PREACHER’S NOTE 28 DECEMBER 2025
Our story for this Sunday seems quite out of place in the
joy and celebration of Christmas. As the excitement of
the birth of Jesus dies down, Joseph is visited by an angel.
He is told to pack up and leave in the dead of night,
to get his family away from a murderous Herod, who,
furious at being outwitted by the wise men, doubles his
efforts to get rid of Jesus. They steal away to Egypt, while
Herod murders all of the little boys in Bethlehem. What a
story of the world bringing its power and cruelty to bear
on the best news ever! So the little Lord Jesus spends his
first years as a refugee, rejected by his own, not fitting in,
not belonging.
As our Christmas season joy is tempered by the world,
let’s remember some very important things about our
Lord. First, if we’re feeling at odds with a cruel world, we
remember that so was He – He knows our pain. Second,
God has our back – sometimes his whispered prompts
don’t make sense, but we need to keep so close to Him,
so that we listen to His life-saving warnings. And third, no
matter how intent the cruelest powers of the world are
on crushing us, God’s journey for us will triumph – Herod
passes away, and Jesus returns to His country. In the
shadows, we discover that we serve a gracious, empathetic,
persevering God. Praise His precious name!
Blessings, Andrew.