Remember your friends and family that are living in a nursing facility or shut in at home. Send a card, take a gift, or go and visit.
Mark your calendar for the Christmas Eve Candlelight Service at 6:00 p.m. Everyone is invited and everyone is welcome. The babies can wear their pajamas to the service and grandma can keep her apron on. Let us remember why we celebrate Christmas in the first place. Light refreshments will follow the service.
Our church is decorated so beautifully and Stormy Armstrong did most of it. Her husband, Rodney, brought his trusty ladder and did what he was told; a safe decision. Rodney is the hardest working Catholic the Dublin Methodists have!
The Goodfellows have been working like Santa’s elves to help people this Christmas season. Several ladies I know are Goodfellows, how does that work? But they all make an effort for their community and should be appreciated.
Nancy Wooldridge served as Worship Leader, Cole Moore helped with the offering and David Cleveland and Conner Moore served as ushers.
The entire Moore family came forward for the Advent program. Brady read the message while his father, Sammy, lit the candles.
Jo Ann Ragan is out of the hospital and mending at Senior Care rest home in Stephenville. Norma Parks is also out of the hospital and back home. Both of these ladies suffered a fall.
The congregation extends deep sympathy to the family and friends of Sandy Hickey Harris. We need to keep Sarah Harris in our thoughts and prayers.
Pat and Paul Beaty will be celebrating an anniversary on 12-23, congratulations to a lovely couple.
Laura Leatherwood told the children about getting the message out. She said many years ago villages had town criers who rang a bell and called out the news. Next people had newspapers to read to know what was going on. Laura asked “What do you use to get the news?” They answered the TV, radio, internet, and telephone.
Laura told the children about John the Baptist being a messenger of God. The people would come to hear John talk and then they would confess their sins and be baptized. But John knew Jesus was coming. John said a person greater than I am is coming, a man so special that I am not good enough to untie His sandals.
We should be messengers too Laura said. We should tell people about Jesus.
The scripture lesson was from the Old Testament, Isaiah 61:1-4 & 8-11 but Rev. Ken Lunsford began to preach from the book of Luke.
Luke tells of Jesus going back to Nazareth and reading from Isaiah in the synagogue there.
Jesus read these words; “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Then Jesus said “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” This last statement made the crowd furious and they drove Jesus out of the town. It still upsets people today because in it, Jesus was meddling with issues like needs of the poor or people in prison or folks with handicaps.
These words come as close as anything the Gospels have to offer as a mission statement from Christ. It declares what He is about. Christ has been anointed by God to bring good news to the downtrodden and afflicted. If you think the modern church talks too much about the poor and disadvantaged, it is because Christ cared so much for them. Christ calls us to be people of compassion.
We are living in the light of the star of Bethlehem. The message of Christmas is and will always be Good News for all humankind.
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