Susan's+ Christmas message

As we dwell in the Christmas season (which of course, though you wouldn't know it at Kohls, continues until Epiphany)... let's visit (sometimes) sunny Southern California for some Christmas words from Rev Susan Russell:

On this Christmas Eve 2008, let me enter into the record this important note:

I am all in favor of living a purpose driven life.

But here’s the thing: let’s make sure that the purpose that drives us is turning the whole human race into the human family – not limiting those who can “Come let us adore him” to those who look like us, think like us, vote like us or believe like us.

Let’s make sure that if we’re going to preach family values that we practice valuing all families.

Right here in sunny Southern Dakota, Rev Kathy's Advent 4 Sermon is worth a ponder as well:

When we say yes to God, no longer are we the central character in the story. The story is about God and God’s love for us. It’s about the promise God made to Mary and God makes to us to bring us out of a life of greed and why not me, into a life that bears hope and promise.

The real world is the world in which Mary said yes to God, and the world in which each of us says yes to God. It is living fully and completely, it is feeling pain and joy, it is giving and receiving, it is life, and it is death. This world is messy and confusing. A world into which God is born in a dirty barn, so that love could burst forth. It is a world in which we enter into relationships with one another, where we see each other face to face, it is a world in which how God created us is wonderful, it is a world in which we understand the sacred in each of us and treat each other as if we were all God-bearers.