Advent Expectation – Casting our Eyes to God’s Horizon

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I have always found Advent to be an intriguing season of the church year, one whose impact we don't always fully appreciate given how quickly Advent themes are drowned out by Christmas hullabaloo. For me Advent is a season filled with longing expectation and holy mystery. Advent invites us to ponder what God is up to next in our lives and in our world. For the church, Advent is a moment when the Spirit directs our eyes towards God's horizon.

God's horizon is a unique place—it is the place where we witness the end of one way of living and anticipate the birth of something new for us. God's horizon is the place where we discover Christ's presence coming to us in ways and through channels we couldn’t possibly predict. God's horizon is the place where we experience the renewal and the disorientation that comes when God’s grace leads to a radical repositioning of how we operate in this world.

So what kind of future do we see for the ELCA Rocky Mountain Synod when our eyes are directed to God's Advent horizon?

My own answer to that question is informed by three experiences that have shaped Advent 2012 for me. I began Advent in Madagascar visiting our companion synod and church. I was reminded once again how incredibly different we are as churches and cultures, yet how our shared history and our unity in Christ create meaning out of our differences. What I see in Madagascar is a church growing consistently. The renewal ministry that is at the heart of the Malagasy Lutheran Church embodies the gospel in a manner that meets people where they are and offers hope and healing in the name of Jesus. We can learn from that. I see a church once formed by missionaries from our own Western context now forming our young adult missionaries for their witness and service back in our home context. We will be changed by that. I see a church that shares many of our own struggles despite our different contexts: we are both seeking how to best order and sustain ministry in a constantly changing environment; we both wrestle with how to train and equip leaders for ministry in this day and age. Possibilities for mutual learning abound—we can benefit by looking at how their strong system of districts and regions enhances their connectivity as church. They can benefit by recognizing our flexibility and creativity in daily ministry.

A second Advent experience for me has been the three days I spent in Washington DC as part of an International Advocacy team of bishops representing both the ELCA and the Episcopal Church. While our focus issue was the situation in Sudan and South Sudan, I became keenly aware of the importance of our voice as a global ecumenical church.  When we are willing to show up and advocate for a creative partnership with our own government, we multiply our capacity to effectively address the impact and causes of hunger and poverty, both domestically and globally. I discovered anew the wonderful and unlikely way that government can actually become a participant in God's mission when we as the church dare to leverage the resources available in our common community treasury.


A final reality that informs me in this Advent season is the energy I’ve experienced in our conference Missional Gatherings.  As we explore what it means to be deeply rooted and bearing fruit, I am encouraged by that fact that our conversations seem to be striking a chord and generating new ideas, not only about our identity and witness as the ELCA, but about what it means for us to be church together. 

Given these recent experiences, here is what I see for us as the ELCA Rocky Mountain Synod when I cast my eyes to God's Advent horizon. I see us as a church poised for transformation by our ever-maturing relationship with our companions in Madagascar. I see us as a church shaking off complacency and daring to claim our unique voice in the world, speaking up about the values we hold central to the new tomorrow God is creating. Finally, I see us as a church being renewed by the Spirit's call to go deep with one another, energized by a discovery of the new and exotic kinds of fruits we are capable of bearing, reclaiming our identity as a community shaped by radical grace, willing to honestly navigate the paradoxes of our contemporary world with all.

So what do you see for us as a church as you look towards God's Advent horizon?  I welcome your perspectives!

Yours in Faith,
Bishop Jim Gonia

Comments

mycustodybattle said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
9:01 AM
Anonymous said…
Yes! to all three! Expand "Madagascar" to include global contexts, including, but not limited to our mission fields in the RMS--those congregations caught between the poverty of their context and lack of funding from the greater church.
9:03 AM
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