We cannot ask others to change their behavior or see things differently until we have changed our behavior and done the hard work to see things differently.

If Jesus’ home community of people would’ve just let go of their expectation and assumptions long enough to be more curious…to ask more questions…to be open to broader ideas…to a more humble approach to their thought process… maybe things would’ve been different.

If they would have been in a place where they actually longed for the entire world to receive the peace God promises, they would’ve been overjoyed to hear the good news Jesus shared.

But they weren’t…and they didn’t.

If only their hearts had grown three sizes…what might’ve happened???
The New Testament writers tell these stories…
The church continues to re-tell them…
Because we can learn from their mistakes.

Right here, today, in this room, are we any different?
Are we overjoyed to hear that EVERYONE EVERYWHERE will be the recipients of God’s favor and deliverance?

Even people whom we don’t understand…
Even people who don’t want everyone everywhere to have God’s favor…
Even people whom we least expect


The Year of the Lord’s favor is something God does FOR us…
God initiates…
Jesus’ presence and power completes…
The Holy Spirit within us ignites our hearts…if we but allow it.

We’ve got to find the peace we long for in our world.

It’s got to start with us.
We’ve got to offer our whole selves and our very perspective to God…
And…it’s going to take time — this is our 3 hours this Advent!!


Even though it will take time, we need not wait to live the peace we seek:
While we contemplate…
While we ponder…
While we take the time needed to evaluate ourselves…
We can still live our lives full of grace and mercy and love and compassion…the best we know how.

We can still experience the anger and hatred we feel in our hearts because, frankly, it’s not going to suddenly cease to be a part of our lives…
BUT…we can choose to deny ourselves and our judgments and our impulses to act out of kindness and grace.

Oh, it’s not easy…
And it’s not fun…
In fact, we could say that it was HARD, HARD, HARD, HARD to live like that, Amen?

But the work of offering ourselves up to God takes time and it takes practice.

The practice isn’t just contemplation and prayer, but action.
Something in the way we engage with the world around us affects us in our own hearts.
It’s as if the doing helps in our process of becoming…
Our becoming then affects our process of doing…
And ON and ON it goes.

The Grinch gave in to his hatred and put his disdain in to action that Christmas Eve…but even THAT led to him experiencing a change of heart.

53 years of stewing…and one night of action…and three hours of contemplation changed everything—for him and the Who’s.

Let us find faith in the story of the Grinch…
Let us learn from the past so we can make a better TODAY…

While we await the Advent of Christ’s second coming when everything wrong will be put to right, we are called to live into that reality right now.


May we, this Advent season, prepare a place for the coming Jesus NOW.
May we anticipate this great arrival by telling the ancient story of his birth once again.
May we tell the story and embrace it beyond words on the page.
May we consider how we might offer ourselves to our coming Savior…and allow Him to heal our blindness…release us from our own assumptions…free us from the hatred within us and around us…


That we might experience a growth in our own hearts this Christmas.

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