First Sunday in Advent

Light one candle to watch for Messiah
Let the light banish darkness
He shall bring salvation to Israel
God fulfills the promise.
(reprinted under OneLicense.net license # A700392)

Well today is the first Sunday in Advent and we’ll sing the subsequent verses to this song in each approaching week as we move through Advent toward the birth of our Savior on Christmas. This Yiddish folk tune with words by Wayne Wold reminds us that even in the darkness of our lives, God has a plan and a promise for us.

The color for Advent in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is blue. I grew up in a Missouri Synod congregation and the color was purple, the color of royalty, as we saw Advent as the preparation for the coming King. I like the use of blue in the ELCA to represent the darkness of the world and the night sky, with the increasing light of the Advent candles with each successive week bringing us to a Christmas Eve filled with candlelight, when we celebrate with JOY to the World, our Savior reigns. It reminds us of the times in our lives when there seems to be nothing but the darkness, those times when we are separate from God, those times when we need a Savior to break into our darkness and bring light into our world. In this time of Advent, we prepare for the coming of our Savior, the Light of the World, as we remember the promises of God foretold to us by his prophets…Isaiah, Jeremiah, Zechariah, Micah.

These are certainly times when we can often feel like our world is blanketed in darkness. Our economy is a mess, so many people are out of work, our healthcare system is in need of a bandaid (or maybe surgery), our governments (from local all the way up to federal) are rife with corruption and we see little hope of real change for a better crop of politicians with each election, our young men and women die on foreign soil in a war that seems to go on and on, our taxes eat up more and more of our incomes, and the things we buy cost more and more while our incomes stagnate or recess. Where is the light in this endless tunnel of gloom?

The Advent wreath begs us to look in its direction.

Because ...with each passing week, we get closer and closer to the answer to that question. The Light that ends the gloom is coming. It comes in the form of God’s own Son, manifest in flesh, to live among us and know our fears, worries, pains, anxieties, and hopes. He has been here. He knows what fear and pain and worry consume us. He yearns to ease our burden if we will but love Him, look to Him for our answers, and give up our fears, worries and anxieties to Him to handle, so that He can let the light in to our lives.

Come, oh come, Emmanuel and ransom captive Israel…

A Life Well Lived...

A life well lived…

The Saint Andrew family mourns the loss of Carla Derner, wife of Rev. George Derner; mother of Sue Morrissey, Carl and Glen Derner and their spouses, Joy and Lisa; grandmother to Sean and Alex Morrissey, and Nicole, Jason, Jack, and Chelsea; great-grandmother to Zachary.

Carla was an avid reader and member of several book clubs, including the St. Andrew book club. She and her husband, George, were regular greeters at our Live Nativity. She was a faithful servant of God and lived her life in full appreciation of her time with her family and friends. Her joy and wit will be missed. Charitable donations can be made to the American Cancer Society, 6725 Lyons St., PO Box 7, East Syracuse, NY 13057. Her obituary can be found here:
http://www.leonardismemorialhome.com/obits/obituary.php?id=57053

Getting ready..

I'm in the midst of finishing up the crafting of about 300 ornaments for our annual Live Nativity and I've been thinking about Joseph (our featured Nativity character this year) and his relationship with Jesus. It must have been somewhat strange for Joseph to raise Jesus, the Son of God, King of Heaven and earth. I can envision it now, "Now son, I know that you want that pet lizard to live forever but things just have a normal course of life, and it's time for that thing to die now, so you have to let it go." To which a young Jesus might have said, "But dad, I can make it live!" Now how do you argue with that when your son is the Messiah?

Joseph was a faithful servant of God. By agreeing to marry Mary after learning of her pregnancy even though he had not been intimate with her, he secured a safe childhood for Jesus. He fulfilled the role of "father" by loving Jesus...protecting him by fleeing to Egypt when it was dangerous in Israel, searching for Jesus and fearful for his safety while they were in Jerusalem and he was found in dialogue with the elders in the temple, teaching him the ways of carpentry so that he could make his way in the world until God called upon him to begin his ministry at the age of 30. In all these things Joseph showed his faithfulness to God and his love for Jesus, adopting Jesus as his own son. Joseph answered God's call for him to love the child God was giving to him, even though not his own.

Thank God for men like Joseph who hear God's call and are willing to father the children around them, even if they are not their own, so that the children would know love...so that the children would know the face of God in these men.

P.S. .... A special thank you to all the people, especially Sandy, who helped prepare and assemble our Live Nativity ornament for this year. If you'd like to receive your hand-crafted "Joseph" come to our Live Nativity on Dec. 11 or 12, doors are open 4:30 - 8:00 pm.