Jesus said: "Love your enemy." For a superhero in comic book, identifying the enemy is easy. We may not have an archnemesis, but all too often our enemy is staring back at us from the mirror. When we doubt our worth, we are our own worst enemy! God knows our true worth, after all we are created in God's own image! We are called: "good!" Realizing our worth in God's eyes helps us to love ourselves just the way we are and when we can do that, we can better love our enemies seeing their worth from God's perspective. Next time you see your enemy, in a face-off or in the mirror, remember you are both God's good creation and children of God loved just as you are, for exactly who you are!

Do you remember seeking out a space at a lunchroom table in Middle School? It is a microcosm of the human community throughout history. Groups form quickly based on commonalities: gender, race, interests, social caste, and more. Too often it becomes an either/or situation: EITHER you’re a member of the group OR you’re viewed as a threat to the group. Either you’re in or you’re out. Either you are in sync with the routine or you’re dancing to your own tune. The beatitudes reveal God’s view of community: the ones who are on the outside of human community are the center of God’s community. God’s community is expanding to include more & more beloved children vs human community that is turned inward to exclude those who are different. Today, more than ever, our divisive world needs to hear about this different shape of community that makes space at the table for everyone, even if they are dancing to a different tune!

Do you ever feel like you’re not measuring up? Like you’re not enough? Are you a Mirabel in the Family Madrigal? Pastor Stephanie brings us the Good News that God has done great things with people who didn’t feel like they measured up. Peter felt like a failure because he didn’t trust Jesus’ direction to catch fish. Jesus turned to Peter and gave him a new purpose to catch people. When all we notice is when we are falling short, God reminds us that we are enough! God sees beyond our failures and knows the great things we can do in the world; no magic required!

Have you noticed a lot of anger in the world, in your community, in your family, in yourself? Anger is a natural human emotion, even Jesus got angry. Pastor Chad challenges us to think about what makes us angry and perhaps more importantly what it motivates us to do! Jesus used his anger to empower action that brought those on the outside into God's love through healing and freedom even when it made those in power angry. When you see something in the community that makes you angry use it to spur you to action to bring God's love into the lives of all our neighbors.

Throughout the year we are hearing from members of the Bethlehem Community as an opportunity to hear how God's Story has resonated with our neighbor and hopefully finding some resonance between our story and theirs. This month, Josh Bauer shares how God's Story resonates in his vocation as a teacher, especially in all the challenges of the pandemic. God's Story resonates with Josh in the small nudges of his friends, family, and mentors to consider a change of careers from business to teaching. Josh also finds resonance when former students, colleagues, and friends share their stories and it is evident God is at work growing the seeds Josh has planted.

God likes to take the ordinary and do the extraordinary. This week Pastor Stephanie shares one example of this: the Wedding at Cana. When the wedding celebration ran out of wine for their guests it was a social faux pas, but not the end of the world. Mary asks Jesus to help his friend avoid the embarrassment of ending the party early. Jesus at first says it’s no concern of his. When the servants listen for instruction, Jesus tells them to do something mundane and ordinary: fill jars with water. When the steward draws from the jars it is an extraordinary wine that he assumes has been stashed away by the bridegroom not miraculously transformed from ordinary water. Jesus uses plain old water and the efforts or some ordinary servants to allow the celebration to continue with his friends. It was the first miracle that is recorded in the Gospels but Jesus didn’t use it to reveal his power to the crowd, only Mary, the disciples, and the servants knew the true source of that extraordinary wine. Pastor Stephanie then reminds us that God is doing extraordinary things with our ordinary efforts every day. So what extraordinary thing will come about from your ordinary self when placed in God’s hand?

What do donuts have to do with Baptism? Pastor Stephanie offers a message on Baptism as we remember the Baptism of Our Lord. As a Chaplain, Pastor Stephanie has met with soldiers from many different Christian denominations with many different understandings of Baptism. As Lutherans we have a specific understanding of the Sacrament of Baptism that centers on God. Baptism is God's gift to ALL of creation without restriction or requirement. In Baptism it is God choosing us, not us choosing God. Baptism is forever, God's promises don't expire and don't have an escape clause.

On this Second Week of Christmas Pastor Chad shares a message appropriate as we enter the New Year and think about our identity going into 2022. The Gospel of John poetically describes Jesus’ birth as the Word made Flesh. Pastor Chad shares a paraphrase of the Gospel that describes Jesus as God’s pattern for everything set in place at Creation. Jesus as the pattern shows us how God intends to live with the rest of Creation. Shaped by the life of Jesus we are called to live in community grounded in love, grace, and compassion. Living in faith this way also helps shape our identity as we are called Children of God.

In this message for Christmas 2021, Pastor Stephanie reminds us that even among the chaos of pandemic life and the busyness of the Christmas season All the Earth is in fact Hopeful because God has come to us in birth of Jesus. Along with the shepherds we find true peace and real hope in the manger.

This week we hear in the Gospel message that Elizabeth calls Mary "Blessed". We often count our blessings by the number of people, or more often, things we have in our life. This young pregnant girl didn't have many to count! But in God's Kingdom things are often turned upside down and that is the Good News for Mary and for us! Even, and especially, when we lose what we can count God is with us. When a loved one dies, when a tornado destroys your home, when you are robbed of your independence by age or injury you are still blessed because God was born into a world like yours to a girl who had next to nothing.