After hearing the scripture reading, the thought going through your head may be, “What the heck does that have to do with Christmas? Isn’t this the first Sunday of Advent? Why are you talking about Noah? And didn’t Jesus say those things during holy week, like on Palm Sunday? Where is the Christmas story?”

Let me try to explain. There is a thing called the lectionary; some of you are probably familiar with it. The lectionary is a list of scriptures for each Sunday of the year, and other special days as well. It’s not a new idea. According to the Jewish Talmud, they used a set list of readings for festivals and services all the way back in Moses’ day. Today’s scripture  reading  from  Matthew  is one of the passages on the lectionary list for the first Sunday of Advent this year. That’s w…