{"id":6161,"date":"2020-12-23T07:19:09","date_gmt":"2020-12-23T12:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/?p=6161"},"modified":"2020-12-23T07:19:09","modified_gmt":"2020-12-23T12:19:09","slug":"bishop-devadhars-christmas-message","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/2020\/12\/bishop-devadhars-christmas-message\/","title":{"rendered":"Bishop Devadhar’s Christmas Message"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Dec. 23, 2020<\/h3>\n

Beloved in Christ:<\/p>\n

Greetings in the precious name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!<\/p>\n

Charles Wesley\u2019s hymn, “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing\u201d is based on Luke\u2019s account of the angel\u2019s announcement of good news to shepherds\u2014\u00a0shepherds, who had no formal education or social standing, who were terrified by the appearance of the angel, shepherds who upon receiving the angel\u2019s message went with haste to Bethlehem to see what had taken place.<\/p>\n

When they arrived they found Mary, Joseph, and the baby. They made known what was told to them by the angel, and all who heard were amazed.\u00a0Mary treasured and pondered their words in her heart, and the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God.\u00a0(Luke 2:16-20<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Due to COVID-19 and other challenges, Christmas celebrations will be different in many ways this year: no big parties, fewer family members at the table, limited travel, different ways of doing Christmas Eve candlelight services. Some have lost family members and\/or friends throughout this year.<\/p>\n

In \u201cCelebrating in the Pandemic,\u201d Anne Lamott writes: \u201cThe meaning of this pandemic is that we are all vulnerable and connected. We are in this together, spanning the globe, Buddhists, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, pagans, Christians, atheists. This is so much bigger than the virus, because love and caring are bigger than\u00a0anything – even, or especially, suffering.\u201d (Anne Lamott,\u00a0\u201cCelebrating in the Pandemic,\u201d\u00a0National Geographic, December\u00a02020, p. 20).<\/p>\n

In the midst\u00a0of\u00a0all this,\u00a0angels \u2014 messengers of God, continue to descend upon our lives.<\/p>\n

I experienced such an event\u00a0when I was\u00a0serving\u00a0a local church and received a call from a parishioner\u00a0stating there had been a gun accident in their neighborhood. When I arrived at the house of the accident, the husband and son were understandably distraught.<\/p>\n

The husband had been getting ready to go hunting and did not realize the gun’s safety was not on. It fired accidentally\u00a0as he was saying goodbye, and his wife was killed on the spot. You can imagine the deep pain and helplessness.<\/p>\n

Honestly, I did not know how to simultaneously comfort the grieving husband and teen-aged son. Immediately, a voice whispered to me, \u201cCall one of the saints of the church who is also a trusted leader.\u201d I called this person who worked in the guidance office of the local high school. In minutes, two guidance counselors arrived and began working as a team to help this family.<\/p>\n

Recently I was deeply moved by a news story of a Jewish doctor who had\u00a0treated a COVID-19 patient who was covered with Nazi tattoos.<\/a><\/p>\n

Naturally, this doctor\u2019s faith and compassion were tested! Though I leave you to reach your own decision on this transformational\u00a0story, as far as I am concerned, angels of God were silently whispering to Dr. Nichols about what to do and how to respond.<\/p>\n

Angels come to us in various forms:\u00a0 as an enemy seeking forgiveness and help, as a child\u00a0speaking\u00a0truth, as a person with different skin color or accent from our own, as someone whose theology is diametrically opposed to ours.\u00a0Are we able to listen to them even though\u00a0they\u00a0prick our conscience, disrupt our comfort, or make us afraid?<\/p>\n

Beloved in Christ, may we hear again the angel\u2019s message.\u00a0 May our holy listening lead to holy action, so through us or in spite of us, God may be glorified and praised!<\/p>\n

Prema joins me in wishing you and your loved ones a Merry Christmas!<\/p>\n

In Christ’s love,<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nBishop Sudarshana Devadhar<\/p>\n

Prayer<\/strong><\/p>\n

God, as the shepherds of old
\nwe make the journey
\nto see the thing that has taken place
\nthe thing that has been made known to us.<\/p>\n

We make haste to find the one
\nabout whom the angels sing \u2014
\nthe one who came
\nthe one who still comes
\nas good news to
\nthe lonely and the hollow,
\nthe heartbroken and the angry,
\nthe homeless and the hungry,
\nthe poor and the affluent,
\nthe hopeless and the fearful,
\nall made in your image.<\/p>\n

God, like the angel who said,
\n\u201cDo not be afraid: for see \u2014
\nI am bringing you good news\u00a0of great joy,\u201d
\nlike the angel who spoke to shepherds,
\nlet us announce the good news
\nwrite it on a card,
\nemail it to a hurting soul,
\npray it with a grief-stricken neighbor
\nsing it into fear,
\nlove it into the unlovely,
\nlike the angel,
\nlet us make it known!<\/p>\n

Through the love of God
\nthe grace of Jesus the Christ
\nand in the power of the Holy Spirit,
\nso may we hear and tell
\nwhat has been made known to us
\nand sing with the angels,
\nGlory to God in highest heaven,
\nand peace!
\nAMEN.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Dec. 23, 2020 Beloved in Christ: Greetings in the precious name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Charles Wesley\u2019s hymn, “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing\u201d is based on Luke\u2019s account of the angel\u2019s announcement of good news to shepherds\u2014\u00a0shepherds, who had no formal education or social standing, who were terrified by the appearance […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-worship-and-teaching"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6161"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6162,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6161\/revisions\/6162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}