A Christmas Message from Pastor Melissa

On behalf of Franconia United Methodist Church, I want to wish each of you a blessed Christmas. My prayer for each of you is that you will truly “keep Christmas well.”  Keeping Christmas well involves so much more than just celebrating Christmas.  It means living it.   In our worship together, we have been exploring the transformation of Ebenezer Scrooge for Charles Dicken’s classic story, A Christmas Carol.  After being visited by the three spirits of Christmas, Scrooge is a changed man.  He proclaims, “I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all year.”  The final paragraphs of A Christmas Carol report that Scrooge “knew how to keep Christmas well.”  To this Dickens adds, “May that be truly said of us, and all of us!”  Keeping Christmas well means paying close attention, not only to what happened at Christmas, but especially to its meaning.  “For unto us a child is born”, and in Christ Jesus we find peace, hope, love and joy. How will we live this out? Ebenezer Scrooge could not contain his exuberance at being given the gift of living–truly living–another day. My friends, may it be said of each of us that we “keep Christmas well” as we abundantly share Christ’s peace, hope, love, and joy.
Blessings, Pastor Melissa