“are met in thee tonight.”

Liturgically and technically that’s tomorrow night, Christmas Eve.  But that phrase has been on my heart all month.  This is a day that tests our hope, a day of elusive hope. It is a day in which we need to dwell wisely amid our own and our collective fears.  It is a day in which I am constantly reminded of our human condition in need of healing and redemption.  “The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.”

Oh, how we need the “impossible” of Emmanuel’s birth in us.

I pray that as we open ourselves to the Bethlehem Night we will be met by Truth and Grace.  That this encounter with the Christ Child and witnesses will catch us up in a worship moment that allows us to release our burdens in the care of the Wonderful Counselor.  

We will gather in a trusting and safety-minded space tomorrow with our Covid protocols in place: assigned seating, double the necessary social distance, masks required, no contact in distribution of bulletins or communion, seating and dismissal by ushers for crowd management. It is my fervent prayer that you will know the hour to be a sanctuary from all that diminishes and divides us in this time of great health and social danger.  

Whether you are with us in-person, or by Zoom we pray you will be blessed in just the way you need.

O Come, all ye Faithful… Come and behold HIM! 

In Christ’s Peace,
Pastor Jacki