Christmas: Nativity of the Lord Luke 2:1-14, (15-20)

The Answer to Our Questions is in the Manger

As we've been progressing through Advent, we've been asking: How do we prepare for Jesus? Where is Jesus when the waiting hurts? Where is Jesus when our needs are great? Where is Jesus when life turns upside down?

The real answer to those questions is offered on Christmas Day, in a manger in Bethlehem. It's not an idea offered to give us perspective. It's not a mantra that makes things alright. It is God in human form—among us and sharing our nature—and Jesus changes everything.

Ancient Lens

What can we learn from the historical context?

Rome Waits for a New Ruler

Rome had only been an empire for a few decades.  It had been a republic for five centuries before that, and it had been…

1. What is the difference between waiting for God to do something and expecting God to do something?  How might we comport ourselves differently if we were expecting rather than simply waiting?

2. How can you go deeper with someone you see this season?  Do you have someone in mind?

3. What does it mean to you that Jesus is with you in the small moments and conversations, the mundane travels and lowly mangers of life?

4. How might we miss Jesus’s subtle arrivals in our lives amid the busyness of the season?

5. What is the most touching part (for you) of normal people’s responses to Jesus’s arrival?

6. What to the contrasts in power (Rome/census, Jesus/baby) say to you in your life?

7. If you could pick one…