KINGWOODUMC.ORG
WELCOME Welcome to KingwoodUMC. Shortly after Shawn and I were married, I had the brilliant idea of taking responsibility for making a birthday cake for my mother-in-law. I confess that I was hoping to endear myself to her by making a triple German Chocolate Cake. Everything was going along just as I had planned until I took the cooled chocolate cakes out the pans. I had used pie pans instead of cake pans for the cakes. You can imagine the mess that ensued as I thought that I could just cut away the sloping edges, which then began to fall apart when I put the German Chocolate frosting on. But the mess of a cake I had prepared did not keep us from celebrating – and there were plenty of laughs about the “unique cake”. The phrase “oh how sweet” saved my ego that day. The season of Advent that leads to the celebration of Christmas can often be a bit messy as well. All too often our expectations are shaped by the culture around us that tells us that we need to purchase something, watch something or do something to make it a perfect Christmas. I’ve never experienced a Christmas that was made perfect because of the tree, present or meal; but I’ve experienced many a Christmas made perfect, albeit messy at times, by the message and those with whom I share the Good News of Christ’s birth. We can learn a bit from Mary about how we evaluate our expectations. Did she expect to be visited by Angel? Did her parents have expectations for her life? Did she know how Joseph would respond to this unexpected news? Of course, we know the whole story so we tend to glance over the messy and complicated parts of that first Christmas. We tend to focus on what happens in Bethlehem and lose sight of the challenges in the journey. We sing fondly “Away in a Manger” but rarely do we imagine the barnyard odor that accompanied Our Savior’s birth. Whatever Mary was experiencing, besides the child in her womb, I believe she is the greatest model of human faithfulness in Scripture. To the unanticipated angelic visit announcing her role in history, Mary proclaims,
“Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” (Luke 1:38) . Can we say that same thing this Christmas season? “Here am I, the servant of the Lord, let be with me according to your word.”? It’s the message in the mess of Christmas that matters most my friends. And in the following pages, you will see the many ways that we are trying to tell again this message of God’s love for us all. I can remember my dad saying one Christmas Eve, “ Words seem so inadequate to express our gratitude to God for his indescribable gift of Jesus. But words are what we have, so let us use them well to celebrate our faith.” In the following pages, you will find the many ways that we use our words, as inadequate as they may seem, to tell the story of God’s love and where God is inviting us into His story. As you read about events, please pray for the event, those in leadership and consider inviting someone to join at an event or worship experience. As you read about KUMC reaching out with the love of Christ, seek God in prayer to discern where you can become involved and pray for those are experiencing God’s love through our outreach. The Christmas season can be messy my friends. Don’t forget the message in the midst of the mess, even if you mix up the cake and pie pans. On the journey to Bethlehem with you,
B.Palmer
DR. BURT PALMER, SR. PASTOR A.K.A. “SHEEPDOG” (JOHN 10:10)
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