Yes, of course.

We will sing White Christmas at our concert on Saturday, Dec. 21, at 6:00 p.m.

We must.

It is expected.

In fact, I sing it. But I won’t mean it.

What kind of fool do you think I am? (Don’t answer that.)

I’m a preacher. I don’t want a white Christmas. I want people in church.

No bad weather!

I’d like to see you (and all your kin) at our concert and at our Christmas Eve service. (We call it “the most beautiful service of the year”—‘cause it is!)

But back to the concert.

I sing a couple of things, but our great singers do the hard lifting.

Our Christmas Concert is a 25-year tradition with us. The music starts secular and moves into the sacred.

Then we eat, and Santa comes by with gifts for the kids.

(No, we’re not anti-Santa at St. Matthew.)

There’s a kids’ time during the concert.

We do have fun.

The heart of Christmas at St. Matthew is Christmas Eve. (Also at 6:00.)

I had an aunt who used to say to people she loved, “I’m just so hungry to see you.” And I would say I’m hungry for Christmas Eve.

Especially this year.

We need those “glad tidings of great joy.”

We need lifting. We need to be reminded that this is still God’s world.

As the old carol says:

“God is not dead nor doth he sleep.

The wrong shall fail, the right prevail.”

Oh!—I’m singing that, also, at the concert.

The Casting Crowns version of I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.

Come, if you can.

Sat., Dec. 21, at 6:00.

The focus turns to Christmas. And it couldn’t come at a better time.

The days are getting darker, both literally and figuratively. Incompetent and unethical people are about to take the reins of power. It looks like all is lost.

And then the Babe comes.

Christmas is on its way.

We talked last week about a world in which God intervenes.

And God does, indeed, intervene, and the biggest intervention of all is the Babe.

And I find my heart lifted.

“With God, all things are possible,” the angel said to Mary.

And I am filled with hope.

Because I know where the power truly lies.

The Babe is invincible.

There is no power against his love.

They killed him.

They tacked him to a tree and watched him die.

Yet, he is with us today.

He runs the whole show.

And fighting him is like standing in a rushing river with your arms stretched out to stop the water.

The Spirit of the Babe is moving the world in one direction only.

Toward community.

Toward unity.

Toward love.

I’m not just confident. I’m in good spirits. I’m feeling all “Christmasy.”

I am sitting here tonight planning our Christmas concert. I just added an ancient carol.

It has in it the line, “There came a flower bright amidst the cold of winter.”

There are hard times ahead. But we will move through them.

The Babe is born.

(Christmas Concert, Sat., Dec. 21—6:00 p.m.)

In the midst of the disaster that has come upon us, there are some things we must remember.

This is still God’s world.

And God, too, has intentions for us as individuals and for the world.

And God does intervene.

I cannot talk of God’s grand design. But I know a thousand stories of God’s intervention in individual lives.

This is from Rosemary Thornton, author of Remembering the Light.

One night when I was 22, I was driving on a dark road with a light rain falling. Visibility was poor.

I had an old car, and the defroster didn’t work too well.

I wasn’t going very fast, but I heard a voice urgently demand that I stop the car.

I ignored it at first.

But the second time, the voice was yelling and said, “Stop the car now!”

I didn’t know what was happening, but I slammed on the brakes. The car stopped immediately.

I put it in park and exited the vehicle. Less than two feet in front of the car stood a tiny toddler in only a diaper and looking very frightened.

I scooped him up in my arms and moved to the side of the road and stood in the rain, holding him close as I figured out what to do next.

Rosemary says that’s when the child’s mother ran from a nearby house, screaming and crying. She had fallen asleep on the couch and awoke to find her baby gone.

God, too, has intentions.

God does intervene to work God’s will.

We are, at all times, loved, watched over, cared for. That’s my comfort in hard times. Be encouraged.

Trust God.