We are on the 2nd Sunday of the Christmas Season, which seems to have lasted since September this year. I was talking with someone last week who said that they enjoyed shopping at Nordstrom, because the store made a point of having only one holiday at a time - their Christmas displays apparently didn't come out until after Thanksgiving, which is a nice change from other places who had theirs out to rival the next aisle's Halloween decorations.

This has been a busy week both in the church and in the world around us. Here at the church we had three liturgies on Sunday, two on Monday, one on Tuesday, and a wedding yesterday. Meanwhile, The world has been shaken by the assassination of Benazir Bhutto In Pakistan, in what appears to be yet another terrorist attack.

In our own country, things are revving up for the Iowa Caucasus.

Perhaps another sign of overkill, I was talking with a young person last week who said that the campaign for president has lasted so long this time, having begun in earnest in 2006, that he has begun to tune it out. Made me wonder how many others have done the same.

And on a lighter note, last night was the football game in which the final hope of defeating the Patriots was ________ by the NY Giants

Today is the 6th day of the 12 days of Christmas, and for those of you traditionalists, you should be giving six geese-a-laying to your true love.

There are some that say the traditional gifts for the 12 days of Christmas were used as a teaching tool for catechesis. A mnemonic device to memorize the tenets of our faith. The partridge in a pear tree stands for Christ, the 4 calling birds are the gospels and so on. I'll be writing more about this in the e-newsletter this week for those of you who are interested.

This week as well, I have been hearing more ads than usual about what to do when you don't "Get what you want" for Christmas. The market hype has extended to these days of sales and people are encouraged to exchange what they got for something they want more.

It seemed to me that there was something missing in that message. While it makes sense to exchange something you can't use for something you can, I couldn't help but think of all the gifts that are given and prepared with love - prepared with the best intentions - and I found the advertisements about "getting what you want" symbolic of a world that tends to live a "me first" mentality.

And in that is the reminder to us, a reminder that cannot be heard too often, that the greatest gift did not come under the tree, but wrapped in human flesh. Word made flesh, dwelling among us

In the beginning, before the creation of the world, before the six days of creation (remembered in the 6 geese a-laying), was the Word - the logos of God. The logic, reason, divine ground of being, story, divine utterance and wisdom of God - This logic/wisdom, divine utterance was there from the beginning of time and before - before the beginning of what our finite minds can take in -

So begins the prologue of John's gospel which we hear traditionally on the first Sunday after Christmas. Most likely the prologue was written first as a hymn of praise to God. John jumps into the heart of the theology of incarnation, and skips the narratives of Christ's birth found in Matthew and Luke. And in doing so, he focuses on Christ as LOGOS, the divine wisdom and logic of God who WAS and IS God, and through him all that occurred was created.

This same LOGOS, or wisdom of God contained in himself LIFE - zoe - the ability to make alive. And that ability to make alive became the light of all men -

And this same LOGOS - this word/wisdom/logic of God, became flesh and dwelt among us. In other words, he moved in next door - he pitched his tent among the tents of humanity, coming as the child that we remember and worship this season - the greatest gift that could be given to us. Many have not recognized in him the gift that God extends, but the gift is there, ever present, ever available for those who but reach out a hand to grasp it.

And whether in the holiness of a Christmas Eve service or the joy of a New Year's celebration, we can rejoice in the LIFE that he has given - both the life force which we hold within us, and his own life shed for us on the cross, to free us from the power of sin and death.

For he is indeed, our ground of being - our reason for walking this earth - we as God's creation are here to behold his glory - to recognize the ONE who gave LIFE, and to live a life filled, for his sake, with grace and truth.

Check your pulse. Are you alive? Give thanks to God, and behold his glory.

Check your heart. Does it belong to God? Worship the One living and true God.

Who sent the very Wisdom of God to be born in a stable, that we might have life abundantly.