Do you need real peace? How about deep rest? Like the kind you find by a mountain lake or in a silent night?

The narrative of God breaking into the world is beautiful in its raw display of love. But it was hardly perfect or sublime. 

The people of Israel had long been oppressed by Rome.

Travel for a Roman census was not easy or always safe.

Mary was young and unknown.

Jesus was jostling in the womb as she rode.

And still - God brings peace.

We have made the story too perfect and our expectations of this season out of line with God's power to bring true peace in heavy storms. In Luke 8 - the grown Jesus awakens in a boat tossed by wind and waves. Peace be still he says to the wind and the waves and they are silent.

This pandemic has been long. Racial injustice and devaluing of black and brown voices has been longer still - yet God offers peace. Not a peace that ceases the struggle - but a rest from the wind and the waves that we might continue.

The silent and holy night into which a savior was born was the beginning of an earthly life of confrontation, healing, sacrifice, and ultimately sacrificial love on the cross. Find peace this Christmas that we might together continue working out our salvation with fear and trembling in an oh so broken world!

Edition 44 of "Transformed by Faith TODAY" podcast by Rev. Jennifer Fenner of Epworth United Methodist Church of Gaithersburg MD. 30 Days of Reflections on Advent and Christmas Songs.

It is easy to give into a life that is structured by other peoples expectations, needs, demands. But the star in the East points to One whose priorities are different.

What do you need to leave behind this week, in order to get up and follow?

Maybe they are voices in your head?

Demands that are not truly the top priorities in a life following after Christ?

In Luke's gospel not only the shepherds are asked to follow. Later in his ministry Jesus speaks to a tax collector Levi who ends up leaving everything and following Jesus.

In this Christmas season we can pour out love, and gifts, and commitment on those we love, our friends and family, our faith community, our larger community. But if their voices and unmet needs become our Star in the East, we end up following unattainable expectations that leave others still in need and us, resentful and unclear.

The song says - leave your ewes, leave your rams - Rise up Shepherd and follow Christ.

Christ alone shows us how to love and live fully without being bound by the needs of this world!

Edition 43 of "Transformed by Faith TODAY" podcast by Rev. Jennifer Fenner of Epworth United Methodist Church of Gaithersburg MD. 30 Days of Reflections on Advent and Christmas Songs.

Have you ever just taken an experience of God and savored it for yourself?

You didn't try to explain it. You didn't try to study it. You didn't try to share it. You just treasured it - turning it over and over in your heart, allowing the experience of God to soften and change you. Luke 2:19 says that Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart. It is perhaps one of my favorite verses in the Christmas Narrative.

She just held them close - and let God bring her to worship.

Nino Lindo is a Venezuela Christmas carol that seems to capture this sacred personal moment.

The refrain of this song tells the story through the tender gaze of Mary's eyes as she sings....

Nino Lindo, ante Ti me rindo

Nino Lindo, eres Tu mi Dios.

Child so lovely, before you I bow

Child so lovely, You are my God!

God moves across nations and changes political and historical landscapes. God brings justice and God's glory is without rival, always.

However sometimes it is important to experience this God quietly for ourselves.

The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, The God of Mary, is the God who meets you as well! Seek Him!Edition 42 of "Transformed by Faith TODAY" podcast by Rev. Jennifer Fenner of Epworth United Methodist Church of Gaithersburg MD. 30 Days of Reflections on Advent and Christmas Songs.

In the midst of all that is - have you invited God to come near?

King David - in Psalm 73:28 says: “But as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.” The last verse of Away in the Manager literally asks God to come near and to stay with us. Sometimes - the most secure place of all is knowing that God is near.

Be near me, Lord Jesus, I ask Thee to stay

Close by me forever, and love me, I pray.

Bless all the dear children in thy tender care,

And take us to heaven, to live with Thee there.

“But as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.” – Psalm 73:28

Edition 41 of "Transformed by Faith TODAY" podcast by Rev. Jennifer Fenner of Epworth United Methodist Church of Gaithersburg MD. 30 Days of Reflections on Advent and Christmas Songs.

"O Holy Night" was written by a French poet Cappeau and a Jewish composer Adolphe Adam to commemorate the inauguration of a new organ in a small French church in 1834. Christianity's own anti-Semitic bias would later cause it to shy away from the hymn as Cappaeu questioned the church and Adams was Jewish. Still God prevails. Always, throughout history, continuing with Mary and the shepherds, God speaks through those the establishment ignores or pushes away. And still God! As Cappeau meditated on Luke 2 he penned the lyrics - "long lay the world in sin and error pining until Christ appeared and the soul felt its worth!"

The love of God gives our souls an amazing sense of worth and purpose! And especially when God chooses to use us in our unassuming places of brokenness or in the persons considered to be outsiders in this world - God's call gives a life altering sense of worth.

Today consider each soul to be of deep worth to God. And assume in the ones you count out  - to be the most likely appearances of the God you seek!

Edition 40 of "Transformed by Faith TODAY" podcast by Rev. Jennifer Fenner of Epworth United Methodist Church of Gaithersburg MD. 30 Days of Reflections on Advent and Christmas Songs. 

Have you ever  slugged through personal deep darkness to find Light? Have you ever felt like the entire world around you was shrouded in death and darkness, only to finally find the dawn breaking daily around you?

This was the context of this beloved Christmas song. William Dix penned the lyrics to this song in 1865 in the midst of an illness that left him bedbound, severely depressed, and contemplating taking his life. In his struggle he turned to God; reading scripture, meditating, and ultimately writing several poems that became the lyrics for this and other songs.

The song rings with Isaiah 9:2-7 and its pronouncement of a child born who will be Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace to a community in exile, under oppression, and, as the scripture says, walking in darkness.

Isaiah 9:2 begins The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned. 3 You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest....

Our challenging moments are not times to hide from God, rather opportunities to lean into God more completely. Our personal darkness does not overwhelm God, rather if we seek even in the darkness we often find a great light and a dawning among us. God can increase our joy even through the valleys of our life. Why do we wait, like Dix, to our moments of deep darkness, to seek God? The light of the dawn comes daily! May we see it, live in it, and share it TODAY!

Edition 39  of "Transformed by Faith TODAY" podcast by Rev. Jennifer Fenner of Epworth United Methodist Church of Gaithersburg MD. 30 Days of Reflections on Advent and Christmas Songs.

El Burrito Sabanero is a Venezuela children's song that depicts Jesus riding a donkey. The famous refrain - Tuki Tuki Tuki Tuki - imitates either the sound of Jesus encouraging the donkey to keep walking or the clacking of donkey hooves on hard surfaces as he walks. 

Mary is supposed to have written a donkey on the long journey to Bethlehem with baby Jesus jostling in her womb. But scripture does not say so explicitly. In Luke 28 however, scripture tells us Jesus sends his disciples to go ahead and get an unridden colt or donkey for him to enter Jerusalem. Any other triumphant king or conquering Messiah would have entered the city from the East Gate on a stallion. Jesus rides in to his death on a cross mounted on a humble donkey.  

How might Jesus ride through your disappointments in unexpected ways - arriving at the center of your heart and need for His saving grace? 

Edition 38 of "Transformed by Faith TODAY" podcast by Rev. Jennifer Fenner of Epworth United Methodist Church of Gaithersburg MD. 30 Days of Reflections on Advent and Christmas Songs.

Have you seen God's glory? The glory of the Lord shown around the shepherds and they were terrified. In 2 Chronicles 5 we hear that the glory of the Lord filled the temple where Solomon was with the Ark of the Covenant. It was so thick the worship leaders had to leave the temple. Do you let God's glory take up space in your life or are you too focused on every detail of your to do list? Lets remember the Glory of God in the birth of Jesus is the power of Christmas this year

Edition 37 of "Transformed by Faith TODAY" podcast by Rev. Jennifer Fenner of Epworth United Methodist Church of Gaithersburg MD. 30 Days of Reflections on Advent and Christmas Songs.

How has God been faithful to you? Today, have you given thanks for the breath in your lungs and the ability to awaken? Be among those who come to God faithful and grateful even in the hardest of times. Todays meditation is by Bona Bourlier. 

Edition 36 of "Transformed by Faith TODAY" podcast by Rev. Jennifer Fenner of Epworth United Methodist Church of Gaithersburg MD. 30 Days of Reflections on Advent and Christmas Songs.

What is of great joy to you? Fears and joys can be personalized. But Luke 2 speaks of a great Joy that will be for ALL people. Freedom, healing, and salvation are universal desires of every human heart.  Today, let your personal fears be overwhelmed by God's universal joy.