December 7, 2025 • 12 mins
A Bethlehem coffee joke shouldn’t hit this hard, but it does: if Joseph could order a venti, what would we order to actually wake up to Advent? We open with humor and move straight into the fire of John the Baptist, who refuses to let repentance be a mood or a moment. His challenge to the religious insiders isn’t for shock value; it’s a wake-up call to bear fruit that proves belief has entered the bloodstream of daily life.
We talk about why the lectionary leans on sharp texts during a cozy season, and how that tension can bless us. Instead of drifting toward December 24 on autopilot, we look for signs of Christ’s presence that show up in ordinary mercies: reconciled friendships, stubborn hope, quiet peace in noisy rooms. Then we take the harder step—becoming a sign for others. That means practicing patience when tempers flare, choosing humility when pride is easier, and acting with love when resentment would feel justified. Faith moves from concept to craft as we align our habits with Jesus’ life, not to impress God but to mirror the love that already found us.
By the end, we hold two questions with honesty and hope: will the promise of Christmas be fulfilled in us, and will it be fulfilled in others because of us? If you’re ready to turn waiting into practice and belief into visible fruit, this conversation offers a gentle but steady path forward. Listen, reflect, and share it with someone who needs a nudge toward courage and peace. If this resonates, subscribe, leave a review, and tell us what step you’ll take this week to live the story.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Pastor Darren (00:00):
Well, friends, uh kind of a fun thing in this
season to think about.
And a lot of this stuff we can'tever know for sure, 2,000 years
ago and stuff like that.
But it's fun to think about andto uh put our heads on.
I'm wondering, you've gotJoseph, you've got Mary.
(00:24):
They're taking this long trip,this trip that uh leads them to
Bethlehem.
And when they finish the trip,presumably, like any other group
of folks that have taken a long,long journey, they're stopping
at the Bethlehem Starbucks, andthey're asking, right, you know,
(00:44):
gonna get their order in.
I'm sure they're famished.
I'm sure they're eager for somesort of coffee, you know,
something, right?
So I'm curious.
This is what's fun to thinkabout, because again, we can't
ever know.
What do you think their orderwould have been?
Any any suggestions?
(01:04):
I put it on Facebook.
I don't know.
I didn't check this morning tosee if y'all entered.
Although Wayne said he's got,yeah, yell it out, Wayne.
unknown (01:12):
Holy water fratay.
Pastor Darren (01:14):
There you go.
Holy water frat pay.
Did say it again?
unknown (01:19):
Frankincense latte.
Pastor Darren (01:21):
Frankincense latte.
All right.
Can you drink frankincense?
I don't know who's to know.
Any other I I figure Joseph, he,you know, I got this idea, take
a long trip.
It's gotta be the VenteAmericano.
Am I right?
Or is that the one he had beforehe left?
(01:43):
Right?
And now that he's in Bethlehem,he figures he's gonna go and get
into the hotel and then, youknow, get a good nap.
Don't want a lot of coffee atthat point.
Although, well, he didn't reallyget into the hotel, did he?
He ends up in the barn.
Well, some of us know the story,I guess.
But, you know, if he shows up atthe inn and he's got a mocha
(02:07):
frap, does the innkeeper maybefind a room somewhere to share?
You know, you know, sometimesyou just gotta give a little
gift and then you get specialtreatment.
I don't know.
I'm just joking around, I guess,at this point.
I've lost you a little bit, butthat is okay.
It is Christmas.
(02:28):
And as you can tell by ourscripture this morning, we're
talking about repenting here atChristmas, as we often do at
Christmas.
Uh like last week, there areharsher scriptures, and I'll
remind you, uh, we're working inthe lectionary, right?
That schedule of scriptures thatwas developed by church leaders
(02:50):
in the 60s and been a little bitadapted, but but again, it's a
schedule of scriptures that arekind of handed to us and that
forces us to ask how we end upwith these kinds of scriptures
leading us to Christmas, becausethey don't really fit the season
in the way that the season'skind of understood anymore in
(03:11):
these days, right?
And probably what was going onwith those folks in the 60s was
uh they're finding thesepassages talking about Jesus'
coming that that help us to uhprepare ourselves maybe for
Jesus coming a second time.
(03:32):
And so they were trying to sortof spark us up a little bit by
giving us these kinds ofscriptures.
Get ready for Christmas so thatyou're ready for Christ to
actually be here.
Um and the the idea to kind ofsharpen up our response.
But John the Baptist being thespeaker here, another
interesting model for faith forus, because he comes off pretty
(03:56):
angry in this one, it seems tome.
Right?
These folks, especially thosePharisees and Sadducees,
remember, those would have beenthe church leaders of the time,
uh to put it simply.
He seems to have a bone to pickwith those guys.
I think that is fair to say.
But what's even more interestingis these Pharisees and these
(04:19):
Sadducees, well, they're they'rein line to get baptized, right?
They're not necessarily there tospy, which is what we we tend to
be used to when Pharisees andSadducees show up.
You know, they show up andthey're looking and they're
trying to make sure thatnobody's saying anything against
(04:39):
what the church has held to betrue.
You know, they're looking in tosee if John the Baptist is
saying something wrong or Jesusis saying something wrong.
In this case, they're in line toget baptized.
They're they're, you know, in asense, joining the movement,
they're converting.
So John's words to me come off alittle bit rough, right?
(05:01):
We might have thought he wouldsay something like, Hey, I'm
glad you're seeing the light.
Good to have you here,Pharisees, Sadducees.
Welcome to the movement.
You know, Merry Christmas.
Right?
You know, he's gonna saysomething pleasant.
Instead, you brood of vipers,who warned you to flee from the
(05:24):
wrath to come, bear fruit worthyof repentance.
Like rough, rough words.
It makes me want to say, hey,hey, John, John, you won.
They're here in line gettingbaptized.
Why are you still angry withthem?
(05:45):
What we come to realize is thatthis baptism for John the
Baptist means something just alittle bit more.
It's important as a statement offaith, a statement in confidence
in in God's presence, in theimportance of Christ's birth and
(06:06):
presence amongst us.
But if it's not supported bybehaviors, well, that's a
problem.
unknown (06:17):
Right?
Pastor Darren (06:18):
John the Baptist, he sees these church leaders are
still behaving in the old way.
And for JTB, that's for those ofus who are close to him, John
the Baptist.
JTB, this is significant, right?
These are stakes, these are highstakes.
Jesus is coming, and noteverybody's gonna meet the mark.
(06:41):
So it's important to John theBaptist.
So he wants to point out tothese Pharisees, these
Sadducees, you may not be doingenough just to show up here and
get baptized.
So it leaves us in this space ata season like Advent, wondering
what we do, what we do with thispassage, and more importantly,
(07:02):
what do we do with it hereduring Advent?
You know, our theme over Advent,as always with Advent, is you
know, how do we wait?
The whole world waiting.
What do we do about thiswaiting?
How do we do them?
Last week, a first thing werecognize about how we might
(07:26):
wait is that we begin to getourselves ready to see the
signs, to be in a position wherewe see the signs of when God is
doing things, when we seize thesigns of Christ's presence,
love's presence amongst us.
That's what we talked about abit last week, getting ourselves
(07:47):
ready so we see it when itcomes.
But a second thing to rememberis that it's in a story that we
have come to know all that Jesuswants us to know.
And it's one thing to believethat story.
(08:09):
It's one thing to show up on theshore and to get baptized, but
it's another thing to make thatour story.
As we wait, maybe we can askourselves this question what
would it mean for me to makethat story mine?
(08:30):
How might my outlook change onlife if I were to believe in the
presence of love amongst us,evidence of God's love for us in
the physical life of Jesus,birth and life in Jesus?
How might my actions change wereI to take Jesus' modeling of a
(08:56):
life more seriously, seriouslyenough that it shows my faith,
shows my confidence.
How might my life change were Ito let myself be the story and
not just to believe in it?
(09:16):
I think our invitation as wewalk this season of Advent, the
season of waiting and preparingfor Christ's living presence
among us, is to remember that weare to look for those signs,
that evidence of Christ'spresence amongst us.
(09:38):
But it is also that we are alsoa sign for others.
Right?
This life that Christ brought tous, this life that Christ
modeled for us, it's a way tobless ourselves, to bless our
own lives, to live that lifethat Jesus modeled for us, but
(10:03):
it's also a way to become partof the story for others.
When we live that out, when welive that reality out, that
belief out, when we trust thatit is true and that presence is
real, we become part of thestory ourselves for others.
(10:25):
When our belief and our trust inthat presence is backed with
behaviors and actions, when weare patient, when we trust, when
we have humility, when we havelove, even in situations where
love is difficult andchallenging, we become the
(10:45):
story.
We become part of the story.
We are the sign, we are theevidence for others.
To me, that's the invitationfrom this passage.
It's our invitation, thisAdvent, and it comes with a
question.
As we seek the transformation wehope for on Christmas Eve, that
(11:07):
it will be meaningful, that itwill be deep, that we will feel
a deepening of our relationshipwith Christ, a deepening of our
faith, a deepening of our faith,a deepening of our sense of
peace inside ourselves and inour lives.
As we seek that transformationthis Christmas Eve, the question
(11:28):
becomes will that hope befulfilled in us?
And will that hope be fulfilledin others because of us?
That is the challenge we getfrom John the Baptist, JTB.
(11:50):
That is the challenge we getfrom Christ.
That is the challenge God givesus in this season of Advent.
Amen.
Well, friends, uh kind of a fun thing in this
season to think about.
And a lot of this stuff we can'tever know for sure, 2,000 years
ago and stuff like that.
But it's fun to think about andto uh put our heads on.
I'm wondering, you've gotJoseph, you've got Mary.
(00:24):
They're taking this long trip,this trip that uh leads them to
Bethlehem.
And when they finish the trip,presumably, like any other group
of folks that have taken a long,long journey, they're stopping
at the Bethlehem Starbucks, andthey're asking, right, you know,
(00:44):
gonna get their order in.
I'm sure they're famished.
I'm sure they're eager for somesort of coffee, you know,
something, right?
So I'm curious.
This is what's fun to thinkabout, because again, we can't
ever know.
What do you think their orderwould have been?
Any any suggestions?
(01:04):
I put it on Facebook.
I don't know.
I didn't check this morning tosee if y'all entered.
Although Wayne said he's got,yeah, yell it out, Wayne.
unknown (01:12):
Holy water fratay.
Pastor Darren (01:14):
There you go.
Holy water frat pay.
Did say it again?
unknown (01:19):
Frankincense latte.
Pastor Darren (01:21):
Frankincense latte.
All right.
Can you drink frankincense?
I don't know who's to know.
Any other I I figure Joseph, he,you know, I got this idea, take
a long trip.
It's gotta be the VenteAmericano.
Am I right?
Or is that the one he had beforehe left?
(01:43):
Right?
And now that he's in Bethlehem,he figures he's gonna go and get
into the hotel and then, youknow, get a good nap.
Don't want a lot of coffee atthat point.
Although, well, he didn't reallyget into the hotel, did he?
He ends up in the barn.
Well, some of us know the story,I guess.
But, you know, if he shows up atthe inn and he's got a mocha
(02:07):
frap, does the innkeeper maybefind a room somewhere to share?
You know, you know, sometimesyou just gotta give a little
gift and then you get specialtreatment.
I don't know.
I'm just joking around, I guess,at this point.
I've lost you a little bit, butthat is okay.
It is Christmas.
(02:28):
And as you can tell by ourscripture this morning, we're
talking about repenting here atChristmas, as we often do at
Christmas.
Uh like last week, there areharsher scriptures, and I'll
remind you, uh, we're working inthe lectionary, right?
That schedule of scriptures thatwas developed by church leaders
(02:50):
in the 60s and been a little bitadapted, but but again, it's a
schedule of scriptures that arekind of handed to us and that
forces us to ask how we end upwith these kinds of scriptures
leading us to Christmas, becausethey don't really fit the season
in the way that the season'skind of understood anymore in
(03:11):
these days, right?
And probably what was going onwith those folks in the 60s was
uh they're finding thesepassages talking about Jesus'
coming that that help us to uhprepare ourselves maybe for
Jesus coming a second time.
(03:32):
And so they were trying to sortof spark us up a little bit by
giving us these kinds ofscriptures.
Get ready for Christmas so thatyou're ready for Christ to
actually be here.
Um and the the idea to kind ofsharpen up our response.
But John the Baptist being thespeaker here, another
interesting model for faith forus, because he comes off pretty
(03:56):
angry in this one, it seems tome.
Right?
These folks, especially thosePharisees and Sadducees,
remember, those would have beenthe church leaders of the time,
uh to put it simply.
He seems to have a bone to pickwith those guys.
I think that is fair to say.
But what's even more interestingis these Pharisees and these
(04:19):
Sadducees, well, they're they'rein line to get baptized, right?
They're not necessarily there tospy, which is what we we tend to
be used to when Pharisees andSadducees show up.
You know, they show up andthey're looking and they're
trying to make sure thatnobody's saying anything against
(04:39):
what the church has held to betrue.
You know, they're looking in tosee if John the Baptist is
saying something wrong or Jesusis saying something wrong.
In this case, they're in line toget baptized.
They're they're, you know, in asense, joining the movement,
they're converting.
So John's words to me come off alittle bit rough, right?
(05:01):
We might have thought he wouldsay something like, Hey, I'm
glad you're seeing the light.
Good to have you here,Pharisees, Sadducees.
Welcome to the movement.
You know, Merry Christmas.
Right?
You know, he's gonna saysomething pleasant.
Instead, you brood of vipers,who warned you to flee from the
(05:24):
wrath to come, bear fruit worthyof repentance.
Like rough, rough words.
It makes me want to say, hey,hey, John, John, you won.
They're here in line gettingbaptized.
Why are you still angry withthem?
(05:45):
What we come to realize is thatthis baptism for John the
Baptist means something just alittle bit more.
It's important as a statement offaith, a statement in confidence
in in God's presence, in theimportance of Christ's birth and
(06:06):
presence amongst us.
But if it's not supported bybehaviors, well, that's a
problem.
unknown (06:17):
Right?
Pastor Darren (06:18):
John the Baptist, he sees these church leaders are
still behaving in the old way.
And for JTB, that's for those ofus who are close to him, John
the Baptist.
JTB, this is significant, right?
These are stakes, these are highstakes.
Jesus is coming, and noteverybody's gonna meet the mark.
(06:41):
So it's important to John theBaptist.
So he wants to point out tothese Pharisees, these
Sadducees, you may not be doingenough just to show up here and
get baptized.
So it leaves us in this space ata season like Advent, wondering
what we do, what we do with thispassage, and more importantly,
(07:02):
what do we do with it hereduring Advent?
You know, our theme over Advent,as always with Advent, is you
know, how do we wait?
The whole world waiting.
What do we do about thiswaiting?
How do we do them?
Last week, a first thing werecognize about how we might
(07:26):
wait is that we begin to getourselves ready to see the
signs, to be in a position wherewe see the signs of when God is
doing things, when we seize thesigns of Christ's presence,
love's presence amongst us.
That's what we talked about abit last week, getting ourselves
(07:47):
ready so we see it when itcomes.
But a second thing to rememberis that it's in a story that we
have come to know all that Jesuswants us to know.
And it's one thing to believethat story.
(08:09):
It's one thing to show up on theshore and to get baptized, but
it's another thing to make thatour story.
As we wait, maybe we can askourselves this question what
would it mean for me to makethat story mine?
(08:30):
How might my outlook change onlife if I were to believe in the
presence of love amongst us,evidence of God's love for us in
the physical life of Jesus,birth and life in Jesus?
How might my actions change wereI to take Jesus' modeling of a
(08:56):
life more seriously, seriouslyenough that it shows my faith,
shows my confidence.
How might my life change were Ito let myself be the story and
not just to believe in it?
(09:16):
I think our invitation as wewalk this season of Advent, the
season of waiting and preparingfor Christ's living presence
among us, is to remember that weare to look for those signs,
that evidence of Christ'spresence amongst us.
(09:38):
But it is also that we are alsoa sign for others.
Right?
This life that Christ brought tous, this life that Christ
modeled for us, it's a way tobless ourselves, to bless our
own lives, to live that lifethat Jesus modeled for us, but
(10:03):
it's also a way to become partof the story for others.
When we live that out, when welive that reality out, that
belief out, when we trust thatit is true and that presence is
real, we become part of thestory ourselves for others.
(10:25):
When our belief and our trust inthat presence is backed with
behaviors and actions, when weare patient, when we trust, when
we have humility, when we havelove, even in situations where
love is difficult andchallenging, we become the
(10:45):
story.
We become part of the story.
We are the sign, we are theevidence for others.
To me, that's the invitationfrom this passage.
It's our invitation, thisAdvent, and it comes with a
question.
As we seek the transformation wehope for on Christmas Eve, that
(11:07):
it will be meaningful, that itwill be deep, that we will feel
a deepening of our relationshipwith Christ, a deepening of our
faith, a deepening of our faith,a deepening of our sense of
peace inside ourselves and inour lives.
As we seek that transformationthis Christmas Eve, the question
(11:28):
becomes will that hope befulfilled in us?
And will that hope be fulfilledin others because of us?
That is the challenge we getfrom John the Baptist, JTB.
(11:50):
That is the challenge we getfrom Christ.
That is the challenge God givesus in this season of Advent.
Amen.
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