The best gifts are those that totally take us by surprise, but with a surprise gift comes the risk of disappointment. Have you ever been disappointed with a Christmas gift? Maybe you didn’t get the thing on your list but got something else instead? A surprise gift makes a great Christmas; a disappointing gift can ruin a Christmas. That’s the great thing about Santa Claus, right? He gets you exactly what was on your list. He doesn’t deviate, he doesn’t try to get creative or sentimental or go out on a limb and improvise; Santa never disappoints you. But he never really surprises you either. But when it comes to gifts, I think that the sweetest and best gift is actually the gift that you never knew you needed, a gift you didn’t even know to put on your list. But someone who knows you best gives it to you, knowing deep down that it is exactly what you need and want. And that is exactly the kind of gift we celebrate at Christmas. The record of the events of the very first Christmas tell us that those who came to the cradle and the manger were seeking something, but they found something they never expected. And ultimately, that is our question on this Christmas. Do we want a Heavenly Father who doesn’t always give us everything on our list, who risks disappointing us in the short term in order to surprise us with a gift we didn’t know that we desperately need?

If you are not a follower of Christ, the idea of resurrection may sound completely unbelievable; indeed, even Jesus’ closest followers struggled with His claims that He would die and be raised. But Christians also have two challenges when it comes to resurrection: some Christians will over-emphasize the cross at the expense of the resurrection. And other Christians still will declare the importance of the resurrection, but can only imagine its significance as having future value for believers awaiting the new creation. It can be easy to miss, but the miracle of resurrection is clear and evident from the very beginning of the Christmas story. Join us this morning as we look at Simeon’s prophecy in Luke 2 and are brought to understand and appreciate the true gravity of the miracle of resurrection.

The phrase “deafening silence” could adequately describe the 400 years of history between the last book in the Old Testament and the angel announcing the birth of the promised Savior on that first Christmas morning. Imagine your experience of God as a burning bush, an audible voice, a pillar of cloud and fire traveling before you. He parted the sea and provided bread from heaven; He consumed your enemies and went before you in battle in miraculous ways; He spoke clearly and often through His prophets. And then silence. Do you feel that way sometimes in your walk with God? The gospel writer Luke, in recounting the Christmas story, wants God’s people to once again know that the Spirit of God has awakened; that the early rays of dawn are showing themselves in our darkness. Luke opens his gospel with the Holy Spirit at work, filling His people. Elizabeth is filled with the Spirit; the baby in her womb is filled with the Spirit and leaps for joy; Zechariah is filled with the Spirit and once again begins to praise and prophesy. But the biggest miracle of Christmas is what the Holy Spirit does in Mary, the mother of Jesus. I know this can seem like a familiar text, but let’s listen with fresh and expectant ears.

This week starts the season of Advent, the season of waiting for and anticipating the coming of Jesus which we will celebrate at Christmas. And for the kid in all of us, it begins the season to think about giving and getting gifts. It can sound unspiritual and worldly to talk about presents at Christmas. But isn’t that what we are celebrating? The joy in receiving the greatest gift ever, Jesus Himself. We are getting ready to celebrate this miracle of Christmas, but when we look at the whole of Scripture, that first miracle of that baby born on Christmas night was just the beginning of other miracles that would come. Because in that manger was not only the greatest gift the world has ever known, but also the greatest gift giver the world has ever known. Sometimes we don’t see it, because we stop at the manger; we stop at the cross. But Jesus is present with us every day in even more miraculous ways than those. So this season we are going to look ahead to all the miraculous ways that Jesus comes to us starting with the fact that He is Immanuel, God with us.

The truth about Christmas is that we can so easily miss it as it passes us by because our eyes are fixed on so many other things. It’s not that we easily miss the day. No matter what you believe about Christmas or how much you pay attention to it, it really does completely invade our calendars and our lives once a year. There is no missing the actual day. But often things like presents, family, parties, lights, decorations, baking, preparations, credit card bills and traditions, sometimes all of those things begin to become the only lens through which we view Christmas. And Christmas comes and goes and we miss what we need most about Christmas. And the amazing thing is that the Bible tells us that those who were right next to the events of that first Christmas over 2000 years ago almost missed it too. They really barely noticed it. But when they finally did notice it, it brought them so much joy it could barely be contained. What they almost missed is the same thing that you and I are in danger of missing each Christmas. With our fast paced lives that baby king, that fragile savior in that manger, is still just as ignorable as He was on that first Christmas if we let it. So let’s take a look back at that first Christmas night and see what it has to say about our own Christmas two thousand and twenty some years later.

The Christmas story is one filled with joy and wonder. Over and over in the opening chapters of Matthew and Luke, Scripture says: “And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at His birth.” Angels tell shepherds, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.” Mary exclaims, “My spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” When the wise men saw the star they “rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.” And it truly is a time of joy and wonder when we allow ourselves to stop and consider all that God has done. But embedded in the Christmas narrative is a dark and troubling moment that is easy to overlook amid all the joy: Herod murdering all the male children of Bethlehem. It’s hard to imagine among all the rejoicing something so tragic, and so evil as this. Joy seems to take a backseat to tears and weeping. So let’s look at this part of the story this morning and what it might be saying to us in our final week before Christmas. Because the troubling parts of the story have just as much to say to us as the encouraging parts.

We are in the third week of our advent series, “Missing Home” because many of us miss home during the holidays. But also because with all the frantic busyness of the holidays, it’s easy to miss what Christmas is trying to tell us. One of those things that we can miss is just how unbelievable some of the elements in the Christmas story are. Wise men being led by a heavenly object toward where the Savior lay. Angels and prophecies. But perhaps especially, the virgin birth of Christ. According to a 2017 study, a narrow majority of Americans still believe in the virgin birth but that number has been rapidly declining every year for decades. And some Christians will get mad about that saying, “Christmas is ruined!” or “We need to take back Christmas!” But we need to realize that Mary and Joseph didn’t believe it either! They needed a dream and an angel to tell them what was happening. Because a virgin birth IS unbelievable. Many of the elements of that very first Christmas ARE unbelievable. Even for those who hoped in its coming.

If you are accustomed to hearing the Christmas story you are used to it starting out something like this: “Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.” But what we often forget is that there are 17 verses that come before that familiar start to the the account of Christ’s birth. Granted they aren’t very exciting for us. But Jewish readers and rabbis at the time regarded the first 17 verses of the Christmas account as a miracle on the same level as the parting of the Red Sea. We are in our Advent series leading up to Christmas called “Missing Home,” because many of us miss home during the holidays if we are away. But also because with the rush and busyness of the holidays, it’s easy to miss what Christmas says about our true home; it’s easy to miss what Christmas tries to slow us down to hear in the month to come. And it’s easy to miss all of the hope and fulfillment that are hidden in the first 17 verses of Matthew’s account of the Christmas narrative. So, let’s read it together and see how the Christmas story really begins.

There is another season that we can choose to enter into that comes between Thanksgiving and Christmas: the season of Advent. The word Advent means coming or arrival. And in modern times Christians typically focus the coming weeks of Advent on remembering and celebrating the anticipated coming of Christ as a baby in a manger, the long awaited savior born in Bethlehem. However, Advent was also a term that originally described waiting not just for the coming of Christ’s birth, but also describing our waiting for the coming of Christ’s final return. And we don’t want to miss that aspect of our waiting. That even now, with the hope we have of Christmas, we still await a final and better hope. We await our eternal home which we have been promised where there is no more fear, anxiety, sorrow, pain and exhaustion. We are calling our Advent series this year “Missing Home.” Because this is a time that we often long for home if we are away, but also because it’s easy among all the holiday clatter to miss what this season has to tell us about our true home. The heavenly home we are waiting for made possible by Christ’s birth, life, death and resurrection over 2000 years ago. This morning as the first Sunday of Advent we are going to take the morning to look ahead to the hope and the home we are still waiting for in Christ’s return before looking back in the weeks to come to the hope that has already come in the manger.

This Christmas we may need a lot of things. We may need more money, deeper family connection, a new job, or maybe our health back. This Christmas we may need a lot of things. But what we really need is peace; a settled peace that nothing can shake. And that is the message of that first Christmas, and every Christmas, that we need so badly. That peace on earth is possible. Not the absence of war, but a deeper peace even than that. The peace on earth promised on that first Christmas means an existence without fear. A peace that brings with it light and hope and doesn’t depend on us having it all together, being in control, or knowing what the coming year will bring. Peace with God again, and peace with one another again. That’s why we need Christmas so badly. Because what we really need is peace - our Prince of Peace.

We’ve been going through the titles of Jesus in Isaiah 9 as a church this Advent season, anticipating the celebration of Christmas and the coming of our Lord. In Isaiah 9 the anticipated child to be born to save Israel is named ‘Everlasting Father’: what does it mean for this baby to be called our Everlasting Father? It can be difficult for us when we hear of God being referred to as ‘Father’ because we immediately imagine our own earthly fathers and place our own experiences, good or bad, of our own fathers onto God. So let’s look at what the text has to say for us, pointing us towards our immensely good and Everlasting Father.

The holidays often come with a storage problem. Where do we put all of the stuff we asked for or didn’t ask for? And here is what is also true: when it comes to our lives, our thoughts and our emotions around the holidays, we can also have a storage problem. We are burdened and stressed out by all sorts of things. Some things that we brought on ourselves but a lot of things we didn’t ask for. Finishing school well, holiday travel, Christmas parties, cleaning the house, endless gift lists, stuff to bake, stuff to buy. Maybe Christmas reminds us of hard relationships, or loved ones we have lost. People who are in our home that we wish would leave. A child who is far away from home. When it comes to all of the burdens, stresses and sorrows that can get amplified by the holidays, we can have a storage problem as well. Sometimes we just don’t know where to put our burdens, our struggles, our sorrows or our stress. But we have to store them somewhere. So we carry around fear as a pit in our stomach, we carry hurt in our hearts, and we carry burdens and responsibilities on our shoulders. And yet the very meaning of Christmas, the good news of what actually happened on that first Christmas, offers an invitation that all who are burdened in life need desperately to hear and to consider. We need Christmas and we need the Mighty God.

We need Christmas this year. Not more presents, or more nutmeg or peppermint, or movies about saving Christmas. We need Christmas. We have always needed Christmas, even BEFORE the very first Christmas. In fact, Christmas—God with us, as one of us, to save us—was the plan for our world all along. 700 years BEFORE the very first Christmas, in the time when the prophets wrote about the coming of that baby in a manger, people were feeling the same way as we are today. A maniacal king, King Ahaz, ruled the land. Faith, religion and spirituality had stopped providing any answers because they had become a harmful mix of idolatry and evil and just downright awful. There was war and struggle and fear of war. And in the midst of that, a prophet of God most High named Isaiah received a promise to pass on to God’s people that we now use as one of our main Christmas texts. For the next four weeks, through the time we call Advent leading up to Christmas, we will talk about each of these names for Jesus who came to offer us forgiveness of everything we have ever done, past present and future. To give us a new start and bring us back into right relationship with God. That is the good news we call the gospel. That’s what we celebrate at Christmas. And each one of these names tells us something about that good news! The first name for the coming Savior Jesus is: Wonderful Counselor. We need a Wonderful Counselor this year.

We will have a family friendly in-person candlelight service at Homestead Elementary; enjoy your favorite Christmas carols, candlelight, and a short Christmas message.

Join us for Part 3 of our series “Joy To The Troubled World” as we look at ways to have joy even in the midst of hard times.

Does life just carry you along sometimes with its ups and downs? What if there was an ever-present joy that was possible no matter what life throws at you? Join us as we continue in our Christmas series “Joy To The Troubled World” looking at the Christmas story together--a perfect story for troubled times.

How do we have joy in a troubled world? Can there be an inexhaustible, indescribable freeing joy that crushes a year like 2020?

When things are hard, or doubt hits, we often cry out, "God, are You up there?" But the Christmas story tells us that isn't the right question. We should be asking, "God, are You down here?" And the answer is a resounding "Yes!" in Jesus.