There is no such thing as a safe space. This may sound of despair on this cozy night of candles and carols and close-knit gatherings. But let this not be the case. To imagine we are ever truly and fully safe is to miss the point of this story that is born in vulnerability, threat, and uncertainty. Indeed, this is where it lives, where it thrives. This is where God meets us.
 
There is no such thing as a safe space, although we can, we should, and we do certainly make spaces safer—by amplifying the voices that elsewhere fight to be heard, by sharing and caring for wounds and woundedness, by turning down the volume of divisiveness and deceit!
 
Even more, in the visitation and song of these angels among us, in the story of our ancestors and ancestry, and in the child and all that surrounds the child’s story we seek not so much safe space, but brave space. In this birth we are reborn. In this death-dealing story we are surrounded by good news of great joy. We find ourselves ever braver, stronger, more joyful as we live into the fullness of what has come and is coming. 
 
Come and rest. Come and share. Come and adore him. Enter into worship. 

READINGS: Isaiah 9:2-6 † Psalm 96 † Titus 2:11-14 † Luke 2:1-14 (15-20)

Join us online or in-person Christmas Eve, Saturday, December 24th at 5:00pm. Click on the video link below.

On Christmas Day all Christians sing…” Of course we do! Not only do we sing, we ponder the wonder of the incarnation, with Mary AND the Word. “In the beginning was the Word” And with this pondering, we sing about it, offering ‘comfort and joy’ to all. Join us for worship Sunday morning Christmas Day.

Come and rest. Come and share. Come and adore him. 

READINGS: Isaiah 52:7-10 † Psalm 98 † Hebrews 1:1-14 † John 1:1-14

Enter into worship. Click on the video below.

About the Art: Wesley, Frank, 1923-2002. Nativity with Women Attending, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=59184 [retrieved December 18, 2022]. Original source: Estate of Frank Wesley, http://www.frankwesleyart.com/main_page.htm.

When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him;
~Matthew 1:24
 
Dreams, angels, the subconscious, principalities, powers. Call it what you will. There is likely more we don’t know than we do about what to literally make of these stories. But most of us likely know something about those inner voices that speak to us with a prescience, of warning, of promise, of a deep sense of what is or what is coming.
 
Immediately after Joseph resolves to quietly dismiss Mary to an uncertain and fraught future without him for the child that is not his, he is confronted with a counter call to courage, to faith.
 
And he listens!
 
If only Ahaz (Isaiah 7) had done the same thing.
 
Joseph listens—like Mary, like Elizabeth, like Zechariah before him, like the 42 generations of ancestors Matthew lists just before this story. He listens and responds with courage. Don’t be afraid, Joseph. And the result seems to be a developed ear for faith. He gets two more visitations that steer him and his family from the danger that awaits as the story unfolds. He grows an ear for the God who comes to him with goodwill. And the future unfolds in blessing and safety.
 
Most of us know something about that inner voice, that voice that speaks good, not harm, that sets our future path. Let us tune our ears to the promise of the birthing, saving, rising one Advent promises.

​READINGS: Isaiah 7:10-16 † Psalm 80:1–7, 17–19 † Romans 1:1-7 † Matthew 1:18-25

​Enter into worship. Click on the video below.

​La Tour, Georges du Mesnil de, 1593-1652. The Angel Visiting Joseph in a Dream, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=46742 [retrieved December 12, 2022]. Original source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Georges_de_La_Tour_022.jpg.

​“I believe complete joy is a deep groundedness, a solid sense of being upheld and supported, and a profound peace that encourages you to feel the pure, unhindered heights of life’s beauty. I think it looks like forgiveness and trust. I think it looks like ease and authenticity. I think it looks like relief. I realized that in the interest of protecting myself from my own pain, anger, and grief, that I’d actually stifled my ability to truly feel joy. I started painting this the day I decided to begin the journey to complete joy. I know it will be a long and difficult process, but I think it’s worth it.”
~ Lauren Wright Pittman, Artist
 
There are prophets amongst us. Speaking to us in darkness. Pointing to the light. There is a prophetic voice in you. It’s the anger we feel when we see suffereing. It’s the pain we feel when we, or someone else, is wronged. It’s the grief we feel when life is cut short. We know what full-life should look and feel like, and we want it for ourselves and others. This is a holy gift. God has also gifted us community and beauty and love. Responses to the darkness. Ways to overcome the darkness and bring us to life that is joyful and full for all.
 
Come worship God who bears us through the darkness and gifts us the way of love.[i]

Readings for Sunday: Isaiah 35:1-10 † Luke 1:39-56 † James 5:7-10 † Matthew 11:2-11

Enter into worship. Click on the video link below.​

​A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch shall grow out of his roots.
The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him,
the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the spirit of counsel and might,
the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.
~Isaiah 11:1-3a
 
We are in an age of transformation. Of this, there is little doubt. Let’s say it more starkly: we are in a moment shaped by death and dying which is the only real way to new life. So much that we have known about our institutions, our systems of governance and stability, our frames of reference and understanding, about gender and sexuality and racial privilege, the basis for knowledge and confidence, even, and perhaps acutely, the church(!) are failing us.
 
This is not easy territory for those who liked what was, who benefitted from it. The dying of something is a painful, wrenching process. It is journey filled with heartbreak and it often fills us with shame for our perceived failure and impotence. This too needs to die. Navigating such landscapes is a slog; it requires incredible effort for little immediate reward. And, yet, astonishingly, this is the place where our faith is made known, where the Holy appears.
 
Clear-cut landscapes and wilderness, fire, and flood. God is found in these places, of all places. Shoots of newness from an old stump. A voice of truth—of judgment and promise—in the wilderness. Do you perceive it? Do you hear the good news in it?
 
Apocalyptic texts like these we encounter in early Advent are not about the end of the world. They are about its transformation. It’s renewal. It’s redeemed future, and ours. They point the way where God’s creation is bubbling, is blooming, is bursting with new life.
 
From the nurse log of Isaiah sprouts shoots of growth: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, fear of the Lord. These are the seven Spirit gifts derived from this Isaiah text. They lay the foundation for what is coming and is indeed here. 

​Readings for Sunday: Isaiah 11:1-10 † Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19 † Romans 15:4-13 † Matthew 3:1-12

Enter into worship. Click on the video link below.​