As we move into the Christmas season for 2014, I want to develop series of sermons which draw us into the reality of Jesus’ coming into our world. These will be preached at Gateway Community Church in Cockburn Central in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

Increasingly, Australia’s Christmas centres around the commercial aspects: presents, gifts, parties, leisure, holiday, family, food. Nothing wrong with any of that per se. More than ever, though,  churches need to reclaim not just the Christmas celebration, but the Christmas message.

So it’s even a bit cheeky that I mention the ‘silly season’ in this series. I don’t want to add to all the ‘noise’ which makes it hard to hear the message. But I do want to say Christmas is something very different from ‘silly’. In naming the issue, I hope to reframe it, and cast these weeks in their true Gospel context.

Jesus’ birth is the coming of God, Immanuel, into our world. It is a message of grace, hope, and divine initiative. It is a message we need to embrace. It is a message we need to hear. It is the message we need to take into our world.

I hope in the coming weeks Jesus the Saviour will be the focus of your celebrations.