Thank you for your role in this ongoing work. Whether through reading, sharing, or providing feedback, your support sustains us. You remind us that we are not alone in our efforts to be a voice for justice and peace. Your participation helps build bridges where there are divides and fosters a spirit of unity in times when the world sorely needs it.
It is important as humans to concentrate on what unites us in our striving for peace, kindness and justice: all qualities that Isa or Jesus embodied.
God’s invitation and welcome do not cost us our seat at the table but beg us to make room for others as well. This is the heart of Christmas; when there was no room, God still made a way.
Over the years, I learned more fully that people need to connect with worship emotionally. That means leaders must include words, rituals, and practices people recognize – on Christmas Eve and all year long.
That was the key message of John the Baptist and of Jesus of Nazareth: to encourage people to think differently about their relationship with and their love for God. To think differently about what you put first and seek first.
By avoiding or denying our need to repent, we continue ways leading to sadness and despair, no matter how we might tell ourselves otherwise. To repent is to turn things around, to let your life find balance, to welcome grace into your life.