" O come,
all ye faithful,joyful and triumphant...O come ,let us adore Him Christ the
Lord", Hark! the herald angel sing, "Glory to the new -born King"," Joy to the
world , the Lord is come". I love summertime. I
just returned from Australia, where it is summertime. My wife loves "The
Chronicles of Narnia". There is a famous phrase C.S Lewis uses to describe
the brokenness of the world in which we live in. It is the phrase used by
Tumnus, the faun, when he explains to Lucy what Narnia is like: ‘Always winter
but never Christmas.’ This is a powerful metaphor for the state of our lives.
Lewis believed that all human beings live in a state of permanent winter because
of our alienation from the rightful King (Aslan in Narnia, Jesus Christ in our
world). We are alive, but there’s a sense in which we’re
also dead. In the
constant winter of Narnia, the lamp in the forest serves a similar purpose. The
lamp is left over from Aslan’s creation of Narnia, a beacon of his creative
power and a reminder that Narnia is still ultimately his. Lewis finally
recognized that life only made sense with God in the picture; only the coming of
the King could bring an end to the winter and bring, in its place, a magical
spring. It was a decision he came to reluctantly, having been an atheist for
some years. He described himself as, ‘the most dejected and reluctant convert
in England . . . brought in kicking, struggling, resentful.’
Lewis realized that a
relationship with God is only possible because an event powerfully pictured by
Aslan dying in Edmund’s place and rising again to defeat the White Witch, an
image of the ‘Deeper Magic’ of Jesus’s death and
resurrection.
Praise the
Lord! Into the winter of the world Christmas comes once again. I had a glimpse
of preparations for the celebration of Christmas around the world as I met
people from all over the globe and witnessed a portion of it in Australia,
Indonesia, Singapore, and in Japan. When I arrived at home our church was fully
decorated for Advent and Christmas, and my wife had turned the parsonage into a
Christmas House once again, with so many trees and so many decorations
reflecting the sounds, the sights, the smells, and the songs of Christmas.
We have our real tree towering almost 9 feet which now has taken its rightful
place in the living room of the parsonage where other others Christmas trees
have adorned for the last 22 Christmases.
As church we
celebrated a very special Christmas with gifts of love last Sunday. The faces
of children were glowing and glistening, because Jesus comes into the midst our
children's gathering and celebration, and He reminds us to "let the children
come to me do not hinder them". "If you love me feed my
lambs."
I am excited
about Christmas. We get to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior once
again. I will be sharing Friday Evening at 7 PM on our weekly Television
outreach on the Birth of our Savior. Laureen and I, along with some of her
friends and with some my friends, are attending the Handels' Messiah
presentation this Friday at 8 PM in Binghamton. This is our annual pilgrimage.
Sunita and Andy attended the Messiah at the National Cathedral, in Washington,
DC a couple weeks ago. They will be coming home Friday night. Our Church is
presenting a Living Nativity this Saturday from 4-5 PM at Center Court of the
Oakdale Mall, Binghamton.
We will gather
for our Sunday worship at Union Center UMC at 8:30 and 11:00 and at Wesley at
9:30AM. There will be a Christmas celebration and reception at Wesley after the
morning worship. Adult and children's choir will be singing at Union Center
during both services followed by Christmas reception at 12:30PM at the Union
Center UMC. For Christmas Eve we will gather for a Candlelight service ast the
Historic First United Methodist Church, Endicott at 4:30 PM. We will gather at
7:30 PM at the Union Center UMC for a Candlelight Communion
Service.
Jessica and Tom
will be joining us on Christmas day. Micah, Simeon, and Ada, along with their
parents, will be celebrating their Christmas in Boston. We will be going to se
them a few days after Christmas.
As we pause and
ponder about the most wondrous birth of Lord and Savior and how silently, how
silently the wondrous gift was given, we praise the Lord for all of you with
whom we are linked because of Christ. Thank you for you Christmas cards and
gifts and your love that you have shared with us. May the Christ of Christmas
fill our hearts with the fullness of His Joy, the power of His love, and the
gift of Redemption. Praise the Lord for this wonderful world we live in.
Praise the Lord for the way He fills the globe with His glory and splendor and
His grace and love. Praise the Lord for the church around the corner and around
the globe.
I am enclosing
by attachment a brief synopsis of the Naik Family here at 131 Maple Dive,
Endicott NY for the year 2012.
Once we receive and accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and savior
and begin to serve Him as our King He gives us His grace and mercy to live in
that Eternal Hope only He provides. We run the race looking un to Jesus and in
to the Eternal City. In his " The House of Christmas" G.K. Chesterton reminds
us
"To an open house in the
evening,
Home shall men come,
To an older place than Eden
And a taller town than Rome
To the end of the way of the wondering star
To the things that can not be and that are,t
To the place where God was homeless and all men are at home."
Joy to the world the savior is born.
In Him,
Pastor Brown
http://youtu.be/X-LEVmxL5Y8
Home shall men come,
To an older place than Eden
And a taller town than Rome
To the end of the way of the wondering star
To the things that can not be and that are,t
To the place where God was homeless and all men are at home."
Joy to the world the savior is born.
In Him,
Pastor Brown
http://youtu.be/X-LEVmxL5Y8
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