The Pilgrim - December 25, 2016
Sunday Celebration Notes
Celebrating God's Love Every Sunday at 10 am
Dear Church,
Here comes Christmas!
We have dwelt in the four weeks of Advent: November 27 when we celebrated Hope, December 4 when we prayed for peace, December 11 when we experienced Joy – and we certainly did experience Joy, both taking in new members and receiving the largest number of toy donations we have ever received to our Gifts to the Manger toy donation program … Hope, Peace, Joy, and yoday, the fourth and final Sunday of Advent culminates this Season of Love.
Those gifts are full of the glory of God. And the funny thing about Love is that it’s a little like those shiny gifts in the advertisements – we always think about how great it would be to get the fancy jewelry or the new power tools, but what makes us really feel great is to give gifts and see the shining faces of delighted people.
That’s also the funny thing about Love – receiving Love is awesome, but giving Love – well, that makes the angels sing. Because angels are all about giving glory, not getting it.
There’s a lot of shiny stuff out there. And a lot of it is really fun. But my Christmas wish for you is that you would have something shiny that never grows old, never gets dusty, never fails to boot up a new operating system. I wish that you would have the shine of Holy Love.
Merry Christmas, dear ones~
The Rev. Elena Larssen
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