Tomorrow is the last Sunday in Advent and the last Sunday before Christmas. We will focus on the Gospel according to Saint Matthew, the first chapter, verses 18-25. The coming of Jesus is most certainly marked by a great miracle: the Virgin conceived and gave birth to a son! At the same time, there is so much surrounding this Christmas gift that is remarkably ordinary, so much so in fact that it is easy to take the whole gift for granted and rush to inject the season with other forms of stimulation as if to say that the original gift; the only lasting gift is mundane.

But God’s gift to us is intentionally miraculous while wrapped in the ordinary. To stress this point the God-man when He is born is given a name…something all people have. To be human is to have a name; a name is indicator that one is merely human. The name places us in history; and in the long line of those who are born and those who die. Ordinariness marks those with names.

But this name — while like ours — is also different.

Tomorrow we will focus on this magnificent balance and see the key to overcoming our sinful tendency to treat the holy as nothing but ordinary. Thanks be to God that by His grace He will have nothing of it in the lives of those whose sins are covered by His blood and in those who have received the gift of faith through Jesus reconciling them to God! Let us gather to have our faith once again fed and nourished through Word and Sacrament. There is no better way to prepare for Christmas!

Many people are on vacation right now; but God is not on vacation. He will be there tomorrow morning to serve YOU!

In Jesus’ Love,

Pastor Espinosa