(A sermon for Matthew 1:18-25 Presented at Christ Christ, Bordentown, NJ, December 21, 2025)

I begin today’s sermon with a quote from Oswald Chambers and his book, “My Utmost for His Highest” __in which he says, “Every time you venture out in the life of faith, you will find something in your common-sense circumstances that flatly contradicts your faith.” As you can imagine, the faith he is referencing to is our faith in God.

But when we venture out in our lives _ we also put faith in our family and neighbors, our schools and churches, our government and business leaders. We put faith in the weather report. We put faith in that we’re hearing the truth _and that everything will stay orderly.

And when things stay orderly, we love God.

And then life happens.

Life happens and there is disorder. Things don’t go as planned. We stub our toes, or have a spat with our significant other, and at the worst for humankind…there is war and devastation. There is disease, famine and starvation. There is loneliness and heartbreak.

And then we question our faith in a God that allows our lives to be disorderly (and uncertain) during our short time on earth. We question our faith because common sense tells us it would be better that these bad things didn’t happen. But when we ask why God is not making everything orderly and perfect, we are not seeking faith.

We are seeking certainty. And one could argue that faith and certainty are polar opposites.

Faith requires us to think beyond what we know to be certain and our want for complete order and perfection. Having faith, particularly in God, is first _ that He exists. That He exists as a father, a son and holy spirit _ that He created us to seek salvation and that someday we would see him face-to-face. God created us to have faith in Him.

In turn, for our faithfulness, God gives us the gift of loving, not perfection. To prove this, God made two things happen that go beyond our notions of common-sense certainty.

One _ he made life happen _ literally. A young virgin woman became the mother of the incarnated Son of the trinity, or as he is commonly known … Jesus Christ.

Second, He created angels and directed them to communicate to us. Specifically, in this case, for the angels to communicate to Mary, for her to understand that she would be with child by the Holy Spirit _and not just any child _ but the Son of Man,

AND

for the angels to communicate to Joseph with instruction to care for this child that was not conceived by him or another man, but instead _conceived by the Holy Spirit.

Given that there was not a precedent for such an Annunciation, Mary and Joseph couldn’t rely on looking this up on the internet _or go to the library or bookstore _ to look this up. So how could they live with a situation that surely went beyond their common- sense certainty?

They did it_ by letting it go. They let go of their certainty, and in turn, God was able to give us a gift _ a personal sign of what and who to place our faith in.

God gave us the gift of Jesus. But Mary and Joseph, by parenting God’s gift _ gave us the model for having faith. Their example shows us that faith in God results in great gifts. 

As we all know _ faith is not easy. It requires our hearts, our souls, and our minds to work together toward a commitment _ to not only loving God _ but to love our neighbor as ourselves. Both require us, at times, to let go of what we believe to be certain.

Sure _ people do some heinous things to each other _ things that are hard to forgive _ that make it hard to love and have faith in each other. But when you can _ and any chance you can _ _ let it go.

Let go of your certainty on how you think everyone should behave. Let go of your needless judgements and grudges > Let go of the resentments that build up walls >Let go _ of your hardened heart.

How many of you _want to have _ peace on earth? This message is everywhere this time of year. It’s on Christmas cards, tree ornaments, it is in songs, on T-shirts, ugly sweaters. So, I’m sure everyone wants it. But what are we willing to do to have it?

God gave us the gift to have peace on earth. God gave us the gift of Jesus Christ so we would follow his commandments _ to love God and our neighbors, to have faith in both_ and to let go of whatever it is in our lives, that is preventing us from doing so.

God’s gift of peace requires us to give it to others.

For this Christmas season, my hope for us is that we can all welcome that gift into our lives, to have faith like Mary and Joseph, to think beyond our common-sense certainties, and to truly give the gift of peace.

May the peace of the Lord be with you always.

Amen.