WEBVTT

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Thanks, bud.

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There's something about these moments.

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We don't want to rush them, right?

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Music fades, the room kind of gets quiet.

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The story isn't really being explained, it's just being felt.

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It's usually where Christmas actually happens.

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Tonight the kids have been telling us a story of Advent.

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One word at a time, joy, hope, peace, and kids who just ended us with love.

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And now we come to the final candle.

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It's not an idea, not a concept, but a name.

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It's Jesus.

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What I love about the way they just described love is it's a simple truth that God chose

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to become small.

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Luke says, "So Joseph also went up to the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem,

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the town of David, because he belonged to the house, the line of David.

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He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting

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a child.

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While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her

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firstborn, a son.

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She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger because there was no guest room available

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for them.

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God chose to become small.

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Not this grand entrance, not impressive, not distant, small enough to be held, small enough

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to cry, small enough to need warmth and care and touch.

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That alone should stop us for a moment."

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This is the God of the universe that chose to be small.

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Chose to come as a baby, because if God wanted to overwhelm us, God could have.

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If God wanted to dominate, God could have.

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If God wanted to arrive with certainty and control, God could have.

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But God didn't choose power, God chose presence.

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One of the words we've been returning to again and again, this Advent, is this word "ah."

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Maybe an easier word for it is wonder.

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Wonder is what happens when we slow down enough to notice that life is bigger than our fear.

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Under it quiets the ego, it softens the edges.

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It pulls us out of ourselves and reminds us that we belong.

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Belong to something larger to each other.

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Maybe the most off-filled, wonderful moments for most of us ever to experience is the gift

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of life itself.

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The birth of a baby, their first breath, the moment when everything else fades and the only

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thing that matters is this fragile life that you are holding.

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And that's how God enters the world.

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A God that is love comes to us as a newborn.

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Not protected by status, not insulated by power, not removed from pain or vulnerability.

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God enters the world in the most dependent, fragile state a human can be in.

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And that tells us something about love.

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Love is not about control, love is not about being right, love is not about standing over,

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but love looks like vulnerability.

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Love looks like closeness.

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Looks like saying, "I'm not afraid of your humanity."

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In fact, in the sharing of our struggles, real love moves closer to us.

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And notice who gathers around this moment where love comes in and is the most vulnerable

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that a human can be.

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Not the elite, not the powerful, not the polished, probably people from the arsenal.

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Like shepherds and outsiders and people on the fringe.

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Because awe doesn't organize us into hierarchies, awe gathers us into community.

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A baby doesn't compete for power, a baby invites care.

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Because without it, the baby doesn't have life.

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In that quiet moment, the world's systems, like pride and ego, dominance, fear, they're

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gently bypassed.

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Not confronted with force, not defeated with violence.

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Although God could have done that, he did not.

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He just rendered them unnecessary.

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And that's what awe does.

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It makes the small holy again.

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It makes us human, and it makes the human sacred again.

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So the next song we're going to sing, it matters so much to me.

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It's become my favorite Christmas song by far, "O Holy Night."

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It wasn't just written as a pretty Christmas song.

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From the very beginning, this song, it's writer, it's composer.

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They were outside of the church status quo.

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It pushed against systems.

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If you look at the history of it, it's a beautiful.

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The song itself carried this dangerous idea.

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There's a verse in it that says, "Truly he taught us to love one another.

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His law is love, and his gospel is peace.

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Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother.

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And in his name, all oppression shall cease."

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In the song made its way to America, it became this anthem for abolitionist.

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People who believe that if God truly came close, then no system that dehumanizes could

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stand unchallenged.

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And in one of the moments that feels like history itself bending toward wonder, "O Holy

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Night," became the first song ever played over the radio waves.

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On Christmas Eve in 1906, inventor Reginald Fissenden played it on his violin.

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And he played it on the violin and cast it out on the radio.

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Can you imagine hearing that sound for the first time ever coming out of it?

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Maybe it was just somebody speaking, but this night, this Christmas Eve, Fissenden played

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his violin and music began to come through the radio, this song, "O Holy Night," and

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I mean the violin, like, "You kidding me?

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I love string instruments."

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Can you imagine being the person on the other end of this radio hearing this?

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What is happening with my radio right now?

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How is it doing this?

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For me, I imagine it would have been one of those moments where, and I get it, maybe

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this is just me, but it would have been one of those moments where tears would have filled

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my eyes, and I wouldn't have known why.

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I'm like, "I'm not sad, why am I crying?

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Why are your tears in my eyes?" and it's those moments that, "Ah, captures you."

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The first song broadcast to the world wasn't about power, it wasn't about empire, it wasn't

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about control, it was about a holy night, a vulnerable birth, and a love that refuses

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to stay abstract.

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I don't believe it's a coincidence, that's incarnation echoing forward.

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At Christmas Eve, it isn't about asking you to have everything figured out, because if

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it was, then we'd all be in trouble, especially some of you, right?

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Not you.

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It's not asking you to fill a certain way.

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It's not asking you to ignore what hurts.

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Some of you walk in tonight full of joy and gratitude, and others walk in carrying grief

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and loss or loneliness.

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Some of you are heading into family spaces that feel complicated and strained or unsafe.

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In the story, this holy night doesn't shame that at all.

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The Christmas story doesn't say fix yourself, it says, "God has come close."

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Not to rush your healing, not to silence your questions, but to sit with you in the middle

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of it, because that's what love does.

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Just a moment, we're going to light this last candle.

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I love this part of the night, because it's such a simple picture of incarnation.

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One small flame, and I'll take that flame, and I will share it, please don't burn the

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building down, but I will light the first few candles, and then you will pass the flame

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to each other.

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This one small flame, it will become a room full of light, because love doesn't stay

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contained when you experience it, it moves, it spreads, it multiplies.

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This is what the Christ of Advent looks like now.

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Let's see if I can grab this thing.

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Are you staying with me?

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I'm not going to be here.

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I love that I got to pass the flame to some children, because I think it's the kids that

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actually understand what love is, and how to grasp it, they don't understand the concept

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of it, but they understand how to share it.

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This is what the Christ of Advent looks like now.

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It's love received, becoming love shared, it's wonder experienced, becoming wonder practiced,

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it's God coming close, and then moving through us.

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So tonight, as this light moves across the room, here's the invitation I want to leave

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with you.

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Slow down enough to notice wonder.

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Pay attention to the small, holy moments.

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Let awe soften you.

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Let it quiet the need to prove, to defend, to divide, to be perfect, because love doesn't

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arrive with noise, love arrives quietly, in a breath, in a touch, in a shared flame, still

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inviting us to wonder, still inviting us to listen, still inviting us to trust, and still

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inviting us to love.

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This is what the Advent season is about.

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This is what Christmas is about.

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We've turned it into all this other things, but really it is this baby coming to us to

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show us what love looks like, the vulnerable, the moments of wonder and awe.

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It just looks like being human together.

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So as you go out today and have your Christmas events, family gatherings, pull yourself into

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the moment, be present, and look for the little things of wonder, the little parts of awe,

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the parts where you see humanity loving each other, because that's what Christ has invited

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us into.

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As you leave tonight, whether you're walking into joy or into something heavy, may you carry

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this light with you, not as pressured, not as performance, but as presence.

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May you have a merry, merry Christmas as you go out and you love well, because that is who

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you're made to be, and this is the moment that you remember that.

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You go wonder, go love and love well.

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You're made to be, you're made to be, you're made to be, you're made to be, you're made