From Pastor Pat Kriss: Christmas is Preparation
(Posted December 2, 2017)
“Thank you, Dear Creator, for Life. Thank you for Dreams. Thank you for Ideas and Thoughts
and Feelings. Most of all, thank you for choosing me to grow - just for today - and to know
the Wonder of Your World and its many Possibilities.”
Janie Jasin, The Littlest Christmas Tree: A Tale Of Growing And Becoming
The Christmas Season – that time of preparation known as Advent, where we get to haul out the old boxes of decorations, and set up the tree. Why is this moment one of the most enjoyable of our year?
I think I know why.
It’s the same reason that people all around Danbury become excited and happy when we turn on the candles in the windows of First Church. And they tell us so. It’s not only beautiful when they round the corner of Deer Hill and West. It’s also reassuring, it’s familiar. It’s a touchstone for all those moments before when we can count on Christmas coming back into our lives. In a world where so little seems reassuring, where so few things make us feel safe and loved, coming back to church for Christmas lets us know that we are still welcome, that God still makes a place for us in this world.
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Services begin at 10 a.m. on Sundays.
Christmas is preparation. It’s rifling through the ornament boxes, remembering who gave them to us, and perhaps, sending up a prayer for those who aren’t here this year to help us set up. Christmas and its decorations is an outward-facing act of love on our part. We decorate, not just for ourselves, and not only to honor God for the gift of Jesus, but we hang the lights and the greens as an act of love of neighbor, to delight so many pairs of eyes that belong to people we may never meet. Love of Neighbor. Now that’s a theme to hold onto this Advent season. What ways are we expressing our love of neighbor as we round the bend toward Christmas? The Christmas story itself is studded with small moments when neighbors helped to save a tiny family and a new life.
Please be with us this Sunday, December 3 when we welcome this season of anticipation, of beautiful things, and of caring people who make us joyful to be together. You might even invite someone new to come with you! - Pastor Pat Kriss