A Word from our Pastor

I am very excited for our upcoming Carols, Candles, and Cocoa event next week, and I hope you’re busy inviting friends and family to join us! This week I was developing our setlist for the service, and one of the songs I placed on that list made me question whether I should have a trigger warning on it before we sing. The problem with the song? It mentions three wisemen. 

Now, I don’t actually have an issue with Christmas songs or stories talking about three wisemen. Historically we’ve assumed three because there are three gifts presented to Jesus by the wisemen mentioned in the Christmas accounts in the Gospels: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. In fact, extra-Biblical church legend has named these three wisemen: Balthasar, Melchior, and Caspar (or Jaspar). Those names aren’t in Scripture, but they are very old. We have texts that date to 500, and again in the eighth century that reference them. Still, there is something about the Christmas season that brings out the stickler in all of us. Why is that?

Is it really that we’re fighting for the fidelity of the Christmas story? Do we speak up when someone says, “happy holidays” because we are hoping to shine a light back on the manger? Do we bemoan the commercialism because it distracts? Or are we just a little extra grumpy this time of year? 

I made a conscious decision a few years ago, and it was rooted in passages like the one we will address this Sunday in Isaiah 25. When someone wishes me, “happy holidays,” I will say, “You too!” Do you know why? For one thing, I probably won’t see that person before the New Year, so there are a plurality of holidays to come; it’s an appropriate greeting. The bigger reason is that my job is to be a representative of JOY this season. My goal is to make the joy of the manger so bright that it blinds the eyes of every other distraction, and that begins with a changed heart.

Join me this season. First, join me in church this Sunday. But also, join me in spreading joy! Point people to Jesus, don’t quibble over details. Who knows? You may be annoying Balthasar, Melchior, and Caspar in heaven every time you say they didn’t exist!   

~ Pastor Jeremy