Dear Ones:

“Love keeps coming.” These words came into my preaching and writing vocabulary twelve years ago, around the time of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting (December 14, 2022). That was an extraordinarily difficult time for our state and our nation. Ministers from all religious traditions were looking for words that would offer comfort to their congregations. What could I say in the wake of such a painful and unnecessary tragedy? “Love keeps coming.” I’m not sure where I first heard these words. It might have been a poem or a meditation. It might have been a television or radio show. I find them comforting. They give me strength. “Love keeps coming.”

Now we come fully into the holiday season. We do so in the wake of a national election that many Unitarian Universalists and other liberal people of faith experience as painful, unnerving, anxiety-producing and even terrifying. I confess I find it difficult these days to step into our pulpit on Sunday mornings, or to sit in committee and staff meetings, or to meet with a UUSE member or a ministerial colleague, and not feel the weight of what’s coming after inauguration day. I can’t say it more plainly: I feel a weight. So I remind myself, “love keeps coming.”

Christmas, we know, is the centerpiece of the holiday season in United States society. For Christians, Christmas is the celebration of the birth of their savior, Jesus Christ. For many reasons, that’s not my theology. I don’t regard Jesus as Christ or as a savior. But I do recognize that Jesus practiced a ministry of love—and that love had the power to save many people. In my experience, one can read through the stories about Jesus in the Bible and confidently make the claim that “love keeps coming.” Because of this, I’ve been understanding Christmas more and more as a celebration of the continual birth of love into the world. For me, the message of Christmas is “Love keeps coming.”

Our ministry theme for December is presence. I’ll be preaching about presence from a variety of angles; but as I write these words, I’m wondering how easy it is for you to be present to love these days. What are the sources of love in your life? Family and friends? Giving and receiving gifts of time and care? Helping others? Receiving help from others? Working for justice and peace? Working to protect the environment? Listening? Being heard? And what about our UUSE community? We’ve had our tensions over the past few years, but I know so many of you find great comfort and solace in the loving embrace of our congregation. How can you be present to love in this holiday season and beyond? How can you center love in this holiday season and beyond?

I’m asking because, given everything that’s happening in the wider world, given the anger and bitterness that are racing around many social spaces, given the fear many are feeling, being present to all the sources of love in our lives matters. This presence will sustain us. It will get us through. Thus, I urge you to consider this question: How can you be present to love in this holiday season?

With love and faith,

Rev. Josh Pawelek

#DecemberNewsletter