This advent reflection is part of ELCA World Hunger’s 2020 Advent Study. You can download the full study here. You can also download the corresponding advent calendar here. 

Advent Week Three

“Comfort”

Read

Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11
Psalm 126
I Thessalonians 5:16-24
John 1:6-8, 19-28

Study

Volunteering has always been the lifeblood of Cacilda Rodrigues Barcelos. Born in São Borja, Brazil, she moved at age 13 with her family to the metropolitan region of Porto Alegre. Alone, her mother raised 11 daughters and sons, until her 50th birthday, when she died. Cacilda was 22 at the time, and the community helped to support her. “People taught me how to do what I do, because I was welcomed by them,” she says.

Now 63, Cacilda has dedicated years to giving back through volunteering. Early on, she worked with young boys in the community to make and sell food at fairs to help pay for uniforms and tournaments for their soccer team. Today, as a member of the management board of the Fair Trade and Solidarity Network (a project of the diakonia foundation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Brazil), she helps train other women in entrepreneurship and helps plan workshops and fairs where they sell their goods. She also volunteers in the Peace Service and teaches women to prevent and overcome violence.

As much as Cacilda has changed her community, the biggest change has been in her personal life. “I learned to put myself in other people’s shoes and respect each other. I was very angry, as a way to defend myself, and it was in these meetings and meetings [with other women from the Fair Trade and Solidarity Network] that I grew and improved,” she says. “That’s why I say I’m the one who gains the most.”

As common — and often justified — as anger is, it is one of those emotions that we struggle to deal with in the church, at times. We might find it difficult to place raw, tumultuous emotions within the life of the people of God. Perhaps it is one of the reasons that this season we will sing songs about the “holy infant so tender and mild” (“Silent Night”) or “that mother mild” (“Once in Royal David’s City”) while we still await the writing of an ode to Jesus’ overturning of tables in the temple. Volatile emotions, particularly in the seasons of Advent and Christmas, feel so out of place. We aren’t quite sure what to do with them.

That has made 2020 particularly hard to navigate. This year, we have lived with the grief of the hundreds of thousands of lives lost to the COVID-19 pandemic. We have mourned isolation from one another and the loss of that most basic human need of touch, even as we understood the risk that accompanied handshakes and hugs. We grieved together as loved ones and neighbors died alone in hospitals or nursing homes. And when we couldn’t gather together for funerals, we lost a key ritual for processing our grief as a community.

We grieved the loss of livelihoods and the closure of family businesses that had been part of our communities for generations. We feared the long-term consequences for our communities as jobs were lost and more and more people around the world went hungry.

And we were angered together by the deadly injustice of racism and the persistent inequalities that exacerbated the pandemic in many communities. Demonstrations filled streets in cities large and small as a collective voice of rage was raised against a racist justice system that continues to disproportionately permit and even sanction extrajudicial killings of people of color.

Certainly, our hope rests in that just peace (shalom) that “surpasses all human understanding,” which will “wipe away every tear from our eyes” and bring such equity and harmony that the lion will lie down with the lamb and the child will play with the viper and not be harmed. But there are times when it is difficult to see this promise through the lens of overwhelming grief and righteous anger. And there are times when grief and anger are what we need to move us toward justice, which is the form of the love of neighbor takes in society. For many of us, 2020 was one of those times.

The promise of Advent is not merely the promise of a future when all shall be made well, when all grief and anger shall cease and when the weight of heavy emotions shall be lifted from our shoulders. The promise of Advent — or, perhaps, the comfort of Advent — is that, amid our grief and anger, God is present, walking with us, consoling us, inspiring us and prodding us to walk together toward the future
where justice and peace will kiss (Psalm 85:10).

The future day promised by Isaiah in this week’s reading is a promise not to those who are comfortable but to those who are afflicted. In “the year of the Lord’s favor,” God will “provide for those who mourn in Zion — to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning” (Isaiah 61:2-3). It is a promise that those whose burdens have left them with a “faint spirit” will be given the strength of “oaks” and that God will “cause righteousness and praise to spring up” like the first plants of spring (61:11). It is a promise that God, who “loves justice,” (61:8) will establish the same — and an invitation for us to be part of this.

Perhaps that is the reassurance of the Scripture readings for this week. The grief and anger that have marked so much of this year — and that mark so much of every year for many of us living in vulnerability to disease, injustice, hunger and violence — is where God meets us. We need not gather the strength to move on nor ignore the depth of our pain in order to find God. God finds us in these depths.

Cacilda, working tirelessly with neighbors in Brazil, was able to let go of her anger and felt herself changed by the experience. But God did not wait for that moment to work transformation and renewal through her. Indeed, it may be through this very tumult that God moves us toward greater actions of justice. Christ did not wait for a comfortable bed but was born in the sharp, chafing, ill-fitting manger, amid the noise of the animals and the loneliness of the stable. We need not wait to be comfortable, for our grief to resolve or our anger to subside, in order to draw close to God.

God has been there all along.

Ask

1. What caused you to mourn or angered you this year?
2. How does God meet you amid your grief and anger?
3. How can the transformation of our grief or anger help spur us to
   deeper acts in service of one another or in service of God?
4. What would a just peace (shalom) look like in your community?
   In the United States?

Pray

Comforting and empowering God, you meet us amid our pain and ease the load of our burdens. Be near us in our grief and anger, comfort us as we mourn and move our will toward acts of justice for one another. Grant the world just peace this season, that we may find rest and hope in you. In your holy name, we pray. Amen.

Ellen Rothweiler, Des Moines, IA

Warm-up Question

Who is the favorite in your family?

Favorite

The holidays expose underlying family dynamics in many families. Time together, gift giving, and special meals can all offer an opportunity for favoritism among siblings and cousins, or at least the illusion of such. Also, you bear a burden if you are the favorite. More is expected of you.  You are the person in the family who is expected to fix things or take care of everyone. 

On the other hand, remember that song from the Sound of Music “My Favorite Things”? Singing about their favorite things made the kids and Maria feel better when they were afraid or worried.  Favorite can be a good thing when we are talking about colors, or foods, or songs. Somehow, when we talk about people it sets up rank in groups. 

Like so many things, the idea of “favorite” has both positive and negative consequences.

Discussion Questions

• How do you know when something is your favorite?
• Are you someone’s favorite? How does that feel?
• Are you not the favorite? How does that feel?
• Why do you think the idea of favorites in groups of people is divisive?

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

We hear the story of the Angel Gabriel visiting Mary every year during the season of Advent. It is an important part of the story of Jesus coming to Earth to be Emanuel, “God With Us.” The angel greets Mary by saying, “Greetings favored one!” and “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God…” Then the angel tells her she is going to have a baby boy, God’s son. Mary says “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”

This is a strange thing to happen to God’s favored. Mary’s special treatment includes risking her marriage to Joseph, pregnancy, childbirth, fear, and danger. To this she says, “Here I am!” and agrees to be a part of giving this gift of Christ to the world. God incarnate. The Word made flesh. God chose Mary to bear this gift, and this burden. But Mary does not dwell on the burden of being favored, at least not in the account that Luke offers us. It is human to see the good and the bad in a thing, but Mary accepts this call and says, “let it be with me according to your word.” 

We can all learn something from the way Mary models being favored; Acceptance. Grace. Strength. She does not worry about her way; she goes God’s way and it takes her on quite the adventure to Bethlehem, Egypt and the cross. The angel does not say that since she is favored God has this easy thing for her to do, and she is going to enjoy every minute of it. Sometimes the most important things are the hardest. In these, and all things, God is with us…Emmanuel.

Discussion Questions

• Have you ever been asked to do something hard and/or important? How did that feel? 
• Have you ever said “no” to something because it was too hard or too much? Do you regret it or do you think you made the right choice?
• How do you make those kinds of decisions? 

Activity Suggestions

Listen to the song “My Favorite Things”. There are many versions of this song out around Christmas. the lyrics to include your group’s favorite things. 

Closing Prayer

God of Love, in our baptism you claimed us and proclaimed us precious.  Give us joy in knowing you  favor us and courage in living out our calling as your servants.  Guide us, that we may go where you send us and be signs to the world that you are indeed Emmanuel, God with us. 

by Giovana Oaxaca, Program Director for Migration Policy

The allegations of medical neglect and invasive gynecological procedures in a privately-run detention center in Irwin County, Ocilla, Ga.—including coerced sterilization—quickly drew disbelief and condemnation worldwide this fall. Far from unique, these shocking allegations echo the historic and current reality of cruel and inhumane treatment towards migrant women. At every stage and step of their lives, migrants, immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers are at special risk of having their fundamental human rights violated.

GBV as a migration driver

What drives people to migrate will vary from person to person, but one of the most cited reasons is to escape from domestic abuse and violence. For countless women, girls, and LGTBQIA+ persons in the Northern Triangle of Central America–El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras—sexual- and gender-based violence (GBV) is inescapable reality. Every day, over 100 cases of violence against women are filed in Guatemala. In 2018, a woman was killed in Honduras every 18 hours. El Salvador, which has the highest rate of femicide in Latin America, reported 84 femicides in an 8-month span of time in 2020 at the height of pandemic quarantine measures. Globally, gender-based violence is widely recognized as a key human rights issue, as highlighted in the international 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence campaign.

These figures likely do not capture the full scope of the violence experienced by women. Social stigma, fear of retribution and lack of confidence in authorities often contribute to underreporting.

Shifts in U.S. Policy Toward Asylum Seekers

The United States has a policy of granting limited humanitarian protections to persons fleeing gender-based persecution and violence. Unfortunately, overtime, these protections have become harder to access. Under President Trump, the U.S. government has undermined protections for people fleeing domestic abuse and gang violence and turned away asylum seekers, trapping families, men, women and children in precarious conditions without any meaningful access to protection. People at risk of GBV thus contend with persecution at home, in transit, and even from U.S. authorities.

ELCA responds to human need

While working with migrating, returned and deported women, civil society organizations and faith-partners have expressed the need for services geared at empowering women socially, politically and economically. The ELCA’s AMMPARO strategy (Accompanying Migrant Minors with Protection, Advocacy, Representation and Opportunities) has placed a special emphasis on working with advocates in Central America who give witness to these perilous conditions and supported their advocacy efforts.

“Migrants, immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers often suffer more when they are women, girls, or gender non-conforming people” notes the ELCA social statement Faith, Sexism, and Justice: A Call to Action.” “Women, girls, and people who identify as non-binary must not be deprived of their human or civil rights.” When the disturbing account of human rights violations against immigrant women in custody of the privately run Irwin County Detention Center surfaced, ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton stated, “As the ELCA we strongly condemn gender-based violence and violations of human rights wherever they occur.”

Threats in U.S. detention

Abuse of women is widespread in immigration detention centers and constitutes a serious threat to the civil and personal liberties of migrants. The detained population has multiplied over the last 30 years under a U.S. government policy to apprehend and detain increasing numbers of immigrants. Alternatives such as community-based alternatives to detention, although humane, less costly and more effective, have not been pursued, overburdening an already strained system at the expense of the people detained.

The United Nation High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) guidance says that all immigration practices should implement special measures to protect women from sexual and gender-based violence and exploitation in detention. According to the UNHCR, other groups that are vulnerable to abuse, like children and members of the LGBTQIA+ community, should also be afforded special measures to guarantee their safety. The UNHCR mainly advocates that detention should be used as a measure of last resort and asylum seekers should be given every opportunity to seek protection. The U.S. government must do more to meet even this basic standard of care.

In fact, the U.S. federal government has become one of the most egregious perpetrators and accessories of GBV. Between 2010 and 2017, there was a staggering 1,224 complaints of sexual assault abuse in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention yet only 43 investigations. Based upon known patterns, these numbers likely reflect underreporting. We know people don’t come forward out of fear of retaliation and are not consistently supported by confidence in prosecution of perpetrators. Like most cases of GBV, these acts are committed in nearly total impunity.

What can we do?

Increased scrutiny at Irwin creates new incentives for advocacy

• Supporting policies that aim to curb profiting from people’s suffering are one way to stamp out immigration practices in the U.S. that deprive women of their liberty and rights.
• Restoring the asylum system so that victims have access to humanitarian protections goes without saying—though the underlying definition of gender-based asylum could stand to be improved.
• Supporting survivors of violence at the onset through advocacy in their home countries, so that they do not feel obligated to flee, must also be an objective of any strategy to prevent and mitigate acts of GBV. The escalation of intimate partner violence, evidenced by the spike in femicides in El Salvador, signals the need to expand local programs for women in need of protection in their homes.
• The Keeping Women and Girls Safe from the Start Act of 2020 (S. 4003) includes some important measures to expand the U.S. government’s ability to prevent gender-based violence and provide early interventions at the onset of humanitarian emergencies.

These are just a few examples of systemic and institutional changes that can be made, and they are very likely to take some time to come to be implemented. However, these lay the groundwork for a just and compassionate solution to the unacceptable reality of sexual- and gender-based violence.

By Kathryn Mary Lohre

The third week of Advent began for me not with the lighting of the pink candle in the Advent wreath, or the nativity children’s program at church, but in my favorite armchair at home watching history unfold. On the television, trucks full of vaccines prepared for their journey to those most in need across the country. Distribution of this lifesaving, life-changing, scientific discovery is in motion. I felt a lump in my throat. While for most of us, nothing changes – not yet – we can now prepare. Our waiting has turned to anticipation.

As ecumenical and inter-religious partners, we have a role to play in preparing for the post-pandemic future. We can encourage people to love their neighbors by getting vaccinated – when it is our turn. We can advocate for equitable distribution in the US and globally. We can publicly acknowledge that there are, understandably, varying degrees of confidence in public health claims and scientific advances. We can confess that this is a direct consequence of our racist and white supremacist history and current practices against BIPOC communities, including shameful cases of medical malpractice, abuse, and neglect. On the basis of our understanding of our sacred texts and theologies, we can inspire a future were all people, and the planet, are included in how we define and actualize health and healing.

For those of us who are Christian, it is fitting that this third week in Advent is also a time to order our hearts and minds in joyful anticipation of the Christ-child. That feels risky right now. Amid illness, death, and social inequity, we have been oriented to despair. We have become accustomed to all that is not, rather than to proclaiming all that will be. The Gospel text for this third week in Advent (John 1:6-8, 19-28) is a reminder that we, like John the Baptist, are called to prepare the way for the One who is our Joy. We do so by testifying to Christ in advance of Christ’s arrival. We tell of what will be even in the absence of what is. In other words, we reorient ourselves to rejoicing by practicing joy.

It gives me great joy to see those freezer trucks on their way to those most in need. Even more so, I rejoice in anticipation that the One who inoculates us against despair is coming.

Kathryn Mary Lohre serves as Assistant to the Presiding Bishop and Executive for Ecumenical and Inter-Religious Relations & Theological Discernment for the ELCA

What I thought I knew

My childhood connection to nature was effortless. It was filled with state park camping trips, summer camps, Minnesota lakes, and my roomy backyard. It informs my adult life in countless ways– including my environmentalism, political beliefs, and faith. So when I peered out the window of our ELCA Young Adults in Global Mission (YAGM) van as it climbed for my first time to the Environmental Education Center (EEC) atop a blustery peak in Beit Jala, Palestine – a place I would spend much of the next year – I imagined myself having quite the grip on environmentalism and anything it might entail.

The view from the EEC’s outlook

I had not expected to learn many things. I was quickly proved wrong. 

I learned more at the Environmental Education Center (EEC), a ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, than I could ever have imagined.

What I learned

I learned that access to water is not guaranteed to any Palestinian living in the West Bank, as it is controlled by Israel, who often diverts it to Israeli settlements. 

I learned that the occupation wall tears through land people and wildlife have called home for tens of thousands of years, disrupting migration patterns, habitats, and agriculture.

Israel controls the allocation of funds available for Palestine’s waste management. While Israel’s landfills take up several areas previously used by Palestine, it has severely restricted landfill capacity for Palestinian waste, resulting in a significant amount of  litter.

Some land-grabbing in Israel entails the rapid planting of non-native, fast-growing trees, creating a makeshift forest to hide remains of pillaged Palestinian towns. It is not uncommon that these “protected forests” are planted with funding from American Christians concerned about the holy land’s environmental health. It is also not uncommon that after 10-15 years, these trees are again uprooted to make room for a new Israeli settlement.

My shiny American Environmental Studies major suddenly made the world of plastic straw bans and buckthorn pulls seem utterly insignificant, if not naïve. 

What it means

Christians, Muslims, and Jews around the world lay a sentimental claim to the Holy Land, the land in which Jesus sat beneath olive trees, where the prophet Muhammed ascended to heaven, and where the Israelites were led to freedom. “The land of milk and honey” rang through my head sometimes as I stared out the EEC’s window amidst editing grant proposals and publications. Everyone clamors for this land, but they use the word “land” in a hollow way. People seemingly refer to the bare minimum of the word — the lifeless chunk of earth that sits in that particular spot on the planet, worthy only because of who has walked and what was written there, not the life present and reliant upon it today.

Art submitted by a student on the olive tree as a piece of Palestinian identity

What God desires

Matthew 6:25-26 says, 25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them…”.

I could write novels about how my time at the EEC taught me more about environmental justice than I ever learned from any college course, but I will instead share a memory with you.

For context–the EEC holds the first bird-ringing (often called bird banding in the U.S.) station in the Middle East. Mostly volunteer-run, much important research has come from the ringing work done here. This includes documenting various species of native Palestinian birds, piecing together native Palestinian ecosystems, and observing the occupation’s effects on migration patterns and those same ecosystems.

Bird in flight

As the EEC holds youth at the center of their ministry, bird ecology is an important way they connect students with the Palestinian biodiversity. According to their mission, this connection is inseparable from the ever-coveted land itself. Student groups who tour the EEC often get the memorable chance to release a freshly “ringed” bird under the loving supervision of EEC researcher Michael Farhoud and his devoted college volunteer, Bashar Jarseyeh. 

Students are always timid when the bird is first placed in their hand, palm stretched flat to provide a stable takeoff platform. Sometimes the bird will stand there an extra second or two, cautiously taking in the circle of awestruck seventh-graders. This moment is beautiful — student taking in bird, bird taking in student. Then, a flutter of wings and the bird is off, quickly becoming smaller and smaller as it soars above the Al Makhrour Valley.

Photo from the EEC Facebook page–student releases bird after ringing

Photo by Mohammad Daraghmeh, submitted to the EEC 2020 Spring “Palestinian Biodiversity” photography competition

As they release the birds, students marvel that checkpoints, walls, and borders will not be on the mind of this avian Palestinian. Yet the students know these barriers can never leave the mind of the human Palestinians their bird friend flies over.

Still, maybe this bird sows a small seed of hope that one day things will change. One day, maybe the students, maybe all Palestinians will be as free to move as the “birds of the air” Jesus describes in the text from Matthew.

Additional Resources

Learn more about the Environmental Education Center supported by the Lutheran Church in  Jordan and the Holy Land here:

https://www.eecp.org/

Read more about the environmental impact of the Occupation of Palestine here:

https://time.com/5714146/olive-harvest-west-bank/

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2017/11/the-occupation-of-water/

Reflection Questions

1. Maddi challenges us to consider those who rely on the earth in the present-day in the Holy Land, not just the religious figures who have walked there. How does thinking about the environmental impact of the occupation of Palestine today challenge the way you have thought about the Holy Land in the past?
2. Maddi and the Palestinian students she worked with learned about faithfulness and freedom and joy from the birds at the Environmental Education Center. What have you learned from the creation around you? How has your relationship to the earth shaped your relationship with God?
3. The Environmental Education Center in Palestine taught Maddi that care for the land and all creation is a central part of our call as people of faith. How have you considered your relationship to creation this Advent? In this period of waiting, how might you better care for creation?
4. Matthew 6:25-26 says, 25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear… 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them”. How have you experienced God providing for you or community? Who in your community needs to experience God’s freedom? How is God calling you to respond?

My name is Maddi Froiland and I was a 2019-2020 Young Adults in Global Mission (YAGM) volunteer in Jerusalem and the West Bank. I grew up in Milwaukee, WI, and graduated with a major in Environmental Studies and a concentration in Women and Gender Studies from St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN. I am currently serving as an AmeriCorps member in Palm Beach County, FL, where I am a reading tutor and teach a nightly ESL class for adults.

by Giovana Oaxaca, Program Director for Migration Policy

The allegations of medical neglect and invasive gynecological procedures in a privately-run detention center in Irwin County, Ocilla, Ga.—including coerced sterilization—quickly drew disbelief and condemnation worldwide this fall. Far from unique, these shocking allegations echo the historic and current reality of cruel and inhumane treatment towards migrant women. At every stage and step of their lives, migrants, immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers are at special risk of having their fundamental human rights violated.

GBV as a migration driver

What drives people to migrate will vary from person to person, but one of the most cited reasons is to escape from domestic abuse and violence. For countless women, girls, and LGTBQIA+ persons in the Northern Triangle of Central America–El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras—sexual- and gender-based violence (GBV) is inescapable reality. Every day, over 100 cases of violence against women are filed in Guatemala. In 2018, a woman was killed in Honduras every 18 hours. El Salvador has the highest rate of femicide in Latin America and in an 8-month span of time in 2020 at the height of pandemic quarantine measures, reported 84 femicides. Globally, gender-based violence is widely recognized as a key human rights issue, as highlighted in the international 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence campaign.

Even these figures likely do not capture the full scope of the violence experienced by women. Social stigma, fear of retribution and lack of confidence in authorities often contribute to underreporting.

Shifts in U.S. Policy Toward Asylum Seekers

The United States has a policy of granting limited humanitarian protections to persons fleeing gender-based persecution and violence. Unfortunately, overtime, these protections have become harder to access. Under President Trump, the U.S. government has undermined protections for people fleeing domestic abuse and gang violence and turned away asylum seekers, trapping families, men, women and children in precarious conditions without any meaningful access to protection. People at risk of GBV thus contend with persecution at home, in transit, and even from U.S. authorities.

ELCA responds to human need

While working with migrating, returned and deported women, civil society organizations and faith-partners have expressed the need for services geared at empowering women socially, politically and economically. The ELCA’s AMMPARO strategy (Accompanying Migrant Minors with Protection, Advocacy, Representation and Opportunities) has placed a special emphasis on working with advocates in Central America who give witness to these perilous conditions and supported their advocacy efforts.

“Migrants, immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers often suffer more when they are women, girls, or gender non-conforming people” notes the ELCA social statement Faith, Sexism, and Justice: A Call to Action.” “Women, girls, and people who identify as non-binary must not be deprived of their human or civil rights.” When the disturbing account of human rights violations against immigrant women in custody of the privately run Irwin County Detention Center surfaced, ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton stated, “As the ELCA we strongly condemn gender-based violence and violations of human rights wherever they occur.”

Threats in U.S. detention

Abuse of women is widespread in immigration detention centers and constitutes a serious threat to the civil and personal liberties of migrants. The detained population has multiplied over the last 30 years under a U.S. government policy to apprehend and detain increasing numbers of immigrants. Alternatives such as community-based alternatives to detention, although humane, less costly and more effective, have not been pursued, overburdening an already strained system at the expense of the people detained.

The United Nation High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) guidance says that all immigration practices should implement special measures to protect women from sexual and gender-based violence and exploitation in detention. According to the UNHCR, other groups that are vulnerable to abuse, like children and members of the LGBTQIA+ community, should also be afforded special measures to guarantee their safety. The UNHCR mainly advocates that detention should be used as a measure of last resort and asylum seekers should be given every opportunity to seek protection. The U.S. government must do more to meet even this basic standard of care.

In fact, the U.S. federal government has become one of the most egregious perpetrators and accessories of GBV. Between 2010 and 2017, there was a staggering 1,224 complaints of sexual assault abuse in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention yet only 43 investigations. Based upon known patterns, these numbers likely reflect underreporting. We know people don’t come forward out of fear of retaliation and are not consistently supported by confidence in prosecution of perpetrators. Like most cases of GBV, these acts are committed in nearly total impunity.

What can we do?

Increased scrutiny at Irwin creates new incentives for advocacy

• Supporting policies that aim to curb profiting from people’s suffering are one way to stamp out immigration practices in the U.S. that deprive women of their liberty and rights.
• Restoring the asylum system so that victims have access to humanitarian protections goes without saying—though the underlying definition of gender-based asylum could stand to be improved.
• Supporting survivors of violence at the onset through advocacy in their home countries, so that they do not feel obligated to flee, must also be an objective of any strategy to prevent and mitigate acts of GBV. The escalation of intimate partner violence, evidenced by the spike in femicides in El Salvador, signals the need to expand local programs for women in need of protection in their homes.
• The Keeping Women and Girls Safe from the Start Act of 2020 (S. 4003) includes some important measures to expand the U.S. government’s ability to prevent gender-based violence and provide early interventions at the onset of humanitarian emergencies.

These are just a few examples of systemic and institutional changes that can be made, and they are very likely to take some time to come to be implemented. However, these lay the groundwork for a just and compassionate solution to the unacceptable reality of sexual- and gender-based violence.

Tuhina Rasche, San Carlos, CA

Warm-up Questions

• How would you answer the question, “Who are you?”
• What are some of the identities you have? A child? A sibling? A student? A friend? Try to name all of the identities you carry within you. 
• Who are you as a follower of Jesus?

Who Are You?

“Who are you?” Isn’t that the easiest question in the world to answer? Actually, it can be one of the hardest. When someone asks, “Who are you?” how do you respond? Do you just give your name? Where you’re from? Who your parents are? What if you’re single? What if you identify yourself by the people you know, your friends, the organizations you belong to, where you work? Because when we get below the surface of, “Who are you?” There are a lot of ways we can respond.

I’ve really struggled with this question, and to be entirely honest, I don’t know quite how to answer it. There are so many parts of my life which make up the entirety of who God created me to be. I’m not just one single self.  A lot of different pieces form me into be the person I am today. I will always be a child, a sibling, a partner, a pastor, a writer, a sewer, a boxer, a prayer, a singer, and so much more. Yet there comes a time when one aspect of my identity is highlighted, while the others are still a part of me, but not at the forefront. Parts of my identity surprise people (it seems not a lot of people have met a female-identifying pastor who likes to box). Other aspects of my identity come as no surprise (a praying pastor seems pretty standard).   

 You may have asked this question of others, “Who are you?” How have they answered? Has it also been a list of identities, or a shrug of the shoulders, not knowing how to answer this question? Why is it so hard to have just one answer to this one simple question?

Discussion Questions

• Who are the people in your life who have pointed you to Jesus? How did they show you who Jesus is in the world? 
• When were you baptized? Do you remember the story of your baptism? Who was surrounding you when you were baptized? If you haven’t been baptized, who would you want around you as your elders and guides?
• Where in this time have you seen God present and active in the world? How could you tell it was God?

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

Today’s Gospel feels like déjà-vu. Haven’t we been here before, with a guy out in the middle of nowhere baptizing people? This is the second week in a row that the Gospel spends time with John in the wilderness. Last week’s Gospel introduced us to John the Baptizer, clothed in camel’s hair and eating a diet of locusts and wild honey. John even uses similar words from last week’s Gospel, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals.” 

Why in the world would those who prepared the lectionary give us yet another story of John just one week later? Perhaps it is because last week’s John the Baptizer is different from this week’s John. This week, we get to know John the witness. While he is still baptizing in Bethany, across the Jordan, there is something is different. This week’s John is “a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.”

Because of what John is doing, he’s getting attention from the religious leaders. It’s a big deal when priests and Levites go out to Bethany. They trek out to the middle of nowhere because they want to know who John is. They ask him twice. “Who are you?  Maybe Elijah? A prophet?”  John answers that he is none of these. John even tells them that he’s not the Messiah. The people in power want to know who he is and why in the world he is baptizing without the authority of leaders, if he’s not claiming to be the Messiah, Elijah, or a prophet.  John is comfortable with saying only who he is not. 

There could be many a reason as to why the priests and Levites ask John these questions and take the time to confront him in the wilderness. Maybe they’re frustrated that he isn’t following the teachings and practices of religious leaders in his baptizing and witness. They might be frustrated because they don’t know who John is; they can’t put a neat label on him. The priests and the Levites are uncomfortable not knowing who John is and why he is doing what he is doing. 

This Gospel lesson speaks directly to our time of Advent, our time of waiting and anticipation. We know, yet at the same time, we don’t know. John the witness tells us of Christ, but we have yet to see, meet, know, or touch Christ. We know Christ will come again; we just don’t know when. When Christ does arrive, then what? John tells the priests and Levites, “Among you stands one whom you do not know, the one who is coming after me.” 

This should make us think. Is this story our here and now? Is there someone among us whom we do not know? John tells us Christ is coming, not just in the following pages of the Gospel long ago, but here and now.  He is currently among us. 

 Do we know God among us? I am terrified by the question, “Am I so preoccupied with distractions that I don’t  notice the one who is among us?” God is here, yet we are also waiting for the complete restoration of the world to the way God wants it to be. We continue to wait, and this waiting is not easy. 

Discussion Questions

• Would we know if God is present among us? Where are the places and spaces we may miss recognizing Jesus in the here and now? How could it be easy to miss knowing that Christ is within our midst?
• Why are we so uncomfortable in not knowing, much like the priests and Levites being uncomfortable not knowing John’s identity? What are things we can do to keep us centered in the midst of unknowing?
• Why do we hear two different stories about John the Baptist, one from last week’s Gospel and one from this week’s Gospel? What are the differences between these tellings of John’s life? What are the similarities? What do these two Gospel readings tell us about John?

Activity Suggestions

• Part of Advent is keeping awake and being aware. This is an opportunity to be aware of the breath of God within each of us. It is through this breath we know Jesus is among us, especially as our neighbors near and far live and breathe. Breathe in one verse of Scripture, then breathe out. As an example, use “Make straight the way of the Lord.” When inhaling, think of “Make straight.” When exhaling, think of “the way of the Lord.” This is a way to pray along to Scripture and to be aware of your breathing. 
• Do you have an Advent calendar to mark the days of Christmas? Have you tried a reverse-Advent calendar? Contact your local food bank to figure out what they need. For each day of Advent, collect one canned item. When Advent is over, deliver the contents of your reverse Advent calendar to the food bank to make sure that Christ will be fed in our midst.
• Waiting is hard, especially during a pandemic. While you are in places and spaces of waiting, write a note to a loved one, text a message of encouragement to a friend, or take a picture of something near you that you find interesting and beautiful. 

Closing Prayer

Holy God, help us keep awake. If we are awake, we will know the one who is present among us. Hold our distractions at bay.  They keep us from knowing Jesus, who is present among us today. Gift us with the ability to take time, to slow down, to be still, and to be awake to you,  who is so common and ordinary, yet wondrously present. Amen. 

This advent reflection is part of ELCA World Hunger’s 2020 Advent Study. You can download the full study here. You can also download the corresponding advent calendar here. 

Advent Week Two

“Prepare”

Read

Isaiah 40:1-11
Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13
II Peter 3:8-15a
Mark 1:1-8

Study

Even as we enter this season of anticipation of the birth of Jesus Christ, our focus for this year is on the nearness of God. While our biblical ancestors awaited the coming of God’s promised Messiah, they still knew that God was never far from them and their plight.

The Gospel of Mark, like the Gospel of John, does not include a story of Jesus’ birth. Instead, it opens with a very different scene — the appearance of John the Baptist in the wilderness, proclaiming the coming of the Promised One and baptizing disciples in the river. John declares, “Prepare the way of the Lord!” (1:3). His message echoes the prophecy in Isaiah 40:3 of the approaching dawn of God’s promise to set all things right.

Both the original prophecy and John’s repetition are clear about what we are waiting for — the “day of the Lord.” The preparations the gospel enjoins are not preparations made amid absence, like the preparations that might be made for a visitor. The prophecies, instead, are precursors to an event. The message is not that God is coming at some time in the future but that the day is on its way.

This is an important distinction. So often, we view the future with expectant hope that God will come and set all things right. This kind of forward-looking hope is important. But this yearning for the fulfillment of God’s promise must be tempered by the faith that sees God already at work in the world as it is. We are not waiting on God; if anything, perhaps God is waiting on us (II Peter 3:9). John’s message is a reminder that, even as we await the final fulfillment of the promise, God is already at work, weaving the threads of God’s promise for us in our midst. To “prepare” is to “make straight” the ways, that is, to be about the ministry of the church now, participating in the work of justice and the full and final reconciliation God is making possible, even as we long for the day to come.

This message of active anticipation can be seen in a story of communities living around two different rivers, thousands of miles from the Jordan. In El Salvador, families from eight communities are working to restore the quality of the water they depend on from the San Antonio River, the Nejapa Aquifer and the Jiboa River. Through a project of the Sínodo Luterano Salvadoreño (Salvadoran Lutheran Church), the families have joined together to decontaminate the water from the tributaries to the rivers so that it will be safe to use for drinking, bathing and farming.

Miguel Angel Calderón Barahona is president of the La Granja Communal Association, one of the community groups working on the project. For Miguel, the project has meant more than just improving the water. “My life changed from the moment I decided to be part of this project,” he says. As a leader, “I have had the opportunity to reach beyond my perspectives as a member of the community [and to] reach out to other communities, see the needs in those communities and be able to be part of [their] development, as well.”

Part of the success of the program has been the ability to organize the people in the communities. That work began with an effort to improve the road to San Salvador, a route beset by fatal accidents. In working to improve the safety of the road, the community laid the groundwork and built the relationships that will now help them ensure access to quality water. Through the current project, Miguel says, the community has organized itself even more strongly, and now “the community at large is going to take a different course, and hopefully, it will be the path of success in our community.”

Reaching their goal has meant doing the hard work of preparation: petitioning communities and schools, building relationships and forging partnerships. The “path of success” is laid by the many small steps the communities take now that will lead to big changes.

We, as church together, know this. What is more, we know that even as we yearn for the day when all will be able to partake in the fruits of God’s good creation, God is at work now, through the efforts of people such as Miguel and his neighbors in Nejapa, El Salvador and other communities working for access to clean water around the world.

Preparing for the day to come means more than hoping for the final fulfillment of God’s promise. It means seeing, even now, that God is at work among us, and joining in this work. While we anticipate the event, we are not alone. In fact, we have never been alone, even this year. As we physically isolated from one another, God never isolated from us, as was evident in the many creative and courageous ways ministries adapted to ensure that the work of the church would go on — and that all would be prepared for the day to come.

Ask

1. Where have you found God at work through the ministries of your church this year?
2. How is working to ensure that all have clean water, sufficient food and resources to meet their other needs part of the church’s “active anticipation” of God’s promises for the future?
3. What is a “path of success” for your community? How is the
   church helping walk with neighbors on that path?

Pray

Ever-present God, through sickness, violence, discord and injustice we have yearned for the fulfillment of your promise. Make us, your church, a sign of the day to come, that we may reflect this hope to others. Knit us together with one another and with our neighbors, that none may feel alone or isolated from your life-giving love. In your holy name, we pray. Amen.

Matthew 25:35-40

[Jesus said] ‘For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ And the king will answer them, ‘ Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’

Room in the Inn

If Mary and Joseph showed up on the steps of an inn in Palestine today, they would’ve had a bed, some coffee, and probably three servings of a home cooked meal. At least, this is what my YAGM (ELCA Young Adults in Global Mission) program cohort (a group of young adults who serve in one country together) and I decided about one month into our year of service there. I felt like I was walking into my grandma’s house every time I stepped into a Palestinian home. I was greeted automatically with a kiss on the cheek that was quickly followed by Arabic coffee, sweets, and eventually an invitation to lunch or dinner.

Sharing a meal in Aida Refugee Camp in Palestine

It didn’t matter who I was or what was happening in the world around us. I was always welcomed in with joy. In this way, Palestinian hospitality was an example of God’s radical love. This fact was made clear to me one rainy, Sunday afternoon.

Holy Water

I was invited to another volunteer’s host family for a big lunch. When we got there, we discovered that even though rain was falling all around us, there was no more water in their water tank. In the West Bank, one way you can tell the difference between a Palestinian home and an illegal Israeli settlement is to look at the roofs. Palestinian homes will have a water tank on top of them. If this tank runs dry, families could be out of water for weeks. Meanwhile, illegal settlements have access to unlimited water piped from reserves found in Palestine.

Upper left: Israeli settlement supplied with plenty of water
Lower right: Palestinian home reliant on rooftop water tanks due to Israeli control of water supply

In the midst of these forces of occupation, Palestinians still show love through their hospitality. When I found out that Sunday that our hosts did not have water, I was ready to call it a day, to walk back home in the rain or make something simple instead. However, our Palestinian hosts were determined to have the lunch they planned for themselves and their guests. We took turns carrying in buckets from the garden cistern, boiling it in a tea kettle so we could drink it or use it to make rice. Then after our collective efforts, we sat down to a big, delicious meal. It was moments like these that felt most holy to me.

Unconditional Love

During my year as a volunteer with ELCA Young Adults in Global Mission in Palestine, I felt God’s unconditional love through the hospitality of my Palestinian friends and family. It was in the big hug my host aunt always gave me as I walked in the door. It was there in the third helping of stuffed grape leaves that my host grandma piled on to my plate, ignoring my protests that I was too full to eat another bite.

Surprise birthday meal made for me by my Palestinian host family!

Learning how to cook with Teta Rose

When I felt this love from Palestinian families, it challenged me to take a hard look at my own life. How do I welcome others unconditionally, and not just when it’s most convenient for me? Just as I see hospitality as God’s love, I also understand it to be a call to action. Calling us to take a look at our churches and think who would feel that radical welcome as soon as they walked in the door or joined the Zoom chat. My Palestinian hosts gave me a greater understanding of hospitality. The understanding of how a welcoming smile or a shared meal is a holy act spreading God’s love to all. The kind of love that isn’t conditional to where and when it works best for me. Love that envelops a stranger the same as an old friend.

Celebrating Christmas in Palestine with my host family

For me, Advent is the perfect time to put their example into action in my own life. Advent, much like a host preparing for visitors, is about the preparation for the birth of Jesus. This year hospitality will have to look different in the midst of a global pandemic. However, it also provides an opportunity to break from our normal routines and to do what the scripture above asks of us. An opportunity to reach out to the stranger and share the radical love and hospitality that all people deserve.

Reflection Questions

1. What is one way you – like Katie’s Palestinian neighbors – might welcome others unconditionally, and not just when it’s most convenient?
2.  Who in your community is being told they are not welcome? Your neighborhood? Your church? Your country? How do you understand God’s call to respond?
3. What was a time you received the kind of care we hear Jesus talk about in Matthew 25 / Katie talked about receiving in Palestine? What did you learn about God in that experience?
4. In the midst of advent in a pandemic, what are some creative ways we can still offer hospitality (to friends, neighbors, strangers, at church, in the public square)?

Katie Evans (she/her) served as an ELCA  Young Adult in Global Mission in Jerusalem/West Bank from 2018-2019. While there, she taught English at Dar Al Kalima Lutheran School in Bethlehem. Since returning, she worked with Lutheran Campus Ministry at the University of Maryland, and she is currently an administrative assistant in the Metro D.C. Synod Office. Katie is a member of Hope Lutheran Church in College Park, MD.

To learn more about the ELCA Young Adults in Global Mission program click here

To learn more about the Lutheran Schools of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Jordan and the Holy Land (including the school where Katie worked in Palestine), check out the work of Opportunity Palestine here

The giver of every good and perfect gift has called upon us to mimic God’s giving, by grace, through faith, and this is not of ourselves. —Nicholas

On December 6 the church commemorates Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, or as he is more commonly called, St. Nicholas. St. Nicholas was a fourth-century bishop, serving for twenty-five years in a city that is now in Turkey. Stories of his care for children led to his being named the protector of children and eventually to his evolution into Santa Claus. In some northern European places, December 6, Nicholas’s death day, is the day of winter gift-giving (see More Days for Praise [Augsburg Fortress, 2016], 282).

In this time when we are often worshiping at home, it is very fitting to find ways to mark St. Nicholas Day at home.

Here are some ideas:

• St. Nicholas Eve. On the eve of St. Nicholas Day (December 5), have children place a shoe or boot outside their bedroom door. Parents or caregivers can fill the shoe with little gifts, much as you would a Christmas stocking. Gold coins are the traditional gift, associated with the legend of St. Nicholas providing dowries in the form of bags of gold to three impoverished young girls, to save them from prostitution.
• Act of kindness. Have each family member draw another family member’s name from a hat. Perform a secret act of kindness for the person whose name you have drawn.
• Surprise your neighbors. You can leave a small gift such as a tin of cookies on a neighbor’s doorstep. You could include a simple note, mentioning a little about St. Nicholas and his generosity.
• Keep Advent. St. Nicholas Day might be a way to gradually introduce Christmas decorating while still observing Advent. Perhaps you hang Christmas stockings on St. Nicholas Day or make your plans for giving to others in need this season. Check out the ELCA’s Good Gifts catalog.

For more about St. Nicholas, visit https://www.stnicholascenter.org.