Preacher: Nathan Nettleton

The childhood picture of Jesus’ development calls us to ensure that our relationship with God is our primary allegiance, our first responsibility and the foundation of our identity.

In the nativity we see the light of living grace, in all its vulnerability, shining into the darkness of the world’s violence and divisiveness.

Celebrating God is not to be a denial of reality, but a faith-filled reaching out for a new reality.

If the message of Christmas is real, then our preparations for it need to be radically life-changing.

Faced with the decline and disintegration of the Church, we are called to offer ourselves to God as the new branch who faithfully carry God’s love and mercy into a new era.

Perhaps amidst the increasingly depressing state of the world, Jesus is calling us to learn the path of faithfulness from those who never win.

Jesus affirms generous giving, but he also condemns the religious exploitation of generous givers.

Jesus’s primary aim was not saving us for heaven after we die, but establishing a culture of whole-hearted loved in the here and now.

Christ’s grief gathers up our griefs and achieves the promise of a day when tears will be no more.

The capacity to understand and follow the way of Jesus is a miraculous gift.

In calling us into the culture of God, Jesus calls us to give up our addictions to tribalism, competitive grief, and selective compassion.

Jesus calls us to embrace God, life, and one another with joy, delight, hope, and grace, not with heartlessness cloaked in legalities.