Reposting a blog post from last advent here.

O Come, O Come Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel.

These beautiful words and their haunting melody translated from the Latin hymn “Veni, Veni Emmanuel” capture the heart of this season. For this Sunday marks the first week of Advent [celebrated this year December 2nd thru Christmas Eve] and the beginning of the Church Year. This is a new day and a new dawn as Nina Simone likes to sing.

The word Advent means "coming" or "arrival". The focus of the entire season is preparation to celebrate the birth of Jesus the Christ in his First Advent, and the anticipation of the return of Christ the King in his Second Advent. Thus, Advent is far more than simply marking a 2,000-year-old event in history with nativity scenes of shepherds, wise men and cows and sheep in a stable. And it is far from the "merry and bright" celebration of the holiday, full of shopping and gift wrapping, pictures with Santa, and holiday parties. We do celebrate, but we celebrate the revelation of God in Christ whereby all of creation might be reconciled to God. The liberation of all creation that is groaning, longing for redemption. A redemption in which we now participate, and the consummation of which we anticipate. We affirm that Christ has come, that He is present in the world today, and that He will come again in power. This is our hope in a world brimming with suffering.

Advent is marked by a spirit of expectation, of anticipation, of preparation, of longing. There is a yearning for deliverance from the evils of the world, first expressed by Israelite slaves in Egypt as they cried out from their bitter oppression. It is the cry of so many today, who are experienced the tyranny of injustice in a world gone mad, and yet who have hope of deliverance by a God who has heard the cries of oppressed slaves and brought deliverance! It is the cry of the immigrant, the refugees at the border, the addict, the poor and the homeless. It is the cry of the Dreamers, victims of sexual misconduct, our Muslim neighbors, and our brown and black brothers and sisters who face injustice, discrimination, persecution, incarceration and violence every day.

It is this hope, however faint at times, that God, however seemingly distant, is here with us, our Emmanuel. It is this hope that while greed and violence and power rule the day, crushing the poor and oppressing the weak, we anticipate a good and wise King who will rule with truth and justice and righteousness over all people and all creation. It is this hope that once anticipated, and now anticipates anew, the reign of an Anointed One, a Messiah, who will bring peace and justice and righteousness to the world. That into the darkness, a light will come. And it will be a light for all people.
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This Advent, I do believe it is a time for our community to enter lament in the hope of liberation. Even as men, women and children seeking asylum wait in desperation at the Mexican border, this Sunday, we will enter Advent with lament, with longing and with hope. We will yearn for liberation from oppression in our lives and in the lives of our neighbors and we will pray for justice to come to our streets. And we will wait with hope and light a candle into the darkness and cry, Come, Lord Jesus, Come.

Join us this Sunday for the beginning of the Advent Season!

This week, most of us will sit down at abundant tables and feast with friends and family to celebrate the Thanksgiving Day holiday. And as we gorge ourselves with turkey, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie, we will practice gratitude and take time to remember all the gifts in our lives. And hopefully our hearts along with our tables, homes and bellies will be full.

I've always loved Thanksgiving. It was a time when my big family came together to celebrate. And celebrate we did! Aside from the inevitable family drama, we would sing and dance and play games and laugh til our guts hurt. And unlike other holidays that were commercialized to be about shopping or candy baskets (ignore Black Friday), this one day was about being grateful! Yes, I was all in!

Except.

That it propagated the myth. The myth of Thanksgiving. This idyllic picture of Pilgrims and Indians feasting together in a harmonious and mutually beneficial relationship. True, there was some beauty in this first feast they shared. However, we simply cannot stop there without acknowledging the atrocities that came next as white colonizers exterminated millions of indigenous people who had occupied America for a millennia. Nor should we ignore the atrocities that continue as the racism, greed, trauma and structural violence continue today. One of the most prolonged and sustained genocides of a people with the goal of complete and total erasure. All cloaked in this idea of Manifest Destiny and done in the name of Christ. It's enough to make my stomach turn. Maybe no turkey for me this year.

Until.

I read Dr. Randy Woodley's article. Woodley is a man I deeply admire and have learned from, a Keetowah Cherokee, a Christian, and a professor at Portland Seminary in the Master of Arts in Intercultural Studies program. And thanks to Dr. Woodley's gracious and profound wisdom, I was shown a place at the Thanksgiving table once again.

In spite of our ugly history, no...actually, because of these atrocities, I want to suggest that we all continue to celebrate Thanksgiving, but with a caveat.

Settler folks must be educated to realize that Thanksgiving in America didn’t begin with the Pilgrims. For thousands of years many feasts of thanksgiving have been characteristic of all our Indian tribes. This phenomenon continues today. Settler-immigrants should reorient their thinking to view that First Thanksgiving as the first opportunity for them to join millennial old traditions among America’s Indigenous peoples to thank God, who was already present before they arrived, and thank the land upon which they were living. They should view the Plymouth feast as the land welcoming them, and as a result an opportunity to express gratitude to all creation, especially those plants and animals that provided the feast and extended their lives another day. They should see themselves as good guests of the Host Peoples of America and rethink their social posture with more humility.

Eat Humble Pie.

Yes, you heard him. If we are to eat pie this Thanksgiving, let it be humble pie. It's time to discard the myths of colonialism and white supremacy and sit in the discomfort of grief, lament, disorientation and feelings of powerlessness. For isn't this the invitation of Christ in Philippians 2:6-8. You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.

So let us be humble, and let us be grateful. And let us learn from those who host us and honor and care for the land, acknowledging the Creator that sustains our very breath. And yes, let us make room for truth and lament as we educate ourselves concerning the real history of America.

Decolonizing Thanksgiving

Celebrating True Thanksgiving: One Native American View

The Thanksgiving Myth

Thanksgiving Promotes Whitewashed History, So I Organized Truthgiving Instead

"All The Real Indians Died Off": And 20 Other Myths About Native Americans

And may we use this time to encourage reconciliation between our families and those who share a different history. May you celebrate well with your friends and family, and remember to leave plenty of room for gratitude and Jesus-inspired, humble pie.

by Jessica Ketola

Last weekend, we put on our big event of the year, the Turning Point Benefit Gala & Auction! And what an extraordinary night! It it such a powerful thing in our day to come together as neighbors and citizens to create community so that everyone can thrive. For when we all come together, there is always more than enough. And it is such a powerful moment to be a part of something good and hopeful in the world - investing in children and families right here in our local community and getting to benefit from the richness of relationship and diversity!
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A young woman and tutor, Betelhem shared her story in a video at the event. She had grown up as a bicultural and bilingual young woman who had benefited greatly from the Homework tutoring program (now a Turning Point program). As a graduate of University of Washington in Biomedical Engineering, she is giving back and tutoring in our program. And when asked about what what Turning Point was all about, she replied, "We are here to help support the students' dreams and goals, and to create an environment that fosters the dreams and goals of individuals that have yet to achieve wonders."

Just imagine what might happen if we began to show up in the world to create, to dream with hope and imagination? What if we began to bring our presence, our creativity and gifts to bear? What if we pursued that which we love and offered our passion to the community?

This last Sunday, Carrie Cates continued our conversation around Soul Force as she spoke about the shift from Consuming to Creating. And she spoke about the power of what it means to be generative instead of consumptive. To offer that which we alone can bring to the world. To sing the song we must sing. To create. To dance. To love.

And this is in stark contrast to the gospel of consumption. Here is an excerpt from Soul Force: Seven Pivots to Courage, Community & Change.

In the beginning God consumed. God said, "Let there be stuff to buy, television to watch, garbage to dump." God spent the evenings on the couch eating junk food and binge-watching movies. God consumed the earth's resources with no regard for the consequences for future generations. God worked nonstop to feed an endless need for more. Humankind was made in the image of God to be consumers.

Obviously, the Genesis account is quite different. We know that the nature of God is to create and we as image bearers are meant to create as well. And so how do we show up in the world? For certainly, it matters. Whether it is passive or generative, it is not neutral.
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And how do we resist the false narratives of our competitive and consumptive world that deter us from doing that which we love. Carrie talked about how the latin root for amateur means lover. We shouldn't hold back because we are not the best or because we are amateur. We should allow ourselves to play and to delight and to create. To do it for the sheer love of it. As Betelhem said well -- How do we create an environment that fosters our dreams and our unrealized wonders?

by Jessica Ketola