Bishop's Close of Advent Message 2025

“Advent is the most honest season in the church year.” This was said at a recent retreat with ELCA bishops and Vice Presidents of Region 2 (the southwest region of the ELCA). Your leaders spent a lot of time reflecting on the waiting, the impatience, the hope, the acknowledgment of our unsettled needs. Advent is the season where the church names its longings. Most of us agreed it is a powerful and authentic time.

The news of the past few weeks has been exceedingly painful, with stories of violence in wealthy families, at a Hanukkah celebration on an Australian beach, in military and civilian casualties. We feel the strain of survival, self-protection, fear. How can we be people faithfully greeting the Savior when it is difficult to live with courage and hope?

I wonder what it was like for Mary and Joseph, travelling to Bethlehem. The classic images show them on a donkey, Mary very pregnant, exhausted, frightened. Maybe they were actually on foot. Maybe they were afraid of Roman soldiers, hunger, bad weather. Maybe they heard terrible warnings of attacks, robbery and cruelty. They were supposed to return to their homeland for a government check-in. Did the trip seem familiar or treacherous? This feels like the situation for so many of us, fearing real harm and violence, or simply living in a world where we hear about hatred and chaos constantly.

And then the baby arrives, in inconvenient, messy ways. Not at home. Mary’s family is not there to support her. Was there a midwife or a loving aunt? Likely not. Did Joseph know what to do? How could he? Their lives were about to change with the birth of their son, and they were not prepared.

This is where I find myself, and in many ways, this is where I find the church. Not in familiar territory, possibly out of our element. And into this world, the Savior is born. For Mary and Joseph, the good news about their family travelled in surprising and rapid ways. Gifts came from unexpected places. Shelter was provided. And God’s son, sent to earth, was among us.

I cling to that promise today, and invite you to do the same. We are on a path, the end of which we cannot see. But God has promised a Savior, God has declared peace on earth, God has sanctioned goodwill to all people. Yes, the people continue to cry, “How long, O Lord?” but we keep walking, trusting, knowing: Emmanuel, God is with us.