Immanuel, God With us!

December 2024

“The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).
                                                                                                                                 Matthew 1:23

God and Neighbor: The Incarnation Sermon Series-This 3-week series explores what it means when God moved into the neighborhood when Jesus was born. We will learn what gifts we are offered because of Christ’s incarnation and his embodiment of both God and neighbor this Advent season. 
 
As the nights grow longer and the days shorter, Christians draw closer to the One who gives light to our lives, to the world. We practice remembering and redeeming time by lighting Advent candles. The liturgy and familiar carols we sing in worship evoke memories and make new ones. Our God who is in the already and the not yet is in our familiar rhythms made new and re-remembered each Advent season. May the Holy Spirit nudge you through the busyness, food preparation, house-cleaning, and continuing day-to-day work in addition to the obvious holy times, that God is with you. God is for you. God is here, again, to bring good to the world. May we recognize this good God reflected in people around us, our neighbors, for we claim the radical belief that God is both deity, Creator, Sustainer, Redeemer and, wondrously, simultaneously, neighbor. See you in worship to celebrate Christ’s incarnation this December!
 
In Christ,
 
Rev. Elyse Nielsen