From the Pastor's Desk
December 2022
To all the saints at Vestal,
Okay, I was excited last month because Advent started in November, can you imagine how I feel this month? I hope you’re ready to hear all about Christmas at Grace this year! There is quite a bit happening this month, so I’ll rocket through them and you can get more details from the appropriate people later in the newsletter, or by contacting them directly.
December is starting off fast, and on Saturday December 3rd at 12 noon, our ladies will be gathering for a time of fellowship, a Christmas Luncheon (replacing the Christmas Tea this year), at the Historic Parkview Hotel in Owego. Ladies are welcome to bring guests, ordering is off menu, and each group pays their way. If you like to sing, or want to visit and support our shut-ins, please join us on December 10th for Christmas Caroling! We will be joining with the carolers from Zion Lutheran Church in Owego and reaching both their shut-ins and ours. We will gather at Grace at 1 pm and for the opening of Grace’s Place (regularly meeting on the second Saturday of every month, from 1-4 pm). Afterwards, the carolers with depart to sing to shut-ins in their homes and at nursing homes. Carpooling is available, and upon returning to grace, I plan to provide cocoa and my own homemade marshmallows (available in both peppermint and orange flavors!). Please, if you can join us to carol, do! The following day, Sunday December 11th, will be our annual children’s service, in which our children will serve as lectors and provide joyful music, during our normal 9:30 am service; see Sharon Camp for more information.
Advent midweek services continue with the theme: “The Long-Awaited Christ,” focusing on the historical birth of Jesus as the fulfillment of God’s many promises to His people, and comparing their long wait to our present wait for Jesus’ second coming. We already had our first midweek Advent service on November 30th, and our second service will be December 7th at 12 noon, led by Pastor Foote from Trinity Lutheran Church in Ithaca, preaching on the promise to David. Our third service will be held on Wednesday December 14th, at 12 noon. It will be led by Pastor Heath of Zion Lutheran Church, and he will preach on the promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The following Wednesday, December 21st, I will return to lead our final Advent service, also at 12 noon, and will preach on Isaiah and the Babylonian Exile. Please plan on joining us for these midweek services!
During Advent, we will have opportunities for you to support your community and give help to those in need. We will be collecting money for Orphan Grain Train in the milk jug, as we have in years past, see Elizabeth Spring for more information. Additionally, there is a giving tree in the narthex: Grace has taken on the goal of providing presents for three families in need. If you’re interested in purchasing and wrapping a present, those requests will be hanging from the 4-ft tree to the right of the sanctuary doors, and you can return wrapped presents with the request tag to the same tree. Whether you like to give, like to shop, or hopefully both, there are ways to help your community at Grace this Advent season.
Finally, Christmas Day and Christmas Eve. On Christmas Eve, we will hold a Lessons and Carols service at 7 pm. Lessons and Carols is a traditional old service (not that old), going back about 100 years and finding its origins in the Anglican Church. It is a service that centers on the reading of Christmas texts and the singing of related, well known Christmas carols. Traditionally 9 lessons and carols are read and sung, but we will be reading and singing only 6, to make room for our tradition’s strong emphasis on Word and sacrament. Please join us after the service for a cookie reception (and bring cookies to share! The more the merrier, they say). Christmas Day, coincidentally, falls on a Sunday this year. So, Sunday, December 25th, please join us at our regular 9:30 am time, for Christmas service, using readings marked for Christmas Dawn.
Thank you all so much for reading; I pray your Christmas be merry and bright, that you would see Jesus shining all the more brightly through these delightfully expectant days, and that you might take the time to visit us at some of these wonderful services and events.
I’ll leave with a few verses from Matthew’s nativity scene (seeing as we’ve just begun the Matthew year of our lectionary): “Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, and angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.’ All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:
‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel’ (which means, God with us). When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.” (Matthew 1:18-25)
Merry Christmas and happy new year!
Pastor Jake Bellinghausen
To all the saints at Vestal,
Okay, I was excited last month because Advent started in November, can you imagine how I feel this month? I hope you’re ready to hear all about Christmas at Grace this year! There is quite a bit happening this month, so I’ll rocket through them and you can get more details from the appropriate people later in the newsletter, or by contacting them directly.
December is starting off fast, and on Saturday December 3rd at 12 noon, our ladies will be gathering for a time of fellowship, a Christmas Luncheon (replacing the Christmas Tea this year), at the Historic Parkview Hotel in Owego. Ladies are welcome to bring guests, ordering is off menu, and each group pays their way. If you like to sing, or want to visit and support our shut-ins, please join us on December 10th for Christmas Caroling! We will be joining with the carolers from Zion Lutheran Church in Owego and reaching both their shut-ins and ours. We will gather at Grace at 1 pm and for the opening of Grace’s Place (regularly meeting on the second Saturday of every month, from 1-4 pm). Afterwards, the carolers with depart to sing to shut-ins in their homes and at nursing homes. Carpooling is available, and upon returning to grace, I plan to provide cocoa and my own homemade marshmallows (available in both peppermint and orange flavors!). Please, if you can join us to carol, do! The following day, Sunday December 11th, will be our annual children’s service, in which our children will serve as lectors and provide joyful music, during our normal 9:30 am service; see Sharon Camp for more information.
Advent midweek services continue with the theme: “The Long-Awaited Christ,” focusing on the historical birth of Jesus as the fulfillment of God’s many promises to His people, and comparing their long wait to our present wait for Jesus’ second coming. We already had our first midweek Advent service on November 30th, and our second service will be December 7th at 12 noon, led by Pastor Foote from Trinity Lutheran Church in Ithaca, preaching on the promise to David. Our third service will be held on Wednesday December 14th, at 12 noon. It will be led by Pastor Heath of Zion Lutheran Church, and he will preach on the promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The following Wednesday, December 21st, I will return to lead our final Advent service, also at 12 noon, and will preach on Isaiah and the Babylonian Exile. Please plan on joining us for these midweek services!
During Advent, we will have opportunities for you to support your community and give help to those in need. We will be collecting money for Orphan Grain Train in the milk jug, as we have in years past, see Elizabeth Spring for more information. Additionally, there is a giving tree in the narthex: Grace has taken on the goal of providing presents for three families in need. If you’re interested in purchasing and wrapping a present, those requests will be hanging from the 4-ft tree to the right of the sanctuary doors, and you can return wrapped presents with the request tag to the same tree. Whether you like to give, like to shop, or hopefully both, there are ways to help your community at Grace this Advent season.
Finally, Christmas Day and Christmas Eve. On Christmas Eve, we will hold a Lessons and Carols service at 7 pm. Lessons and Carols is a traditional old service (not that old), going back about 100 years and finding its origins in the Anglican Church. It is a service that centers on the reading of Christmas texts and the singing of related, well known Christmas carols. Traditionally 9 lessons and carols are read and sung, but we will be reading and singing only 6, to make room for our tradition’s strong emphasis on Word and sacrament. Please join us after the service for a cookie reception (and bring cookies to share! The more the merrier, they say). Christmas Day, coincidentally, falls on a Sunday this year. So, Sunday, December 25th, please join us at our regular 9:30 am time, for Christmas service, using readings marked for Christmas Dawn.
Thank you all so much for reading; I pray your Christmas be merry and bright, that you would see Jesus shining all the more brightly through these delightfully expectant days, and that you might take the time to visit us at some of these wonderful services and events.
I’ll leave with a few verses from Matthew’s nativity scene (seeing as we’ve just begun the Matthew year of our lectionary): “Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, and angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.’ All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:
‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel’ (which means, God with us). When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.” (Matthew 1:18-25)
Merry Christmas and happy new year!
Pastor Jake Bellinghausen