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Dear Sisters and Brothers

It’s Christmas time! This is the perfect time of the year to look back and evaluate our lives in light of the circumstances and events we experienced during 2009 and also look to the future to make commitments and decisions.

This 2009 was a year of transitions and changes. The country experienced a change of Administration with a new President and a new Congress. This change also represented changes in policies and legislations that generated a mix of expectations and concerns. Along the year we have seen people very anxious and very angry while others very satisfied. Issues around the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, The Health Care Reform, Immigration, Energy and international policy were the center of discussions and political dialog. In many cases we saw on television stations and town hall meetings or during informal conversations among friends and neighbors how these discussions passed the limits of civility breaking our traditional way dealing with these type of disagreements.

The financial crisis is still beating families’ economy and the level of unemployment is still high which creates a burden that put limits on our traditional ways to celebrate Christmas. Some families are still grieving for the lost of their homes or jobs and this makes hard it hard to think about Christmas celebrations.

Within the church the year also was a combination of expectations and concerns. The new focus on Mission work as well as new activities and events that generated a new type of energy was combined with the continued declining in membership. The vote on the last set of amendments to the Constitution also generated concerns and expectations about the future; and the continued financial shortfall in most of our churches is still a strong burden that jeopardizes the future.

Without doubt the tone of this year was a mix of concern and hope about our future.

In the midst of this what is the Christmas message for our churches and our people? Do we have a message to share for this particular time? Corrie Ten Boom, a Christian who survived extreme brutality in a German concentration camp after rescuing many Jews from certain death during the Nazi Holocaust, was later able to say, "Forgiveness is to set a prisoner free, and to realize the prisoner was you." We are the prisoners of our own concerns and expectations. We are the prisoners of our anger and discouragement. We are the prisoners of our lack of trust in the Lord who rule and lead the history, our country, our church and our own lives. The main message of Christmas is to announce that we are released of our jail by the One who came to “announce liberty to captives…to set free the oppressed” (Luke 4:18).

Let us think in the future with the hope of the One who was born to “announce that the time has come when the Lord will save his people” (Luke 4:19). These are good news. Christmas is to reveal the character, love and spirit of Christ that dwells in you, by allowing these traits to shine through your actions.

Let me suggest to you a simple action to celebrate Christmas in the spirit of Jesus. A few years ago we "adopted" a single mom. My friend was barely making ends meet and didn't have money to buy gifts for her small daughter. We invited them for Christmas dinner and bought gifts for both of them. Do you have an elderly or poor neighbor in need of home repairs or yard work? Do you know people in Hospice or the hospital you want to share the Christmas message? Find someone with a genuine need, involve your whole family and see how happy you can make someone this Christmas. This is what the Presbyterian theologian Walter Bruegeman has called the “liturgy of sharing.” For times of scarcity, the answer is the liturgy of sharing.

If you think this was a hard year for you, your finances or your church, I encourage you to practice the liturgy of sharing and you will see the Christmas blessings. If you think this was a year of transitions and expectations, the liturgy of sharing will help you to put in practice your hope for a better future and will generate Christmas blessings for you and your family. The born of Jesus Christ breaks down the walls of pessimism, discouragement, anger and lack of hope!