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First Sunday of Christmas This Sunday we sing perhaps the oddest of Christmas carols, Simeon’s “Lord, Now Let Your Servant Go in Peace” (the Nunc Dimittis). Luke’s account of Simeon’s troubling song hauntingly hints at the specter of his own death, not to mention his piercingly prophetic aside to Mary about her child’s future. Alongside the other Christmas carols we still sing this first Sunday of Christmas, this one sounds odd, even dissonant.  But just as the specter of the cross cast a shadow over the manger, the specter of death still casts a pall over this pandemic Christmas.  Perhaps then it is not so out of place, not so dissonant after all. So yes, we sing of death just a few days after our Christmas celebration of life so that by naming death, it may no longer control, terrify, or diminish us and the life this birth intended for us.  For in the birth of the Christ-child so long ago, and each time we gather around word and meal, we too have seen and heard, tasted and touched, God’s steadfast and tenacious commitment to be both with us and for us…forever!  Worship Where You Are!  Join us to Worship Where You Are this First Sunday of Christmas.  The scriptures for December 27th are Isaiah 61:10 - 62:3, Galatians 4:4-7, and Luke 2:22-40.  As we celebrate Holy Communion, remember to bring your own bread and wine/juice to your home altar.