Jesus Came to Dwell with Us

This weekend we are making the turn to the next church year. It is essentially New Year’s in the life of the church. The season of Advent begins, and now we start our preparations for the celebration of Christmas. While Easter hymns and songs ring out with joyful alleluias, there is no other season so defined by music as Advent and Christmas. The words of the hymns and the familiar tunes ground us in love and inspire hope. There is such joy in anticipating the good news that Jesus came to dwell with us, and so we respond in song.

There are ancient songs that resonate through the whole of creation. This time of year, we can be caught by the sound of geese singing their song as they fly in the “V,” traveling south for the winter. How do they know when it is time to migrate? How do they know when it is time to travel from one home to another? Somehow God has woven into their DNA that homing awareness. Somehow God has woven into our DNA the homing awareness to gather for worship and to be God’s people in community.

The Lutheran poet of the last century, Gerhard Frost, meditated on these themes in his little volume, Homing in the Presence:

“We nourish each other whenever we gather to tell and retell the story as we find it in the scriptures and experience it in the daily goodness of God. We help and shape one another when we come together in the common circle around the fire of God’s love… The human family strengthens as its members permit their personal histories to be woven into the tapestry of one great story. We add to it every day as we experience God’s presence, receive God’s gifts, and pass on what we have learned to one another… In a graceful cycle of faith, we move from God to each other and back to God again. Our movement is both personal and communal. It binds together the past and future, and through it we come together in the presence of the Father, Son and the Spirit.” (pages 120-121)

So, we begin a new year together, celebrating that Jesus comes to dwell with us, and we respond in song. Thank you for your faithfulness, your worship and song, and all the ways you share in our “homing in God’s presence.”

Yours in Christ Jesus,
Pastor Peter