Pastor Tom Grieb begins our sermon series "Christmas Outside the Box."

The season is quickly approaching, the season of Advent and Christmas.  We look forward every year to hearing about the coming of our Savior.  There is no season of the year quite like Christmas.  While it is beautiful in every way, it is one of the most pressure-packed, stress-filled times of the year.  It might be that this year we will want to think “outside of the box” when it comes to Christmas.  And by so doing, we will certainly want to keep first things first.

It might be that doing things a bit differently will help enliven our experience of Christmas.  Jesus was all about doing things differently.  He all but proclaimed that when he stood to read at his hometown synagogue in Nazareth from the Prophet Isaiah.  Upon reading Isaiah 61:1-2 Jesus took on the mantle of the coming Messiah.  In fact, upon reading that great passage, he said about himself, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Isaiah 61:1-2 talks about proclaiming good news to the poor, offering freedom for the prisoners, recovery of sight for the blind, and setting the oppressed free.  We’d do well to consider these things this Christmas.  In a world desperate to hear good news, we not only have it, but need to share it.