Sitting in darkness

But God’s light breaks in

Luke 1:68-79 Zechariah’s song:

Praise the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has visited and redeemed his people.

He has sent us a mighty Savior from the royal line of his servant David,

Just as he promised through his holy prophets long ago. …

So we can serve God without fear, in holiness and righteousness

For as long as we live. …

Because of God’s tender mercy,

The morning light from heaven is about to break upon us,

To give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,

And to guide us to the path of peace.

Do you, too, “sit in darkness”? How would you describe that darkness: anxiety and worry, fears for the future, stuckness over wounds in the past and harmful habits in the present? Do you, too, long for guidance to a path of peace?

Shutterstock: Vlue

Last week the prophet Zechariah from the Old Testament spoke to us about a Day of the Lord bringing life-giving waters to our parched souls. Five hundred years later, the Holy Spirit prophesied through another Zechariah, a priest, father of John the Baptist (Luke 1:67), this time about the gift of light breaking through our darkness.

Three months before Zechariah gave this prophecy, the angel Gabriel informed Mary, newly pregnant with Jesus, that another miraculous pregnancy had taken place: her barren elderly relative Elizabeth, Zechariah’s wife, also expected a baby!

Mary hurried to visit Elizabeth, who by the Spirit recognized the baby growing in Mary’s womb as her Lord. “You are blessed because you believed,” Elizabeth told Mary, in contrast to her husband, who had spent the last six months unable to speak because of his early, shocked disbelief in Gabriel’s message to him. Mary responded with a song of praise we call the Magnificat. We’ll look at this song next week.

After his son John was born, Zechariah prophesied that his child would prepare the way for the Lord, a mighty Savior who would provide salvation and forgiveness of sins to his people. Quoting Malachi and Isaiah, Zechariah foretold Mary’s baby’s birth as light from heaven about to break upon them, offered to the dark world through the tender mercies of God.

Two surprise visits from the angel Gabriel. Two miraculous pregnancies. Two sons. Four celebratory songs. A host of angels. Multiple shepherds. Two elderly witnesses. The fulfillment of ancient covenants and prophecies.

Luke compressed unspeakable wonder into the first two chapters of his Gospel. No wonder Mary needed to take a step back and ponder all that had broken into her heretofore unremarkable experience (Luke 2:19).

Advent offers us space to do the same: to consider the marvels of her baby’s first coming and what they mean to us. To open our hearts in hope of receiving the Spirit’s tender mercies. To welcome his light into our darkness. To deepen our hope as we anticipate his return in glory. And to find the path to the Prince of peace.

Shine Jesus Shine, Graham Kendrick

It’s still Easter!

But Jesus calls us “children of the resurrection”

Luke 20:35-36, 38 [Matthew 22:32; Mark 12:27] Jesus said, “In the age to come, those raised from the dead will never die again. … They are children of God and children of the resurrection. … He is the God of the living not the dead, for they [Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob] are all alive.“

Romans 8:10-11, 14, 17 The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. … For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. … And since we are his children, we are heirs of God’s glory.

Did you know it’s still Easter?

In the ancient church calendar, Easter is celebrated for fifty days, until Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the early believers. Forty days into Easter (this year, on May 29), always therefore on a Thursday, comes Ascension Day, when the church remembers Jesus leaving Earth and returning to his Father in Heaven, while promising: He will come back! And the Holy Spirit of God keeps that promise alive within us.

It’s a wild, joyful, sacred dance choreographed by the Trinity, for us, his children, heirs of his glory.

The season of Easter—not just one day, but seven weeks—gives us the chance to soak in, to absorb, the mystery of life overcoming death. Time to ask and to ponder, What does it mean to be children of the resurrection, heirs of God’s glory?

What does this mean to you, today?

And what does Paul mean by this breathtaking sentence: The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you?

We’re each part of the story shared by humanity on this May 13, 2025, a story in which one man’s name dominates the news that we in this part of the world wake up to each morning. A story in which, as Paul puts it, we groan over the impact of death and decay, sin and suffering—the “bondage of corruption” as it’s translated in the KJV (Romans 8:20-23).

At the same time, we’re part of a much bigger and more important story, a story with a gloriously happy ending.

And just as we’re breathing a sigh of satisfaction as we turn the last page of this story, that everything has come right, we’ll realize that ending is just the beginning of an even bigger story, one imbued with freedom and joy and life.

So, one thing being a child of the resurrection means to me today is that I’m not a victim, neither of my own challenging circumstances or of anyone else’s attitudes or actions. What the world is going through, matters. Especially for those whose around the world whose very lives and livelihood are under threat, it matters a lot. Sooner or later, perpetrators of bullying and abuse will be held accountable for the suffering they have inflicted. It matters.

Yet this is not the end of the story. You and I are not victims. We’re heirs of God’s glory!

Last Sunday, the 4th Sunday of Easter, was Good Shepherd Sunday. I invite you to listen to Lauren’s encouraging sermon.

He makes all things new

But Jesus IS life Lenten question #13

John 11:23-25 Jesus told Martha, “Your brother [Lazarus] will rise again.”“Yes,” Martha said, “he will rise when everyone else rises, at the last day.” Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?”

1 Thessalonians 4:13-14 And now, dear brothers and sisters, we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died so you will not grieve like people who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the believers who have died.

Yesterday my husband and I flew from Colorado back home to Pittsburgh, watching the transformation of desert into well-watered spring. I found myself thinking about a similar flight soon after our daughter Karis’s death, gripped by pain sharper than any other I have experienced. Would this grief ever soften into some version of beauty less stark?

I don’t know even how to describe it. A transplant friend, whose son had died a few months earlier, texted me: “Just BREATHE.” For as long as I owned that phone, I looked back often at that text as loss stabbed me yet again.

Jesus, who wept with Mary and Martha at Lazarus’s grave even though he knew he would shortly bring Lazarus back to life, understands that pain. He offers himself, his presence with us, as we grieve.

As intense as this grieving has been, I’ve often wondered, with deep compassion, what it would have felt like if I didn’t have the hope of life after death. I’ve watched people without that hope enter profound despair. What if I didn’t know that Karis’s SELF did not die, but is whole and well? What if I didn’t know I will see her again, healed, released from her suffering, exuberantly alive? Would I have survived the grief? I don’t know.

I love imagining what people who have gone before us are like now, freed from all that hampered and troubled them on earth and face to face with Jesus, who IS life. Death could not keep him in its grip (Acts 2:24 NLT). Because he broke death’s power, we too can know life after death—the truly abundant life for which God created us.

As I hear Jesus asking me today the question he asked Martha, I can say with profound thankfulness, “Yes. I do believe his resurrection makes possible eternal life for us.” Lazarus did eventually die again, yet I know he now celebrates along with his beloved sisters the unlimited joy of forever resurrection.

A friend whose father recently died shared with me this beautiful anthem, All Things New, by Elaine Hagenberg, sung at the funeral. The text is adapted from a 19th c. poem by Frances Havergal. So appropriate as we walk into next week:

Light after darkness, gain after loss

Strength after weakness, crown after cross.

Sweet after bitter, hope after fears

Home after wandering, praise after tears.

Alpha and Omega, beginning and the end

He is making all things new.

Springs of living water shall wash away each tear.

He is making all things new.

Sight after mystery, sun after rain

Joy after sorrow, peace after pain

Near after distant, gleam after gloom

Love after loneliness, life after tomb. (Refrain)

The mystery of hope

But God is the only Savior

Hosea 13:4 [The Lord says] You must acknowledge no god but me, for there is no other savior.

And what a Savior! I encourage you to take a few minutes to ponder the words of this wonderful celebration of mystery: the hope we hold even in tumultuous times.

Blossoms in winter: 11 blooms this time.

Come, Behold the Wondrous Myst’ry

Keith and Krysten Getty, Matt Boswell, Matt Papa, Michael Bleeker

Come, behold the wondrous myst’ry in the dawning of the King,

He, the theme of heaven’s praises, robed in frail humanity.

In our longing, in our darkness, now the light of life has come.

Look to Christ, who condescended, took on flesh to ransom us.

Come, behold the wondrous myst’ry, he the perfect Son of Man,

In his living, in his suffering never trace nor stain of sin.

See the true and better Adam, come to save the hell-bound man,

Christ, the great and sure fulfillment of the law, in him we stand.

Come, behold the wondrous myst’ry, Christ the Lord upon the tree.

In the stead of ruined sinners hangs the Lamb in victory.

See the price of our redemption, see the Father’s plan unfold,

Bringing many sons to glory, grace unmeasured, love untold.

Come, behold the wondrous myst’ry, slain by death, the God of life.

But no grave could e’er restrain him: praise the Lor, he is alive!

What a foretaste of deliverance, how unwavering our hope:

Christ in power resurrected, as we will be when he comes.

What a foretaste of deliverance, how unwavering our hope:

Christ in power resurrected as we will be when he comes.

Advent 4, faith: we can’t do it alone

But Jesus perfects our faith

Hebrews 10:38, 11:1 My righteous ones will live by faith. … Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.

Hebrews 12:1-2 … Let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.

Collage by my friend Carol Amidi CarolAmidi.net

Have you ever had your confidence in God severely threatened? Have you come to the end of your own ability to keep on believing?

Often, I have found, people make judgments about each other regarding the sincerity and adequacy of their faith.

The thing is, life can be very tough, and messy, and confusing, and painful. Not one of us is strong enough to maintain faith all by ourselves.

The good news is that God doesn’t ask this of us. He surrounds us with love and support—his own, and the Body of Christ. Hebrews 12, coming just after the litany of faithful ones in chapter 11, encourages us that even those who have gone before us are supporting and rooting for us.

I’ve found too that people still alive do this also—sometimes in completely unexpected ways. Here’s a treasured example.

If you’ve followed this blog, you know that our daughter Karis was born with nonfunctional intestines. Day after day in the hospital, test after test came back normal, yet even a teaspoon of fluid by slow drip into her stomach prompted bilious vomiting, and nothing at all came out as waste. When the surgeons finally opened her up and biopsied her intestinal tract, they asked us to remove all life support and let her die, because there was no hope that her intestine would ever function.

A missionary friend of Dave’s from Florida visited us on a trip to Chicago. The timing couldn’t have been better. Though Dave wasn’t there, Harold inspired enough confidence that I was able to confess I didn’t feel I had any faith left. Harold said two things. Faith is not grounded in circumstances. It’s grounded in the unchanging character of God. And, he said, if my faith was faltering, it was time for the Body of Christ to have faith for us.

I’ve never forgotten Harold’s compassionate words. I felt so cared for, so supported, so understood. He didn’t criticize me or blame me or require something of me. He asked me instead to let go. To let others share my burden. To rest in God’s immutable love, for Karis and for our family, and for all whom her little life touched.

Faith, I think, asks us to find courage to share our needs not just with God, but with each other. As Advent so quickly morphs into Christmas this year, I pray you find a trusted friend with whom you can do just that.

Advent 1, Hope: Already and not yet, by David Kornfield, Pittsburgh, PA

BUT JESUS will return and set everything right

Hebrews 9:28 Christ will come again, not to deal with our sins, but to bring salvation to all who are eagerly waiting for him.

Revelation 1:7 Look! He comes with the clouds of heaven, and everyone will see him.

On days like today, with occasional sun breaking through clouds, I often say to Debbie, “It could be today!”

A person’s last words carry weight. How much more if he is the author and completer of human history? Of my story. Of your story. Of our story as the church of Jesus Christ. His last recorded words in the Gospels are: “Be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).

There will come an end to the world as we know it. Advent recognizes this fact and gives us time to prepare our hearts for our Lord’s return. It’s a time of tension between:

1. His arrival as a baby and his imminent arrival as the King of Kings.

2. What we have already experienced of Christ and what is yet to be revealed.

3. The maturity we have already attained and what we still lack.

The world is lost in the commercial focus of Christmas. We must get “lost” in anticipation of the imminent arrival of our King of Kings.

We live in the space between what Jesus has already done and what He will do. He has already performed miracles in our lives, our marriages, our families and our churches. AT THE SAME TIME, we deeply need Him to become real and present to us again today.

We honor these four weeks of Advent, celebrating Christ’s Incarnation as a tiny, totally dependent infant and his arrival in each of our hearts. At the same time, let us cry out, asking that he arrive for each of us in a new way, to transform what is still missing within us during this in-between time. Let us live fully in the revival and anointing he has already given us, even while we stretch forward to the greater revival and anointing that we so desperately need.

Lord, break in me everything that needs to be broken.

Heal in me everything that needs to be healed.

Fill in me everything that needs to be filled.

Anoint in me everything that needs to be anointed.

“The celebration of Advent is possible only to those who are troubled in soul, who know themselves to be poor and imperfect, and who look forward to something greater to come.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Advent 1, HOPE: Let go. Look up!

Advent ABC playlist

But God gave each of us a race to run

Hebrews 12:1-2 Since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith …

Luke 21:34 Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with … the worries of this life, and that day [Christ’s return] catch you unexpectedly (NRSVA).

Image by my friend Carol Amidi https://www.carolamidi.net/

On Monday evenings, I meet on Zoom with women from Argentina, Chile, and Venezuela who are leaders in their churches and denominations. This week we are memorizing Hebrews 12:1-2 (in Spanish, of course). I realized yesterday how fitting this passage is for Advent, this interesting time in the year when we anticipate Christ’s return in glory while preparing to celebrate his first coming as an infant.

This year in particular my heart has been weighed down with many concerns. (Yours too?) I asked a prayer team for intercession yesterday about how to handle high stress and at the same time focus on the hope Advent offers us. As our pastor Peter reminded us, Advent hope is rooted in the fact that we know Jesus is good. We know him, his tenderness and compassion, his faithfulness and gentleness—this One who will return one day as a mighty warrior, defeating all evil, to reign in justice. We’ll be able to look into his eyes and know that he is the one who has been our friend and companion all our lives.

My main takeaway from the wonderful prayer offered on my behalf is that I am to live from a center of peace, daily entrusting to Jesus my burdens and worries, both those over which I have a measure of control and those I can’t control at all.

Let go and look up. Accept the support of those whom God has placed around me, and cheer each of them on in their own God-designed races.

Hope. All will be well.

Since he himself has gone through suffering and testing, he is able to help us when we are being tested. … So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most (Hebrews 2:18, 4:16).

I invite you to savor again the wonderful music (5 hours!!) on my Advent ABC playlist:

Countless thousands of angels

But God promises profound joy

Hebrews 12:18, 22 You have not come to Mount Sinai, a place of flaming fire, darkness, gloom, and whirlwind … and terror and trembling. … No, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to countless thousands of angels in a joyful gathering.

Can you imagine being part of that joyful gathering, surrounded, buoyed, overwhelmed by thousands of angel voices raised in worship of the Lamb, the Lamb who laid down his life for you?

A couple of years ago, I had a tiny taste of what this might be like. I was standing in worship in my church in Pittsburgh when all at once, I could see into Heaven. I can’t explain this; I can only tell you what I experienced. I felt goose bumps; a depth of wonder I don’t know how to describe. Awe.

And gradually I realized: the angels were singing with us. They sang the song we were singing in honor of the Lord. I wish I remembered what that song was.

The time of worship ended. The vision faded. I was so overwhelmed I had to sit down. After the closing prayer I looked around me. Did no one else see what I saw? How could I ever describe it? Was I meant to share it with others? To what end had God given me this glimpse of glory? Was it for me alone, to encourage me in a time of sadness?

I don’t fully know the answer. Tonight, I feel I am to share this with you. Perhaps you are in a moment of discouragement, wondering whether your life will ever come right. Perhaps this second-hand peek into the reality of God’s “heavenly Jerusalem” will prompt you to ask for your own deepened understanding of the joy-filled wonders that await us.

I offer this as a gift, passing on a gift given to me, Heaven touching earth. May the Holy Spirit use it to bless you as only he knows how to do.

Shutterstock: Bruce Rolff

I heard the voices of thousands and millions of angels around the throne … And they sang in a mighty chorus: “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing.” And then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea. They sang, “Blessing and honor and glory and power belong to the one sitting on the throne and to the Lamb forever and ever.” Revelation 5:11-13

Worthy is the Lamb, Hillsong

For what is yet to be, by Ted Loder, author of Guerrillas of Grace

I (Debbie) wrote a post for today, but find I don’t yet have courage to post it.

This morning I had the privilege of sharing with a group of chaplains-in-training some of our hospital experience with Karis. I was flooded all over again with how much our story–and Karis’s story–is all about grace.

And when I left, one of the participants handed me two poems about grace. This one strikes me as better for today than what I had written. Thank you, Leslie!

Wondrous Worker of Wonders,

I praise you

not alone for what has been,

or for what is,

but for what is yet to be,

for you are gracious beyond all telling of it.

I praise you

that out of the turbulence of my life

a kingdom is coming.

is being shaped even now

out of my slivers of loving,

my bits of trusting,

my sprigs of hoping,

my tootles of laughing,

my smidgens of worshipping;

that out of my songs and struggles,

out of my griefs and triumphs,

I am gathered up and saved,

for you are gracious beyond all telling of it.

I praise you

that you turn me loose

to go with you to the edge of now and maybe,

to welcome the new,

to see my possibililties,

to accept my limits,

and yet begin living to the limit

of passion and compassion

until,

released by joy,

I uncurl to other people

and to your kingdom coming,

for you are gracious beyond all telling of it.

Guerrillas of Grace

Everything new!

But God’s work is beautiful May 16, 2024

Revelation 21:3 Look, I am making everything new!

Ecclesiastes 3:11 God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart.

Genesis 1:31 God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good!

I find nothing so refreshing as a walk in the woods. The rhododendron blooming all over Pittsburgh right now remind me of a walk I made when I was trying to complete—in sections—all 70 miles of the Laurel Highlands Walking Trail. On a previous hike, Dave and I noticed the buds covering the rhododendron plants along the trail. This time, they were in full bloom, stretching as far as we could see through the trees in every direction. Breathtaking.

I would not have seen this had I sat at home.

As gorgeous as our world is now, something even more beautiful awaits us—a new creation, unspoiled by the events of millennia and the impact of billions of people. I can’t wait! CS Lewis in The Weight of Glory and The Great Divorce imagines our need to grow our souls to be able to coexist with such intense beauty. One way to do that must be to open ourselves to the beauty we already have available to us.

God also does beautiful work in our lives. I would love to see and share this beauty! With Pentecost this Sunday, we will enter what the church calendar calls “Ordinary Time.” It’s in our day to day “ordinary” living that God enters and does extraordinary things. I would love to “see” and share the beauty of what he’s done for you! When have you seen God intervene and make something beautiful from a difficult situation? Don’t keep this loveliness to yourself! Honor God’s power and love by sharing your “But God” story.

Here’s how: write your story in one page and send it to me: debrakornfield@gmail.com. I post twice a week and will let you know when I post your story. If you like, you’ll be able to share the link with others.

If writing isn’t your thing, you can text me to schedule a time for you to tell me your story (by phone or by Zoom), and I’ll write it for you. Don’t worry—I’ll send it (or read it to you) before I post to be sure I have the details right. You’ll have a written record of an important moment in your life. And you’ll encourage other people who need to see evidence that God is still alive and well and active in our world today.

Will you accept the challenge to remember and tell how God turned crisis into beauty in your “ordinary” life?