By affirming Mary as Mother of God, we affirm Jesus as Emmanuel, God With Us, God born as a fellow human being. How this dignifies humanity. How this dignifies womanhood. How this dignifies motherhood. This is just what Christmas and Christianity and the Church is all about. This is the essence of the Gospel. 

If you’ve been looking in your life for fulfillment, run to the Lord, pick Him up, and hold Him close to yourself. And there, close to your heart, recognize—in the longings, the hurts, the hungers, the loneliness of the human heart—there is only One who will fulfill. That is the person of Jesus Christ.
Download Transcript

We don’t live in a world where all is calm and all is bright. We live in a world of constant tension and strife . . . . But still, there is something about this feast that every year draws us in, and draws from us hope, peace, prayers—a vision of what could be, and what we want so much to be, in this world. 

 The fact that God Himself has taken human flesh means that you and I have now been dignified in the image and in the likeness of God. The very fact of the Incarnation simply means that God—the light of God—now shines in the human experience. We are now a people of hope. We are now a people of joy. 

 What are you expecting God to do in your life because he sent his Son? It seems the world at large hardly expects to see Christians living from day to day any differently from anyone else.  Maybe we think our sins disqualify us from God using us. If that idea comes into your mind, think of David. Maybe we think we are too insignificant––as Mary would have appeared to be. But the story is true and our Faith is true: on this fourth Sunday of Advent we live our days in the presence of the God who, through the angel, told Mary: nothing will be impossible for God.
Download Transcript

Regardless of what circumstances you may find yourself in right now, or what emotions Christmas might evoke in you, I’ve got a word for all of us this morning. The word is that the Lord God now ministers to your heart this morning, and ministers to my heart—and speaks the word of peace, the word of comfort, the word of courage. 

When we feel needy, empty, lonely, crushed—remember, “There is a Messiah.” And then when the gifts come in plenty, when we’re at the top of our game—remember, “I am not He.” My response is not pride. My response is not egotism. “There is a Messiah. And I am not He."

We possess our full potential, our full personhood, from the first moment of our conception. Furthermore, we retain the dignity of personhood until the last moment of our natural death. We never lose our personhood—not with age, or disability, or incapacity, or dementia 

Watch Jesus. Watch what He does. Watch how He interacts with people, with everyone whom He meets. And then place yourself in that scene and watch how He interacts with you. Watch Jesus every day.