Christmas.
Christmas
is, seemingly, only hours away. And, to be honest, with all my talk
of waiting and preparation, I will have to confess that I am not all
that prepared.
Empty
boxes of Christmas decorations still litter the house. Thanks to
Joelene, at least the majority of our Christmas cards have been
mailed out; but other than putting them in the blue box, I really
didn't have anything to do with that. The dining room table is
cluttered with any number of pieces of mail, scraps of wrapping
paper, shopping lists, tape, and I-know-not-what-else. Currier and
Ives we are not.
I
am, however, (mostly) ready for Christmas at St. John's. I have one
sermon written and two to go. Thanks to Joelene, Paul, and the J2A
group, the Christmas pageant is taken care of. Thanks to Joyce and
the Altar Guild, the church will be ready and look like Christmas on
time. Thanks to Mark and the choir, the church will sound like
Christmas. Thanks to Kristy and Chad, our acolytes have been
scheduled and are ready to go. Things are coming together.
And,
if you haven't noticed, this Christmas is different from other
Christmases in a long time because it falls on Monday. The last time
Christmas was on Monday was in 2006. I was still in Montana.
Christmas
on Monday poses an interesting problem in the church because the day
before is both the Fourth Sunday of Advent as well as Christmas Eve.
This can be a stressful time for clergy, musicians, altar guild,
parish secretaries, spouses of all the above, and any number of other
people involved in the life of the church. But nobody said that
being a worshiping community, let alone a Christian, would always be
easy. There are times when things aren't as convenient as we would
like.
With
that in mind, I would encourage you to participate as fully as
possible this coming weekend – both on Advent IV, Christmas Eve,
and Christmas morning. We are a community that worships, and
sometimes, like Holy Week or when Christmas falls on a Monday, that
means we have the opportunity to worship God many times in a
condensed period of time.
However
you choose or are able to celebrate this Christmas, whether your home
resembles a Currier and Ives photograph or not, whether you are
traveling or staying home, whether you are hosting parties or have
been invited as guests, may you remember to breathe these next few
days and may you have a most blessed Christmas season.
In
closing, I will leave you with a Christmas video of St. John's from
2011 that our own Helen Stevens put together. Some of the faces have
changed and some new faces are missing, but it is a lovely visual of
this place in this season that is our spiritual home:
Merry
Christmas,
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