rights. The International Bill of Human Rights includes the UDHR, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Not included in the UDHR is any statement related to climate change – it wasn’t a known concern in the 1940s. However, in the years since, the United Nations has published additional documents about other human rights. One such report from the United Nations Environment Programme discusses the impact of climate change on rights.

People from around the globe rally at the venue of the United Nations climate change conference COP27 in Egypt, calling for respect of human rights. LWF/Albin Hillert

The introduction to the report says, “Anthropogenic climate change is the largest, most pervasive threat to the natural environment and human rights of our time.…These impacts, combined with direct harms to people, property, and physical infrastructure, pose a serious threat to the enjoyment and exercise of human rights around the world.”

To name a few impacts, climate change causes warmer global temperatures, rising sea levels and changes in precipitation patterns. These consequences put numerous human rights in jeopardy, as outlined in the UN report:

• Right to adequate standard of living: Disasters negatively impact living conditions for several reasons. Wildfires and storms can destroy or damage homes. Droughts and floods can ruin crops and endanger animals, which affects people’s livelihoods, especially in communities around the world that rely on agriculture and livestock.
• Right to health: The impacts of climate change are dangerous for people’s health. Pollution is harmful to people living in heavily populated areas or near factories. When people lose food sources, such as livestock and crops, or access to uncontaminated water, they face malnutrition and disease.
• Right to life: Climate change threatens the right to life every day for people around the world. More severe disasters can lead to more lives being lost. Losing the right to an adequate standard of living, health, food, water and other necessities threatens peoples’ lives daily. This is especially true for people of color and those living in vulnerable communities and countries, which suffer disproportionately when hit by a disaster.

Climate change endangers the human rights of people around the world, especially those in under-resourced communities and developing countries. Lutheran Disaster Response prioritizes the accompaniment of those who are most adversely impacted by consequences of the changing climate. During long-term recovery, we work with communities in mitigating the effects of future disasters, building resilience, and expanding preparedness capacity, knowing that disasters will continue to be more extreme.

Effective disaster response upholds all the rights described in the UDHR and subsequent documents. Even when people’s lives are upended by natural or human-caused disasters, their human rights should not be at stake. That’s why the work of Lutheran Disaster Response and our local partners in the United States and around the world is so important – after a disaster, when our neighbors are living in uncertainty, we walk with impacted communities, responding to their needs and supporting recovery efforts while simultaneously celebrating their strength and resilience.

Get involved

1. Advocate. Visit the ELCA Advocacy Action Center to contact your congress members about vital issues impacting our communities, including government disaster response program reform and supporting refugees.
2. Study. Read the ELCA’s social message “Earth’s Climate Crisis.” It provides theological rationale and social analysis to foster discernment and engagement relating to climate care.
3. Volunteer. By volunteering in local disaster response through your synod or regional social ministry organization, you can ensure that survivors’ rights to adequate living is met.
4. Donate. Lutheran Disaster Response is a trusted partner in disaster response. Your gifts to Lutheran Disaster Response help accompany our neighbors when their lives are upended by disaster. 100% of your gifts to a designated disaster go to disaster survivors.

A lot of the questions we get from individuals and congregations are about cost-friendly resources, or being asked where a ministry can start with improving their accessibility beyond physical structure. So when members of the Disability Ministries advisory team met last month, we put together a “Top 10 list” of sorts that offers ideas, resources, and our thoughts on accommodations that can give a place to start.

This is not an all-encompassing list by any means, but we hope it can give you some ideas, many of which are low cost, on where you can begin the holy work of becoming more accessible in your Christian education programs.

Our Top 10 List of Accommodations A Congregation Can Make:

10. Website Design: The way a website is laid out or the fonts chosen for a site can make it difficult, or impossible, for a blind person or a person with low vision to navigate. Here are some articles and resources on website design:

• Introduction to Web Accessibility | Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) | W3C
• 14 Accessible Website Examples to Inspire Yours (hubspot.com)

9. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) services Captioning Resources | NCRA: CART displays captioning in real time and can be used with screen readers and Braille displays and can be displayed with scalable font. CART can be a great resource in worship for Deaf, Blind, and Deaf/Blind communities.

8. Adaptive art supplies for Christian Education: Our friends with disabilities can feel singled out because we sometimes need different or specialized writing and creative tools or items for adapted games that may be locally unavailable. Fortunately, you can find many easy things to have on hand!

These are just a few starter examples, but please note that some things that are helpful to disabled people are the same type of items used in preschools. If at all possible, do not purchase only the items intended for preschoolers. People of all ages benefit from these materials, and age-appropriate ones may be available.

UNO Braille 

Low Vision Playing Cards

Loop Scissors

Crayola Tripod Grip Markers

7. Use a variety of Bibles: Large print options and the use of multiple translations of scripture can make worship and Bible study more accessible to different people.

6. 5 Steps to Make Your Congregation More Autism Friendly (wearesparkhouse.org)

5. Resources for Blind or Visually-Impaired People: Hadley is a free education resource to help newly Blind and Blind people at all stages of life, offering courses from academic to basic life skills.

4. Gluten-free Options for Holy Communion

3. Update language/images used in worship, prayer, Bible study, etc.: The most common questions we get are related to language and how we speak about disability in worship and prayer or showing hospitality to people with disabilities. These articles can help guide you as you consider what is means to do away with ableist language in the life of a ministry or congregation:

• Language Around Disability

• https://reneeroederer.com/2019/02/12/accessislove-changing-ableist-language-in-churches/

2. What large print REALLY is!

1. Broadening your leadership: Learn to appreciate the giftedness of ALL your people—disabled and nondisabled— and use their gifts!

We hope this list of resources can be helpful to many of you! There are so many things out there a congregation or ministry site can do for accessibility and inclusion of the disability community. We pray that you will review this list and find other amazing resources as well.

by Naomi Mbise, Lutheran Office for World Community Fellow

As we navigate through 2023, our world is experiencing human rights violations at an alarming rate. These serve as a stark reminder of the challenges we face in multilateralism. To adapt and protect fundamental freedoms and rights in a rapidly changing world, agility and commitment are needed.

Human Rights Day is 10 December. It marks adoption in 1948 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), commemorating in 2023 its 75th anniversary (HR 75). The UDHR has laid the foundation for protecting human rights.

As we reflect on the past and celebrate achievements, let us also acknowledge the work that lies ahead. Embracing agility in human rights requires collective determination. Principles of human rights must not just be ideals but living realities.

In my work at the Lutheran Office for World Community, I am called to advocate for the rights of the most vulnerable. Showing up in spaces where policies of tangible support are created. I often find myself at the intersection of international affairs, grassroot and faith-based networks: working towards the practical realization of human rights within the context of our faith-based and humanity principles.

Courageous Faithful Action

We must not become indifferent to the persistent human rights violations around the globe. The ELCA social message “Human Rights” states, “Too often, we, as members of this society, are buried under the concerns of everyday life. The human rights abuses of people we don’t know or understand are too remote to stir us to action” (p. 8).

As a communion of churches and as people of faith we are called to engage. “The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) views engagement in the search for social and economic justice and the promotion of human dignity as fundamental elements of a holistic Christian ministry and witness,” affirms LWF’s “Faith and Human Rights: Voices from the Lutheran Communion” (p. 9).

In another noteworthy milestone, the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) celebrates a decade since the adoption of our Gender Justice Policy in 2013. This marks a significant step forward in promoting equality and inclusivity. The LWF’s commitment to gender justice serves as a beacon for the positive impact that intentional policies can have on the realization of human rights.

Intentional Commitment

The protection of human rights requires intentionality. As guardians of human rights, we must be nimble in our approach, ensuring that our efforts remain aligned with the needs of the ever-changing global community. I find encouragement from author and podcaster Brené Brown, who has emphasized: We need courageous cultures. Brown says: you and I must create and hold spaces that rise to higher standards of behavior than what we experience in the news, on TV and in the streets. I think courageous cultures prioritize protection of human rights.

If you feel despair in trying to make a difference, I have some words of encouragement for you.

You can do more. Yes, you can do more because that’s humanity. You have the wisdom, capacity and power to do more – to create a space for freedom, for peace, for equal access to human rights and for justice. If you are enjoying fundamental human rights, why not others?

The call to action for human rights is clear: we can do better to rise above the challenges and foster an environment where justice, freedom and equality prevail. It is not merely a task; it is a testament to our shared commitment to a better world.