From Your Pastors
A Wonderful Time of the Year
Pastor Rich Neal
“It’s the most wonderful time of the year” is the way the song begins. When those words come to mind every holiday season around this time I can’t help but remember them in the voice of singer Andy Williams. He owns the song in my mind, but not the sentiment. The sentiment is ours, anybody’s whose heart leads them into Advent and Christmas and everything those seasons represent.
Once upon a time I approached Advent and Christmas first with my head, in teaching mode (whether as student or teacher, or both), being careful to remember what the seasons are about so as not to lose their authentic meaning and their power to transform. It’s still important to do that, and for the same reason. Now, though, my first approach, and where I (and probably all of us) end up, is with the heart.
I don’t recall when the shift happened, only that it happened, gradually, as the sacred story worked its way further into my heart and became my story, as the Word started to become flesh again, only this time in me. And when the shift deepens each year, I find there’s no risk of the story losing its meaning and its transformative power. Those things are always present, always ready to have their way with us when we let them. I pray that this year, as perhaps never before, you join me as we give ourselves anew to the story we sing and read and tell again and again in so many different ways.
Here at WUMC some of what we do this year will seem awfully familiar, and it’s right that it should. Advent will build slowly and surely toward Christmas, as it does every year. By the time we get to Christmas, however, you’ll notice some differences.
On Christmas Eve the 3:00 p.m. worship service will still include traditional elements of worship and a celebration of the Lord’s Supper. This year it will also include more singing and reading of scripture, telling the story that surrounds Jesus’ birth; the Chancel Choir will sing; and we’ll all sing some of our favorite Christmas hymns and perhaps one that may be new to you.
The worship service at 5:00 p.m. on Christmas Eve will invite the community “Into the Light,” incorporating scripture, music, and the gifts and graces of our worshiping community to create a living nativity in our midst as a way of celebrating the birth of our Savior this season.
An informal carol-sing at 8:00 p.m. on Christmas Eve will give worshipers the opportunity to sing many of the season’s favorite hymns and songs, accompanied by music by Mary Ann Clark at the keyboard. A reception with cookies and beverages will follow in the parlor.
A 10:00 p.m. candlelight service of scripture lessons and seasonal carols will cap the evening. Instead of the traditional Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols that we’ve used in recent years, this year’s service will focus more on readings of the gospel story. Into those readings we’ll weave choral music and congregational singing of your favorite Christmas hymns. A time of conversation with refreshment will follow this service.
A single service at 11:00 a.m. on Christmas Day (Sunday) will continue our celebration in a relaxed, very informal, family-style service that includes the Lord’s Supper.
Join us in celebrating this, “the most wonderful time of the year.”