The Rev. Javier Almendárez-Bautista reflects on the baptism of Jesus (Matthew 3:13-17) and God’s steadfast love.

On the Fourth Sunday of Advent, the Rev. Javier Almendárez-Bautista reflects on the power of retelling the stories of Advent (Matthew 1:18-25) and announces an exciting new step for Wake County Sponsors.

How do we take courage in hopelessness? The Rev. Javier Almendárez-Bautista reflects on the prophet Haggai’s message after 2500 years and calls on us to find hope in the here and now.

The Rev. Javier Almendárez-Bautista reflects on failure, persistence, and prayer (Luke 18:1-8): “Blessed are those who try and who stumble and who pick themselves up. Blessed are those who pick themselves back up and dust off their knees and get back in the ring. Blessed are you who know the misery and disappointment of failure — you, the wonderful, beautiful, grace-filled losers who bear witness to life and joy on the other side.”

The Rev. Javier Almendárez-Bautista reflects on Psalm 137, anger, and the precarious edge between hatred and apathy: “Rather than standing aloof, withdrawn from the realities we face day in and day out, God leans in, takes on human flesh, and lives among us. God took on the flesh of a poor man from a backwater town in Galilee in what we now know as the Middle East, a man familiar with the grief within anger and the pain of loss.”

Luke 15:1-10
I’ve been paying close attention to graffiti lately. One did catch my eye, … a small heart etched on the wall, and a message within that heart, “You are tolerated,” it read….

The Rev. Javier Almendárez-Bautista reflects on Jesus’s message about how the sabbath guides our relationship with God and the work we do (Luke 13:10-17): “The sabbath was made for humankind, not humankind for sabbath. The root of the command is to create the space for relationship with God and our neighbors; the nature of God’s work among us is to free us for meaningful rest and for meaningful work.”

Luke 10:38-42
My mother had a curious habit when I first went off to college. My brother and sister lived at home during their first years of college and commuted to a nearby university, as is common practice in my country of origin, El Salvador. Far as I was—a 3-hour car ride, from Portland to Seattle; an impossible distance, from my mother’s point of view!—she was reasonably concerned for my well-being. And every time we spoke on the phone, I always knew that my mother’s first question would always be the same: “What did you have to eat today?” ….

The Rev. Javier Almendárez-Bautista: “Can you imagine a love so grand that it would offend you, a grace so magnanimous that it would enrage you, a mercy so thorough that it would cause you to walk out these doors? That’s the kind of love with which Jesus loves you? That is the kind of love with which Jesus loves them, whomever they may be.”

St. Ambrose once asked a simple question: “What is the first commandment of the law?” One might naturally turn to the first law of the Ten Commandments. St. Ambrose, however, turned to the beginning of the Law of Moses in the Book of Deuteronomy 6:4: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord thy God, the Lord is one.” “Hear, O Israel,” is the first command, St. Ambrose says, not speak. A fitting word for clergy.