From the Pastor – December 2019

The moment she decides she wants something is the moment she needs to have it. Every moment of waiting is excruciating for her, and for us. Her mood can change from sweet smiles to a pout to a whimper to a wail in seconds! We adults learn not to behave this way when we have to wait, but I don’t think we ever really shake this penchant for impatience.

I don’t know anyone who likes waiting, especially not when they have the choice. Some are better at it than others, they are more patient, but who would revel in waiting? We’ll use any means necessary to avoid waiting; we’re constantly innovating new ways to avoid the wait. At the airport there’s TSA PreCheck and upgrades to shorten the wait, in the grocery store there’s self checkout, there’s fast food and Door Dash, there’s the Fast Pass at Disney. And when waiting is inevitable, what we actually do can hardly be called waiting. Instead, we tend to distract ourselves to help pass the time.

Things weren’t so different for the folks we read about in the Bible. They didn’t much like waiting either. Abraham took matters into his own hands when he grew impatient for the child he was promised. Leaving his wife in the dust, thinking he could expedite God’s plan, he had a baby with his wife’s servant instead. We find another example in the Israelites who couldn’t wait for Moses to descend from the mountain, so they made their own gods with Aaron’s help. Yet again, Jesus’ disciples couldn’t stay awake while he prayed. And after his three days in the grave, they gave up on believing he was who he said he was and retreated into fear instead.

This Advent, this month of December leading up to Christmas, we’re inviting you to willingly enter into this practice of holy waiting.

Perhaps with or without this invitation to wait, you are in a season marked by waiting—waiting for the results, waiting for what is next, waiting in hopeful anticipation, or waiting with dread.

Or maybe, for you, there is no time to wait. Everything is happening now and every moment without a purpose sets you further behind and leaves you scrambling to make up for the wasted time.

I hope you will accept this invitation to reframe waiting as something that is purposeful, holy, and even good.

Here are some scheduling notes for the next several weeks:
• December 1 – First Sunday in Advent
• December 4 – Advent Fair
• December 11 and 18 – Advent worship services, 6:40 p.m., Celebrate Center
• December 24 –
2:00 p.m. – “Christmas GIFT” (Generations in Faith Together) family worship, Celebrate Center
4:00 p.m. – Celebrate and Festive worship services (Festive worship will be televised on KTTW at 9:00 p.m.)
5:00 p.m. – Christmas Eve Meal, Friendship Room
6:00 p.m. – Festive worship service
10:00 p.m. – Festive worship service
• December 25 – Festive worship service, 10:00 a.m.

Baptisms
November 3, 2019
Lydia Vera Stearns, whose parents are Brad and Megan Stearns.

Alden Raymond Piearson, whose parents are Drew and Celina Piearson.

Telecasts
October 27, 2019
Telecasts are sponsored by Bryan Peters and Safe-N-Secure Security Equipment, in memory of Marilyn Peters.

Memorials and Honoraria,
October-November 2019
In Memory of Harriet Bresee
Don and Coryill Weeg

In Memory of Stella Curry
Milt and Marge Hanson
Tom and Karla Hellman

In Memory of Charles Dawdy
Arlen Viste

In Memory of Doretta Helgerson
Mary Birkeland
Diane Cramer
Shon Cronk
Jodi Gross
Shirly Hillgren
Gayle Hooper
Myrna Hotchkiss
Janice Iwen
Lloyd and Donna Knutson
Michael McConnell
Dale and Janet Sample
Glenn and Cynthia Wika

In Memory of Charles Kinnunen
John and Patricia Vasgaard

In Memory of Beverly Miller
Arlen Viste
Glenn and Cynthia Wika

In Memory of Don Pearson
Don and Sarah Abbas
Mario and Delores Candia
Frances Kilen
Joan Nelsen
Curt and Shirley Schafer

In Memory of Ed Sessler
Linda Becker
John and Enid Kinkead
Bill and Judy McLean
Greg and Janet Schmieding