2026 January news-letter article

Hello friends,

At approximately 10:08, on Sunday morning, December 21, we were as distant from the sun as we ever get in Earth’s orbit.  At that point, the solstice began the winter season.  I love winter, for several different reasons, but I freely acknowledge that many of you do not!  In recent weeks I have learned a bit about “seasonal affective disorder”; whether because of the cold temperatures, or other reasons, it can be a difficult time of the year for many of us.  Be encouraged!  Between now and the third Sunday of June, our days will continue to get longer and longer and longer.  We’ll see more sun light, and indeed temperatures will rise (which, in turn, will make me sad, and sweaty)!

From Thanksgiving Day, through advent, and into the Christmas season can be difficult for many families.  Whether your loved ones live far away and aren’t able to travel to be together, or whether your family members have jobs requiring them to work on holy days, or whether you have experienced the loss of death within the past year, often times traditional events with family and friends can be bitter-sweet.  To these families and individuals, I want to offer you a bit of encouragement too.

A proper theological view of Christmas should force us to look backward, into the Old Testament.  Between Malachi (who most believe to be the latest of the writing Prophets) and Matthew (the beginning of the New Testament), were about four centuries of time.  Much happened in world history, perhaps most importantly the Roman Empire’s conquest of the Promised Land, but bible scholars refer to it as the “400 silent years”, because we have no written scripture.  In some respects, the children of Israel went without hearing from God at all.

Pastor Jim, on December 14, preached from Isaiah 11.  This text, Isaiah 9, Isaiah 7, Micah 5, and Jeremiah 31 are but a few of the Messianic Prophecies that would have seem to have gone unfulfilled… but, indeed the Messiah did come!  “In the fullness of time” Galatians 4 teaches us, God the Son became a human being, in the womb of a virgin girl from Nazareth!  As Isaiah 11 teaches us (like Pastor Jim said), we see all in one Prophecy, both the first coming and the second coming of the Christ!  Even seven centuries before Jesus was born, Isaiah had the privilege of catching a glimpse of His eternal Kingdom!  We see an even clearer picture in Revelation and other New Testament books!

Pastor Pat, on December 07, preached John 1.  John’s account of the “Christmas story” is found in John 1:14 – “the Word became flesh and pitched His tent among us” – John goes on to proclaim “we observed His glory; the glory as the One and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth”!  Have you observed His glory?  Do you have a personal relationship with Him?  If so, you know hope!

We live in a dark world, literally.  We are just past the longest night of the year.  We also live in a dark world, metaphorically.  Relationships are broken, people are enslaved to addiction, wickedness seems to prevail everywhere.  The curse of sin is apparent in our world.  Indeed it is dark.  Whether you experience seasonal depression, or grief has cast a pall over your family gatherings, or you seem to experienced the brokenness of our world acutely in recent days, we can have hope.  I Thessalonians 4 encourages us that we [who have a saving relationship with Jesus] “will not grieve like the rest” of the world, “who have no hope”.  Though our lost neighbors have no hope, we who know Jesus, and are known by Jesus, have hope!  Simon Peter calls it a “living hope”, because the embodiment of our hope resurrected the third day!!

Jesus is the embodiment of hope, the embodiment of grace, and the embodiment of light.  As Pastor Pat reminded us from John 1:5, “life was in Him, and that life was the light of men”.  May our encouragement, our hope, be found in this truth: “that light shines in the darkness, yet the darkness did not overcome it”!  Regardless of how dark the world seems to be, it cannot overcome the light of King Jesus!  Regardless of how difficult days might be for us, we can have a hope of His Kingdom yet to come to full fruition.  Even during the shortest days of the year, we have a hope of what is yet to come!  Spring and summer are coming; comfort and healing are coming; even on the day Jesus was crucified and died, Sunday was coming!  Be encouraged, church!  We know Hope, and His name is Jesus!

o sing “hallelujah”, our hope springs eternal,
o sing “hallelujah”, now and ever we confess
Christ, our hope, in life and death
--A.J.