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The Invitation of Christmas

12/17/2014

The Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall is indeed a “spectacular” production! Even though much of the show remains the same each year, performances are presented with such beauty, precision and good taste that audiences return season after season. Among my favorite scenes are a 3D ride through the skies of New York and classic pieces such as the March of the Toy Soldiers and the Dance of the Sugarplum Fairies. Yet for me, the most spectacular and moving scene of the production comes at the very end – the living Nativity. The fact that the scene is still included and is presented with such reverence and dignity is truly a wonder in itself.

Picture it in your mind. A stately procession moves in single file across the stage guided by a bright light: kings and servants, camels and donkeys, shepherds and sheep. They gather before a manger elevated on a hill. Mary and Joseph and the newborn Jesus are there. The light focuses now on the baby as Joseph lifts him high above his head, a symbol that the child is an offering. He is a gift . . . a gift offered not to God, but to the audience! Wise men dressed in beautiful gowns bow before him in tribute. As the curtain falls, the chorus sings O Come, Let us Adore Him; they sing the invitation of Christmas.

This invitation is once again offered to you this Christmas. You are invited to reach out to the extended hands of God and make God’s gift your own. When you do, when you enter into and intentionally cultivate your relationship with Christ, you discover the power, the peace and the love of Christmas. You experience God’s exquisite gift, for you!

O Come, Let us Adore Him!

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Struggling for Justice

12/9/2014

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I don't know about you, but I wasn't surprised by the Ferguson grand jury decision. The case was muddled and complex, eye witness accounts differed and there was a question about the officer’s safety. The Eric Garner case, however, seems different: The incident was videotaped, the suspect was unarmed and known to the police and the arresting officer and his colleagues appeared to be in no apparent danger.
While I want to be supportive of police departments here and across America, it is clear that members of minority races are policed differently and more aggressively than whites. The tactics used by the police in the Garner case, which included a banned choke hold, seem to be a clear example of this.
We have come a long way in America in addressing matters of racism and racial inequality, but as protesters young and old across the country rightly remind us, we have yet a long way to go.

Read below Bishop Robert Rimbo's pastoral regarding racism.

Dec 08, 2014

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ:
"A voice says, ‘Cry out!’ And I said, ‘What shall I cry?’"
Isaiah, in chapter 40, wasn’t the last person to ask that question. It’s a haunting, even troubling question in these particular Advent days. It’s hard to cry out when you can’t breathe.
The events of these last days have come especially close to home. The decision surrounding the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, was one thing. I left the response to that sadness to our presiding bishop. But this decision, about the homicide of Eric Garner, was local, made by a grand jury on Staten Island, close to home, so close it is hard to breathe.
What shall we cry?
"Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God," to be sure. But no matter whether we all agree on the question of justice in these cases, I think it is time for us to stand up, breathe deeply together, and stop simply talking about the racism that is profoundly present in our lives, our cities, our world, our church. It is time for us to lift up our voice with strength, as Isaiah says, but to do more than just talk about it. It is time to do more than simply cry.
This past Saturday, December 6, the Sent Committee of our strategic plan was in conversation with me about how that action in our synod might start. Next Tuesday, December 16, I will encourage our Synod Council to consider what next steps we should take. It is clear that the first step will be a Service for Justice the afternoon of January 17, 2015. The place is yet to be determined but we will announce that as soon as possible. This will be the first of a series of events designed to gather any and all members of our synod to take bold, new steps to address the horror of racism.
In the meantime, as your bishop and on behalf of our synod, I will participate in public forums to act and speak for racial justice. I invite you to let me know when such opportunities for public witness are scheduled. I realize that not everyone will agree with my stance; I believe I must act now.
The closing verses of the first reading for the Second Sunday in Advent (Isaiah 40:1-11), encourage action: get up, lift up your voice, do not fear, say, see, feed, gather, carry, gently lead. That’s what we will do. I hope you will join me.
Bishop Robert Alan Rimbo

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