From the Pastor’s Desk

By the time you read this Advent will have begun. It will be the first week, and we'll have lit the first candle in the Advent Wreath. The candle of Hope.

During Advent through to Epiphany we'll be asking a question each Sunday: What do you fear? But instead of trying to drive out our fears, we are going to ask: Can we hold a different relationship with fear? Can we acknowledge fear without letting it rule us? Is there any way to catalyze our fears into love and action?

For the four Sundays of Advent we will join one or more of the characters from our Advent and Christmas story: Zechariah and Elizabeth, John the Baptist, Mary, Joseph, and the Magi. And of course, Jesus. Looming in the background will be King Herod and the Romans.

Each of these people face fear in different forms. Some fear larger events beyond their control. Some are faced with fear from deeply personal events and experiences. And some are confronted simultaneously with both macro and micro level fears. Yet as they take part in this story of Good News, we will remember that they do not deny or ignore their fears. They don't diminish them as foolish, but nor do they catastrophize to the point of paralysis or withdrawal. They acknowledge their fears and move through them. Move through them with hope and joy. Because they experienced God entering their world and lives in ways that gave them hope.

We believe God entered a sometimes-frightening world to bring us Good News. That's the promise of the Christmas season.

God chose to become one of us among us – a real human being in history when Herod and the Romans ruled. Instead of donning armor or bringing an army, God chose vulnerability by coming as an infant. Instead of being born in the seat of power where a child had more protection, such as to King Herod, God chose to be born to Mary and Joseph.

"O Little Town of Bethlehem" lyrics proclaim "the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight." Hope can only meet the fears of all the years if we take a few moments, and in the light of God's love and promises, acknowledge fears. Emmanuel comes not to take away all fears, but to show us how to meet those fears with hope, integrity, and compassion.

The lyric prior to the one above "yet in the dark street shineth the everlasting light." Hope and fear meet, Emmanuel comes and we are reminded of the Light that cannot be overcome.


God's grace and peace.
Pastor Deb Kunkel