Some of us walk into Advent

            tethered to our unresolved yesterdays

                        the pain still stabbing

                        the hurt still throbbing.

It’s not that we don’t know better;

            it’s just that we can’t stand up anymore by ourselves.

                                                            (Kneeling in Bethlehem, Ann Weems)

In these past months I have experienced perhaps some of the most difficult and challenging days in my many years of ministry. This congregation has been through much, and my leadership, poor as it may have been at times, has not always helped.

Advent is perhaps the best of seasons to begin anew. It is the beginning of the church year (December 3^rd is the January 1^st of the church calendar). It is a season of hope and expectation that something new, something better for all of humankind will emerge in its wake. I have a strong sense that God is already at work laying the foundation for this emerging newness. But it will not come easy. It never comes easy.

The candles we symbolically light each Sunday grow in number, and therefore brightness from week to week in a progression of ever greater illumination. These candles are lit in the hope that our hearts, and our inner spirits will also grow in illumination, so that when the Christ comes we are ready to receive the birthing of one of the brightest “lights” ever to be born into this world.

As part of this illumination process, I have already begun an intentional round of visitation with members and friends of the Hope community. It is not that somehow I am bringing illumination to you, but that God works best to illumine our hearts together. I know that I will be enlightened by my visits with you, and hope that something new and better will emerge from the time we spend together, for us, for the Hope community, and ultimately for the world in which we live.

The hope of Advent, and the birth of the Christ, begins in us. This is how God’s kingdom is birthed into the world, through us, through the inner transformation of our souls. It is like we will sing again in that carol at Christmas:

O holy child of Bethlehem, descend to us, we pray;

cast out our sin, and enter in; be born in us today.

I hope and pray for this birthing in all of our hearts at this Christmastide. May you and yours have the most blessed of holiday seasons.

                                                                                    Pastor Vance Toivonen