Hometowns: Finding God in Familiar Places
The Christian “season” of Advent has begun. Advent is a four-week stretch leading up to Christmas. Advent is a special time of anticipation, wonder, and hope. Traditionally, it is also a time for preparation when we prepare our hearts to welcome the Christ child once again.
This year, the church will dive into some of the special places of the Christmas story with a sermon series called “Hometowns.” We will look at the ways we find God in the familiar places of our lives. Each week, we will explore a different town or city that features in the story of Jesus’ birth, otherwise ordinary places where people lived regular, everyday lives, where God quietly entered the world through the baby Jesus.
These are places where promises were fulfilled, offering hope and a new understanding of peace. We’ll start with an obscure little village called Ein Karem and talk about the importance of faithful preparation. Then we will move to Nazareth and examine the idea of unexpected hope. We’ll explore Bethlehem and the dream of heavenly peace, and then Jerusalem and surprising joy. We will wrap up the series on Christmas Eve by looking at how God “moved into the neighborhood,” in the person of Jesus, and what it means to make room for Jesus in our own hearts and lives.
Each week of the Advent season is intended to help us prepare a little more so that when that “silent night” of Christmas Eve comes, and we sing “joy to the world” to celebrate Jesus’ birth, we are ready to receive him. I hope you will take this journey with me as we explore the places of the Christmas story. The message of this season is that God meets us where we are, God finds us in the ordinary activities of life, and God fills us with faith, hope, peace, joy, and love.
I look forward to celebrating this season with you.
With love, and joy, serving as your pastor,
John McLarty