What’s wrong with the world today?  Sin is what is wrong with the world today.  But what is sin?  Sin is separation from God.  It is entirely our doing.  God is (forgive the simile) like a friendly golden retriever puppy who wants to play.  But we kick him out of the way and slam the door.  We are inclined by nature to do this (that is the mystery of original sin) but we add to the problem every day by our neglect of God and others, not to mention our positive violations of God’s commands.  All of us, from kindly Grandma down to the most callous criminal, are separated from God, it is only a matter of degree.  The greatest saints have written about how they (even they!) feel cut off from God from time to time. So what can we do about it?  We can’t do anything about it.  We have no power in ourselves to help ourselves.  Well, isn’t that a depressing message for the Christmas season?  No!  God is the only one who can fix the problem, and he has acted!  He came to us as a human child (like us in all ways except for sin).  Naturally (when you think about it) we killed him.  But he refused to stay dead.  He rose from the dead and lives forever and makes it possible for us to overcome our separate from God. His Spirit is with us and he is on the move!  Talk about the greatest story ever told!  Christmas celebrates the birth of God as man.  As the hymn has it, the hopes and fears of all the years were met in Bethlehem that night.  Here is cause for joy. Here is cause for a truly merry Christmas!  Join us.  Our calendar of events is below.  Merry Christmas!