We would love to know more about Jesus’ childhood and the
years in which he was growing up in the little country town of Nazareth. The
only story we get is of one very public occasion in which Jesus slipped away
from his family to sit with the teachers and scholars in the temple court in
the center of the busy city of Jerusalem. This is the very miracle we
celebrate: that Jesus, the most humble of men, was also the very Light at the
center of His Father’s House.

Our celebration of Christmas now turns into Epiphany when the Magi followed
a star that led them to Bethlehem. There they found the Christ Child, Jesus,
and worshiped Him as King. As we consider the mystery of just how that guiding light might have
worked, we can celebrate that God has arrived in our midst to guide us. He is a
real guiding light. Wise men and women still seek Him because the True Light
that enlightens all things has come! Today we bring Him the gift of our
worship and rejoice in His glorious guiding light.

Jesus was born into the real world that we live in. The new
born child was already inspiring jealousy and threats. Joseph and Mary were
warned to escape to the safety of Egypt. This is what we celebrate: that God
has come to be with us in the entire reality of the world we live in. He is why
we are forever confident that goodness and truth wins out in the end.

On this Fourth Sunday in Advent, we celebrate our Emmanuel (God with us).  Long ago the prophet spoke of this, that God himself would come to be with us. As this promise was about to be fulfilled we
hear the angel tell Joseph to name his new son “Jesus, because he will save his
people from their sins.” This is what we prepare to celebrate: God has come to
be with us, and we know his name is Jesus.

One man stands at the cross roads of God’s Word. John the Baptist strides between what we know as the Old Testament and the New Testament. He was the first prophet to appear in hundreds of years. His message was extraordinary. In the past God had made promises. “Now,” said John, “God is fulfilling His promises.” John reminds us that those who hope for God will indeed see Him, and even now, God is not far from us. God is true to His Word

Happy New Year! The Church Year begins anew today. Advent is a season of waiting and preparation. One Advent tradition is to mark the four Sundays in Advent with four words that encompass what Jesus brings as He comes into the world to be our Immanuel—God with us. These four words are hope, peace, joy, and love. Today we focus on hope. We unite our hearts to greet the humble king, Jesus. In His incarnation, death, resurrection, and return we have great reason to hope.

Jesus, the King of Kings did not need a throne. Instead of a throne He took the cross. On it He prayed for forgiveness for His executioners. From it He promised paradise for the thief on a neighboring cross. And because of His royal sacrifice, the Father “delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son.” We may not understand all that is happening in the world around us. But we can trust that Christ Jesus is King of Kings. So as the hymn says, “lift high the cross!” For here is our King.

As the end of the Church Year draws near, we can take heart that God will finish what He started. God has promised to orchestrate the events that shape history to a good end. Throughout the church year we celebrate that God himself appeared and Jesus won our salvation from sin, death, and the devil. In these last days of the church year we hear Jesus tell us that hard things may come but in this God is completing the fulfillment of His Word and oath. No matter what comes we can live in a sense of expectation: “Stand up,” He says, “and lift up your heads because your redemption is drawing near.” “The Son of Man is coming in a cloud with power and great glory.”

Today might just be another day, but on this day we can celebrate that God is taking us to the day when we will join with all who have hoped for the gracious blessing of eternity in heaven. In this hope we celebrate that God is with us even now. God came to Moses in a burning bush and told him, “take off your sandals for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” God said to Moses, my name is “I am who I am.” The name Yahweh means “pure being.” Jesus tells us, “He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.” That gives us a lot to celebrate today and for an eternity of days.

What does it mean to be called a saint? We can still live in the here and now where everything can become routine and predictable and yet a saint knows there is something holy and sacred about the whole of life. Saints know that everything is a gift from God. Saints learn to depend on God, and count on his goodness, mercy, love and compassion. Saints do not give up, always believing and hoping in God’s amazing and ingenious ways. Saints take heart in the great reversal of Jesus, who left His grave alive again to show us, that for His saints, God has an eternal life in heaven.