Bethany Lutheran Church

Honest Christmas | Honest Assumptions

December 04, 2022 Pastor Anthony Celia
Bethany Lutheran Church
Honest Christmas | Honest Assumptions
Show Notes

There are a lot of assumptions when it comes to the Christmas story. Mary rode in on a donkey but the Bible doesn’t say it. We assume there is an innkeeper but it is not mentioned. No reference to 3 wise men, or a star above where Jesus was born. We make a lot of assumptions about what Christmas will be like this year or should be like. We make spiritual assumptions about what we should look like or act like. Assumptions can get in the way of reality. Elizabeth assumed she wasn’t worthy for the Lord to come to her. We assume things can separate us from God’s love. What is the truth?

Romans 8:35-39 (ESV)
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
    we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Luke 1:39-45 (ESV)
In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”