Dear People of God,

[pullquoteright]Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat / please to put a penny in the old man’s hat / If you hae no penny, a ha’penny will do / if you have no ha’penny, then God bless you![/pullquoteright]These are the words to a song I was taught as a child. Most of the song did not make sense to me. I only knew geese as those large birds that one was careful to stay a safe distance from, not to eat. I thought I knew what a penny was, but this was an English penny, not our little copper bit, and I lived out in the country, so I had not seen beggars holding out a hat.

Right now you have no doubt heard this “song” in a variety of ways, from the large number of envelopes from charitable organizations that have your address, and now filling up your email as well, to the bell-ringers and others collecting for a good cause.

The pollsters tell us that this year people plan to spend more on Christmas than they did last year, and that they plan to give less away than they did last year. In response to that, a call is going out for Christians to look at what they plan to spend, and to give a tithe of that to charity.  Will you join in the Christmas tithe? We would be pleased to be recipients, of course, but I really am much more concerned that we act as Christians, loving our neighbors as we love ourselves.

This brings me to my second point. Every year there is a group of people who bemoan the loss of the “Christ” in Christmas. They are all upset because it is no longer OK to have a nativity scene in front of the government building, and so on. As though that were what put Christ into Christmas!

One pastor wrote in the Huffington Post that Christians are to blame for the loss of Christ in Christmas, and the rest of the year for that matter, because we do not act like Jesus taught us. We do not take care of the poor. We do not fight the systems that create poverty and destroy the land. We talk one way on Sunday, and act differently on Monday. We should not worry about the nativity scene, we should worry about the young immigrant mother who does not have housing!

This Christmas, I hope you will think outside the box. I hope you will give gifts of meaning and hope and joy. They may be as small as a phone call or as large as the offer of reconciliation, as small as a $5 gift card or as large as a new used car for someone who needs transportation. I hope I will see you at the Christmas Eve service, or if you are away, that you will find a church to celebrate the birth of Jesus.

God’s blessings and joy be yours this Christmas Season,

Stina

  

SERVICE SCHEDULE – IMPORTANT NOTE

Christmas Eve, Monday, December 24, 4:00

NO service Sunday, December 23.

 

NEW ALTER IN JANUARY

Please watch for the announcement of our annual meeting and dedication of the new altar in January!