A lot of us don’t share the good news about Jesus with others because we think it must be compelling, polished, and well-received. We think we need to have our act together, be free of doubt, know all the theological implications of our faith. But the simple truth is, it is not about you. God is the one who is drawing people to Jesus. Just like John the Baptist and Andrew pointed those they knew to Jesus by sharing their own experience, that’s all we need to do as well. God will do the rest, and God is already working before we even open our mouths.

At the baptism of Jesus, God the Father calls from heaven: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” God loves his Son before Jesus does anything. God is grace, and our relationship with him begins with his love, approval, and affection. If you are in Christ, then you too are beloved. The Father is pleased with you. You too are his child.

Because of Jesus, those extraordinary words of God spoken over him are spoken over you, and over me, every day, all the time: “You are my beloved son. You are my beloved daughter. You are mine. You are special to me. I love you. And I want to bless you. Let me show you how much. I am coming on in the waters of life with you.”

God gives us his name and invited us to call out to him.

Christmas is a time for us to reconnect with the light that is within us. We turn back to the light, over and over again. In the New Year we need to be renewed if we are to shine this enduring light into the darkness of our world.

Children's Christmas Eve sermon

Love and vulnerability commingle in this holy child to reveal the meaning of the Incarnation, the miracle that changes everything. 

Joseph’s story can give us a way forward into hope as we approach Christmas. We can ask God to give us new eyes to see his dream for all people. We can allow God to show us where the Holy Spirit is moving in surprising ways. Then we can name that work of the Spirit and join it and nurture it in the world. Like Joseph, it might seem small — like taking care of a mother and baby. But God can take it and change the world.

To the question, “what is it to be a Christian?” One might respond: “to be a Christian is to choose to live a different story than the one you thought you were going to live, to have one’s life disrupted so that we live no longer live for ourselves, but for him who was born and lived and died for us.”

Isaiah’s prophecy is a song of deliverance for the people of Israel who were in exile. In the slave camps of Babylon, they would rehearse the stories of their deliverance. Though defeated and humiliated, the people of Israel in the days of Isaiah still believed that God was with them, and, in time, God would redeem them and give them safe return. There would come a day of rejoicing, not only for the captives; creation itself would bear witness to the presence and power of God almighty.