Message: “Seeing God Again After You’ve Given Up, vol. 5 ” from Ross Stackhouse

Message at 29:45. In a surprising move in the story of Jesus’s birth, two very minor characters show up out of nowhere. There’s no way this story should include accounts of minor characters like Simeon and Anna, but that’s the whole point of this whole narrative. The minor characters are the main ones. In spite of having many reasons to stop looking for God to show up, Anna and Simeon “don’t quit before the miracle.” Instead, they see something astounding, and it’s a watershed moment. They show up and take their place in this story of a miraculous inbreaking of light, mercy, and great reversal. We can, too.

Related Topics: Advent | More Messages from Ross Stackhouse

From Series: "Seeing God Again After You've Given Up"

We’re entering a season called Advent in the Church in which we prepare our hearts for Christmas. Yes, it’s a season of joy, but we don’t get to the joy–the truest joy of this story–by leaving our pain, sorrow and sins unaddressed. After all, this isn’t how the story of Jesus goes anyhow. We’re going to take a deep dive into the two chapters of the Bible that deal with Jesus’s birth (in Luke’s Gospel), and we’ll see from the beginning that people like Zechariah, Elizabeth, Mary and others had perhaps given up on the possibility of God actually existing, or, at the very least, that God was yet going to do something in the world and in their lives that would honor the despair and disgrace they had experienced (along with others). Until one day, there’s a glimmer of light, a glimpse of something God was doing…and was preparing to do all along.