-Mary Katherine Washington, 2017

I love the song “Mary, Did You Know?” and picturing the Christmas season from Mary’s point of view.

I wonder what was on her heart while she was pregnant?

After the shocking announcement that she would miraculously give birth to the Savior of the World, I can only imagine she would be scared, excited, confused, and asking “why me?”

We have the same emotions and questions in our lives today.  News of a pregnancy, a new job, a death of a loved one, or an unwanted diagnosis.  I think it is ok to ask, “why me?”

Although we may never know the answer to this question, I find peace in knowing that God knows. He knew what he was doing when he selected Mary to be the mother of Jesus.  He knew what he was doing when he sent his son to die on a cross for our sins. I hope that as Mary prepared for the birth of her baby, that she felt God’s presence and His peace. As we prepare for this advent season, I hope that we will have the peace that only God can provide as we face the uncertainties of this world.

Prayer: Loving God, we live with many questions that cannot be answered, and even acknowledge that sometimes an answered question only leads to more questions. Help us during this season, and all seasons, to find strength though our faith, to live with the hard questions of life, and not demand that every question be answered, for that is not faith at all. Amen.

–Haven Parrott, 2018

As a long-distance grandmother, I am extremely grateful for the technology that allows me to see my grandson in Honolulu on a daily basis. A recent video showed Kai determinedly rocking back and forth on his chubby hands and dimpled knees – not going anywhere, mind you – just rocking back and forth with great intensity. Subsequent videos showed more in-place rocking, numerous face-plantings, heroic but failed attempts to gain traction, and undaunted efforts to push himself up and try again. The struggle was real. And as Kai struggled, his parents provided an environment of encouragement, cheering his every move. The much-anticipated video finally arrived, and a proud, goofy grin spread across my face as I watched Kai crawl like a champ across the room from one parent to the other.

Of course, Kai’s developmental struggles have only just begun. He’ll struggle to stand, walk, run, ride a bike, etc, and his parents’ job at every stage will be to encourage him through the struggle, not protect him from it, for the struggle is necessary to the struggler’s freedom and dignity. Besides, you can’t do anyone else’s crawling, walking, living, or dying for them. Parents of adult and trying-to-adult children are often called upon to witness our children struggling in ways we are desperate to waive, if only we had the power. We long to take away or take on their struggles, only to find that such strategies prove ineffectual at best and crippling at worst.

As Advent dawns, I find myself pondering the mystery and wonder of the incarnation with fresh appreciation for God’s willingness to witness – not waive – Jesus’ struggles. God, the ultimate parent, and with unlimited power, elevated all human struggling by entrusting his son to the same reality. From cradleto cross, the Omnipotent’s self-imposed impotence to make life easier for Jesus lends dignity to our struggles, particularly the struggle to watch, not fix, as our children struggle.

-Darcy Drake 2019

I’m sitting here in front of my Christmas tree thinking about how my two three-year-olds feel when they look at it. They must be in awe of the beauty of the ornaments they got to hang on it. And oh how lovely are the bright white lights winding around it from the top to the bottom. They’re so interested in the presents that sit beneath the tree; especially the ones that say their names. I can imagine all the questions and thoughts that are running through their heads…

“…what is this Christmas thing mommy and daddy and big sisters are making such a big fuss about? …it’s so exciting with all these decorations around the house and neighborhood and church; …we enjoy getting to see all the people who love us;…there are so many fun things we get to do at this time; …the Christmas music and movies are always on; …AND oh how we love hearing the story over and over in lots of different books about Mary and Joseph bringing baby Jesus into the world beneath the star’s light; …bedtime songs have even changed to ones that sing about this sweet baby.”

Christmas is truly a wonderful time of the year!

Lay all the “grown up” hustle and bustle aside.

Simply live in the present like a child, even just for a short moment.

Witness the beauty of what this season does…it brings us all together.

EVERY BIT of it brings us together.

It wouldn’t feel right without a service of Lessons and Carols so we pray that this service and resource, adapted for video, will help connect your heart and soul to the stories of the season. It is offered with great love, joy, and humility and the hope of an in-person version in 12 months.

God Bless.

Good Morning!
Welcome to the Fourth Sunday of Advent. Today we light the candle of Love as we complete our Advent Journey. Our next service will be Christmas Eve, but first, we hope you find today’s service meaningful and inspirational as we worship the Lord together.

Here is a link to the Oxford Baptist Church YouTube Channel.

The Service LiveStream should begin about 9:50, but if it is not there, continue to check back.
Should you miss us at 10am eastern, you will be able to find the service in the Past Live Streams section of our YouTube channel.

As you join us for worship, you may want to use the bulletin to follow along with our prayers and hymns. The link for that is here:

After December 20th, through January 31st, all of our services will be available each Sunday on YouTube. We will refrain from any in-person worship gatherings from now through the end of January.
The church office will be open regular hours after the holidays and the church remains available for Sunday School classes, circles, and committees to use for meetings.
If you have any questions about any of this, check our Forecaster, E-News, or contact the church office.

-Cindy Joy 2019

In this very short, extremely busy, and somewhat chaotic Advent Season, one thing that has stood out to me so much has been the ways I’ve seen people working and serving together! Putting up and decorating the Chrismon Tree;  preparing our sanctuary for special services of worship; children, youth and adults giving of their time to prepare the beautiful music of this season for services and programs; those who have pitched in to help with all kinds of tasks, great and small,  around the church; but most of all, the many, many  ways people reach out to support, love, and care for one another!

In I Corinthians 12, we read about the ‘body of Christ’ which is the clearest statement about teamwork in the Bible.  The ‘body of Christ’ is all of us sharing our time, talents, gifts, skills and abilities as we work together in unity!  It takes many willing hearts and hands to do the work of the church as we build the kingdom of God on this earth!

As we move through the final days of this Advent season, I pray that we will strive to prepare in our hearts a worthy dwelling for this Christ Child.  It is only through this Child, that we can truly experience the eternal hope, deep peace, indescribable joy, and fullness of the love He brings to each one of us!

How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is given.
So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of His heaven.
No ear may hear His coming, but in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive Him, still the dear Christ enters in.

O holy Child of Bethlehem! Descend to us we pray.
Cast out our sin, and enter in, be born in us today!
We hear the Christmas angels the great glad tidings tell.
O come to us, abide with us, our Lord Immanuel.

~Phillips Brooks, 1865

-2018 Pat Cox

“Not now.”
“Later”
“Soon”

All of us old enough to read have memories of hearing these words spoken by our parents—both mother and father—during our growing up years.

I’ve just finished reprising my most important role as a little theatre actor by playing in the stage version of that Christmas classic Miracle on 34th Street. Because this is not an action feature nor a musical, the story is not familiar to most children. But for two months of rehearsals and five live shows, I got to be Santa Claus or Kris Kringle. Playing this dual role for three years is always touching for me. The opportunity to speak to so many children who readily seek a hug or a kiss from or to Santa is my reward along with seeing their sparkling eyes. Their faces are filled with immeasurable wonder and excitement.

Those of us who know the storyline are familiar with Susan Walker, the little girl who didn’t believe in Santa because her mother had forbidden her to believe. Santa realizes what Susan needs is an “infusion of imagination.”

In Act 1, Scene 5, Susan bargains with Santa for her Christmas gift as she asks for a house and a father to live in it with both she and her mother. Susan catches Santa by surprise when she says either you are Santa or just a kind man with a white beard. And Santa counters Susan by replying to her request “If everyone got what he or she wanted right away, life wouldn’t be as much half as much fun.” That’s not a line any child would want to hear. Or many adults either. Susan, however, in the end, did get her wish.

Eight hundred years before the birth of Christ the prophet Isaiah proclaimed, “But to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6) Eight hundred years is a long time to wait. But wait they did.

Even now we wait. We know the script, We know the story, We know the characters. And most importantly of all, we know the Author. And he has provided a happy ending for us and all who choose to accept the gift found in a manger in Bethlehem so long ago.

The great Joy in this story is that we too have a house, a home, with a Father to live in it with us. An earthly house… and then a heavenly home.

-Susan Satterwhite, 2019

Often times we focus on the final destination and fail to enjoy the journey.Christmas is more than a single day; it is a season that we should work to embrace all along the way.Our minds are often clouded with all the tasks of the season that many times we become overwhelmed and fail to find the joy along the way.We get confused thinking we will find joy in a gift or in an event.

While thinking about finding joy, I reflected on Mary and Joseph’s journey to Bethlehem and how their journey had to have been stressful and overwhelming.They had to travel a long way in difficult conditions. They were unsure how things would work out. They had no idea where they would find their resting place to welcome baby Jesus.Although their journey was extremely difficult, they welcomed Heaven here on Earth when baby Jesus was born. This is when our joy was born.

Our journey seems similar: memories of loved ones, financial struggles, health issues, and the overwhelming daily to do list.The journey may not be easy, but there is joy in the journey if you walk with Christ along the way. Joy is the presence of God.We can welcome God into our lives everyday, everywhere. But I invite you to be present with us all to feel the presence of God as we celebrate during this season at Oxford Baptist Church.

The ability to have joy is a gift.Our circumstances may not be desirable, but we can still have joy. Joy is a condition beyond our daily circumstances here on Earth. Joy is everlasting, joy is found in our relationship with Jesus. God has given us so much grace that we must in turn give it to others and to ourselves.

This season I urge you to join me in finding joy on this journey.While doing some reading, I came across an acronym that I think will help us on our journey:J- Jesus, O- others, Y- you. If we focus on this goal I do believe we will find joy in the journey.Our focus must be on our relationship with Jesus, we must love and give to others, and with this as our focus, we will find joy in our own hearts.

The journey will be hard, but focusing on our Lord– who He is, what He has done to save us, and His promise to keep us– will surely bring us joy along the journey.Let’s travel together….

But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid.  I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.Today in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.”Luke 2: 10-11

– Natalie Aho, 2017

Mark 1.12: And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness for forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.

Have you ever been in the wilderness?

The dry, parched lands. The thirst. No sight of home. No good food.
No relief from the sun. Endless days and nights.
No hope to be found. Little sleep, no rest, and always the routine.

Our journeys through life may not be as physically challenging the desert, however, different times in life can be just as grueling and sometimes it is hard to find hope:

Should I keep this job?
Will we ever have kids?
Is it time for my mother to go into a nursing home?
Can I afford to send my kids to college?
Why is it hard to make friends?
Should I stick this marriage out?
How will I have this baby? (at least I think that’s what Mary would have wondered in Luke 1:34)?

These are agonizing, tormenting, decisions that cause us to lash out at others, lose sleep, and wallow in stress. We all share the humanity of wrestling with decisions. We want to follow God’s direction. And, if anything, we have learned that trying to go without God may only lead us to the belly of a whale. So, in our contemplating and analyzing, we struggle to know what DOES God want me to do?

Yet, sometimes there is just silence. God does not shout in our ear the direction to take. God does not write it on our walls or tell our friends the answers. God does not even send us an angel to tell us why this is happening to us (Luke 1:28-38). Elijah said he heard God in the still small whisper. And sometimes we do, too. But what about those times when we don’t hear anything at all?

It seems we are left to wander in our own wilderness trying to find the way to our promised land. We may seek comfort in friends and family, as Mary did with Elizabeth, or maybe we feel that we have no choice, as Joseph did when he contemplated quietly breaking off the engagement with Mary. Either way, we feel alone. Hope is hard to find.

We’ve framed the Advent season as the prelude to the birth of Jesus and when we picture it, we add three wise men, camels, shepherds and angels. But what if at our nativity scene, we added Moses, Abraham and David gathered around the manger?
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These Old Testament characters seem out of place in our Advent story. Yet, I wonder if think they point us toward the life we are asked to live in the light of the Advent miracle?

Can they help us put the struggles of Mary and Joseph into our own struggling lives?

When we are facing a period of wandering and feeling directionless, are we repeating the life stories shown to us in the Bible:

Moses and the Israelites – wandering for 40 years; Abraham following God’s call to “go to the land I will show you (not have shown you)”;

Solomon seeking to find the meaning of life; David running, hiding, trembling from his enemies;

prophets gone before us – Jonah, Jeremiah, Elijah; and finally questioning and concerned Mary and Joseph? Each has shown us that wandering and wondering is an unavoidable part of our humanity.

Sometimes it is our own doing: we stray from God and then forget what God’s voice sounds like. Other times, the wilderness is a part of our growth – to prepare us, prune us, mold us, and form us. There are times when it is not explainable, and we will not ever know the answer to why we are in this situation. However, when we are going through our wilderness, we can be comforted by looking at the whole of God’s story, to see that before each journey – God was there, during each journey – God is there, and at the end of each journey – God will be there.

Our journey will probably not be toward giving birth to the Son of God in a manger at the end of a day’s travel, but we will definitely receive assurance from the Son of God born to us 2,000 years ago. There is relief and hope in our deserts, and his name is Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. May we keep wandering.

Prayer: Eternal God, sometimes our wandering feels long, dry, and aimless. Help us by assuring us that you are with us, each step of the way.