Siri: Why Do We Need the Manger? - Advent 2018

When I have questions in our day, I often take out may phone and ask, e.g., “Siri, where is the closest Mexican restaurant?” And, she tells me! She’s not as good at answering the big existential questions like, “What is the meaning of life?” But, she is quite good at the day-to-day matters.

As we walk through Advent 2018 at LAC, we will be asking one of those big questions, i.e., “Why do we need the manger?” By that, I mean, why do we, who profess to be Christians, need to celebrate the Son of God who has come into this world and into our lives? To answer that question, we will be looking week by week at the greatest longings of our human lives. And, we will not be asking Siri. No, we will be looking at five key women in history whose lives and words focus our attention on the most significant needs all human beings experience:

• Eve’s Story: The Need for Hope (Genesis 3). A woman who once had everything and then lost everything helps us to wrestle with how Jesus’s coming addresses the need of finding again what has been lost.
• Hannah’s Story: The Need for Peace (1 Samuel 1:4-20). A woman who had never had the deepest desire of her heart satisfied helps us grapple with whether Jesus fills our innermost longings.
• Elizabeth’s Story: The Need for Joy (Luke 1:5-25). A woman who had not found joy in spite of her faithfulness to God forces us to face those inner unanswered questions that can rob us of joy. We will ask whether Jesus turns feelings of reproach into joy.
• Mary’s Story: The Need for Love (Matthew 1:18-25). A young teenage woman who fled into the hills country because of an unexpected pregnancy helps us to come to grips with unasked for and unexpected developments in our lives. We will ask whether those occurrences might actually be the loving acts of God.
• Anna’s Story: The Need for Redemption (Luke 2:36-40). An older woman who had worshipped God for a long, long time, even in the midst of hardship, helps us to consider whether the waiting is actually worth it all. Is the long-expected Jesus, born in a lowly manger, the Messiah and Savior of the world?

Each week, after letting each of these women bring the reality of our deepest human needs to light, we will allow Jesus, through words spoken at the end of his life, speak to the matter of how he came to address those needs and fill our longings. What an Advent season it will be!