Please turn your Bibles to Luke chapter 2 as we continue our teaching series on Advent.

Luke chapter 2, we even have a child in the room.

I've never been so excited to have noise in my sermon.

It's okay.

I'm actually really happy about it.

Luke chapter 2, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, thank you for your presence here, for your

pleasure that you see us through the lens of your Son Jesus, that you, as we apprentice

under him, are turning us into men and women and the kinds of creatures who have the capacity

to one day rule in the kingdom under Jesus.

God that future is bright and it is glorious.

And while this year feels like a setback for the United States of America, it is not for

the kingdom of heaven.

We thank you that our hope, God, goes far beyond our nation, far beyond that many factors

of the last year into you, Jesus, in your return.

In this Christmas, we look not just back to your coming, but forward to your second coming.

And we pray in the meantime, Holy Spirit, come, fill and flood our mind and our body

itself with your truth and your spirit.

Amen.

Christian Wyman, the celebrated poet and professor of literature from Yale and Christian intellectual

in his most recent book, Joy, which is a collection of poetry and writings on the subject

matter of joy, opens his book with a maxim that is well used by artists the world over,

light, rights, white.

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