This year for our Lessons and Carols service, we focused on the emerging light.

Genesis 1:1-5

Psalm 13

Isaiah 45:2-8

Baruch 4:36-5:9

Isaiah 9:2-3, 6-7

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11, 23-24

Luke 3:1-6

Luke 3:1-6

The Gospel is proclaimed by The Rev. Greg Brown

The early Christians didn't think of the birth of Jesus as a huge event; they were more focused on when he was coming back. We may not know with precision the time of his return, but we do know when he will be born into this world, and maybe preparing for one can help us prepare for the other.

Jesus has dominion over a kingdom where justice rules, not violence, where relationship will supersede being the victor. A kingdom of giving and sharing.

When Jesus talks about the end of it all, how do we make sense of it here and now? How is that sense changed by world-shaking events, like the attacks in Paris?

Have you been a good little boy or girl? Are your gifts freely given and received out of pure love - or are they rewards for services rendered?

Through our Baptism we are all and each of every one of us a Saint. God is there with the promise to know our sorrow, to help us when we fall, to love us when we get it right and when we get it wrong.

What if the most significant example of persistence is God?