Christmas is a beautiful time of year and there’s nothing quite like the Christmas story. At the heart it’s a story that introduces something Merry and Bright into a dark setting. From the 1st note of the song the Angels sang announcing the birth of Christ – His light illuminated all of History from that point on. This story changed everything for everyone for all time
- whether they know it or not.

Tonight we turn our attention to the call at Christmas to grow our compassion capacity – to grow in our compassion as we remember that Christmas is God moving with His absolute best expression of compassion = the giving of His Son Jesus! In a world that pushes competition at all costs – compassion lacks popularity, but it a most powerful force. Ultimately, Christmas invites us into the upside-down ways of God.

Aristotle quote: 384-322 BC
“For that some should rule and others be ruled is a thing not only necessary, but expedient; from the hour of their birth, some are marked out for subjection, others for rule."

now fast forward a bit and we read this…

Thomas Jefferson:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

Q) what happened in between Aristotle and Jefferson? what changed the perspective? CHRISTMAS HAPPENED. JESUS came.

Quote:
"Once there was a man, and he taught the idea of no divisions, races, nations, people, or tribes. He said, 'This is the core of reality, and I am praying that people will come in.' He had no money. He had no connections. He had no power. No office. Nothing. All he had were these words. He said, 'Now I have prayed for this,' and it started happening. People started to come in. People who had a lot of money got down on their knees and washed the feet of slaves. Nobody ever did that. Jews and Gentiles who once hated each other were like brothers and sisters.

"Thomas Cahill says that this was the first expression of true equality in human history. It actually happened, and it happens still. . .
"It's not just that there never was a community like this before Jesus. There wasn't even the idea of a community like this before Jesus."

-John Ortberg from Living in Christ’s Presence

The compassion of Christmas – arrived one day in our Savior and
continues everyday since, through those who follow Him. The compassion of Christmas is meant to ripple through every day history via compassionate followers of Christ. Compassion finds its roots as we leave our own narrative and enter into another’s…

In an unprecedented move of generosity and compassion - God left Heaven and came into your story. The beauty of Christmas is not that God made us leave our narrative to try to search and navigate into his, but that He left his to immerse himself into ours. The Incarnation matters. Jesus literally moved and was motivated by COMPASSION. And as His followers – that’s to be our predisposition as well.

Jesus’ life was ruled by compassion – by deep love & outrageous concern for others. For each individual. Jesus didn’t show compassion because people deserved it, he showed it because they needed it.

Our culture says that ruthless competition is the key to life; Jesus shows that relentless compassion is the purpose of life. Christmas is our reminder of God’s Great Compassion unto us and Christmas INVITES us again to receive and pass on this compassion to others.
We’re not to be reservoirs of God’s compassion, but conduits of it.

Questions:
1) who in your reach needs compassion right now?
2) what relationship do you have, that really needs more compassion?

The COMPASSION of Heaven has come near…good news has arrived.
*When we live with God’s compassion flowing through us – we announce good news with our presence wherever we go.
Friends: as followers of Christ, we may be criticized for what we believe from time to time, but we should be famous for our compassion all the time. We’re to mirror the heart of our Savior.

Need Prayer? ....we've got some of our prayer team and pastors available following service to pray with you. Or you can text the word "prayer" to our phone number: #520-300-9001 to submit your prayer request or submit one via our new app. We look forward to partnering with you in prayer.