Dear Grace Community,
January 1, 2017, was a Sunday. We started the new year with worship, and as 2017 came to a close I looked back at the sermon from New Year’s day. In it I shared a poem by Howard Thurrman called “The Work of Christmas.”
The Work of Christmas
When the song of the angels is stilled,
when the star in the sky is gone,
when the kings and princes are home,
when the shepherds are back with their flocks,
the work of Christmas begins:
to find the lost,
to heal the broken,
to feed the hungry,
to release the prisoner,
to rebuild the nations,
to bring peace among the people,
to make music in the heart.
-Howard Thurman
The choir sang a choral version of this song at our 8 pm Christmas Eve service last month. Spoken or sung, the words are beautiful, and challenging.
Being Christians is more than celebrating Christmas, it’s doing the work of Christmas. The good news is that we don’t do this alone. As the body of Christ we are called to share God’s love and to follow Jesus wherever he may take us. We do this as a community of faith, encouraging and supporting one another.
2017 was a grace-filled year at Grace. We worshiped together, served God and neighbor, studied scripture, and played together.
I look forward to where God leads us in 2018 and to the work of Christmas that we do together.
In Christ,
Catherine
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