Sunday Preview & Thought for the Week (12.18.14)

Whoa, can you believe Christmas is a week away?  It has crept up on me faster than ever this year.  I'm excited about our Christmas services, as this year we'll host four services, all with the same message.  So pick one that's the best fit for you.  And invite a friend or neighbor.  You can send an e-Vite with all the details here.  

This Sunday, we'll wrap up "That Awkward Moment" as we talk about the Wise Men and the big shift in direction that their journey took.  I believe it's a story to which we can all relate.

Thought for the Week
"The wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the goat.  The calf, the young lion, and the fatling will be together, and a child will lead them."  Isaiah 11:6

If you've been in church around Christmas much in your life, you've probably heard that passage.  Isaiah contains many prophecies about he birth of the Messiah, and it's often read in preparation for Christmas.  But it never gets old.  The world sorely needs the power of Christmas, and only the Christ-child can give us that hope.  It seems unattainable.  Heck, we can't even live with PEOPLE who think or look differently than us.  More than ever, we are a culture with deep divides:  red state/blue state, black/white, immigrant/native, conservative/liberal.  We are divided by for and against.  We don't seek to understand one another -- we just argue, fight, and post.  The power of the Christmas story told in Isaiah's prophecy is that what divides us no longer does under the leadership of the child born for all.  In Christ, we are all equal.  In Christ, we love one another.  In Christ, the last shall be first.  In Christ, there is no Greek nor Jew, male nor female.  In Christ, we pray for our enemies.  In Christ, we love our neighbor just as we love ourselves.  In Christ, the wolf does not eat the lamb.  They lie together.  The weak and the strong become friends.  The hunted and the hunter share a couch.  This is Christmas.  The arrival of a new day on earth.  If we want to be a people that truly 'spreads Christmas cheer' throughout the year, this is what it looks like from the perspective of God's Word.  We break down barriers.  We cross the battle lines.  We risk for new relationships.  That's what Jesus did in coming to earth.  That's what we are called to do.  That's Christmas.  I think our world needs Christmas more than ever before.

Season's Greetings,

Carter