Our Christmas Eve Candlelight Lessons and Carols and Communion Service will be at 7 p.m. Tonight with the Prelude beginning at 6:45. This year, at the request of several people, we are adding Communion by Intinction to the service. All are welcome to participate. This gives everyone, including those who may not be with us often, the opportunity to take Communion on this Holy Night. Please invite family, friends, and neighbors to join you at our Christmas Eve service. The music is beautiful, the Story of God’s gift of the Messiah to the world is inspiring and it is a wonderful experience!
Our Dec. 24 Sunday Morning Plans
- 8:30 – NO Sunday Breakfast, 9:10 Sunday Studies, 9:15 a.m. Choir Practice, 10 Worship, 11 Coffee Hour, 11:15 Bell Choir Practice
Story: John 1:1-18
Theme: Word Made Flesh
Title: “An Experience of Incarnation”
Reflection: John – The Word Became Flesh
“There have been many millions of words written about The Word and being human we like having a handle on things with explanation, theory or hypothesis. But there is a form of language that may be less limiting or controlling found in poetry. Indeed this is how John begins in order to not tie down but rather set free the soul to explore nuances and meaning and emotion and feeling of such a truth. Clearly John is saying (though how can we ever use the word ‘clearly’: it’s an oxymoron to The Word) is that all that follows in this Gospel, and for us tonight and tomorrow, is not a biography of ‘what I did with Jesus today’ but a search for and living with wonder. The whole thing – and that is the whole life of Jesus – is one great poem where the gospel does not offer events as proofs but rather as signs, symbols, and images that open up an experience of Jesus. It is one of the things we forget too often about the gospels, and particularly the nativity story and all that is said about Jesus. What is offered is not a book of factual and interesting things Jesus did, but rather a whole series of stories and signs whose only purpose is to offer an experience of Jesus. You cannot describe that which can never be described. You cannot describe God’s birth or death or resurrection with words we use as everyday parlance. All you can do is say: this story is trying to offer an experience of these things. John’s gospel begins by saying, ‘I can’t tell you what it was like, I can only give you something that helps you experience how I have experienced it.’” (Spill the Beans, Volume 25)
Music We Will Sing:
*HYMN (verse 4, Insert) “Advent Song” (LIGHT THE ADVENT CANDLE)
*HYMN #121 “O Little Town of Bethlehem” (ST. LOUIS)
*HYMN #110 “Love Has Come” (BRING A TORCH)
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