We come to this month of Advent and Christmas once again. There is a difference in the way that we observe this month in the Church and in the way it is viewed by our culture.

1. The count down to Christmas in the number of shopping days left. This puts the pressure on people to purchase that special gift, get the presents wrapped and in some cases shipped so they will arrive on time.

2. Then there is the need to decorate our home inside and out in competition with the neighbors.

Now there is nothing wrong with any of the above as long as it is not the main focal part of our Christmas experience.

In the Church we have our own type of countdown to Christmas. We call it Advent, which is a time of:

1. Preparation for the annual remembrance of the coming of the Savior of the world and our own personal savior.

2. We decorate our churches and homes with the central scene being the Nativity scene as the main focal point as this is Christmas.

3. We endeavor, through the Advent worship services to prepare for His coming into our hearts and lives.

If we are to really get the most out of Christmas it must be a holy day rather than simply a holiday. To our culture it is an early winter holiday that will pass with Dec. 25 & 26 being the time to take down the decorations and move on to Valentine’s Day.

In the Church our decorations remain in place as we observe Christmastide and then move into Epiphany season. When Christmas is a holy day it doesn’t depend on the number of gifts we give or receive, the number of people in our homes but the way we open our hearts to the Savior of the world.

When Christmas is a holy day then our only debt will be our acceptance of He who paid our debt on the cross for our sins. It is the wish of me as your pastor and the church officials’ wish Christmas 2007 to be a very blessed day.

It has never been easy to be a prophet. Prophets speak for God. Sometimes they were not too popular. There are two themes that dominate the writings of all the great prophets. They are JUDGEMENT and HOPE. As far as the prophets were concerned, Israel’s greatness as a nation did not depend on its prosperity or its military might. The prophets pronounced judgement on Israel’s sinfulness but they balanced it with hope. They were not all doom and gloom.

Life gets hard sometimes and its hard to hold on. It is filled with its disappointments and heartaches. We have all been there, have we not? There are those occasions when life seems to overwhelm us.

There is the Good news of the Gospel of God’s presence in our lives. In some of the storms of life, God seems to shelter us, while in others He allows us to be exposed, so that we will be all the more pressed to His side and know His great strength.

Good news for the day. Life is hard. But we can hold on. There is One who will never forsake us.

Through the long years of Christian history, the Sermon on the Mount has held a unique position. For some it has been regarded as the congealed essence of the Christian life & faith. It represents in a way the profoundest impact of Jesus as a teacher.

But the history of the interpretation of the Sermon on the Mount is a sorry commentary on human nature. People seem ill prepared to accept this revolutionary doctrine. At first this sermon seems only to drive us to despair and futility, for it obviously makes the Law of God impossible for human achievement. But the Gospel is not a word of despair but a word of joy. We are called beyond the possible to humility, to forgiveness, to the grace of God.

We place value on homes, cars, stones that we call “precious.” Saint John makes the claim that Jesus knew what was in people. He knew that we can be terribly indifferent to the beauty of God’s world, to God’s truth, love and goodness. He knew the depths of the depravity that human are capable of traveling. He saw the worst. But Christ knew the possibilities for good in the life controlled by a consciousness of God.

God knew the best and the worst about people in the past as well as the present and yet He loved them. On this Sunday before Christmas Day we remember why this baby was born to save us from our sins. At the cross we see Jesus killed not by the worst of people but the best, by religious leaders, people who considered themselves dedicated servants of the Most High, and by Romans who stood for law and order.

How much are you worth? You are worth so much that the King of Kings, the Babe of Bethlehem went to His cross for YOU.

At only one time of the year would you dream of cutting an evergreen tree and placing it in your livingroom. At no other time would you practice the extravagant generosity that typifies the behavior of most of us in December. Christmastime is characterized by strange human behavior.

Strangeness marked the first Christmas, too. Consider an infant king being born in a cattle stall, a king Herod being afraid of the baby, angels telling of Christ’s coming, Wise people making a trip, a STAR in the Eastern sky.

When we are children it is easy to WISH UPON A STAR for it makes no difference who you are. It takes a child like faith to believe THIS story. Could the wise men be charged with wishful thinking? We all know that wishful thinking can end up hurting us. The Wise men converted their wishes into deeds.

At times we seem to have lost the capacity for wishfulness, a fervent desire with glad expectation in it. It is just not pragmatic that we have lost the ability to see that God has something astonishingly good in store for us. We do not expect enough of God. We end up living frantically, plagued by discouragement. We become cynical about everything.

It is at just such a time that we need the wisdom of Wise Men who believed God would do what people by their own strength could not do. In a world created and sustained by the God, Christ has revealed we dare to be wishful thinkers and wishful believers on this Christmas eve.

If anything were too good to be true, Christmas would be. But if Christmas is not too good to be true, nothing can be. Dare to wish fervently and to entertain great expectations, for in a world where God reduces Himself to infant size to make Himself known to us, anything good can happen.

The question I have for us this last Sunday of 2007 is this, HOW DO YOU SEE IT NOW? There are two truisms that modern psychology has given us about life.

The first is this: WE SEE WHAT WE ARE PREPARED TO SEE. It may be positive, it may be negative. Remember the late Flip Wilson who used to say: WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU GET! In a way that is true. How are you approaching the New Year of 2008? With fear? With dread? With uncertainty? Some of us are. We have legitimate concerns about our health, our financial security, our marriage, our business, our children, our education. Some of us who are up in years can remember better days. Unfortunately life does not give us the privilege of living in the past. The question comes to us, “how do you see it now?”

Advent Season Worship

The season of Advent is here! Please note the following special worship services and activities and plan to join!

Saturday, December 1- 10:00 a.m. Join us as we decorate our church in its holiday finery.

Sunday, December 2- 10:45 a.m. Worship Service: “Hanging of the Greens”

Sunday, December 2- 6:00 p.m. Saugerties Council of Churches Advent Walk.

Sunday, December 16- 10:45 Worship Service: Sunday School Christmas Program.

Monday, December 24- 7:00 p.m. Christmas Eve service.

Monday, December 24- 10:00 p.m. Christmas Eve service with communion.

Don’t forget to place your poinsettia order in honor or remembrance of loved ones. Beautiful red poinsettias will be ordered from Judy’s Flower Shop at a cost of $10.00 if ordered by Sunday, Dec. 16 (after this date the plants will cost $15.00). They will be displayed in the Sanctuary on Sunday, December 23, remaining on display through Christmas Eve services. Order forms will be included in your church bulletin and this Messenger.

The Advent Walk begins at 6:00 p.m. at the Atonement Lutheran Church on Market Street. From there it proceeds to the following churches: The First Congregational Church at 333 Main Street, The Saugerties Reformed Church at 173 Main Street, The Saugerties United Methodist Church at corner of Washington Ave. & Post St. and ending with a tree lighting at St. Mary of the Snow Roman Catholic Church at 36 Cedar Street. The Services are approximately fifteen minutes long at each church.

Those participating in the walk are asked to bring a child’s gift for abused children of Ulster County. Please mark on the gift what the gifts is; if it is for a girl or boy and, if it is clothing, the size. Monetary gifts will be gratefully accepted and the monies used to buy additional presents. Please make check payable to The Saugerties Area Council of Churches.

A social hour will be held immediately following the service at St. Mary’s. Each congregation is asked to help by donating cookies, brownies and/or other suitable “finger foods.” These may be brought to the Atonement Lutheran Church so that they may be transported to St. Mary’s. Or, they may be brought directly to St. Mary’s.

Charge Conference

Our annual Charge Conference is scheduled for Saturday, December 8, at 4:00PM in the Lounge. Everyone in the Church is invited. Our new District Superintendent, Reverend James Moore, will lead us. As a part of the program, a short video produced by Bill Kemble on the history of the Saugerties United Methodist Church will be shown. You may recognize several of the voices doing the narration.

The Sunday School Christmas Program is scheduled for December 16 during the regular worship service. The children will be rehearsing during Sunday School on December 9 and 16. During the program, we will collect gifts for the children of the Wind River Indian Reservation. Gifts such as gloves, hats, scarves, school supplies, small toys, etc. would be appreciated. Families should wrap these gifts in white tissue paper. (We will refer to them during the service as white gifts.) Monetary donations would also be appreciated to help pay the shipping costs.

There will be no Sunday School on December 23 or December 30. Sunday School will resume on January 6, 2008. A reminder – if Sunday School

is cancelled because of the weather, each family will receive a phone call from one of the teachers.

Louise Wipper is 101!

On December 3, Louise Wipper will be 101 years old. Louise is still in relatively good health and her daughter is planning to take her out for her birthday. If you would like to send her a card, her address is

the Family Lodge, 108 Main Street, Saugerties, NY 12477.

The next training class on the sexual harassment of children will be held on Saturday, January 5, 2008, from 10:00 – 12:00 in the lounge. This training is mandatory for anyone who works with children in the church. If you need to take this training and did not attend one of last year’s classes, please plan to attend this one. Joan Robinson and Nancy Forsythe will conduct the training and anyone needing more

PARENTS! MARK YOUR CALENDARS!

The MYF Babysitting Service is Coming!

$3.00/hr. for one child

$4.00/hr. for two children

$5.00/hr. for three or more childrenDecember 8, 2007;

10 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Call Alisa Jones, 247-0958,

for more information.

Please remember our on-going need for greeters. Take a moment to sign up to greet, in the narthex. Also, consider sponsoring altar flowers. For the cost of $15.00, you can provide a touch of color and natural beauty on our altar. You may choose to take the flowers home with you after the worship service or have them donated to a shut-in. Both the sign-up sheet and payment envelopes are located in the narthex.

Our Teddy Bear ministry continues to provide comfort to many. You will find the teddy bears in the back of the sanctuary. Feel free to take one to give to someone in need of its comfort and companionship. Donations of teddy bears are welcome at any time. New teddy bears are needed for the safety of recipients who are ill.

10 - Faye Cartmell

13 - Alivia Dyke

16 - Doug Byrne

16 - Brenna Schupp

16 - Ann Mittag

20 - Isabel Arter

20 - Ava Machione

22 - Sarah Kopycinski

23 - Diane McDowell

The Messenger ‘s Deadline

for January is December 14

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