From his infancy, Jesus calls all peoples from all nations to follow him. That means that each of us are invited to personally follow him as King and God and Sacrifice. When we follow Jesus the bright and morning star, he leads us into light and makes us stars that invite others to follow him.

Jesus puts on our humanity so that we can put on his righteousness. He becomes like us so that we can become like him. He takes our muddy clothes, washes them by his sacrifice on the cross, and gives us clothes of white.

Jesus and Santa are different. They wear different clothes. Santa has 8 reindeer. Jesus has 12 disciples. But the biggest difference is that to get presents from Santa, you have to earn them by being good enough. Jesus gives us the gift of himself not because we're good enough, but because we could never be. He carries the sin of the whole world so that he can move us from the naughty list to the forgiven list. This Christmas, don't try to earn love by being good, receive the goodness of Jesus poured into you because of his love.

When you face a need, who do you want there with you? In Isaiah 7, we read about a king named Ahaz who does not want God with him and a king named Immanuel who will be God with us. Immanuel is God coming to be with us now in our need. Who are you trusting to be with you in your need?

We are all in exile and cannot find our way home to God. In Isaiah 35, we see that God provides that way home by the advent of Jesus. Jesus is the safe highway that brings us back home to Zion, and as we wait, the Spirit dwells in us to guide us.

In Isaiah 11, we see that a little shoot from the stump of Jesse is the hope of the world, and Jesus is that hope. When Jesus comes, he brings his perfect wisdom, perfect integrity, and perfect justice to show us a glimpse of the the better world to come.

As we begin a new church year, we place our story inside the story of God. In Advent, we remember Jesus' first coming and anticipate his coming again. In between those two arrivals, we hold onto the hope that though we are surrounded by war, God is bringing his way of peace, transforming weapons of death into works of life.

The poor widow who gives all that she has teaches us what it means to follow Jesus. The religious people want to look like good, strong people who have it all together, but the widow admits that she is weak and then gives all of who weakness to the Lord. We want to be a church of inner poverty by admitting that we are like that poor widow, meeting our smallness without embarrassment because God takes our weakness and bring new life. Jesus' offering on the cross was small, foolish, and weak, but God uses weakness to save. As it was for Christ, so it is for his church; so it is for us.

When we relate our work to God's work, our work is redeemed. God designed work but it has been distorted so that it is frustrating instead of fulfilling. In Isaiah 6 and Luke 5, we see God redeeming our work when we see him and turn to him and inviting us to be part of his kingdom work

Today was All Saints Sunday, but what is a saint? In our creed we say each week that we believe in the communion of saints, but what is that? And what difference does this make in our lives? God sets us apart as saints in baptism and brings us together in communion to make us the finger of God in the world.