From the Pastor’s Desk
Dear Friends, As we celebrate Christmas and look forward to 2017 we can be thankful that we do not go alone. God has send the Son Jesus Christ to bring hope, redemption, and salvation. Today we celebrate that no matter the difficulties, war, temptations, and turmoil in our world, God chooses to redeem it through the birth of Jesus to a Middle Eastern woman and her husband.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from all of us on staff at Allison Creek Presbyterian Church.
Sam, Garnet, Megan, Tracy, Julia, Devin, Ruth, & Pete.
Devotion:
Psalm 98:1
Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things; his right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him.
John 1:1-3
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
The following reflection comes from “Feasting on the Word” for Christmas Day and written by one of my seminary professors:
If it should seem on this Christmas Day that this presence is not available to us, that this victory is not yet won, or that the Christmas event is but a tale to make children happy and merchandisers rich, then the psalm is an invitation to sign anyway. It is a call to open our hearts, minds, and eyes to the world around us and to the possibility of a victory so wondrous as to be unthinkable, so unimaginable as to be hidden still from our comprehension. Singing this new song together can increase hope and build among us a new perception of divine presence. It can instill faith, because singing the song creates faith and imprints hope in our souls. This new song can reveal our already-given connections to the sea and all that is in it, to the earth and all its peoples, and to the floods that clap their hands in joy. The psalm reveals the presence of God in the events of earth, of relationships among nations, of our own participation in this glorious, cosmic symphony of life over which rules the King of the universe. This is most assuredly one of the meanings of Christmas.
Kathleen O’Connor