Dear Members and Friends,

Those of you who heard our sermon on the last Sunday of Pentecost heard me say in effect, “While it’s beginning to look and sound a lot like Christmas outside our walls, I’m not yet ready to celebrate it because we haven’t even come to a most wonderful holiday of the year, a holiday for the soul:  Thanksgiving!”  (How’s that for a one-sentence summary of a sermon?) 

And, when we gather on this upcoming Sunday for worship, I still won’t be ready because Christmas isn’t meant to be a holiday we simply “come to.”  Rather it’s an incredible holiday that we “prepare for.”  Which is why we’ve been given the season of Advent on the Christian calendar.  Its purpose is to give us time to prepare for receiving the greatest gift of Christmas: the new life of Jesus, our Christ!  

So, it is, we’ll begin preparing, and not just for Christmas Day, but for Christmastide, the season of Christmas.  Yes, just as Christmas doesn’t come the day after Halloween when all the decorations are rolled out in stores and online, neither does Christmas come on December 25^th, the day after Santa Claus comes down the chimney.  For, Christmas is more than our rituals, whether commercial-based or family-based.  Christmas is the very love of God come into our hearts!  And, it’s an elusive thing. 

If you don’t believe me, or have wonderings about all this, stay tuned.  For we have preparations to make.  Meanwhile, I hope you have a Blessed Thanksgiving Day – and week!

Pastor Ed