Kindred in Christ

This week as we will enter the story of Christmas, and once again hear the angel’s proclamation: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward all people.”

“Peace on Earth.” These words echo through centuries, yet they feel so urgent and necessary today. The promise of Christmas is that peace is not a distant dream but a divine calling—a gift we are invited to receive and to share in ordinary and extraordinary ways.

This peace is not simply the absence of conflict but the presence of justice, love, and compassion. It is the kind of peace that reconciles, heals, and restores. It is the peace that Christ came to bring, born humbly in a manger, under the light of a star, for all people.

This week, we gather to proclaim and embody this hope in community. Whether you come carrying the weight of the world or the light of joy, know that you are welcome here. Together, we will sing our favorite carols, light candles against the darkness, and celebrate the birth of the One who leads us in the way of peace.

Let us come together to be reminded of our shared calling to be peacemakers—peace in our homes, peace in our community, and peace on earth. Join us this Sunday for our Paper Bag Christmas Pageant, and Tuesday for our Candlelight Christmas Eve Service, in collaboration with our friends from Green Lake UMC, as we lift our voices and hearts in celebration and hope.

Alongside you,

Rev. Paul Ortiz

Art by Scott Erickson

Kindred in Christ,

One practice I find formative to my spiritual journey is taking a little time to reflect at the end of each day. This often looks like a brief holy pause, where I review the day in prayer, pay attention to my emotions, open myself up to how God showed up, and journal before bed. I find that I am especially honest with myself at the end of the day. As everything settles down, and I am alone with my thoughts after having spent my energy, I find that I am more naturally disposed to greater levels of personal truth.

The same movement towards honesty can occur as we approach the end of the year. While December is often a period of frenetic consumerism and busyness, Advent invites us to pause and reflect amidst the hustle and bustle of external activates.

I invite you to mark this month as a time for personal honesty, reflection, and prayer, as you approach the new year.

Advent is about our human longing for the coming of Christ’s beauty and justice into our hurting world. In the spirit of Advent, I invite you to take up a new practice this season and create spaces for deeper reflection and longing.

Each week leading up to the end of the year, consider answering a simple question… “What am I longing for during this time?” Write down your response in a journal. As you go from week to week, challenge yourself to go a bit deeper each time. Get honest and search for what it is you are really longing for underneath the surface level of want. And ask yourself what it would look like for God to show up in the midst of your longing, and what is your longing asking of you?

I find that when I sit with this kind of question, while I may not necessarily get what I am longing for in the way I first imagined, it will lead me to greater clarity of how I want to focus my time and energy in the day and year to come. And it is in the longing of Advent, where Christ arrives in unexpected ways. May it be so for you!

Alongside you,

Rev. Paul Ortiz

Kindred in Christ,

This Sunday marks the beginning of the season of Advent and the start of the new liturgical year! Yet, if you are like me, along with the joy of the holidays, and the wonder of the season, at times, you also feel spiritually, emotionally, or mentally left on empty. Many of us feel tired this season. Tired of the political vitriol. Tired of the us-versus-them mentalities. Tired of the racism, sexism, xenophobia, and homophobia that permeate our country, our cities, and our families. Tired of the distrust and line drawing between people groups. Tired of waiting for prayers to be answered and for justice to be made a reality.

So, we come to this season of Advent weary for a world that will one day be made right. But that is not today. It is a world we can only glimpse—sometimes only through tears.

And so, we cry out with our spiritual ancestors, “O come, O come, Emmanuel, and with your captive children dwell… O come, and turn all hearts to peace, that greed and war at last shall cease” (updated lyrics by Rev. Mark Belletini).

It is during this anticipation and longing that the hope of Advent comes near to us. This hope is not a false certainty. Rather, the hope of Advent allows us to encounter a story bigger than our present moment. We find out that we are part of a story of redemption and healing that stretches all the way back to the coming Christ child, and into the future when all wars will cease. Encountering this hope, in the mist of our present human struggle, is how the weary world rejoices.

Join us this Sunday, as we kick off our new Advent series and begin the journey to Christmas and to all the ways Christ is present in our word. We look forward to seeing you in person and online!

Rev. Paul Ortiz

Join us in-person or online for our Christmas Eve service, Dec. 24th at 7 PM! There will be Christmas carols, candle lighting, crafts for children, and more! Invite your family and friends. 

This service is in collaboration with Gathering UMC, Green Lake UMC, and Woodland Park UMC.

We hope to see you as we celebrate the hope of God entering the world in a refugee baby.

Kindred in Christ,

This has been a tough week for some of us, as we have had to deal with extended power outages and debris clean up in our neighborhoods. I appreciated those of us that have been community and have checked in with one another during these last few days. And I have celebrated with you and others who have let us know that their power has been restored. Praying that as you read this, your power is back, or will be back very soon. And if you find yourself still in need and could use help from our church community, please reach out to me at:

Paul.Ortiz@ugathering.org.

In all of this, I am reminded of the importance of creating community and extending hospitality toward one another. This Sunday we will gather with various community partners and attempt to do just that! We are joining forces with Green Lake UMC, Woodland Park UMC, and GLSA (childcare program) to co-host a brunch church event starting at 10:30 AM. RSVP and indicate what you can bring below.

As I prepare and collaborate for this event with many of you and others, I am reminded of the story of Jesus feeding the multitude (Matt 14:13-21). At first, the disciples see that there are only five loaves and two fishes. Yet after Jesus gives thanks, blesses, and breaks the loaves, he invites the disciples to begin distributing this small gift among the hungry crowd. And as the story goes, five thousand were fed that day, and there were leftovers! This story can be interpreted as God miraculously multiplying the elements until all had enough to eat. Yet, perhaps the more meaningful miracle would be that once one person offered their small gift of five loaves and two fishes, it inspired others in the crowd to also share the little they were holding on to. And by the end of the disciples going around the multitude, all had been blessed and moved to share what they had with others, and all were fed through God’s work, through the power of community. My hope is that we will all share what we can with each other and with our community partners and see what miracles Jesus might do through us!

Alongside you,

Rev. Paul Ortiz