Christmas is quite possibly the biggest and most sentimental celebration in American culture. Whether you’re a believer or not, Christmas is a time full of deep meaning and significance to many people. It’s at the end of our year, and many of us feel the desire for this celebration to bring a satisfying conclusion to the story of our year.

It’s the time we’re supposed to remember “what matters most”: family, friends, and - of course - Jesus (the reason for the season). We want experiences that fill our hearts with wonder, and draw us closer to others. We want time to reflect on the year, and to be thankful for all we have. And we want traditions that help us experience the loving taste of nostalgia.

But the more expectations we put on Christmas, the bigger it gets, and the more difficult it is to satisfy all those desires. But maybe “big” is not what Christmas is about. Historically Christmas has not been one of the most popular and beloved holidays. It’s only been in the last 150 years, largely thanks to Charles Dickens and Coca-Cola, that Christmas has become a big deal.

Even for Christians, Easter is the much more important holiday, as we celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus. Throughout history, Christmas was not seen as the important, end of the year celebration it has become. Rather it was the beginning of the Church calendar. It’s not the time that we remember the “big thing” God did in the world - that’s later in the story.

In fact, the subversive beauty of Christmas is its smallness. It’s the fact that the birth of Jesus was a mostly unnoticed event in His time and place. It’s a time for us to marvel at how the infinitely large God of the Universe became as little as a fetus in a poor, teenage girl’s womb. It’s about the strangeness of the God of Creation resting in a manger.

It’s a reminder that God works in small, unseen ways through the lives of ordinary, insignificant people to make the biggest difference in His Kingdom. And though the world may not notice right away, through the story God is weaving in history, the impact of ordinary people interacting with an extraordinary God has eternal significance.

So this Christmas season we’re going to have ourselves a merry LITTLE Christmas. We’re going to look at the ordinary people in the Christmas story who chose to be faithful to the small role God asked them to play in His grand narrative. And as we do, we’re going to imagine what small roles God has called us to be faithful to in His Kingdom. And though this Christmas may not stand out as the most “meaningful” or the “biggest” in our memory, it will be another chance for us to faithfully honor the King who chose to reign from a Manger Thro

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No Christmas goes exactly as you planned. No matter how much preparation and effort you put in, things inevitably go off-book. And sometimes those moments are the most memorable and meaningful. But sometimes, they are painful and tragic.

Life gets pretty messy, because people are messy. But the promise of Christmas is that Jesus, God’s Messiah, meets us in the middle of our mess. The story of Jesus’ birth was not how anyone imagined the birth of the Messiah. A dirty stable, a messy manger, and the least likely witnesses - shepherds.

There are all kinds of historical/Biblical reasons that shepherds were usually excluded from important events, but God sent an angel to bring them to the royal announcement of His Son’s Birth. Because Jesus’ life would not look like what most people imagined the Messiah would be. He would associate with people who every other religious leader would exclude. But Jesus was here to reconcile all broken things and people to the wholeness of His Kingdom.

So in the middle of your messy Christmas, are there people you’ve chosen to exclude? People who are too messy and would disrupt your perfectly planned Christmas? What would it look like for you this Christmas to join your life to the life this messy Messiah is currently living in the world? Who might you need to include?

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Have you ever found yourself in a situation that was too big for you to handle? Ever faced a tragedy that wasn’t of your own making? Ever been asked to take on a role or a task that you had no idea where to even start? Certainly every parent has felt this way the moment they brought their newborn home from the hospital.

Imagine being asked to be the mother of the Savior of the world when you’re a teenager? Sure, it’d be a hard thing to turn down God, but how can you even comprehend the task you’re being handed? But Mary doesn’t hesitate when she meets the angel Gabriel. She simply says: “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.”

None of us will be asked to be the mother of the Son of God, that was a one-time deal. But each of us faces difficulties and challenges in our lives that feel overwhelming. And often we feel deep anxiety and stress as we worry about what the future holds. But our job is not to have all the answers or every step figured out. Our job is to be faithful to the next right thing God has asked us to do.

Mary didn’t know all that Jesus’ life would entail for her, but she knew what it was to say “yes” to God. She could figure out what the next right thing to do each day was. And no matter what challenges or difficulties any of us face, we can do the same. One little “yes” in front of another. Simply be faithful to the next right thing God is asking us to do.

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The last book in the Old Testament was written about 400 years before the birth of Jesus. It was written about 100 years after the Jewish exiles returned from Babylon, and rebuilt the temple of God. But things hadn’t gone according to plan. The people had not continued in the worship of God or obedience to His laws, and were grievously becoming more unfaithful.

Into this the prophet Malachi spoke for God, pronouncing a judgment on Israel, but reminding them of the promise of a future Messiah (anointed King of God) who would rescue the people of Israel from their sins. But Malachi claims this will come about through a faithful remnant of God’s people. The people who choose, though it does not currently benefit them, to remain faithful to God’s covenant and follow His ways.

Then there’s 400 years of silence, and the next story we get in the pages of our Bibles are a genealogy of this faithful remnant leading up to Jesus. This is a minority report of the people no one expected God to use, but He has woven into His grand narrative about the redemption of the whole world.

And then we see a story of one of these faithful men, Joseph. And through his continued faithfulness to God and to his betrothed wife, Mary, Joseph became a part of God’s grand narrative.

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God has a bigger vision for our finances than just our personal goals. He longs to bless us, so we can be a blessing. Every year we learn to join in God's generosity by doing something for those in need in our community and in our world. This isn’t just about financial contributions; it’s about participating in the joy of God's generosity. So join us as we practice this together.

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