Worship Guide - Christmas 1, Year C

He said to them, “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”
​~Luke 2:49
 
Wasn’t it Christmas just yesterday? Surely it was, yet here we find ourselves transported 12 years to a young Jesus on the verge of adulthood making good trouble in the temple. If we want to recover the 12 days of Christmas, this surely doesn’t seem to help! At least we get this in Luke (and in Samuel!). The other gospels are even less interested in letting Jesus be a child!
 
And yet. The boy—the boys, Jesus and Samuel both—may be teaching us about lingering, about not moving so fast, about attending to what is worthy of our attention, about giving ourselves to what makes for Christmas living. The truth of a moment surely depends on your perspective. We cannot blame the parents for their panic when they find that Jesus is missing on the road home. But can we fault Jesus? There is a singularity of purpose, a mindfulness to the moment that may be just the medicine we need to navigate our way through anxious, unsettled times in Christmas confidence. The psalmist has something to say about this too, lost as well in seemingly unbounded gratitude.
 
There’s a good place to linger for a while! Let us listen and learn. And breathe. Deep. 
 
Enter into worship.
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Sunday's Texts: 1 Samuel 2:18-20, 26 † Psalm 148 † Colossians 3:12-17 † Luke 2:41-52

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