Grace Notes in the Desert

Grace Notes in the Desert is written for the saints of Rio Grande Presbyterian Church and the surrounding community.

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Grace Notes acknowledges we need God's grace and forgivness as much as the desert water.

12/04/2009

God's Question

These past few months we, at Rio Grande Church, have said ‘goodbye’ to several people we know and love. You would think the Memorial Services we’ve had here, one after another, would be dismal and sad events. They are not. Rather, they have become one of the blessings we, as a church, share with one another, and all who attend, as, together, we ponder the mysteries and promises of God.

Christmas is one of those mysteries. Oh, it may not seem so walking through the malls; in the rush of shopping and all the many preparations that keep us too busy to notice stars or the words behind that Christmas muzak in the malls . But, Christmas is a mystery: the mystery of God come down to earth in Christ’s Incarnation.

Throughout history, many have pondered God’s Incarnation when, ‘in the fullness of time, God became man’; heaven came down to earth; God’s glory becoming small in a tiny baby--as if to say: we matter, matter matters. God is not aloof or far away. No, in the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, God is with us. And, not just with us, but one of us, coming as the least of us. Imagine? God choosing, for our sake, to become the least of us: poor, weak, vulnerable, dependent on what? On kindness. The kindness of strangers. The mercy of you and me. The possibility of love.

Christmas is about the actuality and possibility of love: God’s love for the world and you and me in it; our love for God expressed in kindness to each other, and the least in our midst. Let’s remember, as we mourn the loss of loved ones here on earth, that death, however sad, however tragic, is not God's final word: Christ is. And, because of that--what God has done in Jesus Christ-- it, truly, can be a Merry Christmas.

In Christ's Service,
A Pastor in the Desert

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