Whatever day it is in this holiday season it seems there is a list! Even the songs of the holidays are lists! This time of year I am reduced to whatever is written on my list. My work schedule, my shopping needs, my everyday tasks, my hopes, my own wish list and of course my continuing list of prayer concerns and thanksgivings. Each day each list makes demands of me and at the end of it I often feel less than accomplished. For many of us as children, the threat of being “on” or “off” a ‘certain man’s’ list was enough to correct behavior and keep the giddy joy of the season at bay. Is this familiar to any of you at this time of year?
The season is supposed to be about expectancy, about anticipation and hope, peace, love and joy. Where are these on your list?
This year, we are not going to look at another list in worship each week of Advent. Instead, there will be a word to focus us and then we’re going to think, worship and commit to practice the word in ways that might seem “Outside the Box” of our current understanding and expression of the holiday season! We are also going to invite God to be with us – in our worship, our work, our play and in our hearts as we prepare to welcome Jesus.
I invite you now, to put this word at the top of every list you make this season – Church! Attend worship, attend mid-week with Michelle/ Oasis, or classes led by Kitty Schaefer and Pastor Kelly and bring those precious children to Sunday School so that they can prepare for the season as well. Jesus inspires us to live, to create and to care outside of every prescribed box that oppresses or lacks simple joy. Together, let us bring Emmanuel (God with us) into every corner of our living and being this holiday season.
“The Word was first, the Word present to God, God present to the Word. The Word was God, in readiness for God from day one.”
John 1:1-2 MSG
Joy-fully,
Pastor Kelly