Wednesday, December 26, 2007

The First Sunday After Christmas

This week's scriptures are: Isaiah 44: 1-8 and Matthew 1: 1-11

A short week back a work for many of us.
The space beneath the tree is empty; or filled with opened presents from yesterday.
I hope it was a good day for you.

The Christmas Eve service went well.
We missed Joann and Jolly Davis a lot; and our prayers are with Jolly and his family in the loss of his mother, Ellen Davis. Her funeral will be on Wednesday in Columbia, S.C.

Christmas Eve we talked about how God had come to us in such a fragile, vulnerable condition. God trusted humankind with God's own self in the form of a baby. What an incredible trust. And, as we also talked about, Jesus continues to trust us with the care of the vulnerable in our world-making our response to them the criteria in his description of the final judgment.

Howard Thurman said it well in his poem:

When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and the princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flocks,
The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among brothers,
To make music in the heart.

Hope to see you Sunday.
Shalom,
Stephen

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