Grace, peace, and late Advent stirrings be with you all this week. Christmas joy may have already burst into your daily lives with children’s concerts and family feasts. Here in the church, we continue to wait for the One promised. Promised for love. Promised for freedom. Promised as the One who would bring an end to our human tendencies toward clamoring for power and trampling the poor.

Here in 2024, we continue to pray: Come, Lord Jesus.

There’s a classic horror film gimmick that feels apt this season. (Hmm, that’s telling that tropes from horror films are seeming appropriate!) When the final survivor is nearing the film’s end, the phone rings. She picks up the receiver and tries to trace the call, only to realize “the call is coming from inside the house!” Eeek!

Yes, this illustration is circa 1995. But just roll with me, will ya?

Without needing to scream “Eeek!” I want to say that this is the prevailing sentiment about ministry in the NWIM synod. This time, the call is coming from inside our house. We synod staff are very blessed to be able to move about the cabin of our geography, learning about ministry and experiencing the many and various ways you all respond to our common baptismal calling. Week to week, as we check in with each other, we keep being amazed at what God is doing in our midst and through all of you. As many community organizers say, “the wisdom is in the room.”

Two weeks ago, I was preaching and presiding at a small congregation in Spokane county. A very young mom, carrying her newborn, came up to the communion railing. Helpers sweetly came to her aid, making sure she received bread and wine. Holding it all in her arms: baby, bit of bread, tiny up of wine, she asked, “Am I supposed to eat and drink this now?”

The purity of her question pierced me. For all our overt expressions of welcome and the help folks gave her, no one clarified, “Yes, my love, my precious one: this bread and this wine are absolutely for you to take in at this time. Eat, drink, and know that you are God’s beloved.”

I know there are trends in mission and ministry wanting us to reinvent everything, crying “innovate, innovate, innovate.” What if we simply find ways to meaningfully communicate the deeply good things we offer every Sunday?

In the spirit of nourishing and sharing the good things already happening in our midst, we are offering a book study in 2025 that will anchor us in the basics of who we are as Lutherans. Starting January 9, we’ll read through Daniel Erlander’s classic “Manna and Mercy.” Register if you plan to attend, as a group or as an individual:

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0A4AA5A823A1F4C43-54058863-manna

Join us! 

Thanks be to God for the creative, passionate, faithful ministry already happening throughout the NWIM Synod. And thanks be to God for the best gift of all: the Incarnation of Christ our Peace, born to end tyranny and inaugurate compassion forever. Alleluia!

 Your DEM, Liv