We are “home for the holidays”. REALLY!

Together 🏠 Apart
The Gifts of Christmas 2020
Advent & Christmas Planning at Central CC, Dallas
Lectionary B  TextWeek.org; Vanderbilt Lectionary

As we move through this season of Advent and Christmas, many of us are in a hurry to be done with 2020 and all it’s antics. We want to be done with the CoronaVirus, the distancing, the economic stress, the sickness and death. We want to fall back asleep like Ebenezer Scrooge after his fitful nightmares and wake on Christmas morning to find the world bright and new, and ourselves transformed. Unfortunately, we cannot rush the slow work of God.

 In times of darkness the Prophets bring correction, comfort, compassion, counsel, courage and confidence. We often do not know where to turn or how to move forward. We get confused regarding whom to trust, and upon whom we can depend. We swing between guilt and shame over our own complicity and judgement and blame toward others for their failures. The prophets call us to stillness before the power of the Living GOD. 

So we do the work of waiting, pregnant with anticipation and hope for the possibilities to come, fully mindful of the hardships that this journey imposes upon us. AND YET, we remain hopeful. With the characters of the Nativity stories, and the words of the Prophets,
we will journey forward, Together, Apart.

11/29/20;  The Gifts of Christmas 2020: Correction
Isaiah 64:1-9
12/6/20;  The Gifts of Christmas 2020: Comfort
Isaiah 40:1-11
12/13/20;  The Gifts of Christmas 2020: Compassion
Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11 
12/20/20;  The Gifts of Christmas 2020: Counsel
2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16 

12/24/20;  Outdoor Candles & Carols of the Nativity
Matthew & Luke 1-2
12/27/20;  The Gifts of Christmas 2020: Courage
Isaiah 61:10-62:3 
1/3/21;  The Gifts of Christmas 2020: Confidence
Jeremiah 31:7-14