Tom White - 12/23/2018
Journey of Bethlehem: Speaking of Joy
Summary: Bethlehem becomes the host site of good news of great joy.
From Series: "The Journey OF Bethlehem"
This season fills our minds with stories aiming to amplify the beauty and wonder of Christmas. Who hasn’t imagined Mary’s bumpy, very pregnant journey to Bethlehem – the world’s savior hiding away in the womb of a young, unwed mother on her way to an out of way village? The image does more than raise the birth’s drama, though. It speaks of the nature of God. Specifically, as we receive Bethlehem as a host site for the wonder of the Incarnation, God teaches us. This advent we’ll be following the biblical journey OF Bethlehem itself, prepared through the centuries to be the birthplace of the Son of God. It’s not that this city, this dirt ground, was a mysterious magical spot. It’s the appearance of Bethlehem as a lesson of biblical theology that teaches us that God loves to bring about his good purposes in unexpected spaces. Despite being dwarfed in size and seeming importance by Jerusalem, God uses Bethlehem over the centuries to be a place of restored hope and promise. This Advent, we’ll follow Bethlehem’s journey – on the margins of worldly power yet often at the center of God’s activity. We’ll discover God’s propensity to use the small, insignificant or overlooked to bring about his eternal purposes.
