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The Weary World Rejoices

Pastor Jack

Pastor’s Ponderings

December 2024

  

Weary is a good way to describe the state of our world as the calendar year 2024 comes to an end. Our world is weary of war, as conflicts in Ukraine and in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon continue. Our country is weary of conflict and strife and economic uncertainty. Collectively, many of us feel worn out. Weary.

 

The world into which Jesus was born was also weary. The Jewish people had previously suffered oppression under the hands of the Babylonians and Greeks, and now they were suffering oppression at the hands of the Romans, aided by a tyrannical puppet king named Herod the Great. The people had endured generations of anxiety and uncertainty. When would deliverance finally come? When would the days of weariness end?

 

To me, one of the most poignant and encouraging lines from the much-loved Christmas Carol “O Holy Night” is a line near the end of the first stanza: “A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices.”

 

It’s not easy to hold on to hope, especially when promises are much delayed or seem to be in danger of not getting fulfilled at all. Like the heroes of the faith lauded in Hebrews chapter 11, we can “see and greet the promises from afar” even if they are not fully fulfilled in our time. Nonetheless, as the line after the weary world line attests, “for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.”

 

Please join us on Sundays during Advent as we talk more about holding on to the promises. Our annual Christmas cantata is December 8, and our annual Christmas Pageant is December 15. During the fellowship time following worship on December 15, we will once again welcome the Gunn High School choir. And on Christmas Eve, we will join a weary world in rejoicing that Christ is born.

 

Looking forward to seeing you soon.

 

Grace and Peace,

 

Pastor Jack

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