Natalie's Grace Notes

  What do we do when we need to wait? It’s what this season is all about. Today is like New Year’s Day in the Church. No, not for the secular calendar. Y’all still have a whole month of 2025 left. But Advent begins the new Church year, and we begin in the void. There’s no John the Baptist, there’s no Jesus, Mary and Elizabeth don’t even know they’re expecting yet. In the next few weeks we’ll slowly fill the void with the familiar: next week the tree goes up, we hear the prophesy of Isaiah, Gabriel visits both Zechariah and Mary, and the poinsettia orders come in (thanks Jan!), and the sanctuary will be full of pretty red flowers. But we don’t have any of that yet. We kick off Advent not with nice baby news, but with apocalyptic warnings: a random person in a field will be taken, a random woman minding her own business in her kitchen will be taken, your house might be broken into, and no one knows when. Get ready! Jesus had a major flair for the dramatic. If you’re a nerd, like me, ...

  This story introduces us to a new group: the Sadducees. Another group that doesn’t love Jesus’ public ministry, and, interestingly, a rival to the Pharisees. The Sadducees were a wealthy, aristocratic Jewish sect. They had control over the Temple in Jerusalem–believed by Jesus’ friends and neighbors to be the very home of God–as well as the Sanhedrin, the court that charges Jesus with blasphemy and hands him over to be crucified by Pontius Pilate. The Sadducees are very powerful, and this story sets up an important upset, one piece in the puzzle that puts Jesus on the cross on Good Friday. The Sadducees had two crucial differences from the Pharisees, and one of them was their political views. The Pharisees were deeply opposed to the Roman occupation of Palestine. The Sadducees, on the other hand, were loyal to Rome, and benefited greatly from that loyalty. The other difference had to do with theology, specifically beliefs about what happens after you die. I learned a little quip ...

  Today we observe All Saints’ Day. It’s a day of remembrance: for the folks from this congregation who passed away in the last year, for our loved ones who passed recently, for our loved ones who passed years or even decades ago, and for the billions of souls in the history of the world who went on to life eternal. We didn’t know them, but God did. All those folks in heaven, and us here on earth, are connected through the Communion of Saints. This is one of my favorite holidays in the entire church year, but it’s not the easiest one to present to you guys. We have some absolutely epic All Saints hymns, but they can be hard to sing, especially today’s closing hymn. I’m asking you to indulge me, and I don’t have something cute and simple like “Jingle Bells” to put in the order of service as a peace offering. We don’t carve pumpkins or turkeys or decorate a tree or make baskets for All Saints, we don’t give or receive presents, and I have no particular reason to give anyone chocolate...