But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” [Luke 2:10-12 NIV] Christmas is drawing near, and I hope you can sense the excitement. You can feel the spirit of the season as families are drawing together, as we celebrate Christmas events and as we worship together in special services. It is a time of great joy, most significantly because of the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ, whose birth was foretold thousands of years ago. It's a time to celebrate in the fulfillment of God’s promise to us, His creation, as we experience the hope, love, joy, and peace that embody this time of year. God came to us as a child to show how much He loves us and to offer us salvation for our sins. Yet we realize that hope, love, joy, and peace may not be the predominant feelings we have at this time. We are still faced with the realities on our lives: grief, despair, relationship challenges, financial troubles. I am battling a case of pneumonia that wants to linger. Plus, there is the pure exhaustion of this time of year. We feel that we are not ready for Christmas. Schools just let out for break this week and many are behind in their plans. Let us remember the very first Christmas. It is the story of a teenage girl, pregnant with a child and unmarried. It is the story of a young girl and her husband that when she found herself in labor was homeless. It is the story of a child born in a dirty animal stall. It is the story of a family of refugees who had to flee their homeland, fleeing from King Herod, so that their child would not be killed. Yet in all these, God still comes to be with us. God relentlessly pursues us to comfort us, to redeem us, to save us, to pardon us, to give us hope, to grant us peace. He came to us as one of us to experience all the things we experience, the happy times, but even more importantly the painful times. Even if we feel darkness in our lives at this time, God’s love, and grace for us is not diminished by that darkness. Mary was alone and afraid, but God was with her and exalted her. Joseph was disgraced, but God revealed to Joseph the wondrous purpose for his life. The shepherds were afraid, but God gave them comfort. We may feel alone, but in Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, God is with us. The world is filled with darkness, but God sent the light of life to shine into the darkness. This is the true Joy of Christmas. “I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.” #aplaceforgrace

The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. [Isaiah 11:6 NIV] This Sunday is the fourth Sunday in Advent and in both of our services we will be lighting the candle of Peace. What image comes to mind when you think of peace? At my previous church appointment, I spent many a day at the Winter Park Memorial Hospital. In fact, I was an on-call chaplain there as well. Sometimes the visits are times of joy, such as when visiting the parents of a newborn. But sometimes the visits are filled with anxiety. You knew what you were facing when you walked into the hospital—someone in their final days as the family has gathered, one who has received a dire diagnosis, and sometimes I didn’t know what I was about to face. Yet what gave me a great sense of peace as I was taking those steps into the hospital was a bronze sculpture at the front entrance. It was a sculpture of a lion lying down with a lamb. It is imagery from Isaiah 11:6, even though the passage doesn’t explicitly say that the lion will lie down with the lamb. The sentiment is there. I knew the artist who created the sculpture and he expressed to me what this sculpture meant to him. It was a healing image for him. His sculpture shows the lamb looking totally at ease, even though the lion is much bigger. The lamb is at rest—at peace. The lion is curled around the lamb as it is protecting the more vulnerable one. Think about what is preying upon you, what is plundering you in your life that causes stress and restlessness. Wouldn’t you like to be free from that? Or even have that thing that is causing so much unrest in your life be right there with you staring at you, but no longer causing strain or stress in your life. That is the peace that Jesus offers to us. It is a reminder to us that in this season of Advent, the time when we celebrate again the coming of the Messiah in the form of Christ child, that there will be peace. Jesus is the Prince of Peace. A peace that passes all understanding that can only come from God. And a little child will lead the way. #aplaceforgrace #princeofpeace

This past Wednesday we had a great turnout for Caroling in the Courtyard. Along with singing, part of the tradition is to watch "A Charlie Brown Christmas," created back in 1965 by Charles Schultz. I have seen it so many times, starting in my early childhood. As an adult, I am amazed at how timely it still is. Charlie Brown is a kid who probably suffers with depression, and you might even say he is bullied by his peers. That alone makes this relevant in our decade because we talk about mental health and the problem of being bullied all the time. Charlie Brown is also discouraged by the commercialism of Christmas. One might argue he is a bit more complex and mature for even recognizing this issue so early in his life. The first suggestion to help him with his depression is to be the director for a Christmas play. Not a bad idea, but it doesn’t help lighten his mood. The answer finally comes from his friend Linus, as he quotes from Luke 2. As I watch this movie again, verses 10 & 11 jumped out at me. “I bring good news to you—wonderful, joyous news for all people. 11 Your savior is born today in David’s city.” Charlie needed good news. I don’t know if an elementary age kid can really understand the importance of this news. As an adult, I hear it as a proclamation that there is an answer to the problems of this world. It is also a declaration of an answer to the problems in my personal life. Sitting outside in the courtyard, watching an old Christmas movie that points directly at the Son of God left me feeling safe and warm. I wish I always felt that truth in my life, but sometimes I don’t. Sometimes in the midst of the day-to-day struggles, it is hard to not lose sight of God’s faithfulness in the past. He is the answer to every problem we are all facing in this Christmas season. It was nice to have a little God moment, sitting on my lawn chair, with my St. Andrew's church family. #aplaceforgrace

However, God is rich in mercy. He brought us to life with Christ while we were dead as a result of those things that we did wrong. He did this because of the great love that he has for us. [Ephesians 2:4-5 CEB] This coming Sunday is the second Sunday in Advent. In the worship services we will light the second candle, representing love. Love is a word that in the English language we use in a variety of contexts with a myriad of meanings. For example, I would use the same word to say that I “love” my children that I would use to say I “love” pizza. But there is a huge difference in the connotations and significance between these two loves. This is because there is actually only one word in the English language for “love,” so it covers a lot of territory. As a comparison, the Greek language has at least four words that convey the meaning of love, each with its own nuances: agape, eros, philia, and storge are the most commonly used. I won’t cover the nuanced meanings of each in this limited space. You can Google them. So, we must ask ourselves, what is this great love that God has given to us through the birth of the Christ child who we celebrate at Christmas? What is the meaning behind this love that it gets its own candle on the second Sunday Advent? The love that was given to us through Christ in the manger addresses a great need that we all have in our human nature—though it may not be in our nature to admit it. We all have a need to be wanted, to be appreciated, to be needed. To know that we matter, even if we have made mistakes, grievous mistakes, sins. We want, as the theme song to an 80s TV show says, to be "where everyone knows your name." We hope to not only exist, but to be cherished and precious. Loved. The world we live in isn’t always programmed to convey these messages. In fact, it is shouting the opposite messages to us constantly, and often times we can feel dead inside. But God came to us to punch a hole in the destructive messages that bombard us and the world. God did so in a real way. He gave us His son, who came into the world as we all did—as a baby. He came to show us that we are loved. We are surrounded with God’s love—a love that we may never adequately be able to describe in English, but a love that will adequately, actually abundantly, fill us with hope, peace, and joy. It shows us that we are God’s children and we do matter. Your mistakes do not define you if you take them to God. Don’t let anyone or the world tell you differently. We are made in God’s image and that cannot be taken away from us. It is sealed in our innermost being by this babe in the manger. #aplaceforgrace #advent #love

Restore us, O God; make your face shine on us, that we may be saved. [Psalm 80:3 NIV] This Sunday is the first Sunday in Advent. The four Sundays before Christmas Day mark the Advent season. But wait, it is still November. It can’t be Advent yet! We haven’t even finished the leftovers from Thanksgiving. Because Christmas falls on a Sunday this year, the Advent calendar is pushed back to an earlier start. You may know that Advent is the season of expectant waiting and preparation for the coming of the Christ child. As a child, we understood the waiting part because waiting for Christmas to come was so painstaking. Thanksgiving day to December 25 seemed more like an eternity than a month. As adults, we understand the preparation part, because we prepare for the Advent season by putting up decorations, outside and inside. The Christmas tree must go up or in many households today, trees—plural. But that is not the type of waiting and preparing that marks the Advent season. Advent is a time for preparing our hearts anew for the birth of the Christ child. We wait for God’s voice, quieting our hearts and minds so that God’s presence can be heard and felt in our lives. We quiet ourselves so that God can come to us, just as He came to us so meekly and vulnerably all those Christmases ago—as a baby in a manger. Advent is all about God's willingness—even insistence—to be accessible, reachable, and attainable to all His creation. Advent breaks down the barriers between the created and the Creator. God shines His face on us so that we can be restored in spirit, and restored in our relationship with Him. For each Advent Sunday there is a significant theme or focus, indicated by the four Advent candles on the Advent wreath. The first Sunday is "Hope," followed by "Love," "Joy" and "Peace." As we journey through these themes, we are challenged to quiet ourselves and meditate the source of each of these in our lives. Advent is the time to come back to God and reflect on what it means in our lives that God gave us the gift of His Son, to bring us hope, love, joy, and peace. God yearns to communicate deeply and intimately with us. In this Advent season, quietly wait and hear His voice. #aplaceforgrace #advent #hope

Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. [2 Corinthians 9:7 NIV] This Sunday is Commitment Sunday, where you will be asked to turn in your commitment cards to help fund our 2023 budget. Because of this, I want to share a twist on a Biblical view of giving from this passage in 2 Corinthians. In this scripture, Paul finds himself in a dilemma. He needs to spur the Corinthians into giving—giving to an offering that he was putting together for the church in Jerusalem. He had been boasting to the Macedonians about how generous the people of Corinth were in giving to this offering. Yet, it appears that they had begun the offering but had not finished it. And this could be a potentially embarrassing situation, for Paul was soon to come to Corinth and there just might be a few Macedonians who would be a little curious about these generous Corinthians. How would it look if the offering was not all there? We can look to 2 Corinthians 9 to see what approach Paul took to encourage them to give. His words are intriguing because he didn’t beg or use guilt. I was listening to a pastor at another church read this scripture and he changed one word from the traditional reading that I was accustomed to. And that one word has always stayed with me. He read it as “Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a hilarious giver.” That’s what he said. It startled me. It wasn’t what I expected. A “hilarious” giver. I had heard cheerful giver used there. But a hilarious giver? Looking at the Greek word, I guess I could see how someone might translate it that way. Is there really any such thing as a hilarious giver or even a cheerful giver? Paul was writing about the kind of giving that frees you, that cuts you loose from the use of money to gain friends and influence people to get what you want in return. Without that freedom, giving always has “strings attached.” In this time of Paul’s writing, it was customary that relationships were arranged by the transfer of gifts or favors in exchange for honor, praise and gratitude. In a society where banks did not loan money, the patronage system was a necessity. The person accepting the gift would be forever committed to the benefactor. The poor often times had no choice but to accept such a relationship. You could actually buy and sell relationships. Accepting a gift from a patron bound you to the benefactor and defined who you were or whose side you were on, by which benefactor you selected. Money back then was used as a power chip to control and influence. Sounds like things haven’t changed much since then. The giving that Paul writes about is not a giving with “strings attached,” rather it is a giving that cuts you free by grace through Christ. It is not a giving that is bound by obligation or bound by a notion of looking at what I get out of this. It is a giving that goes beyond boundary and limits and finds where can grace abound more. A giving that will help people that you may never meet. As you give without compulsion, not reluctantly, you may discover a special serendipity that Paul points out—joy. Joy that approaches hilarity. It's a joy to discover what Christ reveals to us—that the way to abundant life is not to hang on to it, but to give it away, to spread the seeds and let grace abound and grow in this world. It is in this spirit that I hope you would consider your giving for 2023—that we give as Paul says, deciding in our hearts to give—and give hilariously! #aplaceforgrace

One hundred and four years ago on this date, November 11, at 11 a.m., it was decided that all arms and weapons were to be laid down. The Great War or World War I—the war to end all wars, was finally ending and a decision to lay down arms and pursue peace was made. It is known as Armistice Day or better known now as Veterans Day. It is a day to celebrate both those who lost their lives in service as well as those who continue to serve today. It is a day for civilians to remember that because of the sacrifice of others, we enjoy great freedom. It is also a day to remember that not only do soldiers serve, but it is a sacrifice of their entire family who are not able to be with them and must live with the reality of the potential of a loss of life. Those are things that civilians often forget. I am sure that there were some who did not lay down their weapons of war on that day long ago because humans have a hard time trusting their authority. I am also sure there were countries not happy about the outcome of the war. It had been brutal and the loss of life overwhelming. In a war there are always winners and losers, and I am sure the losers were angry and bitter. But I also think about all the people celebrating the ending. All the moms and dads, wives and siblings who had prayed for so long for their family member to come home. For all the children who would see their parents again, the celebrating must have been wonderful. For the past couple of months, we have been inundated with another kind of battle. The fear mongering on television has overwhelmed and left us discouraged. All of the commercials share the goal of scaring us to death if our candidate does not win. Now that we are on the other side of the mid-term elections, let’s consider something else. Maybe it is time for us to lay down our weapons of warfare—our words, our thoughts, our fears, and live into a time of peace. Long ago they thought World War I would be the war to end all wars. Sadly, they were wrong. I believe wars will always exist until Christ returns. He is and will always be our salvation. In politics we will all pick up our weapons again in two years and battle once more, but maybe for just a period of time, we lay those weapons down and seek peace with our brothers and sisters. It will not be easy, but I love the way the Apostle Paul challenges us to do the work. “If possible, to the best of your ability, live at peace with all people.” (Romans 12:18 CEB) #aplaceforgrace

So then, with endurance, let’s also run the race that is laid out in front of us, since we have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us. Let’s throw off any extra baggage, get rid of the sin that trips us up, and fix our eyes on Jesus, faith’s pioneer and perfecter. [Hebrews 1-2a CEB] This Sunday is All Saints Sunday. As United Methodists we don’t officially canonize the saints like they do in the Catholic church, but we share those people, they belong to us, we belong to them. We sometimes think of saints as referring to the epoch figures from the New Testament's narratives. Even as United Methodists, we commonly attach the word “saint’ in front of the Gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John; to Paul; and to the disciples, such as the namesake of our own church, St. Andrew. These saints are the “Hall of Fame” Christians. Those who get a lot of ink in the Bible or Christian literature. The ones who get churches and cathedrals named after them. But they are not the only ones we celebrate on All Saints Sunday. The true saints are the ones who say yes, not just with their heads and their hearts, but with their lives. They’ve figured out that what God needs is not those who say, believe, and stand up for the right things. The world is full of those people. What God needs is some people who will go when God says go and do when God gives them something to do. Think about the saints in your life. Most likely they are ordinary people with an extraordinary willingness to take belief and turn it into action. This Sunday we will read the names of those persons in the family of this church who we lost this past year. As their names are read, you may know some of them and say to yourself, they truly were saints. They were a saint to me. Think about the people who have meant the most to you. They aren’t mega-talented, overachievers as much as they are extraordinary in their willingness to put their beliefs into action. It doesn’t take a lengthy, elaborate process to decide that they truly are saints. You just know. They are the ones in our lives who spread around the love that God gave them so that others may experience it. Yes, we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses who have gone before us. And on this Sunday, we rejoice and say a word of thanks for those saints in our lives and in the life of the church. #aplaceforgrace

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. [John 15:5 NIV] A huge grapevine was carved into the stone of the entrance to the temple in Jerusalem. The trunk of the grapevine carving was more than 6 feet tall, the branches spread out far apart, and were adorned with gold leaves and bunches of ornate grapes. When Jesus spoke the words in the Gospel of John, He most likely was standing beneath the grapevine engraving. Jesus said, “I am the vine, you are the branches,” meaning that He is the source that produces fruit for God. And Jesus is saying the same to us, "I am the source. Remain in the vine, abide in me. Apart from me you can do nothing." This image of the vine and branches is a picture of how we are to participate in the work of God. Branches cannot live apart from the vine. Branches of a grapevine are interwoven and interconnected. Within the vine itself, there is no hierarchy. And there is just one purpose for a grapevine—to produce fruit. Jesus is saying to us that our sole purpose is to produce fruit, to be servants. And to always remember the source—Christ. We have a living reliance on Jesus to bear fruit. The word used over and over again for "servant" is the Greek word hupertes. This term was originally meant to indicate an "under-rower," someone who worked in the galleys or the lower deck of a ship's crew. It eventually came to mean a servant or steward. It is an example of how our attitude should be one of humility with others and servanthood to Christ. Christ says to us, "I can do in you what you cannot." There are some who serve out of slavery, in fear of God. There are some who serve as a hired hand, to get some reward or pay out of it. Then there are some who serve out of love for Christ. Deep down, which one are we? #aplaceforgrace

“… being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” [Philippians 1:6 NIV] Do you have any “unfinished” projects in your life? A garage that needs cleaning out. That desk you were going to refinish. Or maybe some aspirations you had set for yourself that you never quite got there. For me it would be learning to play the guitar/piano or training for a marathon. “One of these days, I’ll get around to it.” Don’t you hate it when that word "unfinished" gets attached to your projects, to your aspirations, to your aims in life? That word seems to stand in judgment of us, reminding us that while we may have plenty of ideas and ambition, we’re not so good with follow-through. Although we may have unfinished jobs around the house or goals we abandoned along the way, God never leaves us “unfinished.” From the moment God begins His good work in us until the day of its completion, the Holy Spirit has been working away in us, renovating us into the image of Christ, shaping our character, drawing us closer to God. God does the work, but we are also meant to be active in the process, humbling ourselves and yielding to God’s work in us and through us. And just because we can’t always see it, doesn’t mean it’s not happening in our lives. We are never an unfinished project to God. God will never choose to toss us aside. Because we are promised that “he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion …” #aplaceforgrace

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. [Matthew 5:8] Have you ever stopped and pondered what your motives are for doing something? I mean, really got down to the gut-level depths of what makes us tick in a variety of things we do. What is our true agenda? Was our kindness, generosity, helpfulness, thoughtfulness due to pure unadulterated motives? Or was there something more subtle and possibly self-seeking behind it all? Really, who are you trying to fool? Well-intentioned Christians can be real experts at deceiving themselves and others by being so convinced that their intentions are always pure, unadulterated, and totally selfless. But typically, well-buried, far distant from the well-meaning action, there is a hint or even a torrent of selfishness and personal agendas. Actions aimed at getting something in return. "Pure," in the context of this passage, describes a heart that is free of unadulterated motives. So, this is my challenge. Can we truly perform selfless, good deeds—acts of pure kindness in our world? In order to do so, we will have to do some deep reflecting to get at and understand the motives of each and every one of our actions. And that may hurt. But in the endeavor don’t be surprised when you discover what Jesus said in the Beatitude: you will be blessed because “you will see God.” You will see people as God sees them. And you will see God all around you—in all persons and in all of creation. #aplaceforgrace

Well, we have made it through another hurricane. It is kind of strange how life stops for us here in Florida and we hunker down and wait for whatever nature throws our way. We all have our ways of preparing and tending to what we see as important. In our family we always want lots of snacks. Gary and I go through our list of preparations. We have gotten good at remembering most things like filling the tub or making sure all the laundry is done. But what about after the hurricane? Once again, we need to shift back to normal like. Unless of course you live in Fort Myers. I have watched the news way too much seeing the devastation down there. It is overwhelming. I wonder what the people of Fort Myers are thinking. Are they all going to move to another state or remain in Florida? Honestly, I don’t know what I would do. I know I would be talking to God a lot. I might be asking for His help and comfort, or I might be angry at Him for not saving my house or the life of my neighbor. I don’t think it is bad to be honest with God. He understands our fears and our disillusionment. He can handle our questions and our disappointment. We can not push Him away with our truth. Romans 8 reminds us, “Who will separate us from Christ’s love? Will we be separated by trouble, or distress, or harassment, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?" We can add flood waters and natural disasters to that list. God's love is steadfast. Romans 8 goes on to say, “But in all these things we win a sweeping victory through the one who loved us. I’m convinced that nothing can separate us from God’s love in Christ Jesus our Lord: not death or life, not angels or rulers, not present things or future things, not powers or height or depth, or any other thing that is created.” That is a deep assurance that God has not forgotten the people of Fort Myers. He is down there with them as they attempt to salvage what they can of their homes. He is with them as they make their decisions about the future. He will walk with them through the coming months and even years until they climb out of this disaster. This is what God does and He is faithful. #aplaceforgrace