On a Sunday when the choir did Vivaldi's Gloria, I preached only in the early, informal service, and so I prepared a less formal sermon. It draws from Donald Miller's new book where he writes that the same things that make a movie or story memorable or meaningful also work for our lives. Meaningful lives come from meaningful stories. But changing our life stories is no easy task.
John the Baptist tells those who come out to see him the changes they need to make, the new stories they need to live with their lives. And the coming of a Savior with its stories of "Peace on Earth" and "Goodwill to All" call us out of our old stories, into the new story God is writing.