New Year Greetings from Pastor Charles

We’ve all seen it. Every year it’s on stage at the Goodman Theater in Chicago and countless community theaters. There are so many versions of it, from Patrick Stewart to Mickey Mouse; from George C. Scott to Jim Carrey. Even Bill Murray did a unique and wonderful version of it a few years ago. My personal favorite is the version the Muppets did with Gonzo as the narrator!  It’s Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, and the man of the hour is Ebenezer Scrooge.

The self-made, self-occupied, and self-centered man is visited by three spirits, the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future. The three of them do the work of the Holy Spirit in effecting a complete transformation of Scrooge from uncaring curmudgeon to compassionate human being. 

I confess to being moved every time I see the moment when Scrooge realizes that “the spirits have done it all in one night” and he has the chance to really experience the joy of Christmas for the first time. Then old Scrooge promises, “I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year." 

Many of us have made that same promise. Now in January, as we take down decorations and return to the same old routines perhaps something can be different. Perhaps, like the Magi, we may “return by another route.” Maybe we can keep Christmas in our hearts all the year.

If you have ever wanted to make more room for God in your life, if you have ever wanted to sense the presence of the Spirit, if you have ever wanted to connect with your spiritual self… now is the time!

Here are some of the ways to connect with your faith as you live in this New Year: 

+A good place to start would be with our Advent/Christmas devotional.  This resource was created by members and friends of Stevi UMC and continues until Epiphany, Jan. 6^th. 
+There are five adult classes/groups that meet each week and any of these groups would love to welcome you.  
+We have rooms for children and youth – will you be there to lead by your example?                                                           
+A Word In Time, an online Bible study provided by the Methodist Church in England. 
+Maybe you’d like to try your hand at reading the Bible through in one year (just three chapters a day) via our church's website.  

You can experience it in worship on January 11 as we renew our covenant as disciples through the Wesleyan Covenant Service.  It’s a simple, straightforward way to look at life differently… to make a change… maybe even to keep Christmas all year. 

At the close of A Christmas Carol, the narrator tells us, “Scrooge became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world. 

Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset… His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him… It was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge.”

And then the narrator speaks to you and to me: “May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless us, every one!”

Every blessing,
Pastor Charles