Twelve Days of Christmas!

OUR PROGRAMS @ PEACE

Blue Christmas – 3pm Sunday, Dec. 15

CHRISTMAS EVE WORSHIP – Tuesday, Dec. 24:

4pm – Lessons & Carols

10pm – Festival Christmas Eve, with Holy Communion

All are welcome!

Big stores started the Christmas shopping season around the time kids headed back to school in the fall. We at PEACE are on a different calendar, marking seasons of spiritual growth. For us, Christmas starts Dec. 25 and continues through Jan. 5 — the 12 Days of Christmas! (Learn about Advent, the season before Christmas.)

So, when many people are taking down their Christmas trees, we Lutherans are just getting started!

During this time, we consider the miracle of God coming to us in flesh and blood, in the form of a child — Jesus. As a man, Jesus told a man who was curious about this, that “God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.”

Love — God’s eternal, perfect, outrageously abundant, impossibly tolerant love for us — that’s what Jesus is all about. It’s not the message you’ll get amid the crush of Christmas shopping, human expectations and social obligations.

During the Christmas season, we learn about this amazing miracle of God’s love made flesh — the child Jesus. He is born amid difficult and scandalous circumstances, adored by poor people and rich strangers, is the subject of palace intrigue, survives a shocking slaughter, lives in exile, returns a fugitive, grows up amid imperialist oppression and apparently learns to read. He made a precocious appearance in the Temple in Jerusalem at the age of 12, then disappears from view again until, as a man, he embarks on a short but spectacular preaching career.

The Holy Family -- Jesus, Mary and Joseph -- are the focus during the 12 Days of Christmas.

The Holy Family — Jesus, Mary and Joseph — are the focus during the 12 Days of Christmas.

Jesus for all people

On Jan. 6, we remember the strange visit by wealthy astronomers, probably from Persia. This marks the beginning of our season of Epiphany, when we hear stories revealing Jesus’ special mission as God’s son, who is both fully human and fully divine. Best of all, we learn this Jesus comes, not just for God’s chosen people, the Jews, but for us outsiders, too! We come to understand Jesus’ mission is to reunite a lost and broken world with the Creator who loves us.

At PEACE, we welcome all who are curious to know more about this baffling and irresistible God who would make known his love in the flesh.

Learn more about PEACE Lutheran Church.