America has always been a “start over” place. Even a “do-over” place for failures and rejects who have found their way into this land of new opportunity and new possibility. The great oxymoron of Christmas is that just as the dead of winter descends, we celebrate a new birth, a new beginning, a new reason and relationship never before experienced in human history.

Christmas is the ultimate “do-over.” Christmas is God’s “reboot” button for humanity. And it arrives when we least expect it. As the temperatures and snows fall, a new way of life is introduced into this world.

The epistle text for this week joins Paul’s argument midstream. The apostle is making his case for common ground between those whose faith is “strong” and those whose faith is “weak.” Paul’s personal faith was so utterly…