Sisters and Brothers,
It is already December and we are beginning another liturgical year- starting again the cycle from Advent through Nativity and Epiphany during December, January and February. The comforting and empowering truth is that as we travel through time, God is with us.
The Eternal God who has always been and always will be, who has brought the Methodist Church Holland Circuit through thirty fruitful years, journeys with us, continually assuring, “I will never leave you nor forsake you”.
Enabled by God’s powerful, preserving, providing, protecting, peace giving presence, through the Holy Spirit who teaches and equips us for God’s service in our place and time, we can show our loving gratitude for the liberating, saving grace we have experienced in Christ.
In God, through God, with God, we can live out the theme of our Thirtieth Anniversary
#Methodism.NL@30: Loving Service through Faith in Christ
The message of Advent ever renews our hope in God and calls us to be a people who wait actively on the Lord. This we can do through trusting God to help us serve those needing our witness. Even as we look forward to Christmas- the Season of Nativity, we can be deliberate about sharing the joy and peace we know in Christ, thus making a difference in the lives of others.
Of course, it is vital that we pay attention to our own spirituality, for growth in Christ makes us more ready to do the service which the Lord requires of us, whether in the worship and fellowship of the church itself, or through the ministries, the acts of service we render to others for God’s sake. During Nativity we often sing about the new-born Prince of Peace and pray for fulfilment of the angel tidings “Peace on Earth.” But if we do not know the inner peace which comes through a live relationship with Christ, the Prince of Peace, it is impossible to inspire peace to others who feel overwhelmed in the troubling peace-lacking situations that abound.
And then comes Epiphany and our focus on the varied ordinary ways in which God’s presence can be known among us. So, whether it’s big celebration time such as Nativity with its aura of the extraordinary- God taking on human flesh! – or in the ordinary rhythm of life, as time comes and goes, we are kept in grace by the Life Giver who calls us and gifts us for service so that the world may know indeed, that God is love.
Yours in God’s service,
Joan Delsol Meade, Pastor