A Message From RG

“To be a Christian is to live every day of our lives in solidarity with those who sit in the darkness and in the shadow of death, but to live in the unshakeable hope of those who expect the dawn.” -Fleming Rutledge in Advent 

These words seem so needed now. Christmas is a time of joy. We celebrate the arrival of the son of God. We mark being redeemed and made new. 

But Advent and Christmas are times of painful longing. We only get glimpses of God’s kingdom on earth. So much of what we see are kingdoms of men with destruction and terror, oppression and war, confusion and chaos, rancor and racism, animosity and aimlessness.

On a personal level, we know this time can be conflicted. We rejoice in a baby’s first Christmas but weep that a parent is gone. We celebrate for the child who has found his way and pray for the one who has lost it. We mourn a broken relationship and enjoy another that’s been restored. I just left a family who lost their Dad. I’ll preach at his funeral on Friday. 

This is the world we inhabit: flourishing and joy mixed with mourning for the world of peace and justice and relationship with God that has not completely come to be. We tell stories of pain, sin, and suffering. But also of good that overcomes evil. We gather, we reconcile, we sing to our Savior with one another. We carry one another’s burdens that, at times, are too hard to bear. 

As we give gifts to one another and to those in need, I ask you to remember your church. For so many, the church is the first place they turn to for help. They lose their job, they’re having an internal crisis of meaning, their marriage is in trouble, and their kids are stressing. As the year ends, please consider supporting our mission.

The long-awaited light that dawned two thousand years ago is still growing. Let it grow in us.