12/22/2024 - Advent A Season Of Expectation - It's The Small Things

One rarely thinks of Paul's message to the Corinthians as a Christmas passage. But whenever I read 1 Corinthians 1, I think of this famous Christmas story in Luke. In that letter, Paul writes of God's people: "God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him."- 1 Corinthians 1:27-29 (NIV) We do not need to look further than these first chapters of Luke to see that Paul is correct about Paul's habit. God chooses Bethlehem, the beleaguered small backwater of Bethlehem under Roman rule; he silences the priest Zachariah's doubt; God welcomes the questions of poor Mary. The peace of God comes and turns our expectations and, even more, the whole world upside down. Read more at fbcmuncie.org/blog.