Fourth Sunday of Advent: Romans 16:25-27

By Driana Arceneaux

 

God gets the glory in all things. There are times when we are faced with uncertainties in life, when everything we do for good seems to go bad, but God has a way of turning around all things that seem to go wrong and make them right.

 

In this scripture of Romans, we see the letter written by Paul proclaiming some good news. The good news is that which was a mystery (Jesus) is no longer a mystery. Jesus and the salvation he brings is what strengthens us and makes it possible for all of us to be strong, be encouraged, and be able to endure and not give up. God made a covenant with Abraham in the Old Testament, promising him that, “All the families of the earth will be blessed in you,” (Genesis 12:3). Abraham had faith in God and knew that God would do it. He didn’t know how and wasn’t around to actually see it happen, but God keeps God’s promises. This promise wasn’t just for the Jews, but it was for everyone. God’s plan for all of us to be blessed involved Jesus’s death, resurrection, and ascension to Heaven. God revealed the plan God had hidden for so long: that Jesus not only conquered death for himself, but also for all who have faith in him.

 

I am so glad that God saw fit for everyone to be blessed and experience God’s wonderful love and salvation through God’s son, Jesus. I don’t believe that God did this so that we could be selfish with it. I believe that when we experience the love of God, we are to share it with others that don’t know God’s love or who don’t feel loved. God shows us love so that we may show love to others. God gives to us, so that we can give to others. God heals us, so we can help others heal. God is not selfish with God’s love. In fact, God’s so unselfish that God provided a way for everyone to experience God’s wonderful love!

Driana Arceneaux is convenor of the national leadership team of AB GIRLS, American Baptist Women’s Ministries.

Third Sunday of Advent: Psalm 126

By Rachel Price

We have all experienced a lack of happiness, whether it be heartbreak, anger, guilt, or sadness. In Psalm 126, we are reminded that God will show us joy, even when it seems impossible to smile. God has blessed us with many things, so there’s always a reason to smile! There will always be an uphill battle, there will always be something to mourn. God will take us out of negative circumstances and give us a reason to shout for joy. We are called to change our hearts for the better: in that, we will find happiness. I struggle with looking for silver linings. I am most definitely a pessimist. This scripture brought back good memories of toiling for a good cause and being joyful with the results that God blessed me with. Also, do not forget that you are not in this alone! Note that the scripture uses “our” and “we.” your sisters (and brothers) in Christ are here for you. You do not have to bear anything alone. Lay your burdens down at the feet of God; let your heart be lightened. You are not alone! Sometimes, I think we forget that we cannot control everything. I know I do, and it drags me down when I get stuck in that thinking. Let God take control of your life, and God will bring happiness into it as God did for Zion. Bad things happen, and it is okay to be down, but keep your chin up because God has happiness in store for you!

Rachel Price is Events Coordinator on the 2017-2018 national leadership team of AB GIRLS, American Baptist Women’s Ministries. For more information on the national leadership team, visit www.abwministries.org/nlt.

 

Second Sunday of Advent: Mark 1:1-8

By Grady Nun Tha Iang

Have you ever felt so helpless that you just want to scream and shout at the top of your lungs for someone to help you? You’re not alone. Recently, my relationship with my boyfriend is slowly breaking up my relationship with my family and I don’t know how to mend it. They are both important to me and choosing one over the other is impossible. It’s at times like these that we need Jesus the most: the only Son of God and our only salvation, promised to us since the beginning of time.

It’s hard to admit that we’re all fragile people, capable of hurting and being hurt. It’s also hard to admit that we are wrong. Whenever someone corrects us, we take offense and put up barriers around ourselves, trying to convince ourselves that we are not wrong. The same applies to me. Whenever my parents point out my weakness, I pretend it doesn’t exist even though I know that Jesus can see it all, no matter how much I try to hide it. But we can find in Mark 1:1-8 that if we admit our weaknesses and repent our sins, that Jesus will baptize us by the Holy Spirit. As painful as it is to experience it, failure is part of what makes us successful. The best way to achieve true success is to learn more and be strengthened by our mistakes.

We light a  purple candle on the second Sunday of Advent to represent the hope of Christ coming to the world. This reminds us that, that even in the face of darkness, we can have hope. Even in the face of total defeat, have hope. Even in the face of emotional teen crises, have hope. Without hope, we’ll become empty shells of negativity. That’s not the plan that God nor Jesus have for us. If God can forgive Saul and turn him into his prophet as Paul, then have no fear. Even if we see nothing good about ourselves and think that we’re too full of mistakes, think twice. God made us for a reason. We’re all women with God’s purpose: to do God’s work. So for the second Sunday of Advent, let’s look back on our mistakes and repent. Remember: Failure is the start to success. Hope is the start to a brighter future. Repentance is your connection to Jesus.

Grady Nun Tha Iang serves as the Promotions Coordinator on the national leadership team of AB GIRLS.

First Sunday of Advent: 1 Corinthians 1:3-9

By Anna Kouadio

Last month was a very special month, the month of Thanksgiving. That is when we give thanks to all the people who affect our life: family, friends, and the most important, our Lord. This when women and girls throughout the world come together and realize how far along we have come, not only in the eyes of others but in the eyes of the Lord. But our thanks-giving shouldn’t end with the end of November.

During Advent, we prepare ourselves for the birth of our Lord. There is no possible way to ever thank God enough for all God has done, but 1 Corinthians 1:1-9 says the thanks that shows God a little bit of our love, and how grateful we are for God’s presence in our life. It reminds us to be thankful for the savior who is about to be revealed in the birth of Jesus. Paul says, “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. For in him you have been enriched in every way—with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge— God thus confirming our testimony about Christ among you. Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”

These word are powerful because they tell the truth of the world. With God in our lives, we women and girls of the world wouldn’t have achieved as much as we have done. God is our light, God is the reason we are here. Without God, the women before us wouldn’t had been able make a way for the women and girls of today. Our best thanks are to be sure God knows the strength of our faith and love. The most important thing is always to be thankful for all God has done for us, especially for all the women who came before to create American Baptist Women’s Ministries and AB GIRLS. Those women created a place for women and girls to call home. I say this because I feel at home in this organization. Home isn’t just a building; it’s not just a place. It can be people or things that makes you feel special, let you know that you’re special, and where you always feel welcome. And, with thanks to God, many women and girls in future generations will have that home.

Anna Kouadio is Coordinator of Mission on the national leadership team of AB GIRLS, American Baptist Women’s Ministries.

Fourth Sunday of Advent: In Her Shoes

By Deborah Malavé Díaz

In Puerto Rico it feels like we celebrate the longest Christmas in the world. Throughout my childhood, every Christmas morning my kid sister would wake me up several times during the night to see if Santa had already left the presents and gifts for us. By the time I was nine years old, I already knew the truth about Santa but for my kid sister Santa was as real and as good as ice cream.

It was 1975 and by Christmas my sister, a very precocious five-year-old, was very excited about the gifts we were just about to receive. She woke me up every hour on the hour to see if Santa had left our presents, until finally, around five o’clock a.m., there they were… our presents. She eagerly opened her gift and it was an educational, colorful, cute plush owl, from the campaign “Give a Hoot, Don’t Pollute.” Woodsy the Owl came with zippers, bottoms, laces, snap bottoms, and hooks to help children learn how to dress themselves.

She looked at it and hugged it and started crying. As she cried hugging her owl she said “Mi buhito, yo no quiero mi buhito,” which means: “My little owl, I don’t want my little owl.”

I didn’t want to be in her shoes. She kept crying louder and louder, and it woke up my mom. She came and took us back to our bedroom and, consoling her, explained that probably Santa made a mistake; it was very possible that he was on his way back with her gift and Mom asked my sister to go back to sleep and wait. My sister looked at her in horror and, still crying, told my mom: “Don’t you understand?!!! By now Santa should be by New York and for sure will not come back to Puerto Rico just for me!!!”…silence. As I looked at my mom’s face, I didn’t want to be in her shoes either. I lay by my sister’s side on her bed as she cried herself to sleep. Later, that morning she got a cool projector and whole bunch of gifts that I’m sure were meant for my cousins. I can’t remember what I got that 1975’s Christmas. But what I’ll never forget is the whole “owl scene” and my sister in despair because for sure Santa would not come back just for her.

In this time of Advent, as we are expectant for the coming of Jesus, I find myself wondering whose shoes are we in? Are they the shoes of the little girl in despair thinking that no one will come back just for her? Or are they the shoes of the mother, without the proper words or simply speechless amidst hopelessness? Or are they they shoes, maybe, of the older sister, watching it all happen and feeling just a little relief?

Psalm 80:3 says, “Restore us, God Almighty; make your face shine on us, that we may be saved.” These are the shoes I want all of us in. Let’s wear the shoes of knowing that Jesus came to restore us and will come back for us; the shoes of knowing that in our hopelessness he will save us. Let’s be in the shoes of bringing unto others the shine of God’s salvation.

Deborah Malave Diaz is national coordinator of Events for American Baptist Women’s Ministries. 

 

Third Sunday of Advent: My Soul Magnifies the Lord

By Patricia Hernandez

“My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior…” (Luke 1:46-47, NRSV)

As I was reflecting on Mary’s Magnificat, I was drawn back to a time early in my ministry when I served in a missional ministry with migrant farmworkers. One summer we decided to hold a healing service for the Growers and the migrant farmworkers who were often at odds with each other. People laughed and said no one would come. Especially, they said, we would never get the Growers—the farm owners—to come.

But we prayed. And prayer is a mighty thing, a Mary Magnificat kind of a thing.

One Grower did come. And some skeptics standing by laughed and said, “See, only one!”

They teased and taunted till he wanted to leave.

But we prayed. And he stayed. Prayer is a mighty thing…

He was the only one. But he was enough. Now there was in the crowd a woman who had lost two children to pesticide-related deaths. She was bent over and twisted up. As she shared her story, her pain, her loss, the Grower was moved to tears.

He walked over to her, placed his hands on her shoulders, looked her in the eye and said, “I’m sorry.” And one Grower was enough. In that action, Christ was present. Later, Bernadette, the farmworker, said that she had never felt such love flow into her. And Jack, the Grower, said he had never felt such love flow out.

Both were healed and restored.

And a bent over woman and an over-powering man embraced.

She was raised up.

He bowed down.

Both became part of God’s family.

All of this came back to me as I was reflecting on Mary’s Song of Praise, pondering the possibilities of this life changing event, her tumultuous, tummy-turning harbinger of the world to come, and the One who would usher it in.

She sings,

“He knocked tyrants off their high horses,
pulled victims out of the mud.” (Luke 1:52)

Or we might say, “He has knocked down farm owners,

and pulled migrant farmworkers out of the muddy cornfields.”

Reconciliation is a rough process: a muddy, mucky, toppling, turning, but ultimately transforming kind of a process.

Reconciliation is no passive process but a passionate, purposeful re-making that results in an explosion of new life and new possibilities.

“For waters shall break forth in the wilderness,
and streams in the desert.” (Isaiah 35:6)

With Mary we wait, patiently, pondering the tumultuous tide of seasonal striving.

While resolution came to Jack and Bernadette on that day, there continues to be injustice in the way that farmworkers are treated, and in the positional power that divides so many.

Let’s reflect on the things in our lives that need to be overturned, that…

barriers may be broken

bridges built

and bonds of community restored

that we may be and become the body of Christ with and for each other,

bursting into song with Mary:

“My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior…” (Luke 1:46-47)

Rev. Dr. Patricia Hernandez is national director of American Baptist Women in Ministry/Transition Ministries.

Second Sunday of Advent: Stumps Bearing Fruit

By Angel L. Sullivan

“A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse, from his roots a branch will bear fruit,” (Isaiah 11:1, NIV).  

These are the words written in the beginning verses of Isaiah.  As I read this verse from the prophet Isaiah, I could not help but to ponder on a stump bearing fruit. Have you ever looked at a stump?  Stumps are what is left after a tree has died and cut down. People often stub their toes on stumps, and if a stump is left in a person’s yard it is usually ground up and hauled away.  Stumps are thought to detract from a home’s landscape. But God says in this passage from Isaiah that a shoot will come up from a stump and bear fruit.

Sometimes we may see ourselves or our lives as a stump. We may feel as if we have no purpose, or that we are a nuisance to others, or that our life is in ruins. However, God has a way of looking at unexpected, disappointing moments in our lives–things that may appear dead and hopeless–and bring new life into them and into us.  The Advent season is a reminder that we have a savior born to us who gives us daily rest, wisdom, and understanding.  All we have to do is turn to him and trust him.  We have the assurance that, despite our shortcomings, he will not judge but through his mercy and grace Jesus will help us to continue towards righteousness.

God lets us know that through a tiny baby born to poor parents, from a town called Nazareth where “nothing good comes from” (John 1:46),  we are forever protected. In that day, God tells us, the root of Jesse will stand as a banner. All the peoples of all the nations will rally to him and his resting place will be glorious. God be praised.

The Rev. Angel L. Sullivan is national president of American Baptist Women’s Ministries.

Christmas: The Time Is… Now! (Isaiah 9:2-7)

Photo by Natesh Ramasamy, 2012, used by permission CreativeCommons.org.

By Virginia Holmstrom

Isaiah 9:2-7

On Christmas we celebrate the birth of Jesus the Messiah, whose birth made real God’s kingdom on earth. I ponder the Scripture’s mixture of tenses that describe the fullness of God’s reign on earth. Isaiah 9:2-7 is a good example of this. I read Isaiah 9 as a prophetic proclamation of the coming of God’s reign someday. But verse 6 tells me that a child has been born for us, and his authority brings justice and righteousness from this time onward and forevermore. So, again I ask, “When is the Kingdom of God coming?” For those who heard Isaiah’s voice in 700 B.C., would it come with the birth of the Messiah? For Christians today, will it happen one day when Christ comes again? Has it already begun? My question is the same question asked by the Pharisee in Luke 17:20-21: “When is the kingdom of God coming?” Jesus answered him, “The kingdom of God is among you.” Now.

With Christ in my life, and in community with others who follow Christ, then what shall be my role as a citizen of God’s reign on earth? I am startled as my eyes instantly fill with tears. The promises associated with the coming of God’s reign on earth feel so distant from the reality of life today. In the kingdom of God there is endless peace. There is justice and righteousness. There is equity for the poor. And the list goes on; Jesus frequently talked about the kingdom of God in the stories recorded by the Gospel writers.

JESUS MAFA. The birth of Jesus with shepherds, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=48387 [retrieved November 4, 2015].

I straddle an uneasy gap between a righteous and holy realm that has already come, but not yet come. I recall the words to a Christian song from the Taizé community: “The kingdom of God is justice and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Come, Lord, and open in me the gates of your kingdom.” There is a call in those words that I cannot ignore. I cannot turn away with resignation that God will rein on earth someday in the sweet by and by.

My ministry with women and girls is dedicated to empowering women and girls to live into God’s purpose for their lives. Can you visualize with me how God’s kingdom on earth will be when women and girls in our churches, our neighborhoods, our nation, and the world are encouraged and empowered to fully and freely exercise their gifts. . . of leadership? . . . contributing their voices at peace treaty tables? . . . preaching the Gospel of Christ? . . . serving God’s people in every capacity? The time is now. Unto you, this day, a child has been born! The kingdom of God is here. Now!

Oh, God, open in us the gates of your kingdom. Amen.

Virginia Holmstrom serves as the executive director of American Baptist Women’s Ministries.

 

Advent Week 4: In Community (Luke 1:39-45)

By Annette Pacheco

This series of posts for Advent is based on the lectionary readings for each Sunday.

Luke 1:39-45

Nothing captures the terror, confusion of an unmarried teenage girl’s response to an unplanned, unbelievable pregnancy so much as this running away. And where did she go? To a Judean hill country town to visit her relative Elizabeth, the only other person who could understand what she is going through, the only person who could possibly wait with her as she sorted out the troubling news that she would bear God in her womb. Like Mary, Elizabeth was pregnant with a miraculous child, and like Mary, she was all alone, having gone into seclusion for the first two trimesters of her pregnancy.  So they meet, both bearing the scandalous news of their pregnancies, in isolation, in loneliness: one unconscionably old with a husband recently made mute and the other, scandalously young and engaged to a fiancé who did not even join her on this fast trip to the hillside. And there is a relief upon their meeting, like a cleansing exhale that comes when a burden lightens.

He, Qi. The Visitation, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=46125 [retrieved November 4, 2015]. Original source: heqigallery.com.

Like so many before her, Mary had experienced the revelation of God in isolation, and it was disorienting and troubling. It is that disorienting revelation which sends Mary, like others before her, in search of community to make sense of her situation. Among the breaking-in of God into history are nine months of pregnancy’s wait, three months of waiting with a friend, meals to cook, dishes to clean, stories to share, neighbors to love. Where the Annunciation initially sent Mary into a flustered hurried to escape, the Magnificat roots her in place, in community and makes her to stay, to wait for the world to change, beginning with her own small, teenaged belly.

Perhaps this is the lesson we are to take away from the end of Advent: that it is only in community that we can realize the hope of the season. Only in community can the announcement that the Lord is with us be a blessing and not a curse. Only in community can we embrace the impossibility that the wait is finally over, but that it is also just beginning. Only in community can we gathering the courage to hope that while what happens next in the story of God might be anybody’s guess, something is actually happening. And that it is disturbingly good.

So perhaps, this Advent, God is not late after all.

Annette Pacheco serves as national treasurer for American Baptist Women’s Ministries and does the accounting work in the finance office at the Academia Bautista de Yauco.

 

Advent Week 3: Welcoming the Stranger in Our Midst

By Gail M. Aita

This series of posts for Advent is based on the lectionary readings for each Sunday.

Leviticus 19:33-34, Isaiah 25:4, Zephaniah 3:14-15, Matthew 25:33-40, Philippians 4:4-7, Luke 3:11

I must admit that I was having a very difficult time getting started writing this blog post. I really seemed to have a writer’s block and just couldn’t get going. Then I spoke with a dear friend named Annie and was telling her that I just couldn’t “jump into the pool” and get going. She very wisely told me, “When you are up on the diving board sometimes it is so difficult to just jump off. You may be afraid, it may be too high, and you may have difficulty swimming once you are in the pool. But, often it is more difficult and humiliating to turn around and climb off the board so you might as well jump in. It doesn’t matter if you do a swan dive, or a jack-knife, or even a belly-flop, just go for it. Jump into the pool of God’s amazing love. He is waiting to help you in whatever way you need.” And so, here I am, writing the post that God has put on my heart.

(c) 2008 Sandra Hasenauer

The title of this blog is “In Their Shoes;” I can’t help but be reminded of all the refugees and I wonder if we will ever be able to actually “walk in their shoes?” So much has been said about refugees these past months. However, I do not think that we will ever be able to stop dealing with the refugee situation both in our own country and around the world. Teaching in Myanmar and working with refugees from Myanmar here in the U.S. has changed my life. What makes someone a refugee? Fleeing persecution in one’s homeland because of the ravages of war, political persecution, ethnic persecution, or religious persecution qualifies someone for “refugee status” in the United States and in many other countries. People all over the world are fleeing their homes because they are being persecuted or are in fear of their lives. And yet many countries including the United States are closing their borders to the hungry, the lost, and the forgotten. They limit the number of foreigners allowed into their country when there are still millions who are waiting for a safe place—a refuge.

This week’s lectionary passages are all about the stranger. Leviticus 19:33-34 reminds us, “And if a stranger dwells with you in your land, you shall not mistreat him. The stranger who dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.” In today’s political scene, we hear so much about closing our borders, building a wall, keeping people out, taking care of our own first when, in reality, Isaiah 25:4 speaks to us today: “You have been a refuge for the poor, a refuge for the needy in their distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat.”

Zephaniah 3:14-15 states, “Sing, Daughter Zion; shout aloud, Israel! Be glad and rejoice with all your heart, Daughter Jerusalem! The Lord has taken away your punishment, he has turned back your enemy.
The Lord, the King of Israel, is with you; never again will you fear any harm.” Refugees do rejoice because they have come to a land where they have heard there is religious freedom, where they can worship as they choose, where they are free to get an education, where they will not be persecuted because they are different. But it is sad to say that is not always the case. Sometimes there is a new enemy: those who do not welcome them, those who make fun of them and humiliate them because they are different. They need to find “someplace safe with somebody good.”* They need the protection of not only our laws but of loving, caring Christians, fellow believers.

Krohg, Christian, 1852-1925. Struggle for Survival, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=56052 [retrieved November 19, 2015]. Original source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Christian_Krohg_-_Struggle_for_Survival_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg.

Matthew 25:33-40 is the classic passage that reminds us also of our Christian responsibility towards the disadvantaged: feeding the poor, taking care of the sick…welcoming the stranger. Sometimes we forget that Jesus Christ and his family were also refugees. What better time than now, during the Advent season, to remember the plight of the Holy Family as they fled Bethlehem and traveled to Egypt to flee the revenge of King Herod? They traveled to a foreign country, not knowing the language, having only what they brought with them to Bethlehem for a short stay, very little money except the gifts the wise men gave them (God does provide), and a new baby too. What would have happened to the Christ child if they had not been welcomed in this foreign country? Luke 3:11 tells us “whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise.”

Desmond Tutu once said “In the story of the sheep and the goats, Jesus declared that it ‘would be whether we fed or did not feed the hungry, whether we clothed or did not clothe the naked, whether we visited the imprisoned or not, which would say what our final destination will be.'” (Reformed Journal, Oct 1985, p. 13)

Some refugees today have waited 25-30 years to be able to return to their homeland. Many of their children have been born and raised in refugee camps, with no citizenship: children without a country. Where do they belong? Where are they welcomed? There are well over 15 million refugees around the world, unable to get jobs, without a permanent home, not belonging. They live in a country that does not speak their language, where the climate may be different, the food is different, and the culture is foreign. However, the reality of life as a Christian is that we are all refugees just waiting to go home to heaven.

It is the blessed Advent Season, we are called to “jump into the pool of God’s amazing love,” as my friend Annie had reminded me, and to share all that we have not only with those we love, but with the “foreigners” and with those who are in need. We are to teach our young women and girls the gift of sharing, the gift of giving, and God’s gift of Love. There is an old Jewish proverb that says, “Hospitality is a form of worship.” When we open our homes and hearts to the stranger, we are worshipping our God and King.

As we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, I pray that we may be able to say to our sisters and brothers from other countries: ^“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus,” (Philippians 4:4-7).

*With thanks to Jan Karon for her title Somewhere Safe with Somebody Good: The New Mitford Novel (Berkley, 2015).

Gail Aita serves as Coordinator of the Western Section of American Baptist Women’s Ministries. She and her husband Paul have spent six summers teaching at the Myanmar Institute of Theology in Yangon, Myanmar (Burma).