We gather here today in God’s Spirit of joy
that erases all memory of pain and fear
like the holy cry of a newborn child.
Despite the status quo and daily grind that stifle our humanity
Despite unanswered prayers that make us doubt divinity
In the face of desperation and discrimination, sickness and loss,
In the face of death itself, we come.
We come because of all these things,
believing that God’s joy is as unconditional as God’s love,
as unbounded and independent of circumstances as God’s own Spirit.
Holy Spirit, help our unbelief.
We gather in the joy of the Spirit who groans for us,
longing that our joy be made full,
that our joy be made deeper
than the pride we can buoy only with compliments,
more grounded than the mania we conjure against depression.
The joy of letting our guard down.
The joy of going beyond our limitations and our successes.
Giving more, doing more than we thought possible
only to find we have and are more than when we began.
Joy in the journey when the end is not yet in sight.
Walking freely in the counsel of the wise.
Being blessed by our children.
Joy transcending time and place
to make joy possible in our time and place.
“The Way of Water” – photograph by Jenn Cavanaugh
We are God’s people.
We light this candle as a sign of God’s joy
who comes to us in the newness of life
and makes a home among us, and for us.
O come, Immanuel.
Composed by and for the American Church in Paris community, the work of the people to the glory of God.
Homespun 