Dear Caldwell,
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here. The poinsettias are in the sanctuary. The Christmas tree is up. Our children are preparing for the pageant on Sunday morning. Parking lots at stores, shopping plazas, and malls are full. There are gifts to be wrapped, cookies to be baked, and travel to be arranged.
At the same time, we know that there are tears being shed in quiet and private moments. We pray for peace all over this land and beyond. Life feels full and heavy, relentless and demanding.
Last Sunday in his sermon, John showed us bottles of water from the Jordan River, that murky body of water where Jesus Christ, the one whose birth we will celebrate in less than a week, was baptized by John the Baptist.
Jesus didn’t only step into the same muddy river as everyone else to be baptized, as John said, but he also stepped into our same muddy and messy world. Jesus didn’t avoid the difficulties. He knew challenging personal circumstances and the oppression and rejection of the powers that be.
But, as imminent as that may feel to us, the gift of faith can help us see beyond the daily and immediate. As John said on Sunday, faith offers a pathway to a kind of joy and peace that transcend the gravity of the imminent. In Jesus, the light came into the world, and the darkness does not overcome it. In that there can be joy.
Speaking of joy, it’s time for yet another “first” at the resurrected Caldwell. During worship this coming Sunday, we will have a kids Christmas pageant the first since the church came back. We will enjoy the beauty and energy of our littler ones as they remind us of the love story that was enacted in a stable more than 2,000 years ago.
There were a lot of folks in Bethlehem that night, the Bible tells us, so those ancient parking lots, shopping, plazas, and inns were full to overflowing. They didn’t know it, but it was beginning to look a lot like Christmas then – the very first one.
During worship this coming Sunday, may our eyes, our hearts, and our minds be opened anew to the joy and the wonder of the coming of our Savior into the world. May we welcome that wonderful child, born in a stable and placed in a manger, into our lives in a new way and in a deeper way this Christmas. May we hear anew the story of Light coming into the world and into our lives. May we be challenged to listen for the Good News that is for all people, that the Lord has come, that the Lord is with us, and that the Lord is coming again. Joy to the world, indeed.
We look forward to seeing you in worship on Sunday morning and again on Monday evening at 5:30 for Caldwell’s Christmas Eve service.
O Come, all ye faithful, and let us adore him, Christ the Lord.
Grace and peace, Gail Henderson-Belsito