Mary and Joseph experienced both joy and struggle at the birth of Jesus. While Mary rejoiced in being the mother of God, they also faced difficulties as unmarried parents in their society. God finds joy in all of creation, both its beauty and suffering, as He works to ultimately set all things right. The Advent season calls Christians to live in the present darkness while also anticipating the coming light of Christ's birth.

1. The Church Calendar
- Advent
* Hope
* Peace
* Love
* Joy
* Light

2. ADVENT ~ Week 1

3. Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place
in this way. When his mother Mary had been
engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together,
she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.
Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man
and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace,
planned to dismiss her quietly.
Matthew 1:18-19

4. But just when he had resolved to do this,
an angel of the Lord appeared to him in
a dream and said, "Joseph, son of David,
do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife,
for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus,
for he will save his people from their sins."
Matthew 1:20-21

5. All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken
by the Lord through the prophet: "Look, the virgin
shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name
him Emmanuel," which means, "God is with us.”
When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel
of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife,
but had no marital relations with her until she
had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.
Matthew 1:22-25

6. Did Mary and Joseph experience
joy or struggle at the birth of Jesus?
Question

7. ADVENT ~ Week 1

8. A state of well-being, or having
a pleasurable or satisfying experience;
it is largely – if not solely – dependent
on one’s circumstances...
Happiness(Used 30x in
scripture)

9. Joy is the settled assurance that God
is a loving God who sits unshakably
on the throne as Lord of the universe;
the quiet confidence that – because
of that fact – everything is ultimately
going to be alright, and the determined choice –
in light of who God is – to praise God
in every situation
Joy(Used 150x in scripture)

10. Joy does not simply
happen to us.
We have to choose joy
and keep on choosing it
every day.
Henri Nouwen

11. ADVENT ~ Week 1

12. Does God experience joy amidst
the darkness and pain of creation?
Question

13. DALLAS WILLARD
We should, to begin with,
think that God leads
a very interesting life,
and that He is full of joy…
His is simply one great,
inexhaustible, and eternal
experience of all that is
good and true and
beautiful and right…
This is His life.

14. DALLAS WILLARD
(To God there is available…)
Towering clouds of gasses
trillions of miles high,
backlit by nuclear fires
in newly forming stars,
galaxies cart wheeling
into collision, and sending
explosive shock waves boiling
through millions of light
years of time and space.

15. DALLAS WILLARD
These things are
all before Him,
along with
numberless unfolding
rosebuds, souls and
songs – and immeasurably
more, of which we know
NOTHING…

16. The world as God sees it is a panorama
of deprivation and exploitation and death.
The history of the world has shown over
and over and over again that it is incapable
of rescuing itself from forces too strong for
mere human nature. The great good news
of the last judgment is that ‘on that day’
God will set everything right,
once and for all.
Fleming Rutledge

17. Who is right: Rutledge or Willard?
Question

18. ADVENT ~ Week 1

19. What about you:
did you experience
joy or struggle this year?
Are you experiencing
joy or struggle this Advent?
Will Christmas be a season
of joy or struggle for you?
Question

20. - Flooding in the basement
- Broken leg (again)
- More flooding in the basement
- Foundation repair, yard repair, toilet repair,
drywall repair, siding repair, painting, staining,
more painting, more toilet repair
- Surgery and sickness and recovery
- Kidney stone and sickness and recovery
- Lost phone, dead battery, flat tire…
A Brief Rundown of
Our Year

21. Living with joy is not about things being either
good OR bad, easy OR hard, finished OR unfinished,
healthy OR sick, grass that’s green OR brown,
living OR dying, about God’s life being “full of joy”
OR God’s experience of the world being full of
“deprivation and exploitation and death…”
Joy is found by learning to live
in the tension of BOTH.
What I’m Learning...

22. More than one thing is true at the same time.
The acknowledgment of the “bad” does not negate
the existence (or my experience) of the “good,”
and acknowledging the “good” does not lead me
to deny the existence (or my experience)
of the “bad.”
What I’m Learning...

23. Advent begins in the dark.
Fleming Rutledge

24. Advent begins in the dark.
(Yes. And it ends in light.)
Fleming Rutledge

25. The Advent season offers something
remarkable to the church – the calling
to live in two places at once…
Fleming Rutledge

26. The Advent season offers something
remarkable to the church – the calling
to live in two places at once… It is the
midnight of the year. The early church knew
what it was doing when it settled on the
winter solstice as the date for approaching
Christmas. This is the right moment in the
year for the announcement of the
coming of the Lord.
Fleming Rutledge

28. Joy does not simply
happen to us.
We have to choose joy
and keep on choosing it
every day.
Henri Nouwen

29. ADVENT ~ Week 1

30. Benediction
O God of Elizabeth and Mary,
you visited your servants
with news of the world's redemption
in the coming of the Savior.
Make our hearts leap with joy,
and fill our mouths with songs of praise,
that we may announce glad tidings of peace,
and welcome the Christ in our midst.
Amen.