Enjoy this thought-provoking, permission-giving, freedom-yielding teaching from Matt Real!

The Wise Men weren't and aren't the only ones who follow stars. We all are looking to our own respective "stars" for guidance. How do you know if the star you're following is going to lead you where you want to go? What is your assessment criteria? It turns out that the Christmas Story offers some keys that might be helpful in sorting out what to follow and what to let go.

The sermon reflects on the choices we make—during Thanksgiving, in our daily lives, and in our spiritual journeys. Using Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken as a starting point, it argues that choices “make all the difference,” though not always in positive or easy ways. Frost’s poem reminds us that every path taken excludes another and that the consequences of our decisions shape our stories.

Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 7 contrasts two paths: a broad, easy road leading to destruction and a narrow, challenging road leading to life. Unlike Frost’s neutral fork in the woods, Jesus warns that the popular, well-worn way often misleads, while the life-giving path requires intention, courage, and deep attention. Throughout the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus describes this narrow path through practices like nonviolent resistance, countercultural generosity, reimagined prayer, and redefined blessing. His own life embodies the narrow way—one filled with love, resistance to injustice, and even suffering.

C.S. Lewis adds that the Christian life is not about managing one’s desires or being “good” in a surface-level way, but about surrendering the whole self so that Divine life can flow through us. This surrender is both “harder and easier” than moral effort because it transforms from within rather than demanding endless self-striving.

The sermon then shifts toward Advent and Christmas, noting that every character in the nativity story faced choices when the “star” invited them toward God’s unfolding work—some embraced the narrow path, some rejected it. The star becomes a metaphor for divine guidance still shining today, calling us away from easy, crowded routes and toward the quieter, more demanding way of love, justice, and grace.

Ultimately, the sermon invites listeners to consider what the “narrow path” means for them now, how it shapes their lives and relationships, and how the “unforced rhythms of grace” (Matthew 11) can guide them to live more freely, lightly, and intentionally.

At first glance, following the Golden Rule - doing unto others what you would want done to you - seems simple enough. But it's not. To truly appreciate it requires to work and humility.

This exploration of Jesus' teaching on prayer challenges us to move beyond the vending machine approach to spirituality. When Jesus says 'ask, seek, knock,' we often hear a transactional promise—do this, get that. But the deeper translation reveals something more profound: 'keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking.' Prayer isn't a one-time transaction but an ongoing process of engagement with the divine. The sermon unpacks how our prayers often mirror our consumer society, where we expect immediate results and feel disappointed when God doesn't deliver like Amazon Prime. Yet when we examine what we're actually praying for—from parking spots to perfect children—we discover something important: our prayers reveal who we are, what we value, and where we need to grow. The invitation isn't to pray less, but to pray more deeply, recognizing that prayer is both a mirror reflecting our own hearts and a quest that transforms us. We're encouraged to pray however we need to, getting our concerns out into the open, while also examining whether our language about God aligns with what we actually believe about divine love and presence.

Where do you cast your "pearls"? In this teaching, we remember that we holy and beloved, invited to do all the good that we can with all that we are. Supporting CrossWalk supports doing much good in the world on many levels. Will you consider supporting CrossWalk with greater generosity than you are currently?

Jesus instructed his followers not to judge others. How's that going for you? In this teaching we examine the difference between judging and offering constructive criticism and the messiness every human being brings to the equation.

Hear first account experience from one who lived with a Palestinian family in the West Bank.