When the leaders of the early church gathered to decide questions about inclusion, they had a particular lens through which they viewed scripture.

Scripture doesn’t explicitly say it, but it suggests that she did not want to spend time with her biological family, or even with Joseph.

As Ed Oxford pointed out in the sermon yesterday, there’s always a tension in translating languages. Whenever you go from one language to another, you miss some of the nuance, some of the meaning.

All week we’ve been thinking and praying about what it means to have a dream - even when it costs.

The psalmist is demoralized, tired of suffering, tired of pain, tired of tears. And for good reason. Things have gone wrong, there’s been betrayal, the losses have piled up. And yet…

Shannon Fernando, in her message on Sunday, pointed out how it’s really hard work to press through our sadnesses.

Sometimes we loose things, important things. Maybe it was our sunglasses or our wallet. Maybe it was our friend or our innocence. And maybe it was our faith or our purpose or our belief that everything will work out.

Do you have a favorite story or two from Christmases in the past? Maybe it was a fun present you got or one of your relatives did something silly - but one way or the other, these memories always fill you with cheer.

And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. - Joel 2:28

As we see in Psalm 126, a dream can feel almost unreal - except that it’s not a denial of reality. Instead, the best and most inspired dreams are deeply grounded in reality - but they see beyond it.

There’s the Joseph in the Christmas story, and he had some crucial dreams, as we saw on Monday. But there’s the other Joseph - the one from the book of Genesis - and he had dreams, too.

As Larry Dove pointed out on Sunday, the Magi who visited the newborn Jesus ghosted Herod…

in the message yesterday, Rev. Larry Dove kept bringing us back to the gift of being a dreamer.

This week we’ve been learning about lament. Here is a lament psalm, sometimes called a poem. Or just a really honest prayer.

The key to an honest lament is twofold: it means looking reality square in the face, and it means still holding on to hope.

Some of the Psalms have subtitles. It gives you a sense of the context for the prayer you are about to read. Here is one of the clearest subtitles:

Almost the entire book of Job is a lament. For dozens of chapters, Job laments his ruined life. And strangely, by complaining to God that God has wrecked Job’s hope, Job is actually putting hope in God. Because Job is still speaking to God. Job is still praying.

Our guest preacher, Rev. Riana Shaw Robinson, led off the sermon with the words, “I love lament.”

Today is another simple exercise in giving thanks - as a pathway to contentment

By gratitude we own God’s benefits.