Emmanuel: Holy Interruption, Obedience, and Community Transformation

This is what the Christmas season reminds us. Christmas is not just a holy interruption in the midst of a busy year. It is a holy interruption of our habits. God steps into our routines, into our expectations, and our carefully managed lives and says, Beloved, I'm doing something new here. Christmas is not just a sweet escape from reality. It is God, the creator of the universe, entering our reality with his transforming power. [01:19:16] (50 seconds)  #ChristmasInterrupts

So my friend took this picture of that broken Joseph and posted a simple question. He said, how will Joseph with a broken arm be able to hold baby Jesus? And suddenly, this little broken figure began to preach. Because the Joseph we meet in Matthew 1 is not porcelain, but very real. He is wounded, he's disappointed, and he's afraid. Joseph was legally bound to Mary. Their life had been planned. Their future was assumed. Then everything shattered with one truth. Mary was pregnant. [01:23:37] (55 seconds)  #BrokenJosephSpeaks

Before the wedding, before the explanation, before the miracle made sense. He could expose her publicly, and according to the cultural practice at that time, she could have been dragged before all the town leaders, shamed in front of everyone, possibly even abandoned by her family, left with no way to survive, no place in society, no income to feed her family or herself. And she could even have been put to death. He could protect himself, legally, in any way he could think. But scripture says that he chose to dismiss her quietly, even in the heartbreak, brothers and sisters. The Holy Spirit was already beginning to shape his heart and response. [01:24:31] (63 seconds)  #QuietCourage

Joseph did not just experience a holy interruption of his plans. He experienced a holy interruption of his habits, of how he assumed that life should work, of how he thought love and faith and life were supposed to go. Guess what? God is still doing that today. Before the miracle makes sense, he's still molding and forming and shaping and transforming his people. [01:25:34] (43 seconds)  #GodStillMolds

Beloved, fear is always the loudest voice between obedience and surrender. And the word of God, the promise of God, the invitation of our Savior is this. If we hear nothing else today, brothers and sisters, hear this. Because of the movement of the Holy Spirit at work in us, through us, around us, do not be afraid. God is still God, and he is still working every single moment, whether we see it or not. He says, well, what will people think? Or, what will that cost me? What if I lose everything? He says, what if God does not come through? God says, do not be afraid. [01:27:19] (79 seconds)  #FaithOverFear

Thought again of my friend with that nativity. After his nativity broke, another friend sent him a replacement Joseph, whole and restored from the same set. She said she cannot stop thinking about his question. How will Joseph hold baby Jesus with no arm? He said tears filled his eyes. Not because he got a new figurine. I mean, that's important to many of us, I'm sure. But because when he opened that package in the mail, he realized that someone stepped into his broken moment with care. And in that moment, God whispered to him, this is who I am. You see what God interrupts? He does not waste. He redeems. [01:36:20] (74 seconds)  #RedeemsNotWastes

holiness is God's love reordered in us so that God's love can flow through us to love God first to love others rightly and to watch everything else begin to align so I wonder if God is asking us some questions today what if we were to prayerfully ask who else is waiting for hope in our lives in our community which neighborhoods are still crying out for the light of God which families are longing for freedom which communities need to see holiness lived with compassion because multiplying always begins with surrender and surrender always leads to mission [01:43:36] (73 seconds)  #LoveReordered

so what that's how my kids would put it with respect so what what does that mean you see God has already shown us when God interrupts God transforms and and what God transforms God multiplies so if Christmas is truly a holy interruption of our habits then this question is unavoidable what will we do differently tomorrow because God is with us remember Joseph did not just feel inspired Joseph changed the way he lived and through that God changed the world [01:45:18] (53 seconds)  #ActionAfterInterruption