With Love: A Letter to the Church

Dear Church,

On this Fourth Sunday of Advent, we light the candle of Love. As we step closer to Christmas, we remember with awe how immense God’s love for all of us is, that God would send Jesus to live and serve among us, to teach us what love looks like in practice.

These days it can feel like love is in short supply. Around every corner, we see evidence of cruelty and violence, deep loss and growing hopelessness. People are struggling: with loneliness, with bills that are increasingly difficult to pay, with frayed relationships, with uncertain futures, with their faith.

But everywhere I look, I also see you. I see you being the Church right where you are, in the best way you know how. I watch you doing what you can to counter all the bad stuff with your persevering love, your stubborn courage, your acts of mercy and kindness and your dogged pursuit of justice. I see you lifting your faithful prayers, in word and in deed.

It all matters so very much, even when you worry your efforts are small compared to the world’s daunting need. So to everyone out there who keeps showing up with such ceaseless love, thank you.

For every sermon you preach and prayer you lift that calls us back to the core of our faith, to the undeniable command to love our neighbor…

For every time your caring presence reminds someone they’re not alone in this world…

For every act of resistance you wage in our towns and cities in the face of blatant injustice, for every protest you lift with prophetic clarity and voice…

For every bit of food you collect, for the meals you deliver, for the shelter you provide and the missions you support…

For the healing you offer and the hope you hold with such tenderness…

For keeping the faith and cultivating God’s vision for a nation and world where “they shall all sit under their own vines and their own fig trees, and no one shall make them afraid..”

Our times require a love that is as muscular and gritty as it is tender and soft. You are the antidote to the warring madness and deep anguish around us. You make love incarnate in your communities and in the world. And that’s no small thing. Thank you, Church.

Praise be to God!

The Reverend Shari Prestemon began her service with the national ministries of the United Church of Christ in January 2024. As the Associate General Minister & Co-Executive for Global Ministries she has the privilege of overseeing several teams: Global Ministries, Global H.O.P.E., Public Policy & Advocacy Team (Washington, D.C.), and our staff representative to the United Nations. She previously served as pastor to local UCC congregations in Illinois and Wisconsin; the Executive Director at the UCC’s Back Bay Mission in Biloxi, Mississippi; and as Conference Minister in Minnesota.