When love comes down: Creative Change

“Happy Thanksgiving” now gives way to “Merry Christmas!” We are excited about the Christmas season. It is not just the beauty of this time of year, but it is the realization that God becomes flesh and moves into our lives and hearts. There is an unparalleled majesty to this event that is different than any other faith. In other religions, humanity must prove themselves worthy of God. In the Christian faith, we know we can never be “good enough” to please God. Our best effort, our most righteous work is but “filthy rags” compared to the complete holiness of our living God. The birth of Jesus is God’s solution to our inability to be holy, righteous, or even just. Jesus is God, but he is also human. This sounds complicated but it is actually very simple: God loves us! Our Christmas sermon series is When Love Comes Down.  Love has come into the world not to allow us to remain in the darkness of sins and death, but to empower us to change. Our first sermon in this series is Creative Change and it is based on Luke 1:66-80. This is the end of the story of the birth of John the Baptist. These words are the prophecy of Zachariah after the birth of his son John. It had been a difficult journey for Zachariah to find the power to change his mind and heart, but God in his grace and love led him to this moment of transformation, joy, and hope! Luke shares Zachariah’s story through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to inspire our hearts to move from disbelief, doubt, and despair to find the joy of God’s love for our lives. God’s love still reaches out to us as we journey toward the Christmas light. We pray that this love will come down to you as you go through this season so that brokenness will be healed, sorrow will be transformed, and your darkness will be made as bright as dawn! 

Luke 1:66-80: Everyone who heard this wondered about it, asking, “What then is this child going to be?” For the Lord’s hand was with him. ⁶⁷ His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied: ⁶⁸ “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come to his people and redeemed them. ⁶⁹ He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David ⁷⁰ (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago), ⁷¹ salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us– ⁷² to show mercy to our ancestors and to remember his holy covenant, ⁷³ the oath he swore to our father Abraham: ⁷⁴ to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear ⁷⁵ in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. ⁷⁶ And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, ⁷⁷ to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, ⁷⁸ because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven ⁷⁹ to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.” ⁸⁰ And the child grew and became strong in spirit; and he lived in the wilderness until he appeared publicly to Israel. (NIV)