My brother recently posted this photo of us with our Advent wreath. His caption, “My love of these Advent days was formed at our kitchen table with nightly devotions, as well as a regular fight about who would light or blow out the candles.” While we might have bickered about the blowing out of the candle, the feeling I had when I saw the photo was just joy. While life was simpler in those early days, the blessing of this time together was evident.

 The candle in the third week of Advent represents joy. All candles in an Advent wreath are now blue to represent our hope-filled faith. The blue also depicts the color before the sun rises at dawn.

Joy can be found in the days before Christmas with the lights, decorations, homemade goodies, and preparations for giving. But it can also be elusive as we rush through our busy lives or face frustrations due to life circumstances. The woman at the Wendy’s drive-through lamented to me that it was going to be a long night because their truck had not come with supplies. She had already been yelled at because they were out of ketchup packets to go with the chicken nuggets. How could it be that ketchup packets were the thief of a person’s joy?

My heart sank for both people. No one should be yelled at for not having ketchup and how hard is the person’s life that felt they needed to shout over ketchup? Was it a parent who was stressed after a long day, no time to make dinner, and their child only eats chicken nuggets with ketchup? Someone whose life was full of sadness or disappointment, and this was the last straw?

In a recent Welcome Table devotion, Kendall Grubb talks about experiencing joy as one of the most fragile emotions. When we know the fullness of joy, we are also opening ourselves to experience sadness, frustration, and loss. Life is a balance of emotions.

How comforting to know that God sent Jesus to experience the fullness of humankind which encompasses the entirety of emotions. When we are willing to open our lives and hearts to live freely among God’s people in this Advent season and beyond, there will be sorrow but there will also be great joy.

I left the drive-through laughing with the Wendy’s worker and we both agreed to pray for each other. You could tell she already had the joy of Jesus back in her heart. My added prayers now and past this week in Advent are that those who are experiencing frustration, sadness, or loss can see through to the small joys that are reflected in the light and life of Jesus. That the blowing out of the Advent candles is not a loss when it’s not your turn, but a joy found in family and community sharing God’s presence in the hope, peace, joy, and love found in the glow of the Advent season.

Note: If my brother Brad is reading this, I was blowing out the candle because the favorite child always gets to do it.

Angie Seiller

Director of Faith Formation

What is Advent for you? For some, Advent and Christmas are virtually synonymous as houses are decorated in Christmas themes and Christmas music plays. For others, it is marked by small festivities like Advent calendars filled with chocolates. For me, Advent has always been a nice break from the business of the Christmas season- a reason to find time to meditate and hopefully find some peace amidst the hustle that is preparation for Christmas. 

It is also, of course, the season of anticipation for Christ’s birth, as Christ will be born on Christmas Day. But what I and others often forget or overlook is that the anticipation of Advent has dual reasons. We are not simply waiting for Christ's birth on Christmas Day, but are anticipating the second coming of Jesus Christ.

Now, I know. It’s easier to anticipate the birth of Christ. That will for sure occur on Christmas Day as a remembrance that God is with us in Jesus Christ. In regards to the second coming, Advent calendars do not make sense as no one knows the day or the hour (Matthew 24:36). Rather, in the season of Advent, our anticipation for Christ's birth, and anticipation for the second coming of Jesus are intertwined.

As I’ve mentioned before, in the Advent season we dwell in our longings. In our Sunday Advent worship we have been longing for hope, peace, love and joy as we look out into our world and do not always see hope, peace, love, and joy. Through this, we reflect on our need for Christ to be with us, particularly in our broken world and broken selves. We are not only hopeful for Christ's birth, but Christ's return, in which all flesh will see the salvation of God, and all things will be made whole (Luke 3:6, Acts 3:21).

Perhaps, make a journal entry on what in your life gives reason to need Jesus? What needs restoration? What are your hopes? What does peace look like to you? What is love that reminds you of God? What moments give you joy? Answering these questions will set our eyes onto Christ, as we anticipate his birth on Christmas Day, and place our faith in the promise that Christ will come again and make all things new (Revelation 21:5).

And when you’re done writing, take comfort in the knowledge that the God who makes all things new is near, as the God of the Magnificat (Song of Mary), “for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.” . . . “and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things” will be born on Christmas Day. And as we wait for his return, “His will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven” is a promise for then and now.

Your Sibling in Christ,

Pastor Alec Brock, Seminary Intern (he/him/his)

Recently as we were traveling, the song Turn! Turn! Turn! by The Byrds was playing. For those who are not into classic 60’s rock, the song is based on Ecclesiastes 3:1-8. The song made me think about how much we have experienced at Lord of Life over the last two years and where I hope we will be in the next two years. The Advent message that Pastors Lowell and Alec are sharing under the theme of light and darkness being part of our lives in Christ also speaks to the branched theme in Ecclesiastes. Each verse in Ecclesiastes calls to mind our Lord of Life experiences. Here are my impressions: 

Verse 2: A time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot 

We have been part of both these within our church family. We have celebrated new life through baptism and celebrated the life of friends and family that we have lost over the past two years. Also, in a sense, we have experienced this as we have made changes to the ways that we worship going from our well-established services within the confines of a 25+ year old sanctuary to completely online to a sanctuary reimagined for today’s world – the former is gone and the new begins. 

Here at Lord of Life, we have welcomed new members into our family as we also said goodbye to others. The former members leave us with a hole in the community that we look to our new family members to begin to fill as they plant their roots here to help us carry out our mission.  

Verse 3: A time to tear down and a time to build 

What an appropriate theme for us here at Lord of Life! Through our Share the Light campaign we have experienced exciting changes in our sanctuary and gathering space. We look forward to the next two years and our continued growth through Share the Light.  We will continue to practice patience as we build out our physical structure. 

Verse 4:  A time to weep and a time to laugh, time to mourn, and a time to dance 

We have wept at losses we have experienced over the last two years and at the many tragedies that have overwhelmed us in our community, in our state, in our nation, and across the world. But just as we have wept, we remember that Jesus is always present and supports us, and we are renewed with laughter and dance as we celebrated events such as birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, births, and weddings. We are moved to laughter as we watch our youngest listen and respond to the messages from Pastor Lowell and Pastor Alec and their antics (along with John Johns).  

Verse 5:  A time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing 

Isn’t this so appropriate in today’s environment? We have started to move from the days of no visits with our friends, children, grandchildren; no handshakes or hugs as we shared the peace with our church family to the hugs with our loved ones to a friendly handshake.  

Verse 7: A time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak 

Now we look to the next two years here at Lord of Life. We need to begin to mend the tears that the last two years of the pandemic have brought us to where we are now. How do we do that? We need to listen to God - as in the words in the Old Testament – 1 Samuel:3 and Isaiah:6 where God calls the prophets to act according to His will. We need to speak to our mission - To Live, Share and Celebrate God’s love through Jesus Christ. Here at Lord of Life, there are many ways that we can participate in God’s work – in worship, outreach, and faith formation. When you are called to serve as part of our mission, listen to God – he has a plan for you.  

In Christ,

Denise Krallman, council president

There’s a good chance that you are already thinking about Thanksgiving. Whether you’ll be celebrating with family, friends, or by yourself, you’ve probably been doing some planning for Thursday or whichever day your feast of gratitude will happen. 

Will it be a formal meal, casual gathering, or something in between? What will be the main course, the side dishes, and the desserts? Who is in charge of what and what will you wear? (Stretchy pants are always a good option for Thanksgiving Day dinner attire.) 

If you are hosting, you may have a growing “to do” list of what needs to happen before everyone shows up at your place. The foods you’ll prepare or purchase, the chores that need to be done, and what things need to be tucked away into the basement or closet.

As we prepare to welcome guests, we vacuum, sweep, dust, and spruce up the place. We may get out some good dishes, grab the cloth napkins, and do other things that are beyond the everyday meal preparation and dining experience. Thanksgiving is a special day, so we want to put out our best to celebrate and impress.

If we visit with others over food or drink this weekend, we’ll probably keep rolling out the best stuff, only sharing the successes and good news. When someone asks about work, health, and relationships, we’ll only reveal the positive, saying “It’s going well. Things are good.”, whether that is true or not. Some of us will resort to outright lies to hide the difficult truths and the pain of our lives. 

All too often, we fall into the same pattern as a community of Christian faith. We think that we need to put on our best face when we show up to worship, Bible studies, or other moments together, pretending like everything is okay and we’re holding it together. We roll out a false narrative, rather than speaking the truth about the brokenness in our lives.

Makoto Fujimura in his book Art + Faith: A Theology of Making contends that there is much for us to learn as followers of Jesus from the practice of Kintsugi. “Kintsugi, the ancient Japanese art form of repairing broken tea ware by reassembling ceramic pieces, creates anew the valuable pottery, which now becomes more beautiful and more valuable than the original, unbroken vessel… A Kintsugi master mends the broken tea ware with Japanese lacquer and then covers that with gold, [making] the broken pottery even more beautiful than the original.” The process isn’t only about repairing what was broken, but about reassembling the vessel into a new creation.

This is the work of God. The Holy One gathers our shattered shards and creates something new and beautiful out of that which has been destroyed.

Fujimura continues, “What kind of a church would we become if we simply allowed broken people to gather, and did not try to ‘fix’ them but simply to love and behold them?” This is God’s work among us. Let us hold one another tenderly, trusting that God will continue to do the work of resurrection.

As you speak words of gratitude and give thanks this week, you can do so knowing that God welcomes you and loves you whether your life is pulled together and clipping along with great success or you are stumbling and crumbling at every turn. Jesus doesn’t wait for us to clean up our act and pull our lives together before loving us. Instead, Jesus gathers the chipped and broken pieces of our lives and holds us in love.

As I gather in gratitude this week, I will give thanks for Lord of Life and our mission to love people well. We strive to welcome and care for all people, no matter where they are in their journey, and let Jesus go to work doing what God does best.

I thank God for you,

Pastor Lowell

Interning as a hospital chaplain caused me to see grief unfold in a variety of ways. Sometimes, people’s facial expressions and tone of voice were lifeless as I tried to comfort what felt like a wall. Others refused to let themselves grieve as they used their faith as a reason to not emote. Some couldn't get past anger to let themselves cry. And some expressed their emotions so easily that pastoring them was as simple as giving them my ears and presence.

From individual experience and witnessing the experiences of others I have noticed that a common theme of grief and suffering is guilt. And in the worst-case scenario, guilt kept people from processing their suffering. Guilt because depression is debilitating and we can’t get out of bed when we should be productive. Guilt because we’ve been processing our grief for a while now and both internal and external voices are saying, “you just need to get over it.” Someone in our life has died and a recurring thought is “I should be happy that they’re in a better place,” as a means to discredit our own mourning. We, as human beings, find it difficult to affirm grief and suffering. Sadly, guilt is their companion. We expect ourselves to push through the obstacles of life, and oftentimes, we see stoicism as strength, and emotions as weak.  

But what if I said the Divine is grieving with us? Does that change our attitudes?

In the eighth chapter of Romans, Paul writes of living in a world in which creation is subjected to futility and human beings suffer. But Paul does not stop there. Rather, he answers where God is in our suffering, “and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies ... Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.” (Romans 8:23, 26) With sighs too deep for words? The Holy Spirit is sighing with me when my grief is so strong that I do not have the words for prayer to express my inward groans? Paul says yes. 

Reading those words made me rethink the story of Lazarus. Usually, when we think of Jesus crying with Mary and Martha over the death of Lazarus, we explain Jesus’ emotions as Christ’s humanity. But from Paul’s words, we learn that Christ's grief is not simply the reality of taking on human flesh. Rather, Christ’s tears are a human expression of a divine reality. As the Holy Spirit joins in on our sighs, God is present in our grief as God grieves on behalf of ourselves and all of creation.

What does this mean? Even when we cry alone we are not alone. Mourning is holy and not worthy of shame or guilt. When we grieve for a broken reality God grieves with us. Sighs too deep for words are holy.

Imagine how we would look upon each other in the darkest times if we recognized sadness as a divine expression. “You need to get over it,” “pull yourself together,” “it’s selfless to grieve for x person’s passing” would be replaced with our ability to love each other more deeply, and love ourselves more fully in our own suffering. We’d look upon ourselves and each other with much kinder eyes and see God.

Blessed are those who mourn (Matthew 5:4),

Pastor Alec Brock (he/him)

Seminary Intern