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From Pastor Logan...

   Devin Rodgers was joined by four other students from our Campus Ministry at the Diversity Affairs Council’s Global Holiday Festival. At the event, informational tables, foods, songs and dances, along with narratives and basic information was offered by members of our Campus Ministry plus the Episcopal Student Ministry, the Assoc of Latin American Students, Indian Student Assoc, Muslim Student Assoc, Asian American Assoc, and the Bahamas. With some nativity scenes to display, Devin was able to communicate the importance of our seasons of Advent, Christmas and Epiphany. In this setting, he found people willing to hear an essential element of our faith: that God came to us in human form in the person of Jesus, the child born of Mary.

   That’s all it takes! If you grasp that element of our faith--you got it! And in just a few weeks, on December 14th, even our youngest children in our Sunday School program will offer this message telling all who will listen that God came to us as the Manger Child. Through their joy, songs and actions, our children will be able to share the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the message the whole world needs to hear, because they got it! From their Sunday School teachers, their parents and families, through their participation in our worship and our Christian education programs, they got it! They know the message of salvation and it all begins with the birth of Jesus!

   It seems to me that everyone I encounter really needs to hear this message in some way. From the frustrated clerk at the store, to the guy who cut me off on the freeway, to the lady who spent Thanksgiving alone and worries that Christmas may bring her more of that same hollow, empty loneliness, all these people seem to be looking for a reassuring word of hope. And in giving that message to them, by what I say and what I do, I feel I am helping them to trust that this isn’t all there is, that something far greater abounds.  Even if our encounter lasts only moments, hopefully I can convey through my response to them that God’s mercy and forgiveness will bring inner peace and comfort, elements that seem to be lacking for many people right now.