Pastor Note for December 2022/January 2023

Annually after December’s decorations have gone back into storage, the calendar has turned, and even the ambitions of resolutions have started to fade as the church shifts to ‘ordinary time’ the extraordinary begins in earnest. All four gospels agree upon this, Jesus’ baptism started something. 

However, we tend to overlook it completely seeing the first Sunday of Advent in November, the nativity of Christ in December, or even the arrival of the Magi in early January as beginnings and endings of sorts (and that’s not even including a new calendar year!). Participation wanes following these false starts as we retreat inside physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. The windchill cools holiday hopes and new year’s resolutions just as the real action of the gospel heats up and should fuel ambitions. From the waters of the Jordan flow the teaching, healing, and feeding that dominates the gospels, dances in imaginations, and changes the world. 

We are invited to let the same happen in our lives. As we revisit those healing waters of grace and recommit our lives to the promises made through them, something can start. Accepting the invitation to follow, what will flow is the persistent work of the Holy Spirit combating cool breezes of pessimism and frozen realities of inaction. Then the possibilities of reflecting God’s love which so captures our imaginations in December can take shape … and the ordinary will become extraordinary! 

Yours in Christ, 

Rev. Daven Oskvig