Worship Bulletin and Information- Sunday, December 31, 2023

Sunday, December 31^st, 2023- 1^st Sunday in Christmas

The bulletin for this week may be found by looking under "downloads" at the bottom of this 

Overview:  Go in Peace

With Simeon and Anna we receive consolation (Luke 2:25) and good news: Jesus frees us to go in peace. God’s Word is incarnate, and we have seen the light of our salvation (2:29-32). “Go in peace” is our call to action—a reminder that we are freed from sin and death and sent out to share that good news with the world. “Go in peace” is also our prayer as life ends—a reminder of a love more powerful than death.

And yet . . . right along with these words of peace come troubling words from Simeon. The infant Jesus will be a source of turmoil for his people and his family. The words “and a sword will pierce your own soul too” (Luke 2:35) must have been the opposite of peaceful and comforting to young mother Mary. Luke even includes the detail that Mary and Joseph offered the least expensive purification sacrifice, a reminder that Jesus was born into poverty