a great blessing to you this Christmas

To all of you who are accustomed to reading my weekly scribbling:

Apologies that last week’s message was late. Our mail server went down & we were not able to restore it until yesterday.

Now then! Here we are approaching the second Sunday in the season of Advent, and Christmas is a mere two-and-a-half weeks away. I want to invite you to come to worship this Sunday for some really great, warm & cozy, Currier and Ives pre-Christmas delight. The focus of the reading from Luke 3:1-6 is —

repentance,

forgiveness,

salvation!

OK, so those are probably not on your Merry Christmas lists. Nor, I am just guessing here, do they evoke for you jingle bells and bright lights and holly jolliness. But don’t stop reading!

I will be offering an interpretation of these things, seeking the spirit of John the Baptist’s invitation, in a way that, I hope, will actually be a great blessing to you this Christmas…perhaps the greatest gift you receive.

For now, this is all I will say:

Repentance is an opportunity to say with honesty, “This is what is not working in my life and the way I am living it.”

Forgiveness is an opportunity to unburden yourself to someone who absolutely loves you, will not condemn you, and knows already that whatever you have to unburden will begin to feel like way less of a burden simply the moment you share it.

Salvation is what life feels like when you have unburdened yourself before someone who is only and all about helping you to wholeness and peace.

Of course this Someone is God. To hear more about how it works, and for an opportunity to try it, please come to church this Sunday.

In Christ,

Lee