- well, not quite yet, but all too soon for most of us! This will be our last Christmas together as pastor and people. It is a bittersweet time for Leah and me as we savor these "last times," look forward to "new times" in our rapidly approaching retirement, and contemplate the church's "new times" apart from us. These are times of anticipation and not a little anxiety for us all.
The season of Advent - the four Sundays leading up to Christmas - is by definition a time of anticipation. In popular culture, the anticipation tends to relate to gifts received and given, and to visiting with relatives and friends. Christians anticipate celebrating the Christ child's birth, singing carols, candlelight services, and the sublime joy of the season.
But there's also anxiety with Advent and Christmas: The personal anxiety of the first Christmas without a beloved spouse; the first Christmas away from home. There's also the tension created in worship as we read the Biblical lessons, some of which speak of Christ's coming again. Will I be ready when that time comes? Will I be able to handle Christmas alone? Will my expectations for this Christmas be fulfilled?
God enfolds all of these anxieties as we once again receive the message of "peace on earth," praying that we may be among those "with whom God is well-pleased," knowing that by Christ's presence in us, we are. Our not-yet-known future is in God's hands. With child-like faith, we may - without anxiety - anticipate the joy of Emmanuel - "God with us."
May the peace of this season be with you, and may you rejoice in Christ our Savior.