Pastor’s Epistle December 6, 2024

“A true follower of Jesus never becomes accustomed to the sound of footsteps headed for hell.”
We have entered Advent season of the Christian liturgical calendar. You may be surprised to know that the Church’s practice of observing this as a special season dating back to the late 5th and early 6th centuries in Northern France. It was referred to as St. Marin’s Lent. In our time we have become conditioned by the material Christmas with all its trappings. In those early centuries, it was a time marked by fasting, prayer, and almsgiving. In St. Martin’s Lent the liturgical color purple was utilized to symbolize it as a time of repentance and self-denial. Self-denial? Doesn’t seem to go with how we often approach Christmas. It wasn’t until the mid-20th century that the church began to move away from the practices of fasting and self-denial.
I have long attempted to espouse this season as preparation for the celebration of Christ’s birth. At the heart of the celebration is the mystery of the Incarnation – God coming in the flesh. Holy comes to reside amid the unholy. Creator becomes creature, yet still being God in His fulness. Amid the mystery is paradox, that is, at least two truths existing simultaneously but appear to be contradictory, if not exclusionary to one another.
This Sunday, we will read Philippians 2:5-11. An ancient hymn Paul used to not only instruct early Christians about how they see and behave toward one another but also to better perceive Who Jesus was and what it meant for Him to be God in the flesh. From this Sunday through Christmas Eve, we will explore this amazing and powerful feature of our faith.
This will not be obscure, cryptic theological inquiry. Rather, my goal is to help us to see the practical relevance of Jesus’ identity and nature and how it can inform and shape our lives. I pray you will be present. I pray you will bring a guest or two with you.
By His grace we will be enabled to Love,Follow, and Serve Jesus !
In Christ,
Pastor Brian