2018 Worship Guide

2018 Worship Guide LINCOLN DAILY NEWS Wednesday, December 5, 2018 Page 7 I n the early 1330’s an outbreak of bubonic plague occurred in China. By October of 1347 it had spread to Europe. The disease killed people with terrible speed. Twenty-five million people (a third of Europe’s population) died. I read a story of a man (during this period) who ventured out of his house at midnight on Christmas Eve. As he walked through the streets every house he passed was packed with memories of someone he had known. He knew it was Christmas Eve, and even though he knew his moment of death might be imminent, he raised his voice to sing. In the stillness of the night his voice echoed off the doors and shuttered windows. He realized he wasn’t alone as another voice joined with him. Together they walked through the death-stricken streets singing of the love of God which had become flesh in Jesus. We don’t like to think about Christmas in this way but the truth is loneliness and Christmas are connected – actually they have always been connected. When the angel appeared to Mary and announced she would, by the Holy Spirit’s power, conceive a child, Mary struggled with loneliness. Who could she talk to? Who would believe her? What friend could she trust with this defaming information? Even the stable where Jesus was born would have been a cold and lonely place for a carpenter, his bride, and their newborn child on that first Christmas night. A stable with all its crude sights, animal smells, and unsanitary surroundings is not the place to give birth to a child. It would have been lonely there without family to pray, to supervise, to offer advice, to hold her hand. W here is the in Christmas? CONTINUE