The Word, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, Who existed before the beginning with God the Father, sharing His substance, in time became human flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary and dwelt among people, showing His glory, as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:1, 14). The God-man Jesus Christ lived, died, and rose again to save all people from their sins. Those people who repent of their sins and trust God to forgive them for Jesus’s sake receive eternal life–the greatest gift we could imagine. The Twelve Days of the Christmas season celebrate the Word’s becoming flesh for us and for our salvation, work that was finished years later on Good Friday (John 19:30).

In 2016, Pilgrim Lutheran Church celebrates the Nativity of our Lord Christmas Eve on Saturday, December 24, with a 6:00 p.m. Candlelight Service of Readings and Hymns (modeled after the Kings College “Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols”). We celebrate the Nativity of our Lord Christmas Day on Sunday, December 25, with our usual 9:30 a.m. Adult Bible Class and Sunday School and 10:45 a.m. Divine Service. The following Sunday, January 1st, what would normally be the First Sunday after Christmas, this year will be observed as the Feast of the Circumcision and Name of Jesus, following the regular schedule. Especially in the Divine Services the forgiveness of sins earned by Jesus’s birth, death, and resurrection will be distributed in Word and Sacrament. All are invited and welcome to all three of the those services this Christmas season!

You also may be interested in reading the content of the December 2016 issue of The Lutheran Witness, much of which deals with answering popular questions about Christmas. For The Lutheran Witness online, click here.

The banner graphic at the top of this page and the image used in the slider on the front page were created by Carla Adsit using Michey Krilloff’s www.Shutterstock.com image of an unidentified cathedral’s stained-glass window found here.