Christmas Eve Services: FAC Deerfoot - 12:00 pm & 6:00 pm; FAC Southwest - 6:00 pm; FAC Online: 12:00, 2:00, & 4:00 pm. **NOTE: Pre-registration online required to attend in person. Love, joy, peace ... these are the simple yet profound gifts offered to us through Jesus. This is Simply Christmas.

In the beginning... John starts his narrative of Jesus at the dawn of time, the very story of Creation (get comfortable!) But wait, where was Jesus in Genesis? Poet Malcom Guite writes, "This is the gospel of all inner meaning, The heart of heaven opened to the earth ..."

Two women, two unlikely pregnancies steeped in the supernatural ... Luke's portrait of Jesus is brush-stroked by the Holy Spirit right from the very beginning. As poet Malcom Guite writes, "The voiceless find their voice in every word / And, with Our Lady, magnify Our Lord."

Matthew's story throws things back all the way to father Abraham. A list of characters past and present, reading a lot like a genealogy textbook – isn't this supposed to be about Jesus? The portrait of Christ we see emerge in this Gospel looks a lot like Moses. What does prophecy have to do with advent?

The story of Jesus is told 4 different ways in the New Testament – each Gospel a different portrait of Christ. But why? Does each offer a unique message for us? We start this advent series with Mark – his account like a fast-paced theatre show – taking us right up to the baptism of Jesus.

We’ve all gotten better over the past 20 months or so at pivoting ... Recognizing the need to adapt how we do what we do, keeping the why firmly in place. The ministries of FAC have done exactly that. And God has led and changed lives. This weekend we’ll celebrate all He’s done through FAC, and anticipate how He’ll continue to advance His mission through FAC moving forward.

In a multi-cultural society like ours, we can convince ourselves that we embrace our differences and respect one another. But then there are times the lights come up ... and the division is exposed. When we see all too clearly that we haven’t yet learned how to embrace the Imago Dei in faces and lives that don't look like ours. How can we better reflect His image together?

Life can really be an uphill trudge, can’t it? Work challenges ... Health struggles ... Relational pain ... And somehow, even when our circumstances are good, and even when we align our lives with Jesus ... we struggle. We fail. We know we’re not the people we want to be. How can we possibly reflect the Imago Dei when all we see in ourselves is brokenness?

Humanity ... We share it; we struggle with it. In the gritty brutality of the human experience, in our fragility, sometimes it’s hard to understand what makes us unique in God’s eyes from all the other life He created. But still we wonder ... We ponder the truth of human beings having been created to bear the Imago Dei — the image of God Himself. What did He have in mind?

Loss ... Pain ... Sorrow ... They’re part of the human experience, and seemingly an unavoidable worldwide constant over the past 18 months. We languish ... We grieve ... We rage. We look back and lament and ask why; it’s our natural response. Is there a way to move forward from the pain that has defined this season? Is there a way to make our sorrow a sacred thing?