Getting Ready for the Good News of Christmas!
“A voice cries out: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God… Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” - Isaiah 40:3,5
At first glance, there’s not a lot of glory around these days, but I don’t have to tell you that! If you haven’t been directly affected by our economic climate, you know people who have. Foreclosures continue, furlough Fridays make paying the bills tough (if you have work at all), but the bills keep coming and even going up! And the economic problems have seeped into everything else in our lives. It’s a pretty gloomy time.
This isn’t the first time in history when things have looked bad, though. In fact, the climate was similar for the people of Israel around the time that Jesus was born. Tax collectors were taking far more than they what was legally prescribed, they were under an oppressive Roman government, and even the leaders of the Temple were corrupt! It was pretty hard to make it under those circumstances, and the people were looking forward to the coming of a “Messiah” – the king God would send who would rescue the people from their oppression. They expected a military ruler who would throw out the Romans and reclaim the land for God’s people.
That was the world Jesus was born into – a world with great need. But it was also a world that wanted a particular kind of savior. And Jesus wasn’t what they were looking for! Jesus wasn’t born into a palace; he was born among the animals. He wasn’t born into a family of privilege; he was born into a working-class family. His revolution wasn’t a military one; it was a spiritual one. Jesus offered people release from captivity and the provision and care of Almighty God. His solution was better than a political or military takeover. The salvation that Jesus offered didn’t depend on the people’s circumstances at all! He had the power to free and provide for people no matter what was happening around them.
Jesus is still in the freedom business. The peace and joy that he offers are available to us today – in the wilderness that we live in! It’s not what most people in our culture are looking for, but once you find it, your life is never the same again.
The prophet Isaiah wanted everyone to prepare to see the glory of God. “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God… Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together.” The Christmas Season is a wonderful time to prepare our hearts for what God wants to do in and for us. We’ll be spending extra time in prayer, and on Sundays, we’ll be looking at how to be “Ready for Christ, Ready for Christmas.” I invite you to join with our church family in the preparation and the celebration. The rest of this newsletter is full of ways to come together and get ready.
When times are tough, it always feels like we don’t have the time and energy to do “one more thing” and we don’t necessarily want to have to deal with other people, but God wants us to see His glory together! So let’s join together, support each other, serve together, and get ready for the amazing event we’ll celebrate on Christmas Eve – the birth of Jesus!
Getting Ready with You,
Pastor Steve