December 2022 Pastor’s Letter
From the Desk of Pastor Melissa
Dear Friends,
When I was a kid I loved to watch the Charlie Brown Christmas special. Charlie, overwhelmed, depressed, and discouraged by the commercialization of the season and the cruelty of friends cries out, “Does anyone know what Christmas is all about?”
This time of year, it can be easy to fuss about materialism and the marketing of Christmas. But is the choice really binary—are our choices really all this, or all that?
The story of Christmas, is the story of God coming to the earth in a form that we could recognize, understand, appreciate, and follow. God took the form of a babe in a humble manger so that all might come to know God through Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us.
Jesus showed us what our lives could be if only we would keep God at the center of our being. In Jesus, we find Hope, knowing that we are never alone. In Jesus, we understand that we are loved completely by God and invited to love God and others with all that we are and have. Peace can be experienced and joy can be felt by following Jesus. In Jesus, we have been taught that all people bear the likeness of God. Therefore, all people deserve kindness.
The word became flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus walked, taught, laughed, healed, cried, ate, drank, and danced. After the resurrection, he fried up some fish before he began to instruct his overwhelmed disciples. His stories of God’s kingdom all spoke of giving and receiving. Jesus shared a material life with us, or as Gary McCann wrote, “the material is the vehicle for the spiritual.”
At Christmas, we celebrate the richness of God’s Spirit in the sharing of meals and the giving of gifts. We revel in the joy and wonder of little children and the beauty of twinkling lights as we decorate the tree. We come together tending, renewing, and forming relationships with one another and with God around our kitchen table and the altar of God’s table.
We don’t need to get carried away by excess at Christmas, but if we keep God central, we can see in our human expressions of celebration that God is “pleased with us in flesh to dwell, Jesus our Emmanuel.” May we Embrace the Sacred this Christmas!
“And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.” Luke 2:9-11.
That is what Christmas is all about Charlie Brown.
I look forward to seeing you, your family and your friends in worship Sunday morning at 10 am and Christmas Eve at 5pm.
Pastor Melissa