God calls each of us beloved and doesn’t need a spectacle to let us know that God loves us. God uses the events of our daily lives to nudge us, to let us know that we’re in the presence of holiness.

Like the Magi, we have each other as travel companions. Community at its best stands together beneath the night sky, gazing at signs from God, and following where they lead. So together let’s discern the way we should go So together let’s discern the way we should go.

This family is holy because they’re like us, living in insecurity and fear and circumstances beyond their power. They’re holy because they kept going, trusting God and loving each other.

The birth of the vulnerable, needy Christ child is the most profound, important sign that God has given humanity. God became finite and shows us infinite love; God became needy and shows us God’s Providence; God became poor and shows us abundance.

If you were to envision a world in which your deepest desires were manifested, what would it look like?

Come on, everybody! Let’s act right and wake up! God is inviting you and me into this holy, still, gentle, waiting season of Advent. Let’s open ourselves, seeking God in all things because God wants to be found.

Christ the King reflects the paradox of who Christ is – divine and human, infinite and limited, profound mystery and ordinary as bread, all-powerful and all-vulnerable.

When it feels like the world that we know is crumbling around us as something new but indistinct is emerging, we can breathe into the discomfort because we know that we are deeply loved.

Vulnerability is not a bad thing; it’s a human thing, even a God-like thing. Each of us is a mix of giftedness and brokenness. The more deeply I come home to that reality, the more genuine I can be, trusting God and others to love me in my brokenness and sin. And I can love people as people, not seeing some of them as “the oppressed,” but as one with me in the great human community, the beautiful, broken body of Christ.

We’re standing together in community, members and leaders. I continue to hold the image of Moses and Aaron and Hur in the forefront of my mind. They’re a team, holding the staff and keeping it steady till sunset, on mission together, serving the community.

Being thankful helps me to notice all the ways that God is loving me, moment by moment. It helps me to notice the good in other people too, moving me away from judgement toward love, compassion, and acceptance.

I am little, but God is big, so it’s enough to have just a tiny grain of faith. I offer what I can, and God grows it.

Older people need the young to dispel complacency with their raw passion and energy, and the young need the tempered passion, wisdom, and support of older people. God calls each of us to act for the sake of the kingdom of God, and when our action moves us together, well, it’s a glimmer of what the kingdom of God looks like.

When I know I can trust someone with little things, I can trust them with the big ones, too.

Human beings are complicated in this. We sometimes need discernment and healthy boundaries and self-protection when relationships break down. However, God, who is infinite mystery, is not complicated in this. God wants us to return no matter what. God loves us whether we’re bratty or whiny, lost, searching, wayward, or unfaithful. When we are lost and return to God, God rejoices.

Even if I’m afraid before I ride a roller coaster (and probably during too), I’m always excited that I did it when it’s over. It was worth it. That’s true of discipleship too. As I choose a life in Christ day by day, moment by moment, I enjoy the ride. Wild though it may be, it’s worth it.

Ironically, entering through the narrow gate may mean loving other people in expansive, generous ways. Maybe we enter through the narrow gate when we open wide the tents of our hearts.

So, let’s be daring. Let’s catch the spark of Jesus’ yearning to break open counterfeit peace in order to do the disruptive work of genuine peacemaking. Some division is necessary as we figure out how to bring about the Peace of God. We will likely be uncomfortable, and that’s okay. Jesus was probably uncomfortable most of the time.