Lessons & Carols Service

This Sunday we gather for our annual Lessons & Carols service, but the scriptures we'll hear aren't exactly the sentimental Christmas card messages we've come to expect. Instead, they paint a picture of joy that's inseparable from justice—a God who doesn't just promise comfort but actively transforms the world from the bottom up.

We'll hear Zephaniah's stunning image of God singing over us with delight, not from a distant throne but right here in the midst of our messy world. We'll encounter John the Baptist's surprisingly practical definition of repentance: "Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none." Not feelings of guilt, but concrete economic transformation. We'll join Mary in celebrating a God who "brings down the powerful from their thrones and lifts up the lowly," who "fills the hungry with good things and sends the rich away empty." And we'll hear John's Gospel proclaim that this…