Jesus is portrayed as a cornerstone holding the people of God together as a temple that is more than walls, and a high priest over all of us in a new priestly order ministering to each other in the values of God’s salvation life. We can sometimes pick the wrong things to prioritize in our worship and ministry, though, just like some houses are places with burdensome rules and expectations more than homes to safely grow, develop and form transformational relationships in. How does Jesus show us and help us form communities that are more than “do and do, rule on rule, a little here, a little there”?

God calls the Church to be a particular kind of people - after God’s own values and salvation life - in how they relate to each other as God gathers them, but also in how they connect with people who aren’t a part of the closely established community. One special metaphor for this that we can be inspired by is “ambassadors.” It may not always be comfortable and simple, but we will find that God has always had the experience of salvation marked by reconciled relationships with people all around us - even and especially those we wouldn’t expect and that the world would be inclined to leave out.

A common metaphor for the church through the Bible is being God’s flock, led by Jesus as the Good Shepherd. Sheep don’t always have the most positive connotations associated with them, but they do also have plenty of value and dignity, even as they also remind us to be humble about our sin, vulnerabilities and temptations. The metaphor also reminds us of the responsibilities we have to follow God’s values as shepherd in how we walk with and care for each other, and how to encourage each other away from those that would exploit towards the God who cares, serves, sacrifices and provides for all. How do we best hold these values as a flock?

God’s people have often been called to take on ashes and to remember their temporality and frailty in dust. This is not just for individuals, but also for God’s faithful gathered people. As we reflect on how that is relevant in our own lives and times, we can gain insight reflecting on what values and identities God has emphasized to the gathered faithful in times of ash and dust before. As we congregate ourselves, with our resources and practices, how we might especially remember to be a different kind of den, than a den of robbers God has previously called the presumed faithful to repent from?

God’s Spirit moves in powerful and meaningful ways to build connection between people with all kinds of backgrounds, perspectives and experiences. This is a profound emphasis of the Community Church tradition of which our church is affiliated. Through these values we can see the continuity of God faithfully building community from scripture, though the legacy of the traditions we’re a part of, to our own experience today. We can also trust this will strengthen and sustain us in the future.

Holding the diverse communities God loves to gather into churches as congregations is not always easy. We won’t think or do things exactly the same and that can lead to confusion and conflict. What does it look like to prioritize grace and accountability, welcome and healthy boundaries in the love that God gives us, models for us, and calls us to? We can learn from relatable experiences in the Bible, and what God has taught us in our experience as we maintain a humble posture of learning.

God’s people have consistently wrestled with how the power of God’s Kingdom operates differently than the power that operates in the world setting up its own kind of kingdoms and institutions. God recommending to Israel to not be ruled by a king, to Jesus saying he would not be a Messiah of conquering and enemy killing, to Paul’s idea of citizenship in heaven over other allegiances give examples of that tension. How can we help the church exist as a unique institution of love, service and thriving for all God’s creation, and make sure we don’t get tempted to putting that below the powers around us focus more on privilege and preference and power over others?

We are called as the people of God to transforming relationships not just with those closest to us or in our own in-groups, but with all of creation that God cares for, and even and especially those that often get overlooked, cast out, or called unworthy. How does God use our relationships together to equip us for these types of connections, and how can we recognize the gifts of salvation these connections actually bring? If we are tempted to draw our circles of concern tightly, how can we ask God to open those to be like how God operates?

After learning more about Churches as “called out ones,” it may occur to us that holding such groups together with a shared identity could be pretty difficult. Values of being “Congregational” are especially important for this, as they follow God’s expressed purpose of bringing humble unity to people with lots of different experiences and perspectives - with the foundation of covenants that prioritize the relational connection over any circumstances that can ebb and flow.

“Church” is the most common and foundational word we use to name the communities we gather ourselves into to practice our faith together in all its components. Like any word, we can take for granted all the meaning it can hold to inspire us and help keep us faithful. Scriptural examples of “called out ones” and “assemblies” that are now translated “church” can give us some powerful points of reference for how we live our own identity together today.

Weddings are joyous occasions, but can also be prone to being sent off the rails when things go wrong - which is especially painful for something so important. God is with us in all the important moments of our lives, and knows the impact of helping us through things going wrong with blessings for a life that can be made right and whole.

We are invited to be adopted into God’s family, participate in co-creation in God’s Kingdom, and even to be formed in Christ’s likeness. Sometimes these encouragements to be part of the life of God can reveal what we think the core character of God is in a way that still needs forming. Where do we see God guiding God’s people for what being made like God is like that can help form our faithfulness in truth and depth?

We are probably most used to our culture prioritizing will as the most important characteristic for beginnings, but in the Bible, we see God’s beginning’s are rooted in personal, relational Word and Wisdom. If we let God’s values shape us in our beginnings and transitions, how might that transform their impact on our life and sense of self?

Chrismons are a special tradition for Christmas decorations, but we may not know about or understand all the symbols, or where the tradition came from. How can we deepen our faith by learning about some of things, and also think about how we can be careful not to fixate on the symbols meant to point to God, but be able to use them to help us grow in our knowledge and understanding of God beyond what is most natural and preferential to us personally?

Even in the moments we celebrate now as the triumphant arrival of Jesus, there was plenty to see as troublesome and worrying - parents with reason to feel stressed about each other, a dirty “delivery room,” strangers crowding things up, imminent threats and more. Our lives can often feel this way, too, so how do we recognize God moving in even and especially our struggles “precisely as the Gospel needs to”?

In times when love is painful and hard, we may be encouraged by Tennyson’s lines, “Tis better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all…” But what helps us hold on to love this way in all its ups and downs? If we see how God loves us with that same vulnerability, and even more so, has risked to be loved that way by us even as we’re prone to let things down, what strengthening of love becomes possible through the Spirit?

Our whole range of feelings and experiences take on a different dimension - a deep joy - if we are able to share them with others, or if we feel as if we have to experience them alone, which is especially dispiriting. In the arrival of Jesus, God gave the ultimate expression of this empathy, solidarity, and connection. How might we experience more of the thriving of salvation life by sharing with each other what God has first shared with us?

In Advent we celebrate God coming close, and that initiative means a lot in the theme of peacemaking. God moves to enact peace and reconciliation, and so we can expect that peace may often be more about transformation and a new way of being than just calm, stillness, or quiet. God also helps us recognize where there is a balance in disturbing peace, and we should be ready to join in the side of the lowly and outcast so we can be a part of the true, holistic peace of God’s Kingdom.

We can often feel as though having hope is most about how firmly we can focus on a positive outcome in the future. Yet we can also find that the hardest to muster in our most difficult situations that need change and hope the most. Advent helps us to realize that even when things are overwhelmingly challenging and painful, the deepest, most transformational hope can begin with the realization that God joins us in those circumstances, does not reject us because of them, and will go through the full process of change with us.

As Congregationalists, we can learn a lot and take plenty of inspiration from the experiences of our Pilgrim forebears that are commonly remembered at Thanksgiving. While most of us are unlikely to move across continents as part of our faith journeys, we can still relate the ways they discerned how to follow God through a range of challenges in life to our own day to day experiences.