Some of us know what is coming.

We have before us a time of incompetence and

corruption like nothing we have seen before.

Imagine a nation where those in power are not

constrained by morals or a sense of decency.

But I do have hope.

They are expressed in the lines of an old carol, I

Heard the Bells on Christmas Day:

“God is not dead, nor doth he sleep. The wrong

shall fail, the right prevail.”

We need to know this.

We need to be reminded of this. That’s why I am

singing those words in the concert Saturday night.

Listen, over these next years, we are going to need

the church.

No, not that right-wing bunch with a theology that

makes them ignorant and vulnerable to would-be

dictators.

They brought us here.

We need a church built on the solid rock

that is Jesus the Christ.

Built on His love.

Powered by His grace.

A church that triumphs over corruption, racism,

and hatred of gays and immigrants.

In this space in the coming year, I will be offering

you opportunities for worship and study.

I am expecting a response.

The “mainline” church—for want of a better

name—along with honest journalism will be the most

powerful lines of defense against the darkness to come.

Help us—help us at St. Matthew make a witness in

dark times.

We have a concert Saturday night, Dec. 21, at 6:00 p.m.

We have a beautiful Christmas Eve service, also

at 6:00 p.m.

Help us make a witness.

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.

There are some 40,000 Christian denominations worldwide. Most of us are familiar with 15 or 20 of them.

It sounds neighborly to say that we all basically believe in the same God.

But that’s not true.

The God I believe in is summed up in Matthew 5:38-48 and Luke 6:27-36 (mostly the same material). I call this “core scripture.”

Here, Jesus gives us His picture of God as loving all people all the time. He says God is kind even to “the ungrateful and the wicked.”

The word for this kind of love is “grace.”

Unconditional love.

And Jesus says this is the only kind of love that makes a difference.

Loving those who love you is easy. “What reward do you get” for doing that? He asks.

Many Christians do not share this understanding of God.

How do I know?

We all know Christians who believe things that contradict Jesus.

Many Christians believe God destroyed the world with a flood.

They believe God decided creation was a mistake. God goofed!

Then God tried to correct the blunder by wiping out everything that would not fit on a big boat.

And then regretted that!

This angry, unhappy, vengeful, mistake-prone God is not the God we know in Jesus Christ.

This is not the God who loves all people all the time. If Jesus is right about God, the Flood Story is wrong.

So—

Which do you choose?

• • •

Try St. Matthew.

We choose Jesus.

Thanksgiving service at 11:00. Dinner after.