Rev. Tom Hathaway - December 21, 2025
The Unchristian Creche
We often imagine the Christmas story as safe and comfortably Christian. But when you look closely at who is gathered around the manger, there are no Christians at all. Instead, the story opens with observant Jews, religious outsiders, and foreign priests from another faith, all welcomed in. This sermon explores how Jesus’ birth dissolves insider and outsider from the very beginning and asks whether our instincts match the radical welcome at the manger.
Scripture References: Matthew 2:1-12
From Series: "The Characters of Christmas"
As we enter the holiday season, we're spending time with the ones who first felt the shockwave of Jesus’ birth. A teenage girl brave enough to say yes. A bewildered carpenter learning to trust what made no earthly sense. Shepherds who lived on the edges of everyone’s attention. Magi who followed a strange star beyond the borders of their own traditions. Each one found the same truth rising in their lives like early light creeping over a horizon: this good news of great joy is meant for all of us.
