Christmas message from Anne

 Dear friends,

As you may know, I am a big fan of the comics section of the newspaper.  Recently the Family Circus strip showed the Dad stringing Christmas lights outdoors as little Billy says to him, “Christmas lights up the world, doesn’t it, Daddy?”  Indeed it does.
 
‘Tis the season for Christmas lights, twinkling and brightening houses and neighborhoods. They make me smile when I drive anywhere on a cold, dark evening. But the way that Christmas lights up the world isn’t really about bright holiday bulbs. It’s about the Son of God coming into our world to be with us, taking on flesh to dwell among us—even and especially in the darkest places of our lives and of the world. As we hear in the prologue to the Gospel of John, What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
 
Jesus was born in a dark time, the child of poor parents unable to find lodging in the midst of their long and uncomfortable journey to meet the stringent tax regulations of their oppressor, the Roman Empire. That first Christmas had no cheery flashing lights and tinsel-covered trees; no candy canes or reindeer, no eggnog or fancily wrapped gifts. It had none of the trappings that we tend to associate with Christmas. They weren’t needed.  What makes Christmas Christmas is the simple, stunning birth of the baby Jesus, God incarnate and man divine, the light of the world then and now and always. 
 
I look forward to celebrating with you the coming of the light of the world; and I very much hope that you will take part in one or more of our upcoming Christmas services:

• Christmas Eve Family Service, December 24 at 3:00 PM with Children’s Pageant, Children’s Homily, and Candle-lighting
• Christmas Eve Festive Eucharist, December 24 at 8:30 PM with Special Music and Candle-lighting. (Christmas music by the choir and bellringers will begin at 8:00 AM)
• Christmas Day Eucharist, December 25 at 10:30 AM
• Service of Lessons and Carols, Sunday, December 29 at 10:30 AM

As is customary here at St. Andrew’s, there will be a special Christmas offering again this year. Christmas offering envelopes will be available in the church beginning this Sunday. You may also give online by clicking here.
 
Friends, in the coming days I pray that you will indeed experience the way that Christ’s birth lights up the world, even the darkest corners.  May you never forget that the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not, cannot, and will not overcome it.
 
Blessings of light and life to each of you.  –Anne

Love them anyway

The last Sunday of Pentecost, what we call Christ the King Sunday, always seems like a juxtaposition because it is the Sunday before we begin the Church’s new year, the holy preparatory season of Advent, and yet, depending on the year, the Gospel reading is about Jesus hanging on the cross or preparing for that.  The bottom line is that the cross would not be possible without the incarnation and the incarnation would have been pointless (or nearly so), if not for the cross.  Both - the incarnation and the cross - are momentous signs of God’s immeasurable redemptive love for God’s creation.

As we read in the first chapter of John’s Gospel, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the word was God…and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.  And continuing in the third chapter of John’s Gospel: God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son to the end that all who believe in him should not perish but have ever lasting life.  Despite the fickleness of humanity toward God and God’s creation, despite all that they did to Jesus, through it all, God loved (and loves) us anyway.

As we continue through this blessed season of our Lord’s nativity, contemplating the things of this world that necessitate Jesus’ sacrifice and our own fears and complicities and insults we endure, it may be helpful to be reminded of the Paradoxical Commandments by Kent Keith (often attributed to Mother Teresa):

People are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Be kind anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies.
Be successful anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spent years building may be destroyed overnight.

Build anyway.

People need help but may attack you if you help them.

Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth.

Give the world the best you've got anyway.

Any way you look at it, the bottom line is the same: Whatever people may do, love them anyway.

- Marc Vance