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.

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 One

“Keep Awake” 

Read

Isaiah 64:1-9
Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19
I Corinthians 1:3-9
Mark 13:24-37

Study

This year has felt like an awful lot of waiting already, and now here we are at the start of Advent, a season of … waiting. Many greeted the new year with expectant hope. Early reports signaled a strong harvest year for farmers. Economic news in the United States seemed to be largely positive, though critical issues of poverty and inequality remained present. The year, for many, looked promising.

But how quickly things change. By mid-March, COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, and economies started grinding to a virtual halt. Of course, the risk wasn’t the same for everyone, as we knew from the start. The lives of older adults and people with compromised immune systems or underlying health conditions were at significant risk. Small-business owners, service industry workers and farmworkers faced increasingly dire consequences for their livelihoods. In the United States, communities of color saw rates of infection, hospitalization and death that were many times higher than those of white communities. As the disease spread around the world, the uneven risk was brought into sharper relief — between wealthy countries and countries with fewer economic resources and lower access to high-quality, affordable health care. The inequities within countries, including the United States, was also brought into sharper relief.

Perhaps never before has so much of the world been glued to statistical data, watching every release of new case counts, changes in positivity rates, and testing capacity. We waited together for stores to reopen, for furloughs to end and for the chance to visit loved ones. As church, we waited for the chance to dine together at the table of communion, even as the Spirit refused to postpone inspiring the people of God to worship in new, creative ways.

Together, we felt the inertia and anxiety of waiting for good news about progress on vaccines or positivity rates. On the other hand, some commenters encouraged others to view the pandemic and its accompanying shutdowns as a welcome “pause,” a slowdown of the hurried pace of daily life. And perhaps, for some of us, the pause has been an opportunity to take a break and reflect on which demands on our time and attention are truly valuable.

But something is missing in this picture of the pandemic as a restorative period of reflective waiting. So many of us this year, and every year, do not have the privilege of uninterrupted self-reflection. The service industry workers and gig workers who immediately lost their jobs, or whose continued employment meant entering a scary field of person-to-person encounters, did not have the privilege of merely “waiting it out” in hope that the pandemic would ease. The millions of people in the United States and around the world who face severe food insecurity could not merely wait for sustenance or stability.

In a letter earlier this year, Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton wrote of the converging of two deadly viruses — COVID-19 and the ongoing virus of racism that continues to infect our communities and institutions. The distress named by Bishop Eaton in her letter is a more visceral and accurate description of what so many of us felt this year. The cries of people raised in supplication during the pandemic and lifted in protest are the cries of those who can no longer wait.

This Advent season opens with a story of another people sick of waiting. The Gospel of Mark, most likely, was written to the community of early Christians living under the shadow of empire in first-century Rome. This early community faced persecution and violence. They were no strangers to suffering.

Amid this suffering, Jesus, using what is often a general reference to humanity in Hebrew, promises them a future in which the “Son of Man” will come “with great power and glory” (13:26) to set all things right.

In the meantime, he tells them, “Keep awake” (13:37). To “keep awake” is to grasp the kind of hope that inspires and to renounce the kind of hope that incapacitates. It is to feed on the hope that propels and to starve the hope that paralyzes. It is the gospel hope that tells us not to “wait and see” but to “come and see.”

Em Musa, a grandmother in Ramallah, Palestine, knows that “just waiting” is a luxury she and her community cannot afford. Married at 20, mother to four children, Em Musa had more than enough responsibilities to occupy her time. But she also knew that her community in Palestine could not wait for progress. So, she chose to work toward justice for her people by becoming active in the Palestinian resistance movement. To this day, she bears the scars of this decision. In her time as an activist, she was wounded on her forehead, shot in her left thigh and imprisoned for almost a year and a half. Her husband passed away after her release, when their youngest child was just two-and-a-half years old.

Today, Em Musa participates in a Meals on Wheels project in Ramallah that is supported, in part, by ELCA World Hunger. The aim of the program is to help people isolated by health, age or circumstance experience a sense of community in addition to the food provided. The weekly gatherings help participants build connections with one another and with volunteers and staff, while home delivery of food meets the needs of people unable to come to the Arab Women’s Union due to health or limited mobility. A physician is available once a week, and the Meals on Wheels program helps distribute some of the medication needed by participants such as Em Musa.

Em Musa’s thirst for justice led her to costly activism, and now her hunger, for both food and community, has led her to the Meals on Wheels program. The ministries and programs supported by ELCA World Hunger are driven forward not merely by a deep awareness of the need in our communities but also by an even deeper awareness that, amid struggles for justice and wholeness, God will “strengthen [us] to the end” (I Cor. 1:8) — and what an end it will be!

As we enter this season of Advent, may we do so knowing that to hope in God is not to wait but to “keep awake,” not to lose hope when faced with challenges but to confront them together. To hope is to know that the coming of Christ happens amid daily life and all its struggles. It is amid those things where relationships are birthed and renewed and where God is, even now, at work.

Ask

1. Where have you found hope in the past year?
2. How can or has hope for the future motivated you to work for justice in the present?
3. What is your hope for the future? How is God calling you to make this hope a reality?
4. How is the church called to “keep awake” amid the suffering and injustices uncovered by the pandemic and all that has happened this year?
5. What can we do to make sure that our Advent discipline of “staying awake” does not become passive waiting?

Pray

Gracious God, you sustain your people through seasons of change and challenge. Breathe into us your Spirit, drive us from our waiting places and into the world to be part of the promise you proclaim. Inspire us with hope and courage to confront our needs — for justice, for health, for liberation, for one another and for you — and restore our relationships with one another and with all of creation. In the name of your son, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Scott Moore, Erfurt, Germany

Warm-up Question

How can you tell when someone is authentic or real? 

Preparing the Way for Non-Fake News

What do a lab in Sheffield, England, villages in Zimbabwe and Madagascar, and a start up in Bangkok, Thailand all have in common? If you said eating insects, then you were correct. In order to combat malnutrition, scientists in England are developing better ways to raise a protein and fat rich grub worm which is a delicacy in Zimbabwe. In Madagascar, there have been successful attempts to grow a bean plant which is the natural food source for the sakondry,  a small hopping insect, considered a tasty snack by the locals (they say when fried it tastes like bacon). The villages which have started growing and harvesting sakondry have reduced the hunting of the endangered local lemur. In Bangkok, Exofood labs has seen immense growth in the sale and consumption of various types of insects. They are hoping to meet this growing need. 

Throughout time, insects have been a part of the diet of many different cultures. High in protein, they require much fewer resources (such as water) to produce than animal sources.  Insects are seen as a future answer to the ecological difficulties posed by the various industries geared to meat production. Even in the Western Northern hemisphere, more and more stores offer products made from insects and worms. Time will tell if more people will choose a grub salad over chicken or a locust burger over beef. 

Discussion Questions

• When have you accidentally eaten an insect?
• When have you eaten an insect on purpose?
• What do you imagine it is like eating insects such as grasshoppers or grubs you see eaten on reality tv shows?
• Would you ever consider eating insects as a regular part of your diet?
• Which insects would you like to try first?

Second Sunday of Advent

Isaiah 40:1-11

2 Peter 3:8-15a

Mark 1:1-8

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

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

Gospel Reflection

The Gospel of Mark wastes no time getting to the point. There are no angels, no shepherds, no Magi from the East. No description  of Jesus’ family tree or stories of his birth. For Mark, none of those stories are important. They are just backstory. “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the son of God.” There it is—plain and simple. 

Yet before Jesus makes his first appearance, we hearers are prepared for this holy story, just as were the people back then. We experience John before we experience Jesus. Mark gives us  a narrative filter through which we can understand what is to come.  A trustworthy source, the prophet Isaiah, lets us know that a messenger will be sent to prepare the way. 

John calls his hearers to turn their lives around and look to the one who is to come. However, John seems  to be a bit of a weirdo. Out in the desert, wearing camel hair and eating wild honey and locusts. These locusts aren’t just some kind meal which shows that John is  somewhat out there. No, locusts are insects which, according to Jewish kosher laws, are ok to eat. John is keeping kosher. He is an observant Jew. He is authentic. He is legitimate. This messenger is the real deal—nothing fake about him. And, if John is the real deal, then he can be trusted. His witness inspires lots of people from all around to come and make a new start, confessing their sins. 

John could have let things stop right there for all those who came to be baptized, but he doesn’t. John takes all the attention he gets and points to Jesus. “There is one more powerful coming. I am not even worthy to tie his sandals. He will baptize with the Holy Spirit.” John’s honest and authentic witness, legitimized by his way of life (including his bug eating), helps us to trust that the news about Jesus is real and good and even really good. 

It is often that way with us in our lives. When we know someone in our family or circle of friends is honest, someone with integrity, we are willing to trust them. If we trust them in small things, we will likely trust them in big matters. We can all think of people we trust because of the solid and consistent lives they lead. We listen differently when they speak. 

Others listen to us differently when they know we are honest and trustworthy. Maybe they trust our recommendations about a book, a movie, or the best way to do the homework assignment. Maybe, just maybe, because people see how we treat others and how we face difficult situations in our lives, they look up to us. Then we have to point beyond ourselves to one who loves us and gives us strength. 

Discussion Questions

• When did you last follow someone else’s recommendation?
• When have you been inspired to act more positively because of someone else in your life?
• Who has been an important example in your faith life? When were they a good influence?
• What good things in your life could you point to God/Jesus and say that that is the reason for it?
• When have you intentionally said or done something that pointed someone else to Jesus/God?

Activity Suggestions

• “Snack Time” with John the Baptist–These days, local stores as well as online sources offer a variety of edible insects, even locusts. Perhaps, you could get a “little closer” to the John in this gospel text and try some locusts and wild honey. 
• Discuss  the song ,“Waiting for the Son”  (on Free Parking by Spirit Garage Bands (CD 2001) on iTunes, Spotify, and SoundCloud).

Closing Prayer

O God of forgiveness and new starts in life, sometimes we find ourselves walking in a direction that seems further and further from you. Call out to us. Send messengers to us so that with their help we can find our way back to you. Help us to find ways to also be an authentic guide for others who have lost their way. We ask this in the name of the one who is truly good news, Jesus Christ. Amen. 

November 30 marks the official end of a busy, record-breaking Atlantic hurricane season. However, further tropical activity is still possible beyond this date. We’re taking a look at some of the numbers that made this season one for the record books. Thank you for your continual support for Lutheran Disaster Response as we continue to accompany impacted communities through the East Coast, Gulf Coast, and Central America.

More information about our current hurricane response can be found here.

You can download this report as a PDF here.

Like Lutheran Disaster Response on Facebook, follow @ELCALDR on Twitter, and follow @ELCA_LDR on Instagram.

During the Advent season we often talk a lot about the Holy Land of the past without talking much about the Holy Land of the present. What is going on in Bethlehem today? How are we called to accompany our Palestinian siblings in love, joy, hope, peace, and justice? What does this mean for our own advent journey?

Join ELCA Young Adults and ELCA Peace Not Walls starting Nov 30 for an Advent Pilgrimage in Palestine. This is a young adult led initiative that can be used by people of all ages.

Over the course of the 4 weeks of Advent young adults from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land will lead us on this pilgrimage through story, education, and theological reflection.

Every Monday of Advent we will share a video reflection and every Wednesday of Advent we will share a written blog post, accompanied by discussion questions and actionable items you can use with small groups.

Register here to receive Advent Pilgrimage in Palestine resources by email and/or to register for our opening educational webinar on Monday, November 30 8:30-9:30pm EST.

Follow at #AdventInPalestine!

Email peacenotwalls@elca.org

“How long, O Lord?”

Let’s face it, all those goals we had at the end of 2019 were pretty hard to come by this year. I remember ending last year thinking #newdecadenewme but, let’s be real, #newdecadewtf feels a bit more apropos. Advent is a season of expectation. A new beginning. A season of hope.

This year didn’t quite fill me with the warm and tinglies, you know? A lot can be said of our collective consciousness’ evolution this year. As a people, many were sheltered in place and forced to pay attention to atrocities, injustices occurring within our borders. George Floyd, Ahmaud Aubery, and Breonna Taylor have become household names for the most violent of reasons. I’ve found myself wondering over and over again, “how long, Lord?” When will it be enough? When will Black and Brown death stop being sensationalized and give way to systems, powers and principalities falling?

Black Lives Matter demonstration in LA.

From Palestine to the Bronx

I think back to my travels to Palestine with Peace Not Walls just over a year ago. So much of what we saw looked apocalyptic. Some structures were decaying, there was overcrowding in some places, and the general sense of stifled potential. Yet, within those buildings, was a richness that could fill generations with life and vitality. Behind those walls are the brightest of smiles, the most generous of persons, the most perseverant of souls. What happens to a person who in the midst of constant barrages of the most heinous acts of violence and oppression, still chooses to find joy and hold onto hope when peace and justice elude them?

Annette (author) on a Peace Not Walls Pilgrimage in early 2019

Over these last 10 months, the world has seen massive changes. Universal changes have encumbered everything, everywhere. I could never imagine a world where I, a wanderlust to my core, would be hesitant to go to an airport, let alone enter an airplane and travel to destinations unknown. Quarantine has forced many of us to look inward, to examine those things we think of as commonplace and trite, the unalienable, the shades of gray.  It has challenged indiscriminately and yet, within that, those who have been perpetually marginalized, cannot catch a break.

I come from the Bronx in New York where we have approximately 1.5 million people, yet we are the city with the poorest health in the state, the highest asthma rates in the country, and just over a quarter of the populace lives at or below poverty level. How can we live when the cards are stacked against us?

Life Abounds

I’ll tell you right now, I don’t have the answers. What stands out most though, in the midst of this catastrophe, is the human response in our communities. Both in Palestine and in the Bronx, people are suffering because of injustice that is intentional and atrocious. Yet in these places, and countless other communities like it, there is a hope and a joy that eludes the oppressor. A peace in the midst of the constant threat of ambush. A certainty that in spite of the risks of living, it would be a shame to not live our one life to the utmost fullest.

Neighbors showing up to call for justice.

You see that in vecinas picking up food for other women in their building that are at work but need assistance from neighborhood food pantries to feed their kids. You see it outside of buildings when someone blasts their stereo and the whole block erupts in dance. Windows and fire escapes alight with kids and grandparents bopping. Guys and Gals just dancing to the percussion of the salsa beat. You see it in children’s laughter when they crank open a fire hydrant and play as though they were in an oceanic oasis and not the tenements they’re confined to.

That is what I think is the greatest reminder that Advent can offer us. Evil abounds, but so does life. God calls us to live abundantly, fully reliant on the knowledge that tomorrow is not guaranteed but today is. If there’s anything this year has taught us, it’s that we need to slow down. Only then, can we really stop and see those things that are plaguing our world, and work intentionally to change it. We can change today.

Happy in Hope

As I was writing this reflection, Pauls’s words in Romans 12:9-12, came to mind.

Romans 12:9-12 (CEB) tells us, “Love should be shown without pretending. Hate evil and hold on to what is good. Love each other like the members of your family. Be the best at showing honor to each other. Don’t hesitate to be enthusiastic—be on fire in the Spirit as you serve the Lord! Be happy in your hope, stand your ground when you’re in trouble, and devote yourselves to prayer.”

Discussion Questions:

1. Could these words, written by the Apostle Paul in the first century AD, still hold the key to finding joy and holding onto hope when peace and justice elude us?
2. When the odds are perpetually stacked against us, what does it take to live into the words of Paul in Romans?
3. Paul mentions love, goodness, honor, enthusiasm, hope, being resolute, and devotion – how do you see these practiced by perpetually oppressed populations? How do you view them?
4. At the risk of sounding trite, yes, if 2020 has reminded us of anything, it’s that life is a long road and the steps are steep, but what is the one step you will take today to create change?

Annette Rodriguez is a Nuyorican, Bronx native. She was born and raised a PK (Pastor’s Kid) and always promised herself she’d never wind up as an actual Pastor ::insert sardonic laughter::. After attending NYU for undergrad and receiving an MBA from Hofstra University, Annette decided to finally listen to the tugging in her spirit and reluctantly, but faithfully attended Duke Divinity School.  Now, she is lead pastor of Woodycrest United Methodist Church in the Bronx. Annette is passionate about sharing the prophetic word of God’s love with all people. She is convinced that God has a wry sense of humor and love that permeates all our perceived faults.

Photo Credits:

1. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-06-21/black-lives-matter-los-angeles-patrisse-cullors-melina-abdullah
2. NC
3. https://www.businessinsider.com/nyc-contact-tracers-not-asking-people-attend-george-floyd-protest-2020-6

Scholar Seth Moland-Kovash, Palatine, IL

Warm-up Question

What is the oldest human-made object you’ve ever seen in person?

God’s Word Will Not Pass Away

Geologists estimate the Grand Canyon started forming 6 million years ago. “Sue,” The Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton at the Field Museum in Chicago is estimated to be 65 million years old. The Great Wall of China was built in 221 BCE. Stonehenge is estimated to have been built around 2000 BCE. The world is full of very old things, things that have lasted a long time. Sometimes those are things humans made and sometimes they are naturally occurring. Either way, we are surrounded by things that have lasted a very, very long time.

Archeologists in Egypt have been making some very interesting discoveries recently. In November of 2020, they discovered 200 sarcophagi (or coffins) from around 500 BCE. Scholars found them in an area that acted as a necropolis (or cemetery) for the ancient capital of Memphis. They are probably the bodies of priests or high-ranking court officials and will teach us a lot about ancient Egyptian society. 

Discussion Questions

• What do you think about when you see something as old as the sarcophagi from ancient Egypt?
• What are you most curious about concerning life 2500 years ago?
• What from your life would you want to last, so that your great-great-grandchildren could see or know it?

First Sunday of Advent

Isaiah 64:1-9

1 Corinthians 1:3-9

Mark 13:24-37

(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 A at Lectionary Readings.)

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

Gospel Reflection

As we enter the season of Advent and a new church year, our Gospel readings encourage us to look forward. We look forward to the time when Jesus will come again. Jesus tells his disciples in today’s reading that heaven and earth may pass away, but God’s word will not pass away. Generations come and go. Kingdoms and empires have come and gone since Jesus’ words. But the promise of God is eternal.

The promise of God, sealed in our baptism and spoken over us, is that we are God’s beloved children.  And nothing can take that away. The season of Advent reminds us that Jesus is coming. We look back in memory to the time when Jesus came as a little boy to Bethlehem. At the same time, we look forward with trust and hope to the time when Jesus will come again. That is the sure promise – no matter how long it takes and no matter how many generations come and go, God’s promise that Jesus will come to bring true justice and true peace to the world will never be broken.

Discussion Questions

• Do you light Advent candles or an Advent wreath in your home to mark these weeks? How might doing so help you focus your waiting?
• How hard is it for you to be patient? What is it like for you to wait for some promised gift or special event?
• What helps you to trust a promise? Does it help to have a reminder or some little hints of evidence?  

Activity Suggestions

Write an Advent/Christmas card to senior or shut-in members of your congregation. Remind them that God loves them and nothing can take that away.

Closing Prayer

Eternal God, remind us that you are always with us, you have always been with us and always will be with us. Amen.

This Fall, ELCA World Hunger was invited to join leaders from Arizona via Zoom at the first statewide gathering of advocates and friends hosted by Lutheran Advocacy Ministry Arizona (LAMA).

John Johnson, program director for domestic policy for the ELCA, highlights the importance of this work to the work God calls this church to pursue:

Our return on investment for advocacy is one of the great untold successes of the ELCA. Our federal and state advocacy leverages BILLIONS of public dollars annually for vulnerable populations at home and abroad. In 2020, with COVID-19 recovery packages in Congress, Lutherans have engaged policy makers to the tune of trillions of dollars.

Ryan Cumming spoke about the importance of advocacy in the work and mission of the church and the difference between responding to hunger and ending it.

By: Rev. Stephen Herr

The crossroads town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, became the site of the largest battle in the American Civil War when the network of ten roads that lead into its town center, known today as Lincoln Square, brought together Union and Confederate armies on July 1-3, 1863. These three fateful days of fierce combat resulted in more than 51,000 casualties and the first major Southern defeat in the East. President Abraham Lincoln came to Gettysburg later that year to dedicate a final resting place for the Union soldiers who had died during the battle. The 16th President of these United States would walk and ride along those same streets, ending at the apex of Cemetery Hill to deliver what is now known throughout the world as the Gettysburg Address. In his speech, Lincoln reminded the nation of America’s founding ideal that all persons are created equal.  He then challenged Americans to complete the unfinished work of the founders.

This summer marked the 157th anniversary of the battle, the town would have normally been abuzz with tourists, students, and history enthusiasts. The streets of Gettysburg, however, have been largely quiet in wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Just as in 1863, the nation is at a crossroads. This year has brought a pandemic, racial unrest, anti-racism protests, and calls for reform and change. The same thoroughfares that opposing armies traversed in 1863 have been filled with people standing in unity amidst a new crossroads in history. They have come to remember, lament, repent, and pray.

The Lament and Repent Prayer Vigil sponsored by the Gettysburg Area Ministerium corresponded with the commemoration of the 5th anniversary of the shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. On June 17, 2015, Clementa C. Pinckney, Cynthia Marie Graham Hurd, Susie Jackson, Ethel Lee Lance, DePayne Middleton-Doctor, Tywanza Sanders, Daniel Lee Simmons, Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, and Myra Thompson were murdered when a self-professed white supremacist entered the church where they were conducting a Bible study and opened fire. Last summer the Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) adopted a resolution to commemorate June 17 as a day of repentance for the martyrdom of the Emanuel Nine.

Gettysburg is home to a number of Lutheran institutions, including two congregations— Christ Lutheran and St. James Lutheran—United Lutheran Seminary, Gettysburg College, and SpiriTrust Lutheran, a social ministry organization. In the wake of national unrest and protests calling for racial justice and an end to racism, the local Lutheran congregations began to consider how they might provide opportunities for prayer, conversation, education, and action. At the same time, the Gettysburg Area Ministerium, an ecumenical gathering of religious leaders, discussed how it might best address racial injustice and racism. The Reverend Dr. Fred Young, Ministerium chair, highlighted the group’s more than seventy-year history of ecumenical collaboration for worship, social action, and outreach. With that history of a vibrant ecumenical spirit, discussions were underway for the Ministerium to host a community-wide event to emphasize unity while also providing opportunities for lamentation and repentance for racism still prevalent in churches and throughout the nation. Young declared, “There is an energy that clearly suggests we are in this pandemic of illness and social injustice, together.”

Pastor Jay Eckman from Christ Lutheran Church invited the planning group to consider holding the event in conjunction with the commemoration of the Emanuel Nine. Eckman shared the ELCA resolution with his ecumenical colleagues and the planners spent considerable time processing their emotions surrounding the myriad of issues facing the community and nation. Together the planners joined in prayerful consideration, seeking to discern what God was calling people of faith to do in this moment. Eckman noted that the group decided that the way to begin was to come before God in prayer on June 17 and invite the community to participate.

The Ministerium resolved to hold small outdoor gatherings throughout the downtown area. Each congregation was assigned a location along the four main streets emanating from Lincoln Square. Organizers structured the gathering sites such that they formed a cross with the town square in the center. At each location, one of the pastors led a brief prayer service of remembrance, lament, and repentance with the goal of fostering unity and hope. Ministerium Secretary Jenn Vintigni requested participants to wear masks and observe social distancing in accordance with guidelines from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the Center for Disease Control.  Fourteen different congregations participated in the event—including both ELCA Lutheran congregations in Gettysburg along with representatives from the seminary and college. “It was a wonderful public witness,” commented Eckman, who joined with Pastor Stephen Herr in leading a service from the historic front steps of Christ Lutheran Church. There, on July 1, 1863, Army Chaplain Horatio Howell, a Presbyterian minister and chaplain of the 90th Pennsylvania Volunteers, had been shot and killed as he emerged from Christ Lutheran where he was tending to the needs of wounded Union soldiers. On June 17, participants gathered in front of the church with its memorial tablet to Howell in remembrance of the deaths of those who were killed at Emanuel AME Church.

The same streets that witnessed bloodshed, suffering, and grief in 1863 served as a meeting place for church goers, community members, clergy, seminarians, and visitors from a wide array of Christian traditions. They came together in a socially distanced manner to remember the Emanuel Nine, pray for racial justice, stand against racism, and call for unity and peace. The Reverend James Dunlop, who serves as bishop of the Lower Susquehanna Synod, indicated it was “deeply moving being with a group of people to lament and repent in prayer.” He went on to share how significant it was to stand in a cruciform way across the town to witness and remember.  Jeremiah Herbert, the lead pastor at the Intersection Church—an Assembly of God congregation—expressed how grateful he was for the diversity of ecumenical partners. Participating churches included four congregations from the ELCA’s full communion partners: The Episcopal Church, the United Church of Christ, the Presbyterian Church (USA), and the United Methodist Church, as well as congregations from the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, The Assemblies of God, Foursquare Church, the Baptist Church, the Church of God, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Almost three hundred people, positioned at twelve different locations, participated in the event. Motorists slowed and engaged the group, with some offering support and others expressing disfavor.  Those encounters led Pastor Andrew Geib from St. James Lutheran Church to observe how much anti-racism work is needed in Gettysburg and around the nation. Community and faith leaders echoed his thoughts.  Local activist groups have held protests in Lincoln Square to raise awareness. Gettysburg officials, including the mayor and chief of police, recently joined with faith and community leaders on Lincoln Square to pray together and commit to working towards greater racial justice in Gettysburg. Pastor Michael Stanley from St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in Gettysburg helped lead that gathering in prayer. Gettysburg area churches, community officials and leaders, and activist groups are all exploring ways to raise awareness concerning racism, facilitate conversations, educate, and take action. While this unfinished work looms large, Geib appreciated this meaningful beginning. “Standing with members of the congregation and community, reflecting on words from Psalm 42, and listening to the church bell toll in remembrance of the Emanuel Nine was one of the most powerful moments of my pastoral ministry.”

Most historians consider the battle of Gettysburg to be a significant turning point in the American Civil War. While the war would continue for two more years, Gettysburg marked the beginning of the decline and eventual fall of the Confederacy. Here in this pivotal place, those gathering to commemorate the Emanuel Nine expressed a hope that America would seize this moment as an opportunity to confront its past and embrace a future dedicated to the eradication of racism. Following the service in front of Christ Lutheran, Elizabeth Peter found herself reflecting on the gathering taking place in Gettysburg and those around the nation. “This is the first time in my lifetime that I’ve seen this much attention to the pain and grief of black people and an actual desire to address systemic racism in all spectrums of our lives.” This recent graduate from United Lutheran Seminary cast a hopeful vision of what could emerge: “I do believe this can be a turning point if people lean into the challenge of learning, growing, and putting aside what you think you may know and really dig into the trauma caused by the history of racism in this country.”  Julie Jackson, who began her internship at Christ Lutheran in August, attended with a number of seminarians hoping that the commemoration service ignites a fire in the ELCA. “I pray that this fire for justice burns and spreads throughout our congregations to end the uncomfortable silence that surrounds talking about racial justice and understanding.” For Jackson, who has an interracial family, the commemoration and anti-racism work are never far from her mind. “I am exhausted from bearing the burden of trying to explain why I am so disgusted by the racial injustice in this country.” Jackson’s exhaustion and perspective further highlights the sense of urgency and necessity for communities around the nation to commit themselves to the important work of racial justice.

On that Dedication Day of November 19, 1863, Lincoln stood over the graves of soldiers who gave their lives fighting to preserve the Union and to bring an end to slavery. “It is rather for us,” proclaimed Lincoln, “to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us.”  And so, on this, the 157th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address, a great task remains before the nation and the church today. The unfinished work of dismantling systemic racism and ensuring racial equality throughout this nation and within the churches of Jesus Christ endures. The American republic finds itself at a crossroads. Gettysburg’s prayerful commemoration of the Emanuel Nine bore witness to the continuing necessary struggle to address the unfinished work of racial justice with humility, hopefulness, and a prayerful openness and commitment to learn, grow, and unite.

The Rev. Stephen Herr is the senior pastor of Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church in Gettysburg, PA. He is also serves as president of the Lutheran Historical Society of the Mid-Atlantic and president of the Lincoln Fellowship of Pennsylvania.