“WE SHALL BEHOLD THE DAY OF HIS COMING”

PREPARING FOR CHRISTMAS, 2008

Dear friends in Christ,

By the time this newsletter is in your hands, many of you will have dragged out brightly-colored lights for stringing across your eaves and maybe an inflatable Santa Claus in your yard to glow through the dark nights of December. Preparations are underway for Christmas.

Your church is making preparations also, and this letter is my reminder that there are joyful events awaiting us in the month ahead. Please make note of them and be a part of this community of Christ’s people as we get ready to welcome the Incarnate Lord into our midst.

• Sunday, November 30 – Fifth Sunday Combined Worship at 11, with special refreshments beforehand, and Sunday School at 9:30. Join in the “Hanging of the Greens” ceremony, in which we decorate the sanctuary during the worship service. Special readings and appropriate songs accompany this wonderful chaos of children hanging ornaments on the tree and people draping garlands in the sanctuary. By the time we are finished, Advent is upon us and the place we worship is ready to receive our King.
• On Sunday afternoon, Dec. 7, the youth group is going caroling to local care centers and perhaps the homes of our members who don’t get out much. If you would like to join them, you would be welcome.  4 pm at the church. (Also, don’t forget the brief congregational meeting after worship that day to elect new elders and review the budget.)
• The next Sunday, Dec. 14, is the annual Joy Gift evening, from 5-7 pm. We aren’t planning a full dinner, since there will have just been a fellowship dinner Wednesday of that week, but you can be assured there will be plenty of refreshments! And you get to provide some of them in a special way – a cookie exchange! Here’s how it works: Everyone, individuals or families, brings two dozen cookies of their favorite Christmas cookie recipe. You set them out on a tray or in the top of a box or something, and then you take a second plate or box top and collect 1 & 1/2 dozen of whichever kind strikes your fancy. That means you get to take home lots of different kinds, and there is still a bunch left over for dessert for everyone to eat. What a concept! The children will have a delightful time that evening, with a gift exchange, an impromptu pageant with shepherds and make-believe sheep and as many Marys as we want. Also, someone in red may just show up, if the reindeer cooperate. Invite your friends and any kids you can round up!
• Sunday, December 21 is the choir’s special Christmas Cantata during worship. Back by popular demand, as they say, is a composition performed a few years ago, “Bethlehem Morning”. It includes delightful settings of many favorite Christmas carols and some new ballads by contemporary Christian songwriters. Lisa Stanley will narrate the cantata, helping us remember the many dimensions of love and sacrifice that comprise the Christmas story.
• On that most sacred on nights, Wednesday Dec. 24, we will gather as a congregation to celebrate Christmas Eve at 5 pm. The evening will include candlelight and communion, a brief homily by Rev. Hix on the meaning of Christ’s incarnation, and many scripture lessons and carols the remind us of the story of salvation. Invite your friends and extended family to this service and help them see what joy they can find in a time of sacred worship.
• Finally, on the Sunday after Christmas, Dec. 28, come to either the 8:30 or 11:00 service to listen to a special story of Christmas that I tell. I have gathered a number of touching stories through the years that will make you both laugh and cry, remind you of all those customs that have surrounded the Christmas season, and teach us once again this central message of our Christian faith.

Wow, that’s a lot, isn’t it? Your worship committee, choir, and Christian Ed. committee will be working hard in the next month to provide you with plenty of reminders of the true meaning of Christmas. So even if you don’t have an inflatable Santa or many presents under the tree, you will always be able to worship this infant Christ who became the savior of humankind. Please join us in these events, and also set aside time to practice acts of charity and kindness to those who are in need this season. All of our celebrations will seem pretty hollow if we don’t remember to do this as well.

                                                                        Shalom,

                                                                        Rev. Hix