Advent Devotional 6

Holding Fast to Hope

By Lindsay Watson

“Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:23).

I know this is a devotional about hope, but let’s be honest, hope, faith, and love are intertwined, and it’s difficult to delve into one concept without touching the others. So I’m going to start with love.

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the current state of Christianity. It seems that, at least in the eyes of many, Christian has become synonymous with hypocrite. I understand that the Christians who are garnering national attention right now aren’t representative of the whole, but I’ve also spoken with enough Christians, and attended enough churches, to know that we’re allowing our biases to dictate our faith, our words, and our actions. How can we claim to follow the teaching of Christ to love our neighbors (Matt. 22:39) when so many Christians are choosy about which neighbors they love? 

In “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Martin Luther King, Jr. criticized the white churches of his time for staying silent in the face of segregation. He writes that he “... watched white churchmen stand on the sideline and mouth pious irrelevancies and sanctimonious trivialities. In the midst of a mighty struggle to rid [the] nation of racial and economic injustice, [he] heard many ministers say: ‘Those are social issues, with which the gospel has no real concern.’” Sadly, not much has changed. Today, I think there are mixed reactions among Christians to social injustice and Jesus’ commandment to “love your neighbor as yourself.” There are those who are uncomfortable accepting people who are different from them (be they a different race, nationality, income level, gender, or orientation), so like the Christians of the 1960s, they stay silent when they see injustice. There are those who openly ostracize others, allowing their ideology to supersede their theology. And finally, there are those, a seeming minority, like many of the people I’ve met at St. John, who truly love their neighbors – all of their neighbors – and because of this, face the scorn of fellow Christians.

Here’s where hope comes into play. As some of you know, I teach high school English. Through essays, speeches, class discussions, seminars, and one-on-one conversations, I get a pretty in-depth look at what the younger generation believes. Some of my students are Atheists. Some are Christians. A few are Muslim. One is Jewish. Despite their theological differences, nearly all of them acknowledge and are infuriated by the injustice they witness, and they are standing up for what they believe in. Sometimes this is through testimony at School Board meetings. Sometimes this is through opinion pieces submitted to the ADN. Sometimes this is through volunteering at agencies that allow them to help those who are suffering. The younger generation is far less judgmental than the older one, and when given agency, they are powerful.

So, I have hope. I have hope because God is faithful. I have hope that we can love and cherish one another despite our differences. I have hope that the minority voice in the church can become the majority, and Christians will once again be known for their love.

Heavenly Father, we ask that you’ll guide our thoughts, words, and actions so that they glorify you and demonstrate your love for ALL people. Let us speak and act in ways so that others will know we are Christians by our love. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

St. John member Lindsay Watson is an English teacher at South High School.

Advent Devotional 5

A Confident HOPE

By Laurel Poff

Read Romans 5:1-5; Hebrews 11

“Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us” [Romans 5:5]

The Mexican Gray Wolf is the smallest gray wolf subspecies in North America. Once common throughout parts of the Southwestern U.S. and Mexico, the Mexican Wolf was nearly eliminated from the wild in the 1970’s due to conflicts with livestock. In 1976, the Mexican Gray Wolf was listed as endangered under the Federal Endangered Species Act and a bi-national captive breeding program was initiated to save the Mexican Gray Wolf from extinction. In 1998, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released the first captive Mexican wolves into the Mexican Wolf Experimental Population Area in Arizona and New Mexico.

Schoolchildren in Flagstaff, AZ recently named one special wolf, Mexican Wolf 2979, “Hope” – a symbol of resilience and a reminder of what could be – a thriving, balanced ecosystem that defies outdated ideas of where wolves belong.

Hope, along with another Mexican Gray Wolf known as “Mystery”, left their wolf pack in July this year and were recently seen travelling outside of the Experimental Population Area north of Interstate 40 - near the Grand Canyon. Decided evidence for many conservationists of a rebound of the under-dog into its natural habitat.

Until November 7th, 2024, when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reported that Hope was tragically found deceased. The fate of her companion wolf is still a Mystery.

The death of Mexican Wolf 2979 is a dashed Hope, a tragedy to all who saw her as a symbol of recovery for the Endangered Species.

As Christians, we are not immune to dashed hopes and defeated dreams. People fail, expectations fall through, and circumstances don’t pan out the way we wish. When we place our hope in people (or wolves), the weather, changing circumstances, even the best-made plans, we become vulnerable to failure and defeat.

Yet, there is an unwavering hope described in Scripture that does not fail. Romans 5:5 describes a hope that “does not disappoint”. How do we secure this hope? By placing our hope in the One who Does Not Fail. Jeremiah 29:11 describes confidence in a hope and a future placed in God’s Hands, “For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans to give you a future and hope.” The One who is known as Almighty God, Redeemer, Light of the World, The Way, The Truth, Life, Love, Good Shephard, Messiah, Prince of Peace, King of Kings, Who does not falter or change like the wind or shift like sand. Immanuel, God (Always) With Us. We find confidence that the God of the Universe is with us this Advent Season, through the heartache and the hurt of unmet expectations and dashed dreams. He is With Us. He is Faithful. He is True. The One who promises to never leave us or forsake us [Hebrews 13:5]. This is a Hope that we can rely on.

How does knowing that God is with us through the Hard provide Hope?

Hebrews 11:1 describes Faith as “Being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”  How does this idea of Faith in God being connected to Confident Hope provide comfort and peace during this advent season?

Dear God, thank you for your promise to never leave us or forsake us. Thank you that we can place our hope in You, Immanuel, God With Us.

St. John member Laurel Poff is a U.S. Forest Service employee.

Advent Devotional 4

Co-creation with God

By Andy Gilg

I love Advent because we are invited to hope for things that are not seen. I don’t mean hoping in an empty way that doesn’t involve work. I mean daring to hope for something through action. 

I believe that part of what makes Jesus so profound is that he showed an oppressed people how to hope for something more. The Jewish people were oppressed by a Roman occupation, and a religious system that had been co-opted by systems of power, through rules. He showed them (and us) that by naming the injustices, we can start to do the work of solving them. I see this work as getting to co-create with God.

I’m not saying people need to pull themselves by their bootstraps. Feeling like someone needs to do their own work to not be oppressed is a dangerous belief that isolates people. The work of co-creating with God is best done when it benefits others, and not ourselves.

Over the last year I have seen this through the work of In Our Backyard in Anchorage. (I am not affiliated with In Our Backyard beyond being a witness to the amazing work they are doing.) Through the work of a myriad of people, this ministry has gone from "something should be done about homelessness,” to an entity that has the power to transform lives from house-less to housed. The past, present, and future work done, for others on this project is nothing short of Hope.

If this this type of work does not come naturally to you, or even if it does, I invite you to pray this prayer:

Hey God,

Please show me ways to co-create with you for others to thrive.

Amen.

St. John member Andy Gilg is chair of our Finance Committee.

Advent Devotional 3

Finding hope in gratitude

By Carrie Gruhn

As the season of Advent begins, we reflect on the candle of hope. 

Advent, in my own experience, has been a time of preparation.  

Waiting. Watching.  Hoping.  Looking towards Jesus’ birth, and what God will do in the coming year. 

One of the songs in our hymnal is “Be Still My Soul.” 

During times of stress, anxiety, grief and worry, I find it is really hard to be still. 

It is really hard to wait. 

It is really hard to place my concerns with God 

      and leave those concerns with God. 

It’s also been difficult to hope. 

The second verse of the hymn says 

“Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake; 

all now mysterious shall be bright at last.” 

There are so many things that shake my hope some days, 

And yet I remind myself that God is at work in my life. 

Those of us in overwhelming times can’t often see what is happening 

Yet God *is* with us. 

As we take steps in discipleship, or following God more closely, 

it is easier to keep our confidence in the truth of God’s word -  

that what is mysterious will become brighter in our understanding  

as we continue walking the path of faith. 

Gratitude helps me find glimmers of hope.  

I take time to make a small list each day. 

Remembering even the small things that I experience, 

   holding them as a flickering candle 

   letting the light grow 

   Helping hope feel renewed. 

Hope begins our month of anticipation.  

Waiting for the birth of the baby who becomes our Lord. 

May we find and renew our hope in the stories of the season 

In the songs we will sing 

And within our conversations with those around us 

Lord, we reflect on Hope today; the first of the five candles we’ll light this month. 

Help us feel confident in our hope, and aware of how you are working with us and through us. Renew and strengthen our hope, so we can joyfully share your light within our world.  Amen. 

St. John member Carrie Gruhn is a Certified Lay Servant and part of our youth group leadership team.

Advent Devotional 2

A Megadose of Hope

By Sed Charic

Luke 2:52 (NIV): "And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and [people]."

I know that many of us can look at the world around us and find it hard to find hope. This is not too foreign a feeling for those who were living in Judea and Galilee at the time of Jesus' birth: they were under the control of an occupying power, their homeland was divided, and there was no temple (though it was under construction). They had plenty of reasons for despair.

Enter Jesus, who is introduced as a megadose of hope! See, in the early days of Israel the prophet Samuel was considered one of the great leaders of their nation, and was instrumental in helping them to turn back to the Lord and experience God's favor once again. In Luke's Gospel, we get very clear comparisons to Samuel that show us how much better Jesus is! With Samuel, there was one unexpected pregnancy (1 Samuel 1:1-20); with Jesus, there are two (Luke 1:5-25,26-38)! With Samuel, there's one song to celebrate this miracle (Hannah's song, 1 Samuel 2:1-10), but in Luke, two miracles means two songs: Mary's (Luke 1:46-55) and Zecharaiah's (Luke 1:68-79)! And this is just the start; if you have time, I highly recommend reading the first four chapters of 1 Samuel and then the first two chapters of Luke and see what jumps out to you (I'm confident the Spirit will aid you in this).

So what does all of this have to do with the verse at the beginning? Well, first off, if you suspect I'm grasping at straws, that verse is almost identical to 1 Samuel 2:26: "And the boy Samuel continued to grow in stature and in favor with the Lord and with people." Secondly - and just as important - as followers of Jesus, we are empowered to become more like Jesus through the Holy Spirit, which means we too can continue to grow in wisdom, stature, and favor with God! In a world where the church continues to strive towards this goal, that is a reason to hope because goodness will continue to increase. That increase may look (or be) inconsistent at times, but I firmly believe it is the key to God's will and kingdom being done here on earth, just as it is in heaven.

Lord, thank you for sending Your people - and us - a megadose of hope in Your Son, Jesus Christ. Help us to grow in wisdom and stature and favor, so that we may use these attributes to influence those around us as a force for good in this world that you have entrusted to us. Amen

Sed Charic is a St. John member and plays in the worship band.