Sadly, the only remnants of this modernist marvel are those three concrete pillars, standing defiantly above the ashes like the Holy Trinity. A great reminder for us that in moments of crisis, our faith can feel precarious at times. But the thing is, it’s not. Faith is absolutely rational simply because when it comes down to it, it's not about our faith per se, but God’s faith in us.

As we continue our journey through Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, we learn a few things about God’s faithfulness. So far we’ve discovered grace was given to us from the beginning of time And that out of great love for us, we are no longer dead because of our sin, but we are alive in Christ, the manifestation of God’s love given to the world.
 
This grace and love, according to Paul’s letter, has nothing to do with anything we have accomplished. Instead, it’s all about what God has done for us…in Christ. More than saving us from something, God is rebuilding us for something. At the heart of this rebuilding is God’s radical, unifying love that tears down walls, heals old wounds, and creates a living, breathing community that reflects God’s presence in the world.

Bathing in its light, I thought about how King David wanted to build a temple for God because he felt guilty that he was living in a luxurious palace while the ark of God remained in a tent.
 
In this story, God asks David: “Are you the one to build me a house to live in?” (2 Samuel 7:5). It seems David was blinded by his own desires, and missed a very important point: God doesn’t need a house to dwell in, because God has chosen to dwell in us.
 
Although La Sagrada is truly the most amazing building ever imagined, the Bible teaches us that God doesn’t need more church buildings. God needs us to just be the church, the living Body of Christ. A place where God can dwell. And love can thrive. God invites us to play a part in this construction.
 
And so Paul writes, “You who were once far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ” (Ephesians 2:13). We are not separated from Christ, but in Christ we are drawn into God’s redemptive purpose for creation.
 
I know what it feels like to be disconnected— allowing my wounds, fears, and endless excuses to isolate me from God and others. But this is precisely the space where Christ comes to draw us back to God. And unite us with one another.

Christ is the blueprint used to connect and reconstruct us with God, and God with us. Like Paul writes in another letter, “It is not I who lives, but Christ who lives in me” (Galatians. 2:20).
 
Most religious people still think God is just somewhere out there. And if we do these rituals and say the right prayers we get access to God. I believe God is out there, because God is everywhere including in here, in you and me.

Richard Rohr reminds us that “True spiritual transformation happens once we realize our union with God right here, right now and it has nothing to do with any performance or achievement on our part.”
 
We are saved, not by what we’ve done but what God has done for us. Remember from last week, “By grace you have been saved, through faith that is not ours” (Ephesians 2:8). God did not send Christ into the world so we could get into heaven. Christ came to get heaven into us.
 
Jesus’ entire ministry was to prepares a place where God’s love could dwell—a everlasting and all-inclusive love that isn’t limited by walls, doctrines, or beliefs. A love that welcomes all as they are - without judgement.
 
Paul emphatically proclaims, Christ smashes down the walls that divide us. He is the master builder, taking a sledgehammer to our old selves, before measuring, cutting, and reframing our hearts and minds to reflect his.

​We are Christ body.  “A temple of the Holy Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 6:19). In him, we are built back better. A Holy and sacred space where God’s presence can reside. But there’s more to this than just being a place for God to visit.
 
Years ago, when my parents were remodeling their home, I suggested they tear down the wall that faced the woods and replace the space with windows. While the contractor wasn’t too happy with this suggestion, it was clearly the right thing to do.  No matter where you sit in their living room you get a view of their amazing and beautiful backyard.
 
In the same way, Christ replaces the walls around our hearts with windows—so we can not only see heaven all around us, but so others can see heaven within us.

This should help us better understand our theme is “building a community of love in the space between.” Achieving this requires new construction—not just in you or me, but in us collectively. Paul uses the plural and not the singular tense to speak to this idea. First, he wrote, “We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works” (Ephesians 2:10).
 
Now Paul confidently states, “In Christ we are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.” Again, this isn’t talking about a brick and mortar building. It’s about hearts that are connected and united in the Spirit of God’s love.

In order for this to happen, we must allow God to reshape us as living temples of love where Christ is the cornerstone. We must allow God’s being and essence to take root in us “so the stranger can enter and become a friend instead of an enemy.”  (Nouwen)
 
As the living embodiment of God’s love in the flesh, Jesus shows us how humility, compassion and grace become the very things that fill Anamesa the space between us and God;  between you and me.

​By following the way of Jesus, we too can embody God’s love— offering others a foretaste of heaven here on earth.
 
Nouwen writes, “I know that I have to move from speaking about Jesus to letting him speak within me, from thinking about Jesus to letting him think within me, from acting for and with Jesus to letting him act through me. I know the only way for me to see the world is to see it through his eyes.”
 
This is what it means to be the church, the very embodiment of Christ who welcomed others without discrimination or judgement.

Jesus teaches us how it can be accomplished: by listening to others with compassion, forgiving with generosity, and demanding every human is treated justly and fairly. 
 
We all play a role in this sacred work. But we don’t do it alone. Those three pillars rising above the ashes over Sunset Boulevard, remind us that God—our Creator, Savior, and Sustainer—is always at work sifting through the damage; rebuilding us from the inside out.
 
It might take years, even decades, to rebuild the homes and communities that were affected by the LA fires. But God’s restoration is happening now. And every time a neighbor help a neighbor, God’s kingdom comes. God’s will is done, on earth as it is in heaven.

With each act of love, charity, and kindness we show, the walls that have divided us crack and crumble.
 
Through it all, God is with us clearing away the rubble of doubt, fear, and pain. And building new hearts full of hope, peace, and love…where Christ is the cornerstone.

“In him the whole structure is joined together.” And for him may we grow together spiritually as a dwelling place for God.
 

Work Cited
Nouwen, Henri J. M. Finding Our Sacred Center: A Journey to Inner Peace. Notre Dame, IN: Ave Maria Press, 2021.
Rohr, Richard. “The Divine in This and in Us.” Daily Meditations. Center for Action and Contemplation, 27 December 2024. Accessed [18 January 2025].

It’s hard to tell an anxious or grief-ridden person that God is not absent in our suffering. It’s hard to hear, much less believe, that God meet us in our deepest grief, our most shattered places, to redeem us and restore us.
 
Like the prophet Isaiah wrote - God gives us "a crown of beauty instead of ashes." Although fire can destroy what is tangible, it cannot consume God’s promise to make all things new from the ashes of our lives.
 
For the next few weeks I want to sit with Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus, that speaks of some of the best qualities of God. And teaches us how to build a community of love in Christ.
 
Last week we learned God’s grace wasn’t given to fix a problem, it was a part of the plan from the very beginning. Today, we’ll see how God’s love, which is great in mercy, is not only sufficient to save and redeem us, it’s also powerful enough to brings life out of death, beauty out of brokenness, and hope out of despair.

Death comes in many forms. More than just the end of one’s physical life, death also marks the end of one’s past – like a career, a relationship, a home. In his letter, Paul boldly  declares, “You were dead in your transgressions and sins.” He doesn’t say you’re sick or struggling, but dead. Cut off from God because of the brokenness that pervades our world – a.k.a. sin.
 
In our discussion last week, Aurora described sin as “anything that is not love.” If we believe God is love, then sin happens whenever we’re not honoring God with our whole heart. According to Paul, this is what killed the human condition – our inability to truly love.
 
This is true for us as individuals and as a church. How quickly we Christians have forgotten the last command Jesus gives us “Love one another as God first love you.” God is love. Without it, we are nothing (1 Cor. 13:2).
 
Although we have died to our sin, Paul doesn’t leave us there. He pivots with two of the most hope-filled words in Scripture: “But God.” In fact, he writes “But God, who is rich in mercy, has made us alive in Christ.” This is resurrection language. Just as Jesus was raised from the dead, we too are raised from the ashes of our sin … to new life in Him. This gift of God’s love made manifest for us in Christ Jesus, is a complete re-creation—a divine rescue from death to life.
 
This doesn’t mean we won’t suffer. We will. You can’t have love and suffer or feel pain. I should know, Kathleen and I just celebrate 26 years of marriage on Thursday. As Jesus’ own suffering revealed, death doesn’t have the final word. But God…does.
 
This is hard for some to hear; including my friend John whose life was upended by the fire.
He lost everything. I’m not surprise he expressed to me his anger with God – to put it nicely. You might be feeling the same way right now. Maybe you’ve been praying, like I have, but the fires in your life are still raging.
 
In an angry text to me, John declared, “Praying was a waste of time. There’s no God.” And yet, immediately after that bold statement, John told me how his son saved an elderly lady stranded in her home. I suspect that woman might have a different opinion about God, who was there, in the flesh of a young man rushing to her rescue.
 
I get what John is feeling. I have felt loss before. Just not on that scale. It’s easy to pray and pretend everything is going to be okay from afar. It’s difficult to believe anything is real when your reality is altered like this. It’s hard to see God’s presence when you’re in shock. It’s hard to have faith when your life is being taken from you. But that’s when you need it the most.

 
God meets us where we are, offering love that is rich in mercy, and grace that was built into the foundation life. To put it in perspective, both John and the woman lost their homes. Between the two, only her life was in mortal danger. Yet, God was, and still is, there for both of them –
at the ready - to offer a new life from the ashes of their past.
 
God is there for you too, doing the same sacred work: resurrecting us from death and giving us new life in Christ. Writing from prison, Paul knows we’re unable to save ourselves. But God … can. Because God is always with us in Christ, we can always count on God to reach into the flames of our burning life and save us. This saving grace has nothing to do with anything we’ve done. Instead, it’s all about what God chooses to do for us.
 
We live in a world that measures worth by achievement. We’re taught to believe that success, love, and even acceptance must be earned. But God’s salvation is not a reward for good behavior, or a prize for our efforts. It’s already been given to us freely in Christ - the divine stamp of approval God etched into each one of us.
 
Yes, if you love you will suffer. The gift of Christ eases our pain and saves us by moving us closer to God. As Paul points out, or as my friend’s son inadvertently taught us, we’re not just saved from something. God has saved us for something. Salvation is less about rescue and more about participating in God’s ongoing work of restoration.
 
Barbra Brown Taylor beautifully describes salvation as something that happens “every time someone with a key uses it to open a door he could have locked.” Like Paul reminds the church, “We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works.”
 
The Greek word for “workmanship” is “poema,” where we get the word “poem.” Each of us is God’s poem - a unique expression of Divine artistry, crafted with intention and purpose. Salvation is not just rescue, it’s an invitation to live differently – to die to our old self and become something new.
 
At the center of this new life is our love for God, our love for one another, and our service to both. It is a call to love with “God-intoxication and compassion for others that knows no limits.…” (McFague).
 
While I have been intentional to stay away from news, there are so many heartwarming stories I’m hearing of people helping one another – opening their homes, donating goods, paying for gas and hotel rooms. Many of these were people had lost everything themselves, but were still compelled to help.
 
There’s a story of a women who met a family, like herself, that had escaped with only the clothes they were wearing. She knew she couldn’t fix their situation. But she could take the family to Target with her and buy them the basic essentials needed to begin the long journey ahead. In that one act of compassion, God’s grace and glory was revealed in human suffering and grief.
 
The Buddhist have a saying, Life is a thousand joys. And a thousand sorrows. Our job, as Christ followers, is to use our joy to reduce the sorrow around us. This doesn’t erase our losses. But can minimize it for others. Through us, our merciful and abundant God meets us in the ashes, and transforms our pain into a testimony of love.
 
As we look ahead to what is next, to the long journey of rebuilding our city and the neighborhoods that help us thrive, let us not forget that homes can be rebuilt. But God wants to rebuild your heart by making you alive in Christ.
 
Yes, the road to redemption is paved with pain and suffering. But God’s love remains steadfast - always with us. When John unleashed his fury to God - by directing at me I realized what it truly meant to be the face of Christ - to be a safe place for him to unload his pain. I don’t know how God can hold so much of our suffering. But God…can. “With God, all things are possible.” (Mt. 19:26)
 
As we go out this week, may we live as resurrected people, walking in the good works God has prepared for us. May your live proclaim the truth that God’s grace is enough to endure the growing pains of life.
 
In Christ’s name let us continue to build a community of love, in the space between where God meets us in the ashes and makes us new again- everyday, everywhere, and always. Amen
 
 
 
 
Work Cited
McFague, Sallie. Life Abundant: Rethinking Theology and Economy for a Planet in Peril (Fortress Press, 2001), 175, 176. 
Taylor, Barbara Brown. Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith. San Francisco: HarperOne, 2006.

There’s a story in the Hebrew Testament where the Hebrew people, having been released from captivity in Egypt, find themselves wandering in the wilderness on their way to the Promised Land. Here’s a small part of their story:
 
From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; but the people became impatient on the way. The people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.” (Numbers 21:4-5)
 
It’s been a struggle for these people, to say the least. For one thing, it’s all new to them. They’ve been in captivity for so long that they know nothing about freedom, let alone how to navigate it.Their entire lives—culture, rules, and norms—have been shaped by a cruel and demanding Pharaoh. But the God of their ancestors heard their cries and liberated them. Now they’re on their own. Feeling like they’ve lost their way, they begin to crumble and complain, even longing to return to the hell they know.
 
Ernest Hemingway, in A Farewell to Arms, wrote: “The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places.” Such a strong statement from a man whose own strength became his crippling weakness. Hemingway’s tragic suicide is a reminder that life is hard. It’s damn near impossible to get through it without suffering cracks along the way. But, as we see in the ancient Japanese art form of kintsugi, there is beauty to be found in these cracks.
 
Kintsugi a way to repair broken pottery using a special lacquer mixed with gold. The goal for the artist is not to hide the cracks but to transform the piece into something new. Each golden line tells a new story, making the object more beautiful and valuable because of its imperfections.
 
I suspect you know what it feels like to be lost and broken. For me, it took a broken marriage to come home to God. The truth is, most of us only seek God when something in our lives is broken, when we’re in need of healing. Kintsugi has reminded me of what God’s redemption looks like. God sees our brokenness and believes we are worth fixing. Still, as both Hemingway and the Hebrew people realized – the path to redemption is often paved with pain and suffering.
 
Yet scripture constantly reminds us that God is always with us – always healing and redeeming us with unconditional love and grace. That love and grace has a name: Christ. He is the bond that puts us back together. He is the gold that fills our scars, giving them new meaning and beauty. Through Him, we become more valuable because of our brokenness.
 
We all carry the scars of our past. But instead of hiding them or pretending they don’t exist, we are called to wear them proudly, knowing they are a living testimony of God’s love and grace. Each golden scar lets the world know we’re worth more to God precisely because of our cracks.

When I see my own scars, I am reminded, not of my brokenness but of God’s goodness. I see them and know that it’s God’s love for me that I’m alive today to tell this story. As we fill in the chips and cracks, the dents and dings, and all the broken and shattered pieces of our lives with the gold that is God's love, let us not forget that we become more beautiful and more valuable than ever.
 

It’s 2025. Can you believe it? When 2000 rolled around, and Y2K was our greatest threat, I never thought I would be where I am today. I’m sure you’re probably thinking the same.

I was a Creative Director in an advertising agency, selling new cars. Or whatever product was given to me. I had no children. And no desire to be a minister, even though I secretly knew I was destined to be both. My life was a bit wild and reckless to say the least.

Looking back at that wild period in our history, I wonder how any of us made it this far. The best answer simply would be to quote Paul, who said it was by the grace of “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us.”
 
Paul tells us, before the foundations of the world, God set this blessing in motion, so we’d be holy and blameless before God in love.

Before all the messes we’ve made or the trouble we found ourselves mixed up in, before our parents conceived us or their parents conceived them, Paul declares, “God destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ.” And God did this simply for “the good pleasure of his will.” 
 
Before the first flower bloomed, or the first human cried, God sowed all “the riches of grace” into the blueprint of creation. Grace was God’s plan all along. And that grace has a name – Christ. 
 
Paul writes, God “has blessed us in Christ.” The Apostle uses this term, “en Christo,” or “in Christ” over 216 times in his epistles. He most often uses it to reveal our union with God, teaching us that our identity, actions, and being are all rooted in God’s love and grace because we are in Christ.
 
Richard Rohr understands the term en Christo as “a codeword for the gracious, participatory experience of salvation.” He argues because we’re made in Christ, we are never separated from God. Christ is the proof that God chose us long before we chose God.
 
Which means Christ wasn’t sent into the world to save us from something we did, but to draw us closer to the source of our being. “We are all in Christ, willingly or unwillingly, happily were unhappy, consciously or unconsciously.”  Because God initiated this, we can live holy and rightly before God “who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing.”
 
It might seem obvious, but spiritual blessings are different than material ones. A person can have great material wealth and be deficient in love, joy, peace, goodness, or any other Spiritual fruit. When our focus is on material wealth, we lose sight of what God abundantly offers. How many times last year did you utter the phrase, “If only I had”? If only I had more money. If only I had a better job. If only I had someone to love.
 
There’s nothing wrong with dreaming big dreams or achieving big goals, as long as we don’t lose sight of the fact that we already have all that we need to obtain those things. In Christ, we are heirs to all the blessings of God’s eternal love. Our job isn’t to keep up with the Jones, but to follow the Spirit of Christ that dwells within us.
 
Yet we still choose to chase after meaningless things – selling ourselves short to belong to some team or tribe. We seek more likes, more followers, we live and die by other people’s opinion. Being a part of things and enjoying a good life is fine, but God has greater goals for you and me. Goals that were set in motion before the earth’s foundations, when God made us “the focus of his love.” ​

 
We belong to God. We are holy and beloved. I believe this is what Paul means when he writes, “In Christ, we have obtained our inheritance.” Adopted by God because that’s God’s will for us.
​
Our greatest blessing is that God loves us no matter who we are or what we’ve done. For that to happen, God sowed grace into creation itself. That grace is the gift of Christ within us, who draws us closer to the One who calls us his beloved.
 
Henri Nouwen taught, “If you dare to believe that you are beloved before you are born, you may suddenly realize that your life is very, very special.” God didn’t choose you for the team because of some ritual you did or prayer you said. God built the team around you – redeeming you and consecrating you from the get-go.

We are in Christ, and Christ is in us. Which means we can live and glorify God in love, without guilt or shame. Talk about a great epiphany!
 
To think God’s love for us reveals not only God’s greatest power made manifest in Christ but it also reveals God’s greatest vulnerability.

What do I mean by that? In order for God’s love to be unconditional like scripture declares, God has to be gracious with God’s own self. Despite whatever we divinely created creatures can do, God’s love must be greater than God’s disappointment, anger, or wrath.
 
Of course, this goes against a lot of fundamentalist Christian teachings that state Christ was sent to fix the problem of sin that snuck in and shook-up God’s plan.

​Personally, I don’t think God’s original design was flawed. Or that God made some kind of mistake that needed correcting. Instead, God made Christ manifest in us so the idea of sin wouldn’t even be an issue. God came to us in human form to show us a way to live rightly and blameless before God.
 
Jesus understood this. He knew he was blessed and consecrated by God, and lived that blessing fully and faithfully. At his baptism, when the heavens opened and God declared “This is my beloved son” Jesus reacted by dedicating the rest of his life to love us, and to reveal to us our own belovedness. 
 
God’s grace isn’t about correcting a divine mistake. It’s given to us, in Christ, to make us aware of our true, divine selves, and to move us forward towards God’s heart, to dwell in God’s eternal love. 
 
This should be a great epiphany for anyone who was told they’re going to burn in hell for all eternity because of who they are or who they love. The mysteries of God’s will, according to Paul, have been “made known to us, according to God’s good pleasure set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather all things in heaven and on earth.” 
 
In Christ, are united together with God. In Christ, we receive the blessings of God’s gracious mercy and forgiveness And in Christ, we stand before God in love. 
 
In Christ we are made, and in Christ we are sent into Anamesa bearing the fruits of the Spirit, in all the ways we love God, love others, and serve both. 
 
This is where our faith in Christ helps us to achieve the faith of Christ who sees others as God does. And loves them all the same. Let us enter this new year, with a new focus on being like him living in loving awareness to all that God has given to us.
 
Let us take our spiritual blessings to awaken the world to God’s glory. And become the epiphany for others to discover who they are - God’s beloved.

 
 
Work Cited:
Nouwen, Henri. You Are The Beloved: Daily Meditations for Spiritual Living. Convergent Books: 2017.
Rohr, Richard. The Universal Christ: How A Forgotten Reality Can Change Everything We See, Hope For, and Believe. Convergent Books: 2019.
 

Comedian Pete Holmes once asked an audience if they were New Year’s celebrators—the kind of people who go all out at midnight, ringing in the new year with wild enthusiasm. When the crowd erupted in applause, Holmes made an intriguing point: “You know it’s been a year since it was today, right? And no one is excited.”
 
It’s a funny observation that begs the question: why don’t we celebrate like this every day?
 
Sure, the idea of throwing a nightly party with noise-makers and confetti cannons might seem over-the-top (and let’s face it, most of us couldn’t stay up until midnight every night even if we tried). But what if we approached each morning with the same sense of fresh possibility that the new year brings? What if we saw every day as a new beginning, brimming with opportunities to serve and build up God’s kingdom?  ​

I thought about this as I watched my three-year-old nephew, Neil, celebrate New Year’s Eve. He was the life of the party—greeting everyone with boundless enthusiasm, as if each person were the best gift ever.

​According to his parents, Neil consistently wakes up and goes to sleep happy, filling the hours in between with his infectious laughter and joy.
 
Henri Nouwen reminded us to welcome all of life with such unbridled delight. He wrote, “We must learn to live each day, each hour, yes, each minute as a new beginning, as a unique opportunity to make everything new.”
 
Although we officially celebrate the New Year on January 1, perhaps we can take a note from Neil’s playbook—welcoming each day with joyful exuberance, knowing it’s pregnant with possibilities to make God’s kingdom come alive in our lives with celebratory joy.

Nothing gets me in Christmas spirit like listening to A Charlie Brown Christmas by the legendary jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi. This timeless album was the soundtrack to the 1965 holiday classic of the same name, which was a staple in my house.
 
But did you know it was the Coca-Cola company who commissioned Charles Schulz to create this Christmas special around his famous comic strip, Peanuts?
 
This beloved story follows Charlie Brown, a kid who always waffles in that space between melancholy and hopeful optimism. In one of those in-between spaces, our hero admits he’s having trouble finding joy in the Christmas season. His friend Linus replies, “Charlie Brown, you’re the only person I know who can take a wonderful season like Christmas and turn it into a problem.”
 
Sometimes finding the Christmas spirit can be difficult. Sometimes it takes a good soundtrack to put you in the mood. Other times it takes a friend, or a community to do it. When Charlie Brown can’t shake that despondent feeling,
 
Lucy suggests he direct the neighborhood Christmas play to lift his spirits. And that’s when things go south for him. You see, the problem with that idea is no one ever listens to Charlie Brown muchless follows his direction.
 
When he buys a tiny, scrappy tree as the centerpiece of the play, everyone, including his beloved dog Snoopy, laughs and ridicules him. Poor Charlie Brown hits rock bottom, and Linus takes the spotlight to recites the Christmas story verbatim from the book of Isaiah.“For unto us a child is born…unto a son is given…”
 
Hearing God’s word transforms the group, who rally together and decorate the tree as a gift to their beleaguered director. By a simple act of kindness, our hopeless hero rediscovers his joy. The closer we get to Christmas, the easier it is to feel like Charlie Brown. The stress and pressure to feel happy can overshadow whatever joy we manage to find. But as Linus reminded us, we have God’s Word to guide us through the hardest times. 

Here's what the Apostle Paul had to say in his letter to the church in Philippi:​

“Rejoice in the Lord always” and “Do not worry about anything.” Really?

Clearly, Paul never had to scramble for last minute gifts. Or pray for a miracle to reorder the postal service so they arrive on time! If this letter were written today, we’d write the Apostle off as being hopelessly naïve or overly optimistic.
 
Sure Paul never lost a child to a fentanyl overdose. And he never struggled to hold a job to keep from losing his home. But he knew the pain of true suffering.

Paul had taken his fair share of beatings for his faith. He had been thrown off a ship, whipped, mocked, and arrested more times than a common criminal. In fact, this letter was written in prison where Paul had no idea if he was going to live or die.
 
Despite all this, he still found a way to ‘rejoice.’ Paul knew that in Christ, God is reordering the human heart from the inside out. Which tells me that wherever there’s sorrow, there is God. Where God is, there is the light of hope and peace and joy shining brightly.
 
Notice I didn’t say happiness. We often get anxious this time of year because we equate joy with happiness. They are not the same thing.

​Happiness lives in the head. It comes and goes depending on your experience or mood. Joy is permanent. It lingers in our heart because it is one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit. And even though we always have the Spirit of joy within us, it doesn’t mean we’ll always be happy.
 
Corporations, like Coca-Cola, spend billions of dollars to get us to think otherwise. The line, “Have a Coke and a smile,” only proves my point that happiness is conditional. I’m smiling as long as I have a Coke. All that changes once the bottle is empty.

Pursuing happiness often proves to be a fruitless endeavor. Drugs, work, exercise, sex, material wealth, and even religion only offer temporary happiness at best.

But here’s the good news, “Joy does not depend on the ups and downs of the circumstances of our lives,” wrote Henri Nouwen. “Joy is based on the spiritual knowledge that, while the world in which we live is shrouded in darkness, God has overcome the world.”
 
Paul can rejoice, even in prison, because his joy isn’t tied to his circumstances. It’s rooted in God’s unconditional love for him. We can rejoice knowing that all the sorrow in the world could never take God’s love away from us.
 
That’s the lesson of another Christmas classic: How The Grinch Stole Christmas.

It’s about a tiny-hearted curmudgeon who lives in a cave above the land of Whoville. From his craggy hole, the Grinch looks down on the Whos joyfully celebrating the season.

​Wanting to put an end to their merriment, the Grinch sets out to steal their Christmas by sneaking into Whoville and taking all the presents and decorations.
 
In the morning, he’s shocked to hear, not crying and woes coming from the village below, but more singing and rejoicing being lifted up to heaven. The people of Whoville remind us that the joy of Christmas isn’t about material things. But a deep connection we have with our spiritual source. That Christ light within us.
 
True joy comes from a heart that has bee made and reordered by God’s love for us. A love that shines so brightly, the darkness could not over take it. Once the Grinch realized this, his heart was transform - growing three sizes larger.
 
If, for whatever reason, you’re feeling like Charlie Brown or the Grinch, struggling to find joy in your life, I hope that you can remember what Jesus says loud and clear, “In the world you will have troubles, but rejoice, I have overcome the world.”
 
Sorrow and sadness do not have the final word. God does. God’s light is greater than all the darkness. God’s truth is more powerful than all human deceit. God’s love is stronger than death. In Christ, God’s eternal joy is born. And given to the world without asking anything from us.
 
This is the greatest Christmas story ever told. The story of God breaking through the darkness in our lives with a light that restores, redeems, and transforms us from the inside out.

With the light of divine love, the very light of Christ given to us to guide our way, we can build a community of love in the space between what is and what will be.
 
And in that community, all can rejoice, and find peace and hope and love. So let us go out into Anamesa - joining our Christ lights together in all the ways we love God, love others, and serve both.

Let us shine so wildly and fiercely that all who look at us will be drawn to his joy an rejoice in his name, now and forever, Amen.
​

Now that thrill of waiting has been replaced with instant gratification. Amazon, Netflix and DoorDash thrive on giving us what we want, when we want it.

​Thankfully, there is no app to make Advent pass quicker. It’s God’s way of saying, slow down, be present, be ready. 

Eugene Peterson reminded us that, “Waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. The longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.”

This is the perfect segue to our reading today from Luke's Gospel and Mary's Song:

I remember the day I found out I was going to be a father—well, I remember it was daytime.  For the rest of the details, you should probably ask Kathleen. However, I remember the pregnancy: ten long months of nausea, aches, emotional swings, and constant irritability. Again, you should ask Kathleen what she experienced.
 
Despite my expertise in sympathetic pregnancy, I still have no idea what women endure to bring life into the world. But I can confidently say, peace is not a word that comes to mind.

There’s no peace when you’re nauseous every morning. Or when your body shifts and reshapes daily. There’s no peace when sleep eludes you because your hormones and body temperature are out of whack. And there’s definitely no peace when a tiny human kicks you like an MMA fighter.
 
Pregnancy can bring hope, love, and joy. But peace? 

Yet for some reason we get a very pregnant Mary on this particular Advent Sunday. Her pregnancy was anything but peaceful. She is a young child, living in poverty under the oppressive thumb of Rome. She is pregnant out of wedlock. And the cause of that pregnancy had nothing to do with the kid she was told to marry. 
 
Her story is a difficult one to make sense of. But if we look beyond the mystery of the incarnation, we find God’s perfect peace, growing and swelling, within this insignificant yet favored child.
 
In her is God’s shalom, the Hebrew word which is often translated as peace. But this is no ordinary, fleeting feeling, or wishful happiness. At its core, shalom means complete wholeness—perfection in every part of your being. It is an ideal state of fullness and joy that overflows from the inside out.

​Scripture equates one finding shalom through reconciliation with God, who makes peace with us through unconditional love. This is where Jesus comes in.
 
As Mary’s story reveals, he is our hope through whom this ultimate shalom--our salvation—is made possible. As we wait for the Christ child, we’re waiting for the one who brings us back to God to be completely restored – physically, mentally, socially, and spiritually.
 
Nowhere in scripture does it say Mary ask for any of this. God simply chose her—found favor in her—to be the one to carry and birth divine love into the world.

But you may have noticed Mary is not the only one God favored in this Advent story. Luke gives us two women – Mary and her cousin Elizabeth. One is too young to have babies. The other, too old. And in both cases, no man is necessary for God’s plan to unfold.
 
Protruding from their bellies is the good news. God is on the move. Hope is on the horizon. Their sons will usher in the Kingdom of God. A kingdom established on God’s perfect shalom.

We wait with these two pregnant women. Ourselves, pregnant with expectant hope. God is coming. Peace will be restored and reign forever more. Why are we surprised scripture breaks into song!
 
Mary sings not just because there’s new life in her. She sings because God is bringing new life to the world. We are invited to sing with her because her child will hear our cries. He will bear our infirmities. He will give us a new life. An abundant and everlasting life. 
 
In singing of God’s mercy and strength, Mary’s song becomes the anthem of hope for the poor and downtrodden. It is a hymn of joy for the marginalized. A ballad of God’s love to the broken hearted.

Mary’s song is the song of Christ, the Prince of Peace! It is a song of victory. And revolution. A song of inclusion, grace, and forgiveness that exalts the reign of God – inviting every mouth and every heart to rejoice.
 
So why then we are still waiting and hoping for peace to come? Has it not come already? If so, then why is there so much chaos in this world? Perhaps God is wondering the same question.
 
Here’s the thing. The incarnation was not a one time event. While Christmas comes once a year, Christ comes every day. Like Mary, we all find favor with God. And like her, we are all called to carry Christ into the world. So, why aren’t we singing God’s praises by bringing peace on earth and good will to all, in all that we do?
 
As we’ve been learning, it’s through the many ways we love and care for one another, that we give birth to God’s ultimate and perfected shalom.
 
You see, Mary’s blessing is our blessing. Her call is our call. Her baby is our baby. Her song is our song. But who among us will join in this holy choir?

Who here will carry the peace of Christ in their womb? Who will allow God to triumphantly break through the birth canal of their heart,and to turn the world upside down until true peace prevails?
 
As we build a community of love in the space between, God is moving and growing and wiggling and kicking within us wanting to come out. Why wait for December 25th when Christmas can come right now?
 
Just as a belly cannot keep a baby forever, we can’t keep the peace of Christ contained in us.  It is meant to be shared with the world.

And that’s a perfect segue to close with one of my favorite quotes by Meister Eckhart, who said “We are all called to be God’s mother, because God needs to be born every day.”
 
Just as God did the impossible in the wombs of these two unlikely women, God makes all things possible though us.

Let us rise together as one people, to build a community of love, a womb of life that bears the peace of Christ, into a world in desperate need for the complete fullness of God’s healing and wholeness.
 
Together, let us answer the call to be God’s mother. Singing and dancing and rejoicing like a teenager whom God has honored and blessed.
 

Adapted From Between Today and Tomorrow: Peace. (JesusNotJesus.org on December 19, 2021).

 
As the young prophet reminds the people: hope is always on the horizon. God is on the move. No matter what the world is doing today, God is always one step ahead of us, doing something greater for tomorrow.

That’s what Jeremiah’s message is all about. God’s promise and faithfulness. Because God is faithful, we can be hopeful.
 
By definition, hope is the expectation and desire for something to happen. Students hope they guessed right on a multiple choice question. A potential hire hopes their resume can stand out enough to land an interview. And who hasn’t written a Christmas wish list, hoping to get everything on it? Hope touches nearly every part of life.
 
While we never know when—or if—what we hope for will happen, one thing is certain: we will have to wait. Hope and waiting go hand in hand. We wait for the test to be graded. We wait for the company to call. And during Advent, we wait with hope in our hearts … for Christmas morning to come.
 
We need hope to carry us through hard times. Yet, we will have to wait through the uncertainty, the chaos, and suffering to find the hope, peace, joy and love that awaits.

In the midst of their sorrow and strife, Jeremiah brings a powerful promise to God’s people: something good is coming. A righteous branch will spring up from the tombs of their life…justice and mercy will bloom again.
 
God is on the move. Help is on the way. Whatever you’re facing—grief, pain, oppression, or despair— “The days are surely coming,” says the Lord, “when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah.” (Jeremiah 33:14). A Savior is coming. But like a pregnant woman, we still have to wait. Be patient. A child is on the way.

 Advent gives us the time we need to assess our faith in the light of God’s faithfulness. If we believe in our hearts that God’s promises are true, then we can trust in the fulfillment of God’s greatest promise—the gift of the Christ. By placing our hope in Christ, we can give of ourselves faithfully, even as we await unsure of what is to come.
 
How we wait is just as important as who we are waiting for. Jesus tells us, “Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with debauchery, drunkenness, and despair” (Luke 21:34).

He tells us to stay ready. Stay awake. And stay faithful, just as God is always ready, always present, and always faithful. The way to do this is to live your life as if God is going to walk through the door right now. “For you never know when the owner of the house will return.”
 
Whether it’s Advent or any other time, our goal, is to live a life where love leads the way. That’s the way of Jesus, who loved in such a way that it forever changed the world. To follow him, to walk as he walked, is how we spiritually survive in a very chaotic world. (Nouwen)
 
Advent is a time of active waiting. A time to ready ourselves for the coming Christ as we step into Anamesa, that space between joy and sorrow, as the face of Christ who brings hope to those who have none. In the midst of all the havoc, we are called to build a community of hope in his name.
 
“Community,” as Henri Nouwen wrote, “is a fellowship of people who do not hide their joys and sorrows, but make them visible to each other as a gesture of hope.” He described community as a large mosaic, where each small piece may seem insignificant on its own, but together “each little stone of this community, makes God visible in the world.”
 
Living in such a way frees us to love and care for one another equally, without any fear or hesitation. Just as Jeremiah instructed the exiles, we can build a community of hope and participate in God’s eternal vision of peace by “executing justice and righteousness” wherever we are.

Jesus did this. And taught us to do the same - to make heaven come alive right here, right now. With Christ as our guiding light, we can move towards a better tomorrow.
 
God came to us in the flesh of one of us. Through Christ, God suffers alongside us and to celebrates with us. Out of great love for us, God has saved the world. And will continue to save us until no one will be in need of rescuing, because those who have been saved by Christ are bringing hope, justice, and mercy to one another.
 
This is the community of love we intentionally began to build three years ago, knowing we might not ever see it to its completion. But we remain hopeful, knowing our call and purpose isn’t to finish the job. It was to simply show up for work, as the hands and heart of Christ. Which we do every time we love God, love others, and serve both.
 
By choosing this as our mission, we began to build a place where the flame of hope is kept alive in each one of us.  (Nouwen) As a community that binds itself together in love, for the building up of God’s kingdom, the light of hope can burn brighter. We invite you to join us on this journey.
 
Together, let us embrace the faithfulness of God, refusing to surrender to the forces of despair that so often surround us. Together, let us stand on God’s unshakable faith, and boldly defy the hopelessness that wants to overpower us. Together, we can build a community of love that is an alternative to a world marked by hatred and division.
 
Because God’s promises are real, fulfilled in Christ Jesus, we can persevere with expectant hearts, as one people; building a community of hope, joy, peace, and love, until the day that God’s glory reigns once and for all throughout Anamesa. 
 
Work Cited
Charles, Gary. Feasting on the Word: Advent Companion. Edited by David Barlett and Kimberly Bracken Long Barbara Brown Taylor. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2014.
Keating, Thomas. Fruits and Gifts of the Spirit. (Lantern Books; 2007) pp. 71-73.
Nouwen, Henri. You Are The Beloved. San Francisco: Convergent Books, 2017.
Polter, Julie. A Whirlwind in a Fire. Sojourners. December 2018.
Roberie, Joshua. Relevant Magazine. Nov 17, 2015. http://www.relevantmagazine.com/god/practical-faith/when-god-leaves-you-waiting (accessed Nov 25, 2015).