The Illuminated Glow

You cannot convince me otherwise.  Nothing will change my mind.

Pastors have the best seats on Christmas Eve!  There, I said it.  Or wrote it.

You may come early to save your row of chairs or your favorite pew, but pastors have unequivocally the best view during Christmas Eve worship.

Why?

Because we can see the mass of glowing faces throughout the sanctuary on that night in the darkness holding their flickering candle.  Each face of our congregation...whose hearts are in their eyes that night.  And whose hearts are brightened by the Light of the World.

The illumination of these precious faces... whom you know, as only a pastor can know; have been ... hurt, strengthened, betrayed, healed, wounded, forgiven, lost, renewed, or found during the past year... and yet.  And yet, each face glows.  Each face glows... in the warm candlelight.

That moment for me, as a pastor, when we hold our candles high during the last verse of Silent Night bonds me, yet again, to my flock.  And perhaps, even more so, sinks my soul deeper into the unending basin of our God's unending love.

Only a God like ours can bring such a sweet celebration into the darkness of our world.

Only our God can love us to such an extent that we can sing our praise on a night of all nights..,illumined yet again with hope.

Yes, truly, pastors have the best seats on Christmas Eve because we catch a glimmer of heaven on earth.

Christmas Eve 3

Our final service is over!  My feet and voice are pooped, but my heart is full!  This was a wonderful first Christmas with our Ridge family.

We had lovely music, candelight, message and another 52 souls!

Worshiped 298 on Christmas!


Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

Christmas Eve 2

We just had our middle service at 9pm!  Another lovely service with 105 in attendance.  More kiddos came and enjoyed the remaining goodie bags.

Our choir did a great job with Do You Hear What I Hear?  We had amazing solo of O Holy Night.

My little family and I lit the Christ candle.  My husband did a great job with the Luke reading.

It was Christmas Eve and it was special.

Now- time for a hydration break, put my feet up, and rest until our 11pm service.

O Blessed Night!

Christmas Eve 1

Lovely worship for families at 5pm.

We have 143 souls...and 21 kiddos for the children's sermon! They enjoyed their goodie bags and it was fun to hear the rustle of plastic and joy mixed together.

Lovely to see so many families,

But kudos to our Holy Family who were outstanding!  Little JJ was Jesus and his protective big brother Frank was our Angel!  His angel wings were as tall as he was.

Merry, merry- now we only have 2 more to go.

But before that- I am going home to eat some dinner!

Pre-Christmas Eve Blog

Sermon is prepared.

Bulletins are printed.

Bathrooms are clean.

Gift bags for kiddos are wrapped.

Music is rehearsed.

Candles are ready.

A few more hours and this little nativity will be made complete and full by a young Ridge family as our Live Nativity at 5pm service!

Cannot wait!  (giggles) for the fun to begin!

A Gift Shared

One of my friends from Spiritual Direction training shared this with our small group as a gift. It was too precious not to give to you.

"Christmas is for Healing"
By Macrina Wiederker, OSB (from her book Seasons of the Heart)
Loving you, of course
I am not at all interested in how much money
you are spending on Christmas gifts this year
but rather, in how much blood, sweat, and tears you are shedding
to make Christ a vital part of your life
for you and I will never be able to erase the fact that he came:
to touch lives - to break bread
to heal hurt - to forgive sins
to wash feet - to calm seas
to walk on water - to give us the Spirit
and to care immensely.
Yes, to care enough
to be born in our Bethlehem
to live in our land, and weep over our cities
and die and rise again.
So now it's Christmas
and I am not sure what part of you is crippled
or where you need to feel God's saving power
but with everything in me
I believe that Christmas is for healing
And he came to heal.
So if you can trust Jesus enough to
walk out on the waters of getting involved,
of washing feet and anointing people,
of breaking bread and working miracles,
I am almost sure his saving presence
will touch those blind and crippled parts of your life
and Christmas will come to you.
More than anything else
I want to give you Christmas this year
It's a gift, an offer
You can take it if you like
but I can't really give it to you
like a wrapped up package.
It is deeper than that,
It is warmer, brighter, holier.
It is more personal.
Christmas is more challenging
that a wrapped up package.
It is an offer
It is a mystery
It is birth
It is hope.
It is Christmas and
God can never be born enough. . .

Christmas Eve- the Super Bowl or Daytona Race for Preachers!

Finally the big day is here!  For us preachers tonight is like the Super Bowl for NFL fans or the Daytona Race for NASCAR fans.  That is how huge this evening is.

My preacher heart has been dreaming and waiting.  Waiting and dreaming of this night for decades.

My ministry appointments have had me serve two large congregations where I was an associate on a staff.  That meant that I have not in my eighteen-almost-nineteen-years of ministry preached on Christmas Eve.  My senior pastors have always preached this night.

This is not to say that I have not had meaningful ministry; I have.  Nor is this to say I have not helped and aided in making the holiness of tonight come alive for many; I have with great joy shared in the ministry of Christmas Eve.  Preaching is the only aspect of tonight's service that I have not yet done.

That tradition ends tonight!  Thanks be to God!

All this build up and anticipation, I hope, means the Spirit has something special to deliver through me this evening!  My sermon prep showed that I had too much material and kept having to edit down, and down, and down.  (A sign of the situation, no doubt!)

May the Christmas angels use me tonight!  And may our worship of the Babe of Bethlehem be joyous!