This month, I read that Las Vegas has become one of THE HOLIDAY DESTINATIONS. The famous Bellagio fountains will be dancing to the tunes of “Silent Night” and “O Little Town of Bethlehem.” If you like seeing the Christmas displayed on the world’s largest video screen, you’ll be able to gaze in wonder as Mary and Joseph traverse it at the Freemont Street Experience. You can even take in the lights at the Holiday Cactus Garden – the desert’s own display of holiday cheer using their local arid flora. All of it sounds like a lot.
Christmas in 2018 is a wild time to be a Christian. Figuring out which ugly Christmas sweater to wear and impress your friends, discovering the next trendy treat on Pinterest to bring to the office Christmas party, and trying to steal a deal on Black Friday or Cyber Monday – it’s exhausting. Somewhere, lodged between hours perusing Amazon for just the right gift and eating ourselves into oblivion, there’s a simple story.
This Advent, our sermon series will look at that simple story. It’s not gaudy. It’s not flashy. It’s not even that long in the Bible. It doesn’t clamor for attention. It exists, beautiful in its simplicity.
Love came to earth. Light shone in the darkness. Hope entered into hopeless frustration and consternation. And the world changed. Forever.
Vegas is going to have their fun. And we’ll have parties too. Yet, in the midst of it, breathe and hear again of the Divine who made a way for us to have life and life abundantly by sending His Son to be born in that “Little Town of Bethlehem.”
In Christ,
Pastor Will