The Competition of Christmas

Chances are that your hour at church on Sunday morning might be the most peaceful moment you have during your Christmas week. Perhaps your house is full of company. Oh, your glad your loved ones all came, but they do bring a bit of chaos. It could be that you have to travel a long way, or you have three different places you have to be in two days. So, much extra at work has to be done just so you can enjoy a couple of days with your family. Then there’s all the office parties, extra school and community events, and your December calendar gets crammed.
Truth is there many things competing for our hearts. Sadly, the one who gets overlooked sometimes is the very Savior whose birth we are celebrating.  I want to invite you and your loved ones to join us this Christmas Sunday as we consider the competition of the very first Christmas. It was literally a life and death struggle.
We will be looking at the wise men. Who were these guys, and why did they come? No, we don’t know if there were three of them. We don’t even know if they rode camels. And no, they probably weren’t at the manger, so all of our nativity scenes are wrong. Their surprisingly modern application lies deeper in their story.