Beloved Friends and Families with Kids,
Tomorrow we light the candle for Love as we worship on the fourth week of Advent. We will finish our study on the ordinary miracles of the birth of Christ and how those are part of our stories, too. At the bottom of this email, you will find this week's lesson. We designed this year’s study both for the weekly adult Sunday School class and for families and individuals to use at home. There are some practices geared for families at the end of each study so that you can engage in activities rooted in our Advent themes. You can find the full curriculum guide with prompts for each week here. May God continue to make us a people of love and light as we allow God to be born in us again and again. See you tomorrow at 10:30am for worship and then again at 6:00pm for our Christmas Eve service!
Youth Hospitality
Our youth are invited to serve on the hospitality team next Sunday, December 31st. If your youth is able to serve, please let Pastor Chip know. Thanks to our youth for being an important part of our welcoming community!
SUNDAY
KIDS
Our nursery room is open this Sunday for babies and toddlers four years old and under. Childcare will be open starting at 8:50 AM for those who are attending Sunday School before service. This week our nursery kids will explore the story of the birth of Jesus. Don't forget to grab a take-home sheet with some simple ways to explore the story at home.
Our kids five to ten years old will join us in the sanctuary for the start of worship and then be dismissed to head to their classrooms together. They can begin service with their families or sit with Pastor Mary and me in the front pews. This week the kids will help remember and name all the wonderful truths about Christ and the incarnation. We are excited for them to revisit the story of Christmas and to ponder it anew!
Discussion Questions for the Table at Home:
Think back to our Advent themes of hope, peace, joy, and love. Which one do you feel most in need of right now?
How does love change us and our world?
What is one way you can choose to respond in love this week?
YOUTH
This week our youth will not gather so they can spend time with families on Christmas Eve. We hope to see many of them back for our evening service! We love our youth and are so thankful for their presence in our church family.
Have a wonderful weekend, and thanks for being such a special community of families!
With deep affection for you,
Pastor Lindsay
Advent 4
December 24
Key Theme
Jesus is born into overlapping relationships.
Scripture Passage
Luke 2:8-20
It takes a whole host of characters and communities to fully tell the story of Jesus’ birth. There is mother and there is father, who each have their own experience of Jesus’ birth. There are shepherds and there are angels, collective witnesses from vastly different realms of heaven and earth. Tradition tells us that there are non-human witnesses in the manger, as attested by plenty of songs and animated films. Each of these witnesses hold a unique perspective on the birth, and it takes all of them to tell the full story.
It is common in moments of astonishment for each person to have a slightly different memory of the event. This is one of the reasons we celebrate that we have four versions of Jesus’ life in our four Gospels. They resonate with one another, but they are not carbon copies of each other. For some people, this can seem like troubling inconsistencies. Yet I find this to be deeply human as a way of telling a good story.
The birth of Jesus unfolds within the ordinary lives of lots of people. The angels seem to be extra informed, so their presence carries insider knowledge. The shepherds, God love them, are just so glad to be included in the moment at all! They run and yell and generally vibrate with excitement. Mother is portrayed as calm, but I imagine that the actual birth was not so quiet. Joseph is not really mentioned as having a distinct response, but we can once again stay curious about how a father might experience the birth of their first born child.
Each of these witnesses offers a part of the overall scaffolding that is the story of Advent and Christmas. Without the fullness of the telling, the story would lack color and contour. We also get to be witnesses to the story, so that our telling is uniquely welcome. The goal is not to “get it right” as much as we are meant to feel it true and tell it as such. Shepherds do not sound like angels and fathers do not sound like mothers. And then there are all the non-human witnesses to this moment, with language beyond our own understanding. But this too is Gospel.
Questions
Share a story of a time when you experienced something really impactful that involved other people. How many different versions of that story would be told by each person who lived it?
Your own story is constituted by overlapping communities of witnesses. How does this enrich your self-understanding? How has it been a burden?
Normally for a historically important birth, there is a lot of content around the story. Birth narratives of kings and rulers are much longer in their telling than the story of Jesus’ birth. Why do you think Jesus gets so little narrative about his birth? (My own guess is that historians are from the privileged class, and there are no privileged witnesses to Jesus’ birth. It just happens and those who are paying attention get to carry the story forward.)
Reflections for Home
Light a candle for Love this week as you begin your time of reflection.
Imagine a modern day nativity scene. Who do you imagine is present? Where does the birth of Christ take place? Take some time to imagine the scene as you consider the characters and setting. If you're up for it, draw a representation of your nativity to hang up on Christmas in the years to come.
Practice some gratitude and simple acts of love. First, make a list of the people who have borne witness to you or your family's milestones in life. Give thanks to God for each person, and consider how you could thank them with a call or note in the coming weeks. Then think of anyone you know who might feel lonely this year. Maybe it's someone who lives on your street, someone in a community at school or church, or someone you know through an adult in your family. Decide on one simple and practical way you could share God's love and presence (some examples include a homemade ornament, baked goods, a personalized card, or an invitation to join you for dinner or hot cocoa.)
Many people send Christmas cards this time of year. Those are ways that people reach out to their loved ones to honor their presence and share the growth since last year. Gather the ones you have received and make a simple garland with string and paperclips or clothespins (we have lots at church if you need some!). String up all the cards somewhere you will see often, and commit to praying for the people in each card throughout the year. You might pray for one card a week or some other rhythm that feels meaningful for your or your family.
Reflect on the people who were present to your family during the first weeks after the birth or adoption of a child. If those people are still part of your community, ask them to share some of their memories and stories from those special days. What do they remember most? How would they tell the story from their perspective? Parents could also share stories of specific acts of love from family and friends during those sacred times of welcoming a new child into the family. How did God's love manifest itself in the relationships surrounding the family? How does that help you imagine those first days for Mary and Joseph after Jesus' birth?
