December 16 – Christmas Cantata The Glory of Christmas
No sermon (no early worship service)

 

December 23 – “Prepare for the Advent”
– John 1:19-28

 Now this was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was.  He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, “I am not the Messiah.”

 They asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?”

He said, “I am not.”

“Are you the Prophet?”

He answered, “No.”

 Finally they said, “Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”

 John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’”

 Now the Pharisees who had been sent  questioned him, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”

 “I baptize with water,” John replied, “but among you stands one you do not know.  He is the one who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.”

 This all happened at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

December 30 – “Christ’s New Year’s Gift to You:  A Jar of Clay”
– Isaiah 64:8

Yet you, Lord, are our Father.
    We are the clay, you are the potter;
    we are all the work of your hand.

 

 

 

 

“To Make Disciples of Jesus Christ for the Transformation of the World.”