Weekly Newsletter

Hello Friends,
We're back! We had such a wonderful time visiting the Christmas Markets in Germany, France and Switzerland. It was a perfect way to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary. I want to thank everyone who covered for me, I am truly grateful. Can you believe Christmas is less than a week away! If you know someone who doesn't have a church to worship on Christmas Eve, now is a great time to extend an invitation. Going into a new church can be scary, but when there is a familiar face in the crowd, it takes the stress away.

See you Sunday at 10am.
God bless you all
Pastor Robyne

And now a message on "Advent Love" from Bishop LaTrelle Easterling.

And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowly state of his servant. Surely from now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name; indeed, God’s mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.”~ Luke 1: 46 - 50

As we look toward the final days of our Advent journey, we are drawn to the heart of the matter and the season — Love.

Our movement through hope, peace and joy resounds with this grand expression of unconditional love. On this Fourth Sunday of Advent, we stand in the presence of a mystery so vast, so profound, that it can only be embraced with a heart open wide to the unfathomable love of God.

In the Gospel passage often read on this Sunday, we hear the melodic praise of Mary, a woman whose womb carried and birthed salvation into creation. She offers a powerful response to the call of God upon her life. Her ultimate "yes" to God was a response of love — not just love for God, but love for the world that would be transformed by the birth of her Son, Emmanuel. It is through this love that the Savior of the world enters our lives, offering us forgiveness, peace, reconciliation, and a new way of being.

In this familiar story, we are invited to not merely reflect on the birth of a child in a stable, but on the radical, transformative love that has entered our world through that very child. It is a love that confronts us in our vulnerability, refuses to leave us the way we are, and calls us into deeper communion with one another and with God.

Father Richard Rohr, in his wisdom, has often spoken of love as the very shape of the universe. It binds us to one another and to our Creator. Fr. Rohr reminds us that love is not sentimental, not a mere emotion, but a force that is at the very heart of God. In the Incarnation, God shows us that love is not mere theory nor an abstraction. Love becomes flesh. It is personal, present, and always engaged with the world. Love is not simply something we talk about; it is something we do. Nor is it a Hallmark kind of love -- the kind of love that reads beautifully but is not embodied. No, from his first breath, Jesus modeled that love is better provided than professed.

This Advent, as we await the second coming of Christ, we are invited to make love our primary response to the world. In a time when division, fear, and hatred seem to grow louder and louder, we are called to resist these forces with the quiet, powerful witness of love. It is the invitation to touch the lives of those around us with grace, compassion, and justice. This love does not shrink in the face of difficulty or the hardness of heart that so often surrounds us. The love that is embodied in Jesus Christ is not a love of convenience, but a love that transforms us and the world. It is a love that invites us to stand in solidarity with the poor, the oppressed, and the marginalized. It is a love enfleshed in vulnerability, which leads us to a deeper humility and compassion for all of God’s creation. It is love permeated in grace, calling us to even love our enemies and withstand the most challenging relational betrayals. I’ve never seen that kind of love written on a greeting card.

Even as we sing carols extolling holy nights, peace on earth and that in his name all oppression shall cease, we treat these more as concepts than commandments. And, as with most concepts, we do well from the balcony, when we are dealing with generalities. But we begin to equivocate when the general becomes the particular.

Yet, theologian and pastor Howard Thurman extols, “Love means dealing with persons in the concrete rather than the abstract. To speak of love for humanity is meaningless. In this instance, there is no such thing as humanity. What we call humanity has a name, was born, lives on a street, gets hungry, needs all the particularities of life to live in dignity.” If we are not willing to meet concrete human needs, we are not prepared to love as Christ’s birth teaches us to love.

On this final Sunday of Advent, let us reflect on how we are called to embody agape love in our own lives. Let us remember that love is not passive. It is not simply an emotion or a feeling, but a call to action. Love asks us to open our hearts to be present with one another, to care for the vulnerable, to offer kindness in the face of division, and to share in the hope that the birth of Christ brings to all. And as we do, may our lives be a melodic testimony to the love that never ends, that never fails, and that is the true gift of Christmas. Like Mary, may we offer our, “Yes!” in the name of the God whose very nature and name is Love.