Advent/Christmas 2017
Christmas Eve Homily
December 24, 2017 • Rev. David Juelfs
Join Redeemer for our annual Lessons and Carols Christmas Eve service. We will sing the great Christmas songs interspersed with readings from Scripture, and a short Christmas message. Edward White Benson, Archbishop of Canterbury, first created the Nine Lessons and Carols service in 1880. The best know version is broadcast from King’s College, Cambridge, each Christmas Eve where they have been celebrating this service since 1918. Nothing will focus your heart and mind, and get your family into the Christmas spirit like this stirring Christmas Eve service.
For
December 24, 2017 • Rev. David Juelfs
Who is Christmas for? These last weeks we have been wrestling with the experience of feeling like God is gone. We have been trying to listen to the whispers of the incarnation to help us interpret this “God is gone” feeling. Is he absent or hidden? Is he missing or involved? The incarnation assures us that even when it does not feel like it, God is lovingly hidden and intricately involved. A God in us, fully in the human experience. A God with us, on the mission to renew all things. With a God like this who is Christmas for? Pastor David
With
December 17, 2017 • Rev. David Juelfs
God does not just feel gone. God is gone. The season of Advent reminds us that when we feel like we don’t have enough of God in our daily lives, like our connection with him is not all that it could be, we are not making it up. In one sense God is gone. At least gone enough that it is right for us to long for him to come again. The incarnation shows us that God is fully, deeply, more than we could have ever imagined, in our actual human experience. He knows us. He is with us. However, God is not yet with us in the way that he will be. Knowing how God will be with us in the future not only helps us make sense of our experience of feeling like God is gone today, but it also shows us what God loves and what he is inviting us to love as well. Read and reflect on Revelation 21:1-7. Given the choice, we would only spend our time and energy on restoring and moving into a place we love, to enjoy with those we love. Notice where God is and who God is with. Pastor David
In
December 10, 2017 • Rev. David Juelfs
What do you do when God feels gone? Advent is about those times when we long for God’s presence, but feel like we don’t have it. In those moments, or long seasons, when God feels gone we have a decision to make. Whether we realize it or not, we emotionally decide whether God is absent or hidden. Absent as in God is gone or does not exist and we are alone, or hidden in that for our good and his purposes he has hidden himself for a short time. When God feels gone do we think he is absent or hidden? This Sunday we will listen to the whispers of the incarnation in Matthew 13:53–58. Read, meditate on, and pray through this passage. Imagine Jesus’ actual neighbors, those he grew up with. Do you think they ever felt like God was gone? Yet there he was; Jesus in our human experience. Pastor David
Advent & Its Formative Practices
December 3, 2017 • Rev. Adam Feichtmann
As another calendar year draws to a close, a new church year is just beginning. This Sunday we will gather together to celebrate the first day of Advent. Wreaths will be hung, candles will be lit, and carols will be sung. It is my favorite season of the year! In all of our joyous and festive parties, we do need to remind ourselves that Advent is not Christmas. The season of Advent is the 4 weeks prior to Christmas (all 12 days of Christmas). Advent means “coming.” It is the season in the church calendar when we wait and prepare for the coming birth of Jesus on Christmas, while also hoping for Jesus’ second coming to renew all things. So, what does waiting look like? What are we supposed to do during Advent to better prepare for Christmas? Join me this Sunday as we explore those questions together and read from the Gospel of Luke 2:1-7, 21-24. Two sermon spoilers that would be good for you to know ahead of time are: 1. Advent Wreath Making and 2. Advent & Christmas Guides. This Sunday during the Middle Hour (10:10 – 10:50am) we will be making Advent wreaths together. Stay late or come early to join us. Also, our new Advent & Christmas Guides are printed, free, and ready for you to grab on the book table. Let the guide help you and your family and/or friends draw closer to Jesus in prayer and scripture readings this season. I am really looking forward to worshiping with you on this first Sunday of Advent! Pastor Adam