Even before Big Bird’s behemoth, helium-filled doppelganger flies over Broadway and ovens billow forth that aromatic mash-up of turkey, stuffing, and green beans laced with cream of mushroom and Durkee’s crunchy onions, most families have already pulled onto the Christmas autobahn where there are no speed limits and no exit ramps until January.

Will it all get done? Does it really matter if it doesn’t? I hope that in these pages you may find some bit of refuge from Yuletide chaos, reevaluate what truly matters, and maybe even train your eyes to see the signs that point to the Incarnation of love.

These collected sermons flow out of scripture texts that are traditionally read on the Sundays beginning just before Thanksgiving and ending around the second Sunday of January. In church lingo, that would encompass Christ the King Sunday through The Baptism of Jesus Sunday. These sermons are divided into three sections representing the general flow of the season: Await, Arrive, and Abide. The content you read will in some way connect to the mysterious act of God in the Incarnation of Christ, and yet, it will not always set your mind to Christmas trees, mistletoe, and traveling kings bearing exotic gifts of ages past. In Christ, the Word became flesh and my prayer is that my admittedly flawed and imprecise thoughts would at least prod you to look around you for hints of the living presence of Christ that invade your world every day. May the peace of Christ be with you.
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Matthew S. Brown was raised in Missouri but now claims Charlotte, North Carolina home, where he serves as Senior Pastor of South Mecklenburg Presbyterian Church. He is a graduate of Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, Virginia.