Remember the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet To Come?

 So we aren't talking ghosts on Sunday, we are talking angels. At least one, maybe two. Because one is named in the text and the other is not. If this were the Christmas Pageant, "The Angel Gabriel" spoke to Mary while "Unnamed Angel #1" spoke to Joseph.

Through the angels, God sends word to the earthly parents of our Jesus.  His birth, his presence, his purpose and legacy will stretch out to eternity, of what Jesus brings, there "will have no end".  Yet word also reaches back to the promises laid down by God through the prophets in the Bible Mary and Joseph knew. As these words touched the immediate lives of Mary and Joseph, so their words touch us today.  

These words are the foundation of God's Dome of Wonder built over the Stable in Bethlehem on that Wondrous Christmas night, a Dome built of the choirs of angels.  

From this mightiest gift of God, our Lord Jesus, we are preparing, in Our Home Church, for another mighty gift of God, the gift of people. We have presence at Christmas as few other times during the year. Who are these people, these gifts of the Lord?

They are the guests that God has prepared to send into our midst. We have seen them in the pews in past weeks, someone or something touched their hearts and Our Home Church is blessed. These people are the blessings of our present, whom we must welcome with open arms.  Must?  Yes. Otherwise we are squandering God's gift.

But there is another gift of God that is already in our midst. Their names are known to many of us (I am still on a learning curve), their faces are known to many of us (I am still meeting people), but their presence with us, that has been curtailed for reasons some of us may know, some of us may suspect, but which most of us do not know. 

I fell into the trap of viewing "Welcome" as an eye to those who are new to our midst. But, at Christmas especially, our "Welcome" is doubly important to those renewed to our midst. To those who already call this church Home, we welcome them back to the Living Room of Our Home Church, our service of worship.

Then there are the people God has lined up and set to enter Our Home Church. Maybe people we have never seen before. Maybe people we thought we would never see again. God is an amazing gift-giver.

Are we ready?

Pastor Peter