January 7, 2025, Class Update: Celebrating Christmas

Merry Christmas/Happy Epiphany!

On the current liturgical calendar we use, the Christmas Season is from December 25-January 12.

We had plenty to celebrate for Christmas Season during our first class in 2025.

Nativity Scene inside Ascension Church

For our opening prayer, we listened to the song of the angels, "Glory to God in the Highest" from Luke 2:13-14 as it is sung in the famous oratorio, The Messiah.

When Christ was born, God gave us the greatest gift of all in His Son.  So we spent time reflecting on gifts we gave, both items and good deeds.

The amazing and glorious reality of Christmas is that the vast, infinite God came to us as a human person, born of Mary.  He wanted to be close to us, and not be too frightening to approach, like when He came to Mount Sinai to present Himself before His people.  So He came as a baby, closely identifying Himself with us, inviting us to draw close to Him.  He fulfilled the prophecy of Emmanuel, the Hebrew name meaning "God with us".  That is truly Good News.

To elaborate on the big idea of Christmas, I shared a commentary from a Bible he got as a gift when I was in middle school.  I sent it via email to the parents if you want to see it again.

Then, to illustrate, we did a baby/child photo guessing game, ending with me.  My childhood Teddy Bear also made a special guest appearance.

Here I am, about aged 3 or 4, with my Teddy Bear in the park by the Gateway Arch in St. Louis while on a trip with my family.

Again, God wanted to come to us in a form so that we would desire to approach Him, just as people delight in babies and stuffed animals.  My Teddy Bear accompanied me everywhere as a child, just like God accompanies us, and we recognize His presence now in the Holy Spirit.

For the second half of class, Paul's friend Will Haenni joined us as a special guest star.  He is a TV meteorologist with WWMT-TV based in Kalamazoo, MI.  He shared about his work and what faith has meant to him throughout his life.

Our closing prayer was the Holy Name of Jesus prayer of St. Bernard of Clairvaux.

On Christmas, we celebrate the Word Made Flesh.  The at-home activity is to spend time with Scripture.  Here's the link to the form with instructions.  It is due on January 21.

Everyone also got blessed chalk that is to be used for an Epiphany house blessing.  Customarily, it's done on January 6, but go ahead and do the blessing if you haven't done so already.

Looking ahead, we'll continue to explore what it means for God to be among us, a major theme of the Christmas Season, and its impact on us as arises in the liturgy of the Feast of the Lord's Baptism, which is January 12 this year.

Please feel free to contact me with questions, feedback, etc.

We remain connected as One Church by faith in God, Who came to us in the Flesh and abides with us forever:

All my relations.

We're not just lucky, we're blessed because God is with us.

Let us rejoice!

God's blessings,

Merry Christmas,

Paul

Nativity scene in the Ellipse Park, just south of, and within view of, the White House in Washington, D.C.

In Baptism, we celebrate that God is with us in Jesus Christ, Who was baptized as He sought to identify Himself with us.