Happy Epiphany!

Today is the day of Epiphany, when we consider the revealing of God through Jesus Christ.  I have always believed that Epiphany commemorated the arrival of the Wise Men to greet the newborn King of the Jews.

I was tooling around the Internet looking for the root words for epiphany (all I could remember was that “-phany” means “appear”).  I was surprised by a mention that different traditions relate Epiphany to several different events in Jesus’ early life.  In the Western church, it usually means the moment when Jesus is visited by the Wise Men.  In the Eastern church, it regularly refers to the Baptism of Jesus, which is in our lectionary for this coming Sunday.  But early church leaders varied quite a bit, describing Epiphany as the birth of Christ, the visit of the Wise Men, the baptism of Jesus, or even the miracle at the wedding at Cana and the feeding of the crowds.

In considering these varied views on Epiphany, I wonder whether this reflects varied understandings of when the divinity of Jesus was revealed to the world.  If we celebrate Jesus as God come to earth to save us, was it enough that the baby was born to Mary?  How important was it that even foreign Gentiles were attracted by a special star in the sky to honor this child as King of the Jews?  Or was it in Jesus’ adulthood, when he presented himself to John for baptism in obedience to Scripture, when the Holy Spirit came down on him and the blessing of heaven was announced?  Or did we need to wait for the signs of Jesus’ miraculous power to be revealed to the public, by turning water into wine or a few loaves of bread into lunch for thousands?

There are indeed several ways that Jesus’ divine nature was demonstrated to the world, and we know that witnesses to these events responded in varied ways—many responded with belief and gratitude, but others (especially those with worldly power) responded with suspicion and fear.  According to Matthew, the baby Jesus was targeted by King Herod, who feared the political threat of this newborn King of the Jews—and this led to Joseph and Mary taking the baby Jesus to seek and find asylum in Egypt.  Of course, we know that Jesus faced resistance from church and political leaders, all the way up to his execution.  And even at that moment, some were led to see, in his sacrifice, that truly this man was God’s Son.

Regardless of how and when individuals came to recognize God in Jesus, we as Christians do believe that Jesus’ appearance on Earth was God’s ultimate method for helping us to know and return to God.  We also believe that the world continues to need to find God today—and how do they do that?  Jesus no longer walks the earth as an individual, but is manifested in every church, acting as the body of Christ for every time and place where the church lives out God’s mission.

That means you!

So your church embodies Jesus, God’s will for salvation, for your community in our time.  Is it enough that your church was started?  Or that others, even strangers, are attracted to God through you?  Or that your people are claimed, cleansed, and empowered through baptism to serve God?  Or do the faithful actions of your church—like praying for healing and forgiveness, feeding the homeless, standing up for the powerless, and any number of other miracles of faith—get the attention of the world, making people wonder at the power and mercy of God?  Does that faithfulness sustain you even in the face of criticism, reaching all the way to your very existence as a church body?

Happy Epiphany, and happy 2020.  May we live out this year, remembering that in the life of the church, as we reflect the love of God for the world, every day can be Epiphany Day.

Peace,

Wendy

Our first Presbytery meeting of 2020 is next Tuesday, January 14, 7 pm, at Monte Vista Grove Homes in Pasadena.  There will be two pre-Presbytery meetings, starting promptly at 6 pm, for people who have questions about the proposed dismissal of Alhambra True Light Presbyterian Church to ECO, or the recommended amendments to how San Gabriel Presbytery defines minimum pastoral compensation for the pastors of our churches.  We will also have the opportunity to examine and bless Candidate Peter Hawisher, who has been called to Radford Presbyterian Church in Virginia.

And remember to register for WinterFest, February 8, 9-2:30, at Arcadia Community Church.  You can register at https://knoxpresbyterian.breezechms.com/form/Winterfest2020

Scroll down for other upcoming events, like the Homeless Count (required orientation session January 13), and a workshop on worship music, February 21-23, at Calvary Presbyterian Church in South Pasadena.

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, when we keep watch for the Bethlehem birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  Do you relate to any particular part of the story?  Some women connect with Mary, as they remember the wonder and excitement and nervousness that comes with the birth of a baby.  Some politically-minded people think about the intrigue in the palace of King Herod, as he receives news that a new king is rising, perhaps threatening his power.  Some relate to the wise men, attracted by a star to seek the new king in a foreign land.  Recently I asked this question of the partners sharing our Presbytery Center in Temple City, and one of the Mideast Evangelical Church members was humble enough to liken himself to the hay in Jesus’ manger, his only hope was that he could provide some comfort to the newborn baby.

This year, I have been thinking the most about the shepherds.  I think it’s because the shepherds were out in the dark night, possibly cold and lonely—the last folk who you’d think God’s angel would approach to announce the birth of the new king of Israel.  Shepherds were hardly well-placed and important, but rather poor, unskilled, and illiterate.  I like that at first, in the text above, there was just one angel, and the glory of the Lord shone around them—so the glory didn’t shine around the angel, but around the shepherds.  But rather than revel in that, this terrified the shepherds.  How often do we experience God’s glory in a way that is so extraordinary, it terrifies us!

During this Advent season, my mind is occupied by two people.  The first is Bertrand, the young Cameroonian man Steve Wiebe and I met at Adelanto Detention Center last month.  He continues to be hopeful and positive, participating in a prayer group of fellow asylum-seekers awaiting the decision of whether he can stay in this country that he traveled for six months to reach.  As our Immigrant Accompaniment Organizer, Kristi Van Nostran, pointed out, many detention centers are intentionally placed in remote locations, away from population centers, just as the shepherds were living out in the fields, likely some distance from towns like Bethlehem.

The other person on my mind is, of course, Jake Kim.  Jake completed his interim term with Northminster a year ago, and continued as Associate for Ministry Development for San Gabriel Presbytery, inspiring churches with his passion for ministry and creative energy.  It was only two months ago when he left to be installed as senior pastor of Church of the Valley in Apple Valley.  It seemed like a wonderful blessing—a good-sized, energetic congregation in a community that was quieter than metropolitan Los Angeles, where he could buy a house.  But a little over a week ago he suffered an aortic aneurysm, and has been on life support since then.  I haven’t heard news for a few days, but we continue to pray for Jake and especially his wife Yuni and two young boys Ari and Avi,

I think many of us know something about sitting in a hospital room, as patient or visitor, during the holidays—or worse, having to say good-bye to a loved one when it seems the whole world is partying.  But just as we remember that our Lord came to us in a little baby born of a poor unwed mother—just as the Lord came to us in a barn, temporarily homeless and displaced by imperial edict—just as the Lord came to us as a young child, whose family was forced to seek asylum in Egypt—we are also reminded that the Lord’s coming was announced not only to royalty, but to all the world in a shining star, and God sent an angel to announce the good news of Christ’s birth personally to poor shepherds living out in the cold, outside the city.  And though sometimes we feel outside polite society, far from the holiday festivities, let us always remember that God never forgets us, and will even go to great lengths to reach out to us.

This word cloud is made up of the word “peace” in the languages of San Gabriel Presbytery—or at least the languages that influence us.  On any given Sunday, San Gabriel Presbytery speaks peace to a frightened world in English, Korean, Taiwanese, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Cantonese, Indonesian, Thai, occasionally Filipino and Japanese, and we might reference the biblical text in Hebrew or Greek.  We are the living example of God’s reach to all the world, and our commitment to let our neighbors know, in a language they can understand, that Jesus Christ is born, and lives, in and for all of us.  So whether you are busy and happy and warm, or lonely and grieving and cold, God’s love comes to all of us.  May we take a moment to hear the angel say “I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people.”  And together, let us all sing:

“Glory to God in the highest heaven,
     and on earth peace among those whom God favors!”

Peace to you all, and see you in 2020,

Wendy

We are coming close to Christmas.  Churches are deep in their Advent activities and getting the word out for their Christmas Eve services.  For Presbytery staff, we are more closely involved in year-end activities, but honestly Presbytery-related business is fairly quiet since most folk are involved in Christmas plans.  However, because our January Presbytery meeting is January 14^th, 2020, we are already looking ahead to that meeting.  There are a few important items of business that will be considered in that Tuesday evening meeting at Monte Vista Grove:

• We will examine for ordination Peter Hawisher, who has been called to Radford Presbyterian Church in Virgina.  If the way be clear (as we say), he will be ordained at First Presbyterian Pomona on Sunday, January 19^th, at 6 pm.
• We will consider the recommendation of COM to adopt a revised and expanded minimum compensation policy for San Gabriel Presbytery pastors.  This was discussed at our last Presbytery meeting, and there will also be a pre-Presbytery meeting at 6 pm on January 14^th for people who have questions.
• We will consider the recommended agreement by which Alhambra True Light Presbyterian Church would be dismissed to ECO with their property.  There will be another pre-Presbytery meeting for those who want to discuss the proposed dismissal more closely.

Since the Presbytery office will be closed December 23-January 1, we are trying to work ahead.  As announced last week, Twila French is passing the baton to Ally Lee, who is learning how to support the Presbytery meetings.

But I jump ahead.  We are still in Advent, still trying to imagine what it was like for that occupied nation, having already waited for centuries for the restoration of Israel, perhaps wondering whether the promises voiced by the prophets would ever be fulfilled.

Yesterday I heard this text from Ezra.  It struck me, partly because we don’t pay much attention to Ezra, but moreso for the surprising relevancy of the text.  This passage reports the rebuilding of the Temple, an important sign of the rebuilding of Jerusalem after the exiles were allowed to return from Babylon.  This might be an architectural, religious symbol of restoration that foreshadows the restoration of the nation, the chosen people of YHWH.  The building of the Second Temple was accompanied by many nods to the raising of the First Temple, perhaps to confirm the legitimacy of this new house of God.

In spite of the great celebration for the building of the new temple, there were some who wept at the sight of this new structure.  Can’t you just hear their words and bittersweet feelings, which are repeated countless times in our churches today?  “It’s just not the same.”  “I remember how beautiful it was, the real Temple, when I was brought there as a child.”  “We are just getting settled; it’s too much and too fast to take on this huge project right now.”  “We did fine without; why are these people trying to come back and act like the last 70 years never happened?”

This last statement might have come from a different group.  Since the Babylonians exiled the leaders of Judah, there were people left behind to make do.  So the return of the exiles (the old leaders) and their attempts to rebuild and regain their status as leaders may not have been totally welcomed by those who managed to live amidst the ruins of Jerusalem.

I have worked with enough churches in their transformation efforts to realize that even when the transformation is good, and even when the oldtimers rationally understand that the change is faithful and helpful, there is yet sadness that we can’t go back to our most beloved memories of the past.  There are leaders of old who wonder why the old ways don’t work anymore, and there are more recent leaders who resent efforts to go back to the “good old days,” and may even resist any contribution the oldtimers might want to make.

Too often we confuse “restoration” with “transformation”—the people of Israel kept yearning for restoration, but the Bible tells us that while we can hope for restoration in our relationship with God, there’s no going back to our past lives.  Early on in my biblical studies, it was pointed out that the culmination of God’s plan of salvation is not a return to Eden.  Indeed, we do not go back to a simple life alone with God in a garden, but celebrate the triumph of a wounded Lamb amidst throngs of believers in the eternal city.

As we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, let us consider how radically different he was from the new King David, the restorer of all that was, whom the people of Israel were expecting.  And likewise, may we accept in faith that the birth of Jesus in our hearts is not a sentimental return to what was, but a new dawn to a future that we cannot even imagine.  May we recognize, and share, the myriad ways that God’s future, a time not just of restoration for some but of new life for all, is held in the potential of that little baby in Bethlehem—but also in each of us, as children of God.  Let us trust that whatever we loved in the past is not as great as the glory of what is to come.

Looking ahead for the Dawn,

Wendy

During this Advent season, we contemplate the power of love that God demonstrated in the birth of Jesus Christ.  We call Jesus Immanuel, or “God with us,” and marvel at the idea that God would stoop to come to earth, not just as a visitor, but as one of us, born of a woman, fully human as well as fully divine.  Advent allows us to reflect back, but also to anticipate the fruition of God’s promise to restore God’s people, when Jesus comes again.

So God came first as the baby Jesus, but there is diverse speculation on how Jesus will come again.  At least in this in-between time, Jesus told his disciples that he is here, in the least of us, and in the Holy Spirit.  The apostle Paul tells the church repeatedly that we are the body of Christ, each of us a member with individual gifts that contribute to the working of the body as a whole.  This leads to some of us to believe that Jesus will not come again as an individual or any kind of outside force, but the kin-dom will be realized when all of God’s people fulfill our calling as members of one global, diverse, blessed, saved, healed, and healing body.

In our little part of that global body called San Gabriel Presbytery, we are blessed with the presence of so many people with varied gifts.  And though sometimes it seems that Paul’s instruction leads us to believe that each of us are given one calling each, for life, I have witnessed the Holy Spirit gifting us differently at different times in our lives, and sometimes with multiple gifts at once, as our calling requires it. 

So as we give thanks for God coming down to earth in the baby Jesus, let us also take seriously what Jesus said about being present among us even now.  Personally I am grateful for the opportunity to work with so many volunteers, and with Presbytery staff, who bring their varied gifts and perspectives to the service of you and God’s will for this valley.

If you reviewed our recent representation report, you may have noticed that we have just under 100 volunteers who have been elected to various leadership roles in the presbytery’s ministry, and we have made progress these last few years in the leaders reflecting the membership of the presbytery.  One thing that the Committee on Representation and Nominations often does is to speak with potential leaders not about filling a particular slot, but what they feel called to, because again our calling and giftedness are not always reflected in our “day jobs” or how the world has shaped us—or what our church bylaws demands.

Likewise, our staff sometimes practice different gifts.  So Lauren Evans, who was first ordained as a solo pastor in Florida and then became a parish associate at La Verne Heights Presbyterian Church, has gained additional training in the spirituality of aging, and is now doing her practicum in a master’s program in counseling.  She has done great work as our inaugural Chaplain for Retired Presbyterian Church Workers, and expanded her ministry to include the residents of Monte Vista Grove Homes.  She realizes that she is now overcommitted in her multiple roles, so we, along with the Chaplaincy Committee of Monte Vista Grove, have invited Diane Frasher to fill in as chaplain there.  Diane continues as our Stated Clerk, but she has always demonstrated a pastoral, caring side to her ministry, and she has moved into this temporary assignment with joy.  She will continue in this substitute role while we meet with the House of Rest, who has funded this position, and if we are granted another year of funding, we will open the position for a half-time chaplain for Monte Vista Grove.

And as you know, Twila French, who took on the role of Bookkeeper a few years ago, is getting ready to end her time as Presbytery Administrator and Associate Stated Clerk, to continue on in 2020 as half-time Bookkeeper.  As the Presbytery has embarked on a sustainability plan that works with our congregations to utilize Presbytery properties in different ways, the role of Bookkeeper has expanded and become more complex.  In the meantime, we continued to seek a staff person who would coordinate our administrative and ecclesiastical tasks as a presbytery, and has some ability to work with property issues as well. 

We are delighted to announce that Rev. Ally Lee, a minister member of the Presbytery, will join the Presbytery staff as Administrative Presbyter and Associate Stated Clerk.  Though she is already doing some cross-training (and she ably filled in at our November 19^th Presbytery meeting), Ally officially starts her new position on January 1, 2020.  She will also continue at Knox Presbyterian as temporary associate pastor, but she will be working half-time in each ministry.  Ally has fulfilled many of the administrative roles at a congregational level for Knox, so she is already familiar with church records and statistics, and polity.  Also, she will support CPM as Twila did, and since she was under care of our presbytery, she knows that process well.  Thanks be to God, she also oversaw property management for Knox.  Her experience will be stretched, as we have recently faced a string of break-ins and vandalism at the Presbytery Center; please pray for us as it feels very violating to have this happen. 

We are indeed blessed to know the presence of Jesus Christ, as that little baby, prophet, healer, teacher, and savior—but also we know Christ through the people we meet.  I am so grateful for all the volunteers and staff who serve Christ through this Presbytery.  I ask for your blessings on the staff—Diane, Twila, Ally, Lauren, and always our mission staff Wendy Gist and Kristi Van Nostran—now and throughout the new year. 

Continued Advent blessings,

Wendy

I hope you had a warm and wonderful Thanksgiving, and that you have entered the season of Advent with eyes open to the wonders that God has in store for us.

I had the opportunity to mark the beginning of Advent by preaching twice yesterday, including for the 4 pm vespers service at Monte Vista Grove Homes’ Health Center.  This is an opportunity to reach out to folks who cannot go to church, and because the Health Center (the skilled nursing arm of Monte Vista Grove) usually has people from the outside community as well as Grove residents, it helps to offer hope to folks from within and outside our Presbyterian family.  Bill Van Loan, who coordinates the vespers service along with the Chaplaincy Committee, told me that they would appreciate volunteers who would like to offer God’s Word to this community, so please let him or me know if you are interested.  It’s a 30-minute service with music and support offered by resident volunteers like Roberta Woodberry and Mark Duntley, and I was encouraged to see several family members who attended along with their loved ones.

My morning sermon was at a church where I was asked to focus on some of the “back story” that is the Old Testament narrative.  We Presbyterians honor the Old Testament not only as the story of God’s care for God’s chosen people, and so now God’s care for us, but also it is the Bible that Jesus grew up with. 

Focusing on the Old Testament, or Hebrew Bible, is especially relevant during Advent, because the prophecies of the Old Testament informed the Jews as they yearned for God’s salvation, especially through the years from the heydays of King David to the centuries of destruction, occupation, exile, oppression, and political betrayal leading up to the birth of Jesus Christ.  The prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and others promised that God would bring forth a new king from the house of David who would restore Israel in a state of justice and righteousness.  How the people imagined this new king would look, and how he would accomplish this restoration, guided those centuries of hope and expectation.  For us, this hope culminates in the birth of the humble, displaced baby Jesus.  For others, they couldn’t believe this rebel carpenter’s son was the Messiah, the Anointed One.

If we really try to enter into the yearnings of the people of Judah, we gain a sense of the hunger, the faithfulness, the frustration, the persistent hope, and the ease with which people will follow the wrong path in order to survive—all that and more I cannot even imagine must have been mixed into the spiritual psyche of the Jewish people during that time so many years ago, when the emperor Augustus called for the census that caused the young pregnant woman Mary to go with her fiancé Joseph to Bethlehem.

As we enter into this season of Advent, let us not rush ahead to the happy ending, but dwell a little on the feelings we have in common with those Judeans of 2,000 years ago—feelings of need for God’s care, a yearning for justice, and a determined hope for a better life of righteousness and peace for all.  We live in the faith that God does hear us when we cry out to God, just as God has heard God’s people over the millenia.  As we open our hearts to our need for salvation, let us appreciate anew the gift of God coming to us in Jesus the Christ.

Poet-scholar David Rosenberg restated portions of the Hebrew Bible in his book A Poet’s Bible.  His version of Psalm 90, captures for me the hope that is Advent:

and for every day lost

we find a new day

revealing where we are

in the future and in the past

together again

this moment with you

made human for us

to see your work

in the open-eyed grace of children

the whole vision unlocked

from darkness

to the thrill of light

where our hands reach for another’s

opening to life

in our heart’s flow

the work of this hand

flowing open

to you and from you.

As we confess our need for God’s love, may we appreciate all the more God’s willingness to come and be with us, to be one of us, to reach out his grace-filled hands to love and heal us and even partner with us—and then we will see that thrill of light, and welcome the day of salvation that is here, and now.

Peace,

Wendy