Advent invites us to anticipate God’s activity. This is the most evident in the birth announcement to Mary. She welcomes God’s unexpected news and shows us what it is like to have your expectations re-ordered around the joy and wonder of Jesus.

By Raul Sandoval

How are you coping? Culture tells us that life is what we make it. It’s down to us. And yet, Christianity says we’re not designed for self-realization, so the pressure to be someone or do something has lead to a crisis of identity. At Christmas, God says something different. Life is what He makes it. And in Jesus, God comes close to us - to tell us who we are, what we’re for, and to share himself with us. When we let the one true living God in, all our questions of identity and purpose find their resolution in him. We know who we are. And we know what we’re for.

In this talk, we look at the nativity story through the eyes of Joseph - the quiet, faithful carpenter, and adoptive parent of Jesus Christ. Even in the version that tells his side, Joseph functions like a “minor character”. He’s low on the call sheet. He sings in the ensemble. He’s an extra. He, very literally, has no lines. Yet Joseph never tries to take glory. He has all of the power, and still, everything he does shows kindness, humility, and obedience to God. Joseph goes to bed one night and meets with an angel in his dreams, telling him that the baby to be born is not only a supernatural work of the Spirit, but will be known as Immanuel, God with us. In revealing this to him, God shows that he is not only Immanuel, God with the world, but he is also Immanuel, God with Joseph. Immanuel is God seeing us, knowing us, and then meeting us exactly where we are. Not where we appear to be, not where we want to be, but where we are, with what we need. 

By Tavia Grubbs