FROM THE PASTOR

    Advent begins a little later this year. It often starts on Thanksgiving Weekend, but this year it begins a week later. That means that the 4^th Sunday of Advent is Christmas Eve morning, so note that we will have an Advent service that morning with the Christmas Eve service at 5:00 pm on the 24^th. We also gather for worship on Christmas Day at 9:00 am.

Advent is the season of expectation. In our culture we celebrate Christmas throughout the month of December. There’s nothing wrong with doing that. But in the church, we build the celebration through the month. Even the decorations show us that. The Christmas tree will go up Thanksgiving Weekend. The next week we’ll add the Advent wreath and Nativity. Then the poinsettias will appear. Each week we add and the excitement and expectation for Christmas builds.

The themes of the services this year are the traditional themes of Advent. We begin proclaiming HOPE, remembering the promise that God comes into our world. We then hear about the gift of PEACE, which is not just about the absence of conflict, but God working to make everything as it should be which happens in Jesus. We then add the gift of JOY, that assurance that God is with us in all things so we can celebrate even in the darkest of nights. We end the season proclaiming LOVE. Love has come, love has been born, love is known in the gift of Jesus.

On Christmas we celebrate the culmination of hope, peace, joy, and love. All these gifts of God are enfleshed in the Word made flesh who lives among us. God comes to us to be one of us and to give us life.  Joy to the world the Lord is come! May our Advent and Christmas celebrations renew the gift of faith in us that we might proclaim to all that Jesus is born for us. 

Blessings on your December!

                                Pastor Siri