January 2023

Despite what commercials and store shelves might claim, the season of Christmas doesn't begin until the 25th. The weeks of anticipation and preparation that follow Thanksgiving properly belong to Advent, and the “Twelve Days of Christmas” are the church's celebration of Christ's birth. This brief season culminates with Epiphany, which commemorates the arrival of the Wise Men from the East.

The season of Christmas, which carries from December into January, is a season of contradictions. We celebrate this period with two Sundays: one recalling those Wise Men, and one recalling Herod's murder of the young boys of Bethlehem. As strange as it may seem on the surface, both of these lessons revolve around gifts.

Christmas reminds us that Jesus comes as a gift, to share God's abundant love and redeem this world. The Wise Men respond to this gift by leaving their homes to make a dangerous journey so that they might offer their own gifts to the Christ child. Herod seeks to posses this precious gift of Jesus, and when that proves impossible, he decides that no one else should be able to receive God's precious gift.

As we begin a new year in the life of First Baptist, we can draw some lessons from these paired stories. One is that by receiving God's greatest gift, we are moved to offer gifts ourselves; to go outside of our comfort zones to know more of what God is doing in this world. The other is that by seeking to control and own God's gifts, we run the risk of bringing pain and destruction.

Our church is entering a period of transition. I will have my last Sunday as your pastor in a little more than a month. Preparations are already underway to select an Interim Pastor as well as to begin the process of selecting a Settled Pastor. In the months and years to come you will have many opportunities to offer your own gifts to the life and function of this church. In doing so, consider the lessons of the Christmas season, so that God's gift may be shared with all.

Blessings,
Pastor Jon