Blogs

The glow of a fireplace. Crisp and sunny mornings. A clear sky with stars twinkling. Hot soup. Cinnamon rolls. Scented candles. Cozy throws. A good book. A pet to curl up with. Praying joy in your day, Pastor Leah 

One last look at the empty manger; Christmas Eve is here. While it is true that this Christmas won't be like last year's event or the one the year before, and it almost certainly will not be what we would create, left to our own devices. Whatever our celebrations will be, however small and quiet, the truth of Christmas remains: Emmanuel, God i...

Could the Christmas Star be shining again, in 2020? Might we catch sight of it these next few days? Either way, the Christ-Child draws near! Pastor Leah 

Today will literally be the shortest day of the year, from sun-up until sun-down. Which of course means that tonight will be the longest night, the most hours of darkness, also known as the Winter Solstice. Each year, on the longest night, we have a very particular sort of worship service. Sometimes called a Blue Christmas Service, it is an event c...

I had a Growing Hope Globally meeting first thing this morning. Lucky for me, my East Coast and Midwest colleagues have bumped the meeting up from 6 am to 7 am. I consider that a score! While not always possible, my preference is to walk my way through this particular meeting. Literally, I call in from home and then spend the rest of the call walki...

The third Sunday of Advent marked the 40th week of this odd and isolated way of being the church, Livestreamed only. In bible-speak, 40 means a very long time. I doubt that many folks would disagree that we have been about the anxiety and heartbreak of Covid-19 for a very long time. On the news this morning, a reporter was on the scene at a hospita...

Yesterday afternoon, Sunday, and there was a flurry of activity at 303 North Church Street. Our 10:30 service was an energetic Bilingual Advent celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Lutheran-styled of course. The 1:00 service was a Spanish-Lutheran celebration of Our Lady. And then a congregational meeting that many of you figured out how to zoom o...

Last night tamales were on our menu, tamales built and sold by the developing Latino Ministry here at Immanuel. Tacos, burritos, enchiladas, chili rellenos, fajitas were my go-to-options when dinning at Mexican restaurants. Tamales are new to me and I give hearty thumbs up to the version that Berta and crew have created. We have a couple of weeks o...

Tony has brought in his horns and is downstairs preparing for Sunday's performance. {Livestream at 6 pm on the 13th.} What a gift, what joy to hear the sounds of the season, Christmas Joy, filling the space. Before mid-March, our building was a busy place. People. Events. Meetings. Sports. Sometimes we had to be creative {and graceful} in orde...

Have you seen?      *The 2020 Advent Tour? The Holy Family and Wisemen, on their way?      *The lighted-town-tree?      *The neighborhoods, dressed in garland and brightly lit?      *Festive window displays?      *The extensive nativity exhibition at the Methodist Church? It...

Listen, God! Please, pay attention! Can you make sense of these ramblings, my groans and cries? King-God, I need your help. Every morning you'll hear me at it again. Every morning I lay out the pieces of my life on your altar and watch for fire to descend. 

This morning I was out and about, gathering supplies for upcoming events, like Christmas Eve and Confirmation. While out I ran into one of you. What a gift to see your face and an even greater joy to actually have a quick conversation. One of the things you said to me, how hard it is each Sunday when I remind you how long it has been since we were ...

Traditions, traditions! If you have ever seen the play or the movie Fiddler on the Roof, can't you just hear Tevye belting out the line, 'Traditions'? A world-wide pandemic has altered or tabled so many options but friends, there are still many ways that we can live out the traditions that are important to us. Not unlike Halloween, we certainly can...

Let's be clear, I am not a Trekkie. While I grew up with the original series, and have seen some of the early movies, I'm not steeped in the characters or the culture. It seems important to lay that groundwork before I share a Star Trek insight. It was one of you who passed the wisdom onto me. It begins when a character undergoes a rigorous quest. ...

Long ago, in a farmhouse in the Silverton Hills, there was a little girl who spent the fall months with her baby bath towel on her head. She had watched the animated version of Robin Hood once too often and with the towel on her head she transformed herself into Maid Marian She wore the towel for months and just as it seemed we might move past our ...

The first Sunday in Advent has come, and gone. Nearly 40 weeks into the wilderness experience of Covid, we add the work of this season, which is introspective waiting. Advent causes me to ask 1. How will we wait? 2. What are we waiting for? Perhaps one of the most important things we can do this season is interlock the two questions ~ that the...

 Praise God, from whom all blessings flow; Praise him, all creatures here below; Praise him above, ye heav'nly host; Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!

Watch ~ with expectation. Prepare ~ hearts, minds, spirits. Rejoice ~ in all things that have been entrusted to us. Behold ~ God has come among us. Pastor Leah 

Advent is a season of waiting and watching and getting ready; in 2020 we will be waiting and watching and getting ready in the very middle of a worldwide pandemic. Waiting. And waiting. Waiting to celebrate the birth of the Christ Child. Waiting for Christ to return. Waiting for a vaccine. Waiting for the return of life-opportunities that we m...

Perhaps the very heart of this blog is to share with you. I get to share stories and thoughts and hopes and hurts. Today I share with you The Keep Going Song. It is both honest and a bit cheeky ~ ten days they thought….and we are totally making this up as we go…. It moved me to a tender {read tearful} place. Give yourself the opportunity to be bles...