WEBVTT 00:00:01.260 --> 00:00:07.200 Net, sir. A root, not a throne. God grew it out 00:00:07.200 --> 00:00:19.699 of nothing. It's quiet now. The angels have gone, 00:00:19.800 --> 00:00:22.199 the sky is close back up, the road out of Bethlehem 00:00:22.199 --> 00:00:24.719 is dark, and the Holy Family is moving by night. 00:00:25.320 --> 00:00:28.000 No procession, no crowd, just the sound of hooves 00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:30.960 on stone and a baby breathing against his mother's 00:00:30.960 --> 00:00:34.039 chest. The wonder hasn't disappeared, but it 00:00:34.039 --> 00:00:37.299 has changed. Glory has given way to movement, 00:00:37.399 --> 00:00:41.619 to survival, to the long road home. This is the 00:00:41.619 --> 00:00:44.179 part of the story we don't linger on very often, 00:00:44.200 --> 00:00:47.000 the part after the miracle, when life resumes 00:00:47.000 --> 00:00:51.509 and God keeps walking anyway. No halos, no choir, 00:00:51.670 --> 00:00:54.189 just obedience, dust, and a future nobody can 00:00:54.189 --> 00:00:57.750 see yet. And if that feels familiar, you're in 00:00:57.750 --> 00:01:01.689 the right place. Because without really meaning 00:01:01.689 --> 00:01:04.310 to, you stumble into a small town church in Oklahoma 00:01:04.310 --> 00:01:07.569 on the first Sunday after Christmas. The pews 00:01:07.569 --> 00:01:10.250 are real, the creaks and the coughs are real, 00:01:10.370 --> 00:01:12.549 the coffee's already been poured, and it's strong 00:01:12.549 --> 00:01:15.730 enough to tell the truth. People around you didn't 00:01:15.730 --> 00:01:18.349 float in on clouds. They drove in on gravel roads 00:01:18.349 --> 00:01:20.950 and grocery store parking lots, carrying ordinary 00:01:20.950 --> 00:01:23.609 lives that kept going even after Christmas Eve 00:01:23.609 --> 00:01:27.709 ended. So, if you showed up wondering now what? 00:01:27.989 --> 00:01:30.489 You're not alone. You've just come to church 00:01:30.489 --> 00:01:33.250 like the rest of us. Stay with us for a bit. 00:01:33.769 --> 00:01:40.890 I'll see you on the other side. The church would 00:01:40.890 --> 00:01:46.560 never do this. Ever. But you could call this 00:01:46.560 --> 00:01:51.780 Boring Sunday. Because it's kind of situated 00:01:51.780 --> 00:01:54.799 between these really dramatic events, right? 00:01:55.400 --> 00:01:58.859 The birth, the nativity, the choir of angels, 00:01:59.019 --> 00:02:03.459 all of that. We've got the star and the three 00:02:03.459 --> 00:02:07.980 wise men coming up. And then we have this part 00:02:07.980 --> 00:02:12.599 in between. This part in between, though, friends. 00:02:13.560 --> 00:02:17.060 is anything but ordinary. Because by the time 00:02:17.060 --> 00:02:22.099 we get to this part of the story, the cards have 00:02:22.099 --> 00:02:24.879 already been mailed and received. Candles have 00:02:24.879 --> 00:02:29.000 burned down low. The heavenly choir robes all 00:02:29.000 --> 00:02:32.960 hung back up. The nativity scene has started 00:02:32.960 --> 00:02:36.039 to lose pieces. A wise man is missing an arm. 00:02:36.919 --> 00:02:41.199 A sheep knocked over by a cat. And this is the 00:02:41.199 --> 00:02:48.340 Sunday. Nobody quite knows what to do with. Christmas 00:02:48.340 --> 00:02:51.939 Eve had its angels. Next couple of weeks, we'll 00:02:51.939 --> 00:02:54.439 get to Epiphany. We'll have the Magi, the mystery, 00:02:54.539 --> 00:02:56.840 the gold, catching the light. But this week, 00:02:56.860 --> 00:03:01.439 this week is about packing up. Joseph folds the 00:03:01.439 --> 00:03:06.719 blankets. Mary gathers what they have. The baby, 00:03:06.759 --> 00:03:09.979 still unknown by the world, rests against her 00:03:09.979 --> 00:03:17.719 chest. No one is singing now. And if you've ever 00:03:17.719 --> 00:03:21.340 sat in a house after the last guest has left, 00:03:21.560 --> 00:03:26.259 after the dishes are done but you're too tired 00:03:26.259 --> 00:03:30.780 to put them away, after the lights on the tree 00:03:30.780 --> 00:03:35.620 are still blinking but nobody's watching, you 00:03:35.620 --> 00:03:42.840 know this feeling. The event is over. Life resumes. 00:03:44.400 --> 00:03:52.159 And the question becomes, now what? That's the 00:03:52.159 --> 00:03:55.740 Sunday we're in, the day after the moment. The 00:03:55.740 --> 00:04:03.300 road starts after wonder fades. And that's where 00:04:03.300 --> 00:04:08.000 Matthew meets us. Friends, this morning, I'm 00:04:08.000 --> 00:04:10.840 reading some portions from Matthew chapter 2. 00:04:11.740 --> 00:04:16.180 Let us attune our ears to the reading of the 00:04:16.180 --> 00:04:18.920 former tax collector turned evangelist Matthew, 00:04:19.240 --> 00:04:23.779 second chapter beginning verse 13. Now after 00:04:23.779 --> 00:04:25.560 they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared 00:04:25.560 --> 00:04:28.959 to Joseph in a dream and said, get up, take the 00:04:28.959 --> 00:04:34.529 child and his mother and flee to Egypt. Then 00:04:34.529 --> 00:04:37.269 Joseph got up, took the child and his mother 00:04:37.269 --> 00:04:42.410 by night, and went to Egypt. When Joseph heard 00:04:42.410 --> 00:04:46.089 that Archelaus was ruling over Judea, he was 00:04:46.089 --> 00:04:49.110 afraid to go there. And after being warned in 00:04:49.110 --> 00:04:52.129 a dream, he went away to the district of Galilee. 00:04:52.870 --> 00:04:57.129 There he made his home, a town called Nazareth. 00:04:57.750 --> 00:05:06.279 Sin's reading of God's word. Let's stay inside 00:05:06.279 --> 00:05:11.680 the story just for a moment longer. No halos 00:05:11.680 --> 00:05:14.560 yet, no gold, just a man waking from a dream 00:05:14.560 --> 00:05:20.660 and his heart pounding. And Joseph doesn't argue, 00:05:20.740 --> 00:05:24.199 doesn't ask for a sign, doesn't ask, how long 00:05:24.199 --> 00:05:28.500 shall we be gone? He wakes Mary and they leave 00:05:28.500 --> 00:05:35.180 by night. And that detail there matters. This 00:05:35.180 --> 00:05:40.339 isn't some religious procession. This is an escape. 00:05:42.839 --> 00:05:45.600 They don't leave because the party's over. They 00:05:45.600 --> 00:05:50.480 leave because danger has arrived. I want you 00:05:50.480 --> 00:05:53.519 to imagine it, the donkey's hooves on stone, 00:05:53.660 --> 00:05:57.000 the baby stirring against Mary's chest, Joseph 00:05:57.000 --> 00:06:00.300 looking back over his shoulder, scanning the 00:06:00.300 --> 00:06:04.519 dark for soldiers. No one has time to say goodbye. 00:06:04.620 --> 00:06:07.759 There's no forwarding address, just the road 00:06:07.759 --> 00:06:15.720 south, stretching into blackness. You ever had 00:06:15.720 --> 00:06:18.459 to leave somewhere fast? Maybe not with soldiers 00:06:18.459 --> 00:06:22.420 at your back, but with urgency in your bones? 00:06:26.139 --> 00:06:29.019 That moment when you realized you cannot stay, 00:06:29.319 --> 00:06:32.560 even though... You don't know where you're going. 00:06:34.560 --> 00:06:39.379 That's the holy family now. Refugees in the night 00:06:39.379 --> 00:06:43.120 with nothing but a dream, a donkey, and a baby 00:06:43.120 --> 00:06:46.439 who doesn't know yet that he is the reason that 00:06:46.439 --> 00:06:51.879 the whole world is about to shake. And the strange, 00:06:51.879 --> 00:06:55.019 uncomfortable truth about Christmas is this. 00:06:55.980 --> 00:06:59.180 God doesn't protect Jesus from being hunted. 00:07:01.550 --> 00:07:05.050 The child who will grow up and eventually one 00:07:05.050 --> 00:07:08.970 day say blessed are the meek is born into a world 00:07:08.970 --> 00:07:15.110 that is trying to kill him for it. Now that should 00:07:15.110 --> 00:07:20.389 stop us. Because we want God to work differently. 00:07:21.110 --> 00:07:26.670 We want faith to be some sort of insurance. Something 00:07:26.670 --> 00:07:29.389 that keeps us. from the trouble, not something 00:07:29.389 --> 00:07:33.449 that walks us through it. We want the manger 00:07:33.449 --> 00:07:35.889 scene that doesn't have a sequel, but Matthew 00:07:35.889 --> 00:07:40.930 won't let us stay with that story. Matthew says 00:07:40.930 --> 00:07:46.209 the Messiah was a refugee before he was a rabbi. 00:07:49.149 --> 00:07:55.269 He learned to walk in a foreign land. First geography 00:07:55.269 --> 00:07:58.550 he knew outside Bethlehem wasn't Jerusalem or 00:07:58.550 --> 00:08:04.870 Galilee. It was Egypt, the land of slavery, the 00:08:04.870 --> 00:08:08.350 land of memory, the land where Israel learned 00:08:08.350 --> 00:08:15.129 what it meant to cry out. And that means something, 00:08:15.310 --> 00:08:20.910 or it should. It means the Savior knows what 00:08:20.910 --> 00:08:26.829 it feels like to feel unwelcome. It means when 00:08:26.829 --> 00:08:30.810 Jesus later says, I was a stranger and you took 00:08:30.810 --> 00:08:34.789 me in, he's not speaking from theory. He's speaking 00:08:34.789 --> 00:08:40.210 from memory. He knows what a closed door looks 00:08:40.210 --> 00:08:45.389 like from the outside. And if you've ever been 00:08:45.389 --> 00:08:50.250 the one on the outside, if you've ever had to 00:08:50.250 --> 00:08:55.340 leave somewhere you thought was home, you, are 00:08:55.340 --> 00:09:01.740 in the very same company as the Son of God. We 00:09:01.740 --> 00:09:04.059 skip this part because it ruins the picture. 00:09:04.620 --> 00:09:08.460 We want Christmas to be soft, contained, safe, 00:09:08.639 --> 00:09:11.360 something you hang on the wall, something that 00:09:11.360 --> 00:09:15.159 wraps up clean. But Matthew refuses to let us 00:09:15.159 --> 00:09:19.960 sentimentalize it. The first place Jesus goes 00:09:19.960 --> 00:09:23.080 after Bethlehem is Egypt. The place of exile, 00:09:23.279 --> 00:09:25.899 the land of memory, the territory of slavery, 00:09:25.960 --> 00:09:30.080 and that, my dearest of friends, is not by accident. 00:09:31.480 --> 00:09:35.039 Because Matthew is playing the long game of scripture. 00:09:35.379 --> 00:09:42.019 He is weaving Jesus into the whole story. He's 00:09:42.019 --> 00:09:46.940 saying this child is retracing Israel's steps 00:09:46.940 --> 00:09:53.980 out of Egypt, I called my son. The pattern is 00:09:53.980 --> 00:09:58.639 repeating, but this time something new is being 00:09:58.639 --> 00:10:03.539 written. God is reclaiming the old roads. The 00:10:03.539 --> 00:10:08.779 exodus is happening again, but in reverse. The 00:10:08.779 --> 00:10:13.720 one who will set captives free was himself, a 00:10:13.720 --> 00:10:19.409 fugitive child. And when it's finally safe to 00:10:19.409 --> 00:10:22.289 return, they don't go back to Bethlehem. They 00:10:22.289 --> 00:10:24.850 don't go to Jerusalem. They don't go anywhere 00:10:24.850 --> 00:10:32.590 important. They go home. Not Jesus' home. Joseph's 00:10:32.590 --> 00:10:38.470 home. Nazareth. A town so forgettable it barely 00:10:38.470 --> 00:10:42.870 shows up in the record. A town that later earns 00:10:42.870 --> 00:10:47.190 the line. Can anything good come from Nazareth? 00:10:48.470 --> 00:10:54.190 This is the geography of grace. Because God does 00:10:54.190 --> 00:10:58.690 not choose the impressive next step. God chooses 00:10:58.690 --> 00:11:04.029 the survivable one. Let us sit with that for 00:11:04.029 --> 00:11:11.210 a moment. Because. Some of us know what it's 00:11:11.210 --> 00:11:15.889 like to have a plan that didn't survive. We had 00:11:15.889 --> 00:11:20.889 a trajectory mapped out. We knew where this was 00:11:20.889 --> 00:11:24.470 supposed to end up. And then something, something 00:11:24.470 --> 00:11:28.210 happened. A divorce, a diagnosis, a door that 00:11:28.210 --> 00:11:31.889 closed and wouldn't open again. And you ended 00:11:31.889 --> 00:11:40.299 up somewhere you never expected. Maybe. You ended 00:11:40.299 --> 00:11:45.379 up back home. Maybe you ended up in the last 00:11:45.379 --> 00:11:48.659 place you thought grace could ever find you. 00:11:50.440 --> 00:11:56.539 Nazareth wasn't the dream. But Nazareth is where 00:11:56.539 --> 00:12:00.720 Jesus grew up. And that matters more than we 00:12:00.720 --> 00:12:05.039 think. Matthew almost says it casually. There 00:12:05.039 --> 00:12:10.240 he made his home in a town called Nazareth. And 00:12:10.240 --> 00:12:14.080 this line should stop as cold. This is, friends, 00:12:14.220 --> 00:12:20.580 the Messiah. The long -awaited king. This is 00:12:20.580 --> 00:12:25.360 God with us. And he grows up in a town no one 00:12:25.360 --> 00:12:29.779 expects anything from. Nazareth isn't sinful. 00:12:30.360 --> 00:12:34.700 It isn't notorious. It's not wicked. It's worse. 00:12:34.940 --> 00:12:41.639 It's insignificant. Nazareth is where you go 00:12:41.639 --> 00:12:44.840 when your life doesn't turn out the way prophecies 00:12:44.840 --> 00:12:50.559 made it sound. Nazareth is where people settle. 00:12:51.500 --> 00:12:56.799 Where dreams quiet down. Where kids grew up without 00:12:56.799 --> 00:12:59.720 knowing that they're supposed to be special. 00:13:02.399 --> 00:13:07.440 And that's where Jesus learned to walk. I've 00:13:07.440 --> 00:13:10.519 lived in small towns my whole life. Cushing, 00:13:10.559 --> 00:13:13.240 Oklahoma isn't on anybody's map of important 00:13:13.240 --> 00:13:17.299 places. We've got an oil tank farm and a Sonic. 00:13:18.379 --> 00:13:24.740 That's about it. And we've all had people. Well 00:13:24.740 --> 00:13:28.480 -meaning people, bless them, ask us why we stayed. 00:13:30.080 --> 00:13:32.419 Why we didn't go somewhere bigger, somewhere 00:13:32.419 --> 00:13:36.240 that mattered. And every time I think of Nazareth, 00:13:36.440 --> 00:13:39.830 I think of... how God looked at all of the options, 00:13:39.950 --> 00:13:42.549 Jerusalem and its temple, Bethlehem and its prophecy, 00:13:42.830 --> 00:13:46.190 Alexandria with its libraries, and said, no, 00:13:46.289 --> 00:13:51.330 let's go to a town nobody talks about. There's 00:13:51.330 --> 00:13:54.450 a word for what God is doing here. It's called 00:13:54.450 --> 00:14:00.330 solidarity. God doesn't just visit the overlooked. 00:14:00.409 --> 00:14:05.309 He moves in next door. He hangs his coat. He 00:14:05.309 --> 00:14:08.370 learns the neighbors' names. He becomes one of 00:14:08.370 --> 00:14:12.870 them. Matthew reaches for prophecy here, and 00:14:12.870 --> 00:14:16.269 he does something subtle. He doesn't quote a 00:14:16.269 --> 00:14:20.169 clean, famous verse. He gestures towards a theme. 00:14:21.039 --> 00:14:24.720 He shall be called a Nazarene. Now, if you were 00:14:24.720 --> 00:14:27.299 looking for that verse in the Old Testament, 00:14:27.399 --> 00:14:31.320 you won't find it. There's no word for word for 00:14:31.320 --> 00:14:33.779 that in the Old Testament. Scholars have chased 00:14:33.779 --> 00:14:38.519 their tails on this for centuries. But here's 00:14:38.519 --> 00:14:42.039 what I think Matthew's actually doing. The word 00:14:42.039 --> 00:14:45.960 Nazarene sounds a lot like a Hebrew word, netzer. 00:14:47.100 --> 00:14:52.519 And netzer means branch. Or stick. Isaiah 11 00:14:52.519 --> 00:14:55.279 says, A shoot shall come out from the stump of 00:14:55.279 --> 00:14:57.980 Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of its roots. 00:14:58.120 --> 00:15:04.460 A branch. A netzer. A Nazarene. Matthew is saying 00:15:04.460 --> 00:15:07.600 the Messiah will be marked by being dismissed. 00:15:08.440 --> 00:15:12.320 He will come from the place nobody watches. He 00:15:12.320 --> 00:15:15.220 will be the branch that grows where nobody planted 00:15:15.220 --> 00:15:21.860 anything on purpose. And we all know what a branch 00:15:21.860 --> 00:15:27.340 coming up from a stump looks like. It's not impressive. 00:15:27.879 --> 00:15:32.580 It's not the whole tree. In fact, I think we 00:15:32.580 --> 00:15:38.120 miss the old thing so much, we can't see the 00:15:38.120 --> 00:15:43.120 new thing growing. It's just a small green shoot 00:15:43.120 --> 00:15:46.639 pushing up through dead wood, easy to miss, easy 00:15:46.639 --> 00:15:51.000 to step on, easy to overlook. That's the Messiah. 00:15:52.759 --> 00:15:57.340 Jesus doesn't just save the suffering. He enters 00:15:57.340 --> 00:15:59.620 into the kind of life that never looks impressive 00:15:59.620 --> 00:16:04.059 from the outside. This is Christmas extended 00:16:04.059 --> 00:16:09.139 into ordinary time. Not angels, not kings, not 00:16:09.139 --> 00:16:15.460 miracles. Years, wood shavings, calloused hands, 00:16:15.860 --> 00:16:22.179 and waiting. And if you want to know how God 00:16:22.179 --> 00:16:28.340 values the slow work of becoming, look at Nazareth. 00:16:29.899 --> 00:16:33.399 If you want to know how God feels about the years 00:16:33.399 --> 00:16:37.360 that don't make a highlight reel, look at Nazareth. 00:16:39.370 --> 00:16:42.429 If you want to know whether God is present in 00:16:42.429 --> 00:16:44.590 the seasons where nothing seems to be happening, 00:16:44.750 --> 00:16:51.450 Nazareth is your answer. Imagine Jesus as a child 00:16:51.450 --> 00:16:55.350 in Nazareth. Nobody bows, nobody kneels, nobody 00:16:55.350 --> 00:17:00.450 whispers, that's him. He scrapes his knees, learns 00:17:00.450 --> 00:17:05.289 to read, learns to wait his turn. He has chores. 00:17:06.920 --> 00:17:09.180 He has neighbors who think they know him because 00:17:09.180 --> 00:17:12.440 they knew his daddy. Here's the same stories 00:17:12.440 --> 00:17:16.579 at synagogue that the other children hear. Mary 00:17:16.579 --> 00:17:19.319 knows, I'm convinced, but she can't say much. 00:17:19.839 --> 00:17:22.140 How do you explain to the other mothers at the 00:17:22.140 --> 00:17:24.460 well that your son was born of the Holy Spirit? 00:17:25.220 --> 00:17:30.359 That angels announced him. That kings bring gifts 00:17:30.359 --> 00:17:33.579 to them. She carried it, pondered it, probably 00:17:33.579 --> 00:17:39.390 stayed quiet most days. Joseph knows, but he 00:17:39.390 --> 00:17:43.190 can't explain it. He teaches the boy to shape 00:17:43.190 --> 00:17:45.650 wood, to measure twice, to be patient with the 00:17:45.650 --> 00:17:49.609 grain. And somewhere in the back of Joseph's 00:17:49.609 --> 00:17:57.630 mind, he wonders, when will it start? When will 00:17:57.630 --> 00:18:03.289 the world see what he saw in that dream? And 00:18:03.289 --> 00:18:05.789 the strangest part of the incarnation is this. 00:18:05.809 --> 00:18:12.509 God is patient enough to grow up slowly. 30 years 00:18:12.509 --> 00:18:18.069 pass before anyone hears a sermon. 30 years before 00:18:18.069 --> 00:18:20.809 a miracle. 30 years before the world notices. 00:18:21.349 --> 00:18:29.430 30 years. That's a lot longer than my ministry. 00:18:29.450 --> 00:18:33.420 That's longer than some of our marriages. That's 00:18:33.420 --> 00:18:38.380 the length of a career. And Jesus spent it in 00:18:38.380 --> 00:18:41.880 obscurity in a town that would never be famous 00:18:41.880 --> 00:18:45.019 for anything except producing someone everyone 00:18:45.019 --> 00:18:49.640 doubted. So let me ask you this question, and 00:18:49.640 --> 00:18:52.200 I would gently ask you to sit with this for a 00:18:52.200 --> 00:18:58.279 second. What if the hidden years are the point? 00:19:01.259 --> 00:19:04.200 What if God is doing something in you right now 00:19:04.200 --> 00:19:06.240 that won't become visible for another decade? 00:19:08.400 --> 00:19:11.460 What if the faithfulness you are now practicing 00:19:11.460 --> 00:19:14.319 in secret, the kindness nobody thanks you for, 00:19:14.380 --> 00:19:17.259 the prayers nobody hears, the getting up again 00:19:17.259 --> 00:19:19.779 when nobody else is watching, what if it's training 00:19:19.779 --> 00:19:25.089 ground for something you can't see yet? What 00:19:25.089 --> 00:19:28.609 if the season you're calling stuck is the season 00:19:28.609 --> 00:19:35.190 God is calling formation? Think about all of 00:19:35.190 --> 00:19:39.109 the sermons Jesus didn't preach in those 30 years. 00:19:39.910 --> 00:19:43.589 All the miracles he didn't perform. All the people 00:19:43.589 --> 00:19:46.990 he could have healed but didn't. Because it wasn't 00:19:46.990 --> 00:19:52.680 time yet. Because even God, wrapped in human 00:19:52.680 --> 00:19:57.180 skin, submitted to the slow clock of becoming. 00:19:58.700 --> 00:20:02.839 And that tells me something about how heaven 00:20:02.839 --> 00:20:09.819 counts time. It tells me that heaven and that 00:20:09.819 --> 00:20:17.299 God is not in a hurry even if I am. It tells 00:20:17.299 --> 00:20:20.779 me. The work that's happening in secret might 00:20:20.779 --> 00:20:25.980 be the most important work of all. Nazareth says 00:20:25.980 --> 00:20:30.859 the waiting isn't a waste. The waiting is the 00:20:30.859 --> 00:20:37.839 work. Here's the word this Sunday gives us. Christmas 00:20:37.839 --> 00:20:42.619 doesn't end with glory. It continues with faithfulness. 00:20:44.119 --> 00:20:47.779 Most of us don't go. From Bethlehem to crowns, 00:20:47.779 --> 00:20:51.940 we go back to routines, to jobs, to families 00:20:51.940 --> 00:20:54.579 that know our flaws too well to be impressed 00:20:54.579 --> 00:21:00.380 with us. To towns that never make the news. And 00:21:00.380 --> 00:21:06.579 that is not a failure of faith. That is where 00:21:06.579 --> 00:21:11.319 Jesus lived. And if God trusted Nazareth with 00:21:11.319 --> 00:21:16.420 his son, he trusts your ordinary days too. The 00:21:16.420 --> 00:21:19.039 years you think were wasted, the seasons that 00:21:19.039 --> 00:21:21.200 felt quiet, the life that didn't become what 00:21:21.200 --> 00:21:23.940 you imagined, that's not where God left your 00:21:23.940 --> 00:21:29.140 story. That is where God stayed. You see, we've 00:21:29.140 --> 00:21:33.799 got this thing backwards. We think significance 00:21:33.799 --> 00:21:38.779 comes from being somewhere important. But the 00:21:38.779 --> 00:21:41.900 gospel says significance comes from whose you 00:21:41.900 --> 00:21:46.460 are, not where you are. And if Jesus could be 00:21:46.460 --> 00:21:49.400 from Nazareth, if the word could become flesh 00:21:49.400 --> 00:21:52.460 in a town no one respected, then there is no 00:21:52.460 --> 00:21:58.759 place too small for grace to do its work. None. 00:21:59.839 --> 00:22:02.640 Not your kitchen, not your cubicle, not your 00:22:02.640 --> 00:22:04.940 one -bedroom apartment, not the town everyone 00:22:04.940 --> 00:22:09.619 leaves as soon as they graduate. Your disappointment 00:22:09.619 --> 00:22:12.980 that life didn't look the way you planned. Not 00:22:12.980 --> 00:22:17.099 escapable. Your fear that you ended up somewhere 00:22:17.099 --> 00:22:19.680 that just doesn't count. Your secret belief that 00:22:19.680 --> 00:22:23.480 you are too far from action for God to actually 00:22:23.480 --> 00:22:29.059 use you. My friend Nazareth says otherwise. And 00:22:29.059 --> 00:22:33.660 listen. I know some of us came to church this 00:22:33.660 --> 00:22:36.519 morning feeling like our life did not go the 00:22:36.519 --> 00:22:39.859 direction we planned. Maybe you thought you'd 00:22:39.859 --> 00:22:43.160 be further along by now. Maybe you thought you'd 00:22:43.160 --> 00:22:48.180 have more of it figured out. Maybe you're back 00:22:48.180 --> 00:22:52.940 in a place you swore you'd never be again. This 00:22:52.940 --> 00:22:56.259 is the word I have for you today. Nazareth isn't 00:22:56.259 --> 00:23:00.880 punishment, it's preparation. The God who could 00:23:00.880 --> 00:23:04.660 have arranged any childhood he wanted for his 00:23:04.660 --> 00:23:11.660 son chose obscurity, chose patience. Chose the 00:23:11.660 --> 00:23:17.759 long way home. And if that's how God works, if 00:23:17.759 --> 00:23:22.059 that's how kingdom comes, maybe the season you're 00:23:22.059 --> 00:23:28.259 in isn't about God forgetting you at all. Maybe 00:23:28.259 --> 00:23:31.079 it's God trusting you with the hidden years. 00:23:32.480 --> 00:23:35.500 The years where nobody claps. The years where 00:23:35.500 --> 00:23:39.460 faithfulness looks like simply showing up again. 00:23:41.519 --> 00:23:44.140 Miracle of Christmas is not that God showed up 00:23:44.140 --> 00:23:49.119 once. It's that he stayed. Stayed when it wasn't 00:23:49.119 --> 00:23:52.640 interesting. Stayed when nobody was watching. 00:23:53.599 --> 00:23:56.880 Stayed when obedience looked like obscurity. 00:23:58.000 --> 00:24:00.480 It could have come in glory. Could have appeared 00:24:00.480 --> 00:24:04.279 full grown with a sword in his hand and a crown. 00:24:04.599 --> 00:24:07.359 on his head could have skipped the whole childhood 00:24:07.359 --> 00:24:11.000 part the chores the waiting could have started 00:24:11.000 --> 00:24:15.559 with power but he didn't he came as a baby he 00:24:15.559 --> 00:24:18.779 grew as a child he learned what sawdust smells 00:24:18.779 --> 00:24:21.700 like what if what it might feel like to miss 00:24:21.700 --> 00:24:25.319 your father's hand on your shoulder he became 00:24:25.319 --> 00:24:28.559 fully human in a place that didn't expect anything 00:24:28.559 --> 00:24:34.180 from him So when you go home after Christmas, 00:24:34.220 --> 00:24:37.579 when the lights come down, when the music stops, 00:24:37.819 --> 00:24:42.400 when life looks like the same as it did before, 00:24:42.779 --> 00:24:47.960 you're not leaving holy ground. You're standing 00:24:47.960 --> 00:24:52.880 right where Jesus grew up. That ground was good 00:24:52.880 --> 00:24:54.880 enough for him. Brand, it should be good enough 00:24:54.880 --> 00:25:00.140 for us. Maybe you know this season. that the 00:25:00.140 --> 00:25:03.140 God who came to Bethlehem also sanctified Nazareth. 00:25:03.500 --> 00:25:06.420 May you trust that the years that feel small 00:25:06.420 --> 00:25:11.640 are not unseen. May you believe deep in your 00:25:11.640 --> 00:25:15.599 bones, where it still becomes flesh and still 00:25:15.599 --> 00:25:20.019 makes us home among us. And may you go in peace, 00:25:20.059 --> 00:25:23.839 knowing that wherever you're headed, you carry 00:25:23.839 --> 00:25:31.580 Nazareth with you. That's no small thing. Amen. 00:25:31.580 --> 00:25:40.079 Hey, before you go, take a breath. If this sermon 00:25:40.079 --> 00:25:42.559 met you somewhere tender, somewhere quiet and 00:25:42.559 --> 00:25:45.660 ordinary, you're not strange for feeling that. 00:25:45.799 --> 00:25:48.980 That's usually where God does his best work, 00:25:49.099 --> 00:25:52.359 not in the rush, not in the spotlight, but in 00:25:52.359 --> 00:25:56.059 the places where life keeps going after the music 00:25:56.059 --> 00:26:00.630 fades. If your days feel small now, if you're 00:26:00.630 --> 00:26:03.390 back in routine she thought you'd outgrown, if 00:26:03.390 --> 00:26:06.069 you're wondering whether faith still counts when 00:26:06.069 --> 00:26:09.630 nothing dramatic is happening, hear this. Nazareth 00:26:09.630 --> 00:26:12.150 was holy ground long before anyone ever noticed. 00:26:12.349 --> 00:26:15.410 And the same God who trusted obscurity to form 00:26:15.410 --> 00:26:19.890 his son is not finished with you either. You 00:26:19.890 --> 00:26:22.750 didn't miss the miracle. You're living inside 00:26:22.750 --> 00:26:26.789 of it. Before you head back into your week, one 00:26:26.789 --> 00:26:30.269 small invitation. If what you heard today rang 00:26:30.269 --> 00:26:33.329 true, if it felt like church met you where you 00:26:33.329 --> 00:26:36.150 actually live, you're welcome to throw that like 00:26:36.150 --> 00:26:38.210 in the offering plate, not as a transaction, 00:26:38.470 --> 00:26:41.470 just as a quiet way of saying, I'm still listening 00:26:41.470 --> 00:26:45.190 and this mattered. And if you'd like to keep 00:26:45.190 --> 00:26:47.710 meeting with us as we move into the new year, 00:26:47.769 --> 00:26:50.589 consider tithing your subscribe. That's how folks 00:26:50.589 --> 00:26:52.609 find their way back here on Sunday mornings. 00:26:52.910 --> 00:26:55.750 Same place, same table, same ordinary grace. 00:26:56.369 --> 00:26:59.410 No pressure, no pitch, just an open door and 00:26:59.410 --> 00:27:02.710 a standing invitation. Wherever this finds you, 00:27:02.730 --> 00:27:04.910 on the road, in the kitchen, or sitting with 00:27:04.910 --> 00:27:07.650 a cup of coffee that's finally cooled down, may 00:27:07.650 --> 00:27:10.630 you know Christ has already gone home ahead of 00:27:10.630 --> 00:27:14.000 you. And until next time, friend. Be blessed.