Dear Friends,
We are in the almost... but not quite yet.
Still, the miracle draws closer.
You can actually feel it if you try. There’s a bit of frost in the air. Lights and decorations glitter from one end of the city to the other. Wrapped packages hold a unique fascination. People are finding their way to church again, either because they are drawn by the mystery, or because they are desperate to believe in something more than what can easily be explained.
It must be....it is... almost Christmas. That blender full of memories: wonderful and hurtful and joyous and sad, all mixed-up and pureed together. Our world is no more prepared to receive this Christ child than it was more than 2,000 years ago. We are in complete disarray–a total mess. We are still warring, scheming, plotting, and strategizing to get more than the next guy. Racism. Sexism. Ageism. Ableism. You name it and we’ve still got it. And still... and still... Christ will come. He will come as he always does, in quiet mystery to a place we have prepared for him to be born again.
I’m old enough to be jaded by Christmas, but this moment captures me as if I were still a 7-year-old desperately trying to fall asleep on Christmas Eve. On these December nights, I can’t keep from looking up into the night sky. Maybe I’m looking for a star that’s just a little bit brighter than all the others. Yes, I admit it. I am. (Or, at least I’m hoping to see an off-course angel searching for the rest of his or her celestial posse!) Whatever it is, I am always looking for the miracle... and I’ve never given up on the hope it will be revealed in some unexpected moment and in some spectacular fashion.
Silesius, a Polish monk, published this poem in 1657 in The Cherubic Wanderer.
Lo, in the silent night
A child to God is born
And all is brought again
That ere was lost or lorn.
Could but thy soul, O man,
Become a silent night!
God would be born in thee
And set all things aright.
Come and join us for the coming of the Light, either in-person or online.
- Join us on Sunday morning at 11:00 am for the 4th Sunday of Advent liturgy with Eucharist.
- Join us on Sunday afternoon at 4:00 pm for the Children’s Christmas Pageant with Eucharist.
- Join us at 7:00 pm for a traditional Christmas Eve Service of Holy Communion with choir. (Choral prelude at 6:30 pm)
- Join us at 11:00 pm for the classic Midnight Mass with choir and incense. (Choral prelude at 10:30 pm)
- Join us at 11:00 am for the Christmas Day Service of Holy Communion with choir.
This year, allow Christ, once again, to “be born in thee and set all things aright.”
Faithfully,
The Right Reverend Dean E. Wolfe, D.D.
Rector