Sermons on Christmas
Grace & Giving
During the season of Christmastide, we give each other gifts in celebration of the greatest gift ever given to the world: Jesus. The advent of Jesus into the world is the greatest demonstration of God’s grace. However, we often misunderstand God’s grace when we think of it as a ‘one-way, unilateral donation.’ As we see in Romans 15 and II Corinthians 8, the apostle Paul thought about grace very differently. For him, grace creates a new social bond and reality,…
Beyond a Flannel Graph Christmas
Far too often, the Christmas story is haunted by the lingering effects of our Sunday School, two-dimensional, “Flannel Graph” understanding of the story. We have sanitized and domesticated the story, stripping it of its politically-charged, scandalous, and awe-inspiring power. We have removed the cultural and socioeconomic dimensions, to safeguard the status quo. And we have disenchanted the story to appease our skeptical, modern minds. In this message, Pastor T. C. invites us to journey beyond a “Flannel Graph Christmas,” with…