![O Come, O Come Emmanuel (Isaiah 7:14) [An Advent Card Talk]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55a9a1e3e4b069b20edab1b0/1483161046976-X5VJE3CMP9T957O72EII/3d-wallpapers-light-dark-wallpaper-35822.jpg)
![The wise men, three years late for the nativity (Matthew 2:8-11) [An Epiphany Card Talk]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55a9a1e3e4b069b20edab1b0/1530285148816-MC2Z121NYA8S42Y6BIQ0/Morris+%26+Co+and+Edward+Burne+Jones_The+Adoration+of+the+Magi_Art+Gallery+of+South+Australia_detalle.jpg)
Beyond the fact that the magi never met the baby Jesus, the true gift of the magi is the epiphany, the revelation, Christ wants us to apprehend: that to be seen standing (or kneeling) for something often means we will suffer.
"May the God of hope fill you with all joy, peace, and ____________." A Canon Card Talk On Rethinking Christmas
“Although Surprising to Most, the Kingdom of Heaven is really like___________”
. . . one year we’ll defend our belief in an incarnation timed for Sukkoth as there is no way Jesus was born in December, and we’ll write the Card Talk about how the wise men did not show up until He was three years old. Eventually we’ll even address the fact that the little drummer boy was actually a drunk Roman solider looking for his estranged wife (okay, we just made that last one up) . . .
Jesus was an Immigrant, a Refugee
Fleeing oppression and likely death, the holy family crossed international boarders without papers. They took whatever they could carry, what little resources they had, and fled. Joseph trusted that God would provide for his family: a Brown day laborer with carpentry skills, a young, frightened wife, and their precociously wide-eyed child.