Sunday, December 20, 2015

Merry Chiristmas 2015

Dr. and Mrs. Paul Manuel
Christmas 2015

Dear Family and Friends,

This past year has marked a significant change for us: retirement. Many of the activities that gave life regularity because we did them every week are no longer part of our routine. We have had to develop new patterns. Although we miss some of the old activities (e.g., choir), we realize that such change is inevitable. Nevertheless, it is good that some things do not change, that some things continue to be a regular part of life. If everything changed at once, it would be too unsettling, too confusing. Christmas is one of those things that does not change, and though we may bemoan the “holiday creep” as seasonal music and store decorations seem to manifest earlier every year, we can still appreciate the regularity this day brings as it recurs each December 25. In a way, the regularity of Christmas reflects the immutability of God, that He does not change:
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. (James 1:17)
Yet it was not always so. There was, after all, no Christmas before the first Christmas. God introduced a measure of regularity into the lives of His people by marking significant occasions of His intervention, like Passover, that celebrates the physical redemption of God’s people from slavery. Fifteen hundred years later, He marked another significant occasion of His intervention, with Christmas, that celebrates the spiritual redemption of God’s people from sin. As the angel said to Joseph about Jesus, “he will save his people from their sins” (Matt 1:21).

Some think of regularity as boring, and they wait for a new experience to excite their senses, like Jesus’ return: 
They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” (2 Peter 3:4)
Predictability is not the kind of regularity that God employs. On the contrary, despite appearances He will disrupt the status quo (our schedule) when it suits His purpose. That is what He did when Jesus appeared the first time. It was not according to someone else’s expectations but “when the time had fully come” (Gal 4:4) according to God’s plan. That is also when Jesus will appear the second time. It will not be when people are saying “peace and safety” (1 Thess 5:3) but at a time “the Father has set” (Acts 1:8).

Even though God’s schedule is different from our schedule, and even when time marks significant change for us, His program still possesses a regularity upon which we can depend, and Christmas is an annual reminder of that regularity. May the stability of the season be an ever-present reminder of the love God expressed when He sent Jesus to “save his people from their sins.”

Merry Christmas!
Pastor and Linda

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Relevant and civil comments are welcome. Whether there will be any response depends on whether Dr. Manuel notices them and has the time and inclination to respond or, if not, whether I feel competent to do so.
Jim Skaggs