What Changes When Faith Becomes Your Daily Behavior?

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.

Chapters

• 0:00 Bethlehem Starbucks Icebreaker
• 2:28 Why Advent Texts Sound So Harsh
• 3:35 John The Baptist Calls For Fruit
• 6:50 Waiting Well: Seeing The Signs
• 8:50 Make The Story Your Own
• 10:45 Becoming A Sign For Others
• 11:45 Advent’s Challenge And Amen

Transcript

Pastor Darren: 0:00

Well, friends, uh kind of a fun thing in this season to think about. And a lot of this stuff we can't ever know for sure, 2,000 years ago and stuff like that. But it's fun to think about and to uh put our heads on. I'm wondering, you've got Joseph, you've got Mary. 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, and they're asking, right, you know, gonna get their order in. I'm sure they're famished. I'm sure they're eager for some sort of coffee, you know, something, right? So I'm curious. This is what's fun to think about, because again, we can't ever know. What do you think their order would have been? Any any suggestions? I put it on Facebook. I don't know. I didn't check this morning to see if y'all entered. Although Wayne said he's got, yeah, yell it out, Wayne.

unknown: 1:12

Holy water fratay.

Pastor Darren: 1:14

There you go. Holy water frat pay. Did say it again?

unknown: 1:19

Frankincense latte.

Pastor Darren: 1:21

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 Vente Americano. Am I right? Or is that the one he had before he left? Right? And now that he's in Bethlehem, he figures he's gonna go and get into the hotel and then, you know, get a good nap. Don't want a lot of coffee at that point. Although, well, he didn't really get 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 at the inn and he's got a mocha frap, does the innkeeper maybe find a room somewhere to share? You know, you know, sometimes you just gotta give a little gift and then you get special treatment. I don't know. I'm just joking around, I guess, at this point. I've lost you a little bit, but that is okay. It is Christmas. And as you can tell by our scripture this morning, we're talking about repenting here at Christmas, as we often do at Christmas. Uh like last week, there are harsher scriptures, and I'll remind you, uh, we're working in the lectionary, right? That schedule of scriptures that was developed by church leaders in the 60s and been a little bit adapted, but but again, it's a schedule of scriptures that are kind of handed to us and that forces us to ask how we end up with these kinds of scriptures leading us to Christmas, because they don't really fit the season in the way that the season's kind of understood anymore in these days, right? And probably what was going on with those folks in the 60s was uh they're finding these passages talking about Jesus' coming that that help us to uh prepare ourselves maybe for Jesus coming a second time. And so they were trying to sort of spark us up a little bit by giving us these kinds of scriptures. Get ready for Christmas so that you're ready for Christ to actually be here. Um and the the idea to kind of sharpen up our response. But John the Baptist being the speaker here, another interesting model for faith for us, because he comes off pretty angry in this one, it seems to me. Right? These folks, especially those Pharisees and Sadducees, remember, those would have been the church leaders of the time, uh to put it simply. He seems to have a bone to pick with those guys. I think that is fair to say. But what's even more interesting is these Pharisees and these Sadducees, well, they're they're in line to get baptized, right? They're not necessarily there to spy, which is what we we tend to be used to when Pharisees and Sadducees show up. You know, they show up and they're looking and they're trying to make sure that nobody's saying anything against what the church has held to be true. You know, they're looking in to see if John the Baptist is saying something wrong or Jesus is saying something wrong. In this case, they're in line to get baptized. They're they're, you know, in a sense, joining the movement, they're converting. So John's words to me come off a little bit rough, right? We might have thought he would say 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 say something pleasant. Instead, you brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come, bear fruit worthy of repentance. Like rough, rough words. It makes me want to say, hey, hey, John, John, you won. They're here in line getting baptized. Why are you still angry with them? What we come to realize is that this baptism for John the Baptist means something just a little bit more. It's important as a statement of faith, a statement in confidence in in God's presence, in the importance of Christ's birth and presence amongst us. But if it's not supported by behaviors, well, that's a problem.

unknown: 6:17

Right?

Pastor Darren: 6:18

John the Baptist, he sees these church leaders are still behaving in the old way. And for JTB, that's for those of us who are close to him, John the Baptist. JTB, this is significant, right? These are stakes, these are high stakes. Jesus is coming, and not everybody's gonna meet the mark. So it's important to John the Baptist. So he wants to point out to these Pharisees, these Sadducees, you may not be doing enough just to show up here and get baptized. So it leaves us in this space at a season like Advent, wondering what we do, what we do with this passage, and more importantly, what do we do with it here during 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 this waiting? How do we do them? Last week, a first thing we recognize about how we might wait is that we begin to get ourselves ready to see the signs, to be in a position where we see the signs of when God is doing things, when we seize the signs of Christ's presence, love's presence amongst us. That's what we talked about a bit last week, getting ourselves ready so we see it when it comes. But a second thing to remember is that it's in a story that we have come to know all that Jesus wants us to know. And it's one thing to believe that story. It's one thing to show up on the shore and to get baptized, but it's another thing to make that our story. As we wait, maybe we can ask ourselves this question what would it mean for me to make that story mine? How might my outlook change on life 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 were I to take Jesus' modeling of a life more seriously, seriously enough that it shows my faith, shows my confidence. How might my life change were I to let myself be the story and not just to believe in it? I think our invitation as we walk this season of Advent, the season of waiting and preparing for Christ's living presence among us, is to remember that we are to look for those signs, that evidence of Christ's presence amongst us. But it is also that we are also a sign for others. Right? This life that Christ brought to us, this life that Christ modeled for us, it's a way to bless ourselves, to bless our own lives, to live that life that Jesus modeled for us, but it's also a way to become part of the story for others. When we live that out, when we live that reality out, that belief out, when we trust that it is true and that presence is real, we become part of the story ourselves for others. When our belief and our trust in that presence is backed with behaviors and actions, when we are patient, when we trust, when we have humility, when we have love, even in situations where love is difficult and challenging, we become the story. We become part of the story. We are the sign, we are the evidence for others. To me, that's the invitation from this passage. It's our invitation, this Advent, and it comes with a question. As we seek the transformation we hope for on Christmas Eve, that it will be meaningful, that it will be deep, that we will feel a deepening of our relationship with Christ, a deepening of our faith, a deepening of our faith, a deepening of our sense of peace inside ourselves and in our lives. As we seek that transformation this Christmas Eve, the question becomes will that hope be fulfilled in us? And will that hope be fulfilled in others because of us? That is the challenge we get from John the Baptist, JTB. That is the challenge we get from Christ. That is the challenge God gives us in this season of Advent. Amen.