Happy New Year from Chuckatuck! What a change from Christmas Eve when it was cold and windy – today it was nearly 55 when service started. We had taken steps to warm the church, only to not need all the heat. We’re thankful for a little warmth as we figure out what to do with two 31-year-old package units. But that’s for another day and another time. Our prayers for you are health and the beginning of a new chapter of your life this coming year.

As has been our practice for most of the past 11 years, the first Sunday after Christmas is when we celebrate Lessons and Carols. It is a nice tradition to hear the arc of the story of God’s grace and presence during the time of humanity – from Adam until today. The whole point of the service is summed up in the bidding prayer we offered at the beginning of service today: In this Christmas Season, let it be our duty and delight to hear once more the message of the Angels, to go to Bethlehem and see the Son of God lying in a manger. Let us hear and heed in Holy Scripture the story of God’s loving purpose from the time of our rebellion against him until the glorious redemption brought to us by his holy Child Jesus, and let us make this place glad with our carols of praise. But first, let us pray for the needs of his whole world, for peace and justice on earth, for the unity and mission of the Church for which he died, and especially for his Church in our country and in this village. And because he particularly loves them, let us remember in his name the poor and helpless, the cold, the hungry and the oppressed, the sick and those who mourn, the lonely and unloved, the aged and little children, as well as all those who do not know and love the Lord Jesus Christ. Finally, let us remember before God his pure and lowly Mother, and that whole multitude which no one can number, whose hope was in the Word made flesh, and with whom, in Jesus, we are one for evermore.

The lessons offered were:

  1. Genesis 2:4b-9, 15-25
  2. Genesis 3:1-15
  3. Isaiah 40:1-11
  4. Isaiah 7:10-15
  5. Luke 1:39-45
  6. Luke 2:1-20
  7. Luke 2:21-36
  8. Hebrews 1:1-12
  9. John 1:1-18

I invite you to listen to the scripture and carols and be refreshed as you begin your New Year.

I invite your comments,

Les

Video of Lessons and Carols: https://youtu.be/DIb_mJLwnjI