Last month I attempted to lay out the essential facts of our situation with regards to our resources going forward. I am grateful for your response so far. The pledges that have come in have been very encouraging. There are still some that have not come in yet but I am trusting that they will come and will provide us with the support we need to budget next year’s ministries with confidence. If you are one who has not yet pledged, I hope you will be able to do so before the next finance meeting on December 13 so that we can have as many facts as possible to make our plans for the new year. If you have misplaced your pledge card or never received one, please let us know. We have more in the office that we would be happy to share. Again, thank you for your support of the good work that your church is doing.
On another note, Christmas is coming and everyone is making plans. As you make your plans please note that the services on Christmas Eve this year are being planned for 4:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. The early service is the children telling the story again in a new way. Lisa and her crew are working hard to prepare a beautiful experience for all. The late service will be the traditional candlelight service. Please note that we will begin an hour earlier than last year. As Christmas day falls on Sunday this year, we will celebrate at our usual time of 9:30 a.m. May worship be a big part of our Christmas this year!
I love Christmas. I always have. The Christmas Eve Service is my favorite of the whole year. Of all the impossible things about Christmas perhaps the most impossible of all for me is the hope that just won't let go. Every year about this time the impossible hope that is the message of Christmas returns like a hum that turns into a song and I simply cannot resist the uplifting of my hope for the world because of this implausible story of how God enters the world with love to save us. Why would we resist hope anyway, you might wonder? Perhaps we resist hope because hope has let us down before. Is it too much to hope for that love really will save us all? This is the terrible temptation of Christmas that we might hope such an impossible thing again despite everything we know.
There are any number of ways God could have entered the world to change it but according to our story, God chose to send a child like one of us who would bear the condition of all humans, the suffering and even death to show us the way of love that is possible for us. The story is impossibly beautiful as it reveals the truth that love is both vulnerable and forever; that it cannot be held but only let go; that the more we give it away the more there is of it to give; that even death itself cannot hold it or end it; that the love that comes at Christmas is the love that will change everything; the hope that never stops singing.
Every time we hear the story again it calls to us to rise up and see anew what is possible for humankind, for this world, for every lost hope, for every broken heart, for every one of us. God has made a beautiful world and love is coming to us all. May this Christmas bless your heart and make it impossible for you not to hope again for what God can do and is doing even now
