 Welcome to Gustavus Adolphus College and Christmas in Christ Chapel 2019, Love Beyond Borders. Tonight, 350 of our talented students will showcase their gifts to help us usher in the holiday season. Good evening from Gustavus. Tonight, we join together as Christmas in Christ Chapel takes us on a journey following the incarnation story in the Gospel of Matthew. This is a story of how God's love transcends time and space, becomes known through the life of Jesus, and how love inspires connections and unites us across differences. This year, we offer a special thank you to the donors for tonight's live stream. Mishan Bebudi, Cara Buckner, David and Judy Fienen, Steve and Betsy Hogueberg, Randy Schreiner and Cindy Bittner, John and Anita Young, and Heroic Productions. Thank you all for joining us. May you feel the gift of divine love and share this love during the holiday season and the year ahead. And now, sit back and enjoy Christmas in Christ Chapel. Generations upon generations of God's people have been on the move, strangers, foreigners, outcasts, exiles and aliens following the footsteps of their ancestors in between worlds. They were strangers. They roamed from nation to nation, from one country to another, and yet God let no one oppress them. Do not touch my anointed ones, God said, and do my prophets no harm. God watches over the strangers. Searching for welcome, hoping for embrace, sharing love and making new homes. This was woven into the fabric of those who wandered. God's wayfaring people are predisposed to welcome. You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. The foreigner who lives among you must be treated as one of your own. Love them as you love yourself, for you too were a foreigner. The aliens among you should be treated as citizens of Israel and have a share in among the tribes of Israel. In the Christmas story, God is on the move. The boundary between heaven and earth is transcended. The border between human and divine blended. To welcome the stranger is to welcome God. I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. Truly I say to you, just as you embraced one of the least of these who are members of my family, you embraced me. Continue to love each other as siblings. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers. For by doing so, some have entertained angels without knowing it. As God's people continue to journey to new places, let the coming of Christ remind us that love transcends all borders. The nativity is not the first manifestation of God's faithfulness. Rather, it is a fulfillment of a love so abundant and steadfast that more than 40 generations of women and men had already been raising their voices in praise to God. Among those named are prophets, mothers, kings, and leaders. This genealogy includes the names of Gentiles and Jews who undertook many border crossing journeys as nomads, refugees, conquerors, and exiles in the ancient Near East, lands that we know today as Iraq, Turkey, Israel, Palestine, Syria, and Egypt. God called Abraham and Sarah to move to a new land and promised that through them all the families of the Earth would be blessed. Jacob's son Joseph was sold into slavery in Egypt where he helped Egyptians survive a famine. Ruth left her people to accompany her mother-in-law Naomi back to her home in Bethlehem. King David expanded the lands of his kingdom and conquered the city of Jerusalem. The prophet Amos warned people of God's anger at their injustice and of their coming punishment in exile. When the northern kingdom of Israel fell to Assyria, its inhabitants were sent to distant lands. When the southern kingdom fell to the Babylonians, many of the survivors were forcibly relocated to the land of their captors. Only when a new king conquered Babylon, more than 500 years before Jesus was born were the exiles allowed to return home, where eventually Eliezer fathered Matan, Matan fathered Jacob, and Jacob fathered Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born. This is how the birth of Jesus came about. When Jesus' mother Mary was engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Joseph, her husband, an upright person unwilling to disgrace her, decided to divorce her quietly. This was Joseph's intention when suddenly the angel of God appeared in a dream and said, Joseph, heir to the house of David, don't be afraid to wed Mary. It is by the Holy Spirit that she has conceived this child. She is to have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, salvation, because he will save the people from their sins. All this happened to fulfill what God had said through the prophet. A virgin will be with child and give birth, and the child will be named Emanuel, a name that means God with us. When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of God had directed, and they went ahead with the marriage. She had a son. They named him Jesus. This is birth, which happened in Bethlehem of Judea during the reign of Herod. Magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem and asked, where is the newborn ruler of the Jews? We observed his star at its rising and have come to pay homage. At this news, Herod became greatly disturbed, as did all of Jerusalem. Summoning all the chief priests and religious scholars of the people, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. In Bethlehem of Judea, they informed him, here is what the prophet has written. And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means leased among the leaders of Judah, since from you will come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel. Herod called the Magi aside and found out from them the exact time of the star's appearance. Then he sent them to Bethlehem after having instructed them, go and get detailed information about the child. When you have found him, report back to me so that I may go and offer homage to you. After their audience with the ruler, they set out. The star, which they had observed at its rising, went ahead of them until it came to a standstill over the place where the child lay. They were overjoyed at seeing the star, and upon entering the house, found the child with Mary, his mother. They prostrated themselves and paid homage. Then they opened their coffers and presented the child with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. They were warned in a dream not to return to Herod, so they went back to their own country by another route. Longitude, forget latitude, do not think of distance or of plotting the most direct routes. Astrolabe, sextant compass, these will not help you here. This is the map that begins with the star. This is the chart that begins with fire, with blazing, with an ancient light that has outlasted generations, empires, cultures, wars. Look starward once, then look away. Close your eyes and see how the map begins to constellate behind your lives, how it blossoms, how it constellates, it lines stretching out from where you stand. You cannot see it all. Cannot divine the way it will turn and spiral. Cannot perceive how the path you walk will lead you finally inside through the labyrinth of your own heart and belly and lungs. But step out and you will know what the wise who traveled this path before you knew. The treasure in this map lies not at journey's end, but at its beginning. The angel of God suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph with the command, get up. Take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you otherwise. Herod is searching for the child to destroy him. Joseph got up, awakened Jesus and Mary, and they left that night for Egypt. They stayed there until the death of Herod to fulfill what God had said through the prophet. Out of Egypt I have called my own. Herod in a dream to Joseph in Egypt with the command, get up. Take the child and his mother and set out for the land of Israel. Those who had designs on the life of the child are dead. Joseph got up, awakened Jesus and Mary, and they returned to the land of Israel. Joseph heard, however, that Archelaus had succeeded Herod as ruler of Judea, and Joseph was afraid to go back there. Instead, because of a warning received by Joseph in a dream, the family went to the region of Galilee. There they settled in a town called Nazareth. In this way, what was said through the prophets was fulfilled. He will be called a Nazarene. Abundant God, we rejoice that you have crossed borders to make a home among us, for by doing so you have left nothing untouched by your divine love. May the beauty we have delighted in this evening lead us to revel more deeply in the magic to be found this season. And as we celebrate your transcending of the barrier between heaven and earth, may we be inspired to surpass the boundaries within our world that seek to keep us divided. May our homes, places of worship, and communities be safe havens for all who journey. And as we embrace the stranger within our midst, may we become more fully aware that we are in the company of the Christ child. Amen. Christmas in Christchapel, Love Beyond Borders, is a presentation of Gustavus Adolphus College in association with heroic productions. For more information about tonight's program or Gustavus Adolphus, please visit us online at Gustavus.edu. Thank you for joining us this evening from all of us here at Gustavus. Merry Christmas.