The Fourth Sunday of Advent (December 23, 2012) at Patterson Avenue Baptist Church was a enjoyable gathering filled with traditional Christmas carols and a celebration of God’s amazing love and wonderful grace.
The sermon was based on Luke 1:26-56 and was titled “Scandalous Grace” – and taught some of the important lessons to be learned from the celebration of Christmas. Here’s what I posted about the sermon on Facebook”
We believe God is distant, but Jesus comes as “Immanuel” which means “God is with us!”
We think we are excluded and forever lost, but the very name Jesus means “Savior” – and the Bible teaches us that in Christ Jesus we are accepted and included.
We work under the assumption that we have made too big a mess out of our lives to have any favor with God, but the message of the Incarnation is that God becomes flesh and walks among us and one of us, in the middle of the very mess in which we might find ourselves.
We know that there is nothing we can do to remove sin’s curse from our lives. But then we read the Gospel of John which tells us that what we could never do, Jesus has done as the “who takes away the SIN of the world.”
Christmas teaches us that God pursues a relationship with us!
Christmas teaches us about God’s love affair with humankind!
Christmas teaches us that God is gracious and kind, loving and inclusive, accepting and intimate. God in Christ comes to extend the message of our adoption into the fellowship of the Holy Trinity.
The video of the sermon can be watched online when you click this hyperlink. You’ll need to turn the volume up to the max on your PC. We are working to discover and correct this problem very soon.
On the Incarnation
by: Saint Athanasius
publisher: Empire Books, published: 2012-01-19
ASIN: 1619492679
EAN: 9781619492677
sales rank: 129334
price: $8.76 (new), $9.43 (used)
As one of history s most passionate defenders of Christian doctrine, Saint Athanasius is notable for his apologist essays and their substantial contribution to early Orthodox theology. As a bishop serving in fourth century Alexandria, Athanasius composed this essay in his early life and devoted it to a number of issues still debated by theologians today, including monotheism, spiritual salvation, and the divine nature of Jesus Christ.
