In our Advent sermon series, we will follow through the intertwined birth narratives of Jesus and John the Baptist in the Gospel of Luke. Luke does not begin with angels singing in the night sky, but with two families navigating both divine promise and human emotion—Elizabeth’s longing, Zechariah’s doubt, Mary’s astonishment, and the community’s joy. In these early chapters, we see a full spectrum of human experience: fear and faith, weariness and wonder, isolation and connection. Advent meets us in that same place, where joy and sorrow coexist. For many, the Christmas season is an emotionally complex time—overflowing with light and laughter, yet tinged with grief, loneliness, or exhaustion.

Like the hymn “O Holy Night” proclaims, we live in a weary world still aching for a “thrill of hope.” Yet joy, like justice, can be an act of resistance—a way of proclaiming that darkness will not have the final word. This Advent, we will make room for both our weariness and our wonder, our grief and our gladness. We will celebrate a God who comes close, even in the midst of our fatigue, and invites us to rejoice not in perfection, but in presence. For the world is weary, yes—but still, by God’s grace, it rejoices.