Letter from the Pastor – December 2024

Dear Church,

I hope this month’s newsletter finds you well. I hope it finds you taking a well-deserved rest, enjoying whatever it is you need from this holiday weekend. I hope you got a chance to enjoy Thanksgiving and reflect on those things in your life that you are grateful for. I hope you have plenty leftovers. If you are a Black Friday shopper, I hope you were able to get out this weekend and find the perfect gifts, at the perfect price, for your loved ones. If you decorate for Christmas as soon as Thanksgiving ends, my hope for you is that you were able to get your home all decked out for the holidays. Just as our sanctuary at Central Woodward will be decorated for the celebrations of Advent to come. These are my hopes for all of you as we enter this Advent season. When you receive this letter, it will be the first week of Advent, and on that first Sunday of Advent we reflect on and celebrate hope. The gift of hope that we receive in the birth of the Christ Child. And while this is worth celebrating every year, hope seems especially important to remember this year when so many are experiencing fear due to an unknown future. In such times, hope is the gift we are called to share.

Advent is also a time of waiting. We wait to celebrate that moment when Christ comes to the world as a tiny baby, and love breaks into the world and changes it forever. I realize that waiting can be uncomfortable to some people. Yet, Advent is not only about waiting and anticipating the coming of Christ and all the good things that entails, but also about preparing for what is to come. We prepare ourselves for the arrival of the Christ child, and to live in the world that this infant will usher in. We prepare because the world cannot be the same when we are shown what is possible once the love of God becomes incarnate among us. It may require change; change of heart, mind, or habit, but this is what we must do to be prepared for what is yet to come. Advent reminds us that preparedness is not only about being ready for the worst of what we fear, but we can also prepare for our best and highest hopes. Whatever the future holds, I pray that our preparations can spur us on to meaningful and life-giving new experiences. All while effectively preparing us for the birth of Jesus, and the in-breaking of God’s love in the world.

May this advent season be one of celebration, rest, and hopefulness.

In peace,

Pastor Zach