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[Sermon] Louder Than the Noise

Hector Garfias-Toledo, Lead Pastor



In a season filled with noise—commercial, political, and emotional—Pastor Hector calls the church back to the true sound of Christmas. This sermon explores how fear is constantly amplified in our world, shaping what we see, hear, and believe. Against that backdrop, the angels’ proclamation rings out as a bold interruption: good news of great joy for all people. Christmas is not a quiet escape from the world but God’s loud, loving invasion into it. The church gathers on Christmas Eve to resist fear and to proclaim hope. The good news is louder, and it must be told.


Sermon Transcript

From YouTube's automatic captions, lightly edited by AI for readability.


Padre, madre, creador, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our savior, our lord, our friend, God with us—and we said, amen.

 

As you can see, I mean, I can tell the story in two languages, and I believe that each one of us has heard this story in many ways—different versions at different times, all your life, half of your life, maybe today. But the point is not how many times or what is the correct version. The point is that there is a story that is greater than everything else. And that is the story that we heard today. A story that is in us. A story that we are called to tell again.

 

Some months ago—some months ago—David and I were talking about Christmas, and we would say, “Ah, this is still nine months. Let’s do it. Let’s talk about it after Lent.” And, “No, let’s talk, uh, you know, later.” And it’s six months, and now we have enough time. Well, you should have seen us yesterday. We were freaking out. We were so nervous and panicking.

 

But what a joy that we are here. What a joy that we are able to gather in this place to once again center ourselves on the true story of the love of God in Jesus.

 

The truth, my siblings, is that it takes a minimum effort to notice that Christmas is approaching, isn’t it? The signs of the so-called holiday season—I don’t know where that came from—are visible months before the actual date that is assigned to celebrate the nativity of the Lord Jesus.

 

So it’s so real, I mean, that we are living in this world where we have this story that the world presents to us, and this story that we are hearing here today again, that is worth—for us, and at least for me—taking some time to reflect and to be able to reconcile how these things make sense in the world that you and I live in.

 

So just to share with you, we can see these, uh, uh, signs that Christmas is coming everywhere, all the time now. And every morning when I walk—especially during this winter—I walk in a place that is foresty, that is dark, that you need to go down to the Sound. It’s cold, of course, because it’s winter. And in the middle of the darkness of this street that goes down to the Sound, there is this light that reminds me that Christmas is coming.

 

And this is what I see when I go to walk.

 

Exactly.

 

And I say, “Well, even the Grinch reminds me that Christmas is coming.” And as I was thinking about the sermon, I see this thing start moving, and I thought it was talking to me at some point.

 

Everything reminds us that Christmas is coming. Even the Grinch, in the dark, silent, cold of the winter morning, reminds us—and reminds me—of the loudness of this 21st-century society that looks for Christmas like anything else and sometimes really diverts our attention from the real story.

 

“Do not be afraid, for see, I am bringing you good news of great joy for all.”

 

In that cold, dark morning, the shepherds heard these words and were reminded of the story of love that God has been writing since the beginning.

 

When I look again at this situation of the world’s Christmas and the Christmas that we believe in, I imagine that the world’s Christmas season is like this volume button—the button in your radio. Well, for those of you who are as young as me, that remember that we used to have to turn them like this. The new things are like—you slide it, or you just… this is… or you use something else. Touch it. I think that you touch it now. And your earphones, for volume—whatever that is.

 

But I feel that through the days, through the months, through the weeks, it is like that volume increases gradually, to the point that it is so loud that it gets to a point when you and I cannot hear the true message of Christmas. It’s so loud and so noisy.

 

So allow me to be the Grinch that stole Christmas for a few minutes tonight.

 

Because I believe that the advertisements by big corporations, that are offering us the most unimaginable discounts, mixed with the corporate manipulative media news that are coercing us to believe that they are the good news—while they are trying to convince us that our lives depend on what we buy or get for Christmas, or that we are to dislike one another, or that we should get used to living in despair—lead us to become human beings that go on in life talking without speaking and hearing without listening.

 

But not only that. There is more.

 

The social and political forces of the climate that we are living in, in our country and in the world, also take advantage of this season—either to pull us to their side or to infuse fear, disregard, and indifference among peoples in this country and in other countries around the world. The very people that God created for Godself.

 

So when I look at this in retrospect, I believe that tonight’s gathering, my siblings in Christ—the gathering of the church in this place and all around the world—is a response to the loudness caused by the inequities in this society.

 

Tonight—your presence, my presence, our presence—with all the church of all times and in all places.

 

Thank you, Riker. As I told you—thank you, Riker.

 

Your presence, your voices, your musical gifts, your talents—whether you are here for the right reasons or not, wherever you are or wherever we are in our faith journey, or whatever our background is—we are coming to hear and to retell the story of the good news as a witness to God’s love incarnate in Jesus.

 

It is not just about this jolly, happy Coca-Cola Hallmark Christmas—these quiet nights of beautiful, chubby angels that you see on the billboards, on the screens, on TVs or computers, or in store windows.

 

Tonight, my siblings in Christ, is about God’s revolutionary act of liberation, healing, and wholeness for the entire creation.

 

And that is the good news.

 

The good news is that Jesus was born because God chose to become one of us—one with us, one for us, and one in us.

 

It is the manifestation of the never-ending, reckless love of God for all.

 

And that is the message that the shepherds heard, and that the shepherds told when they left that place.

 

In Jesus, God tells us once again tonight, “I have broken into a world that is immersed in the noise of despair and fear. I have broken in with good news of wholeness for a new order in this world.”

 

You and I have a story. You and I actually are the story. You and I are called to go and tell the story again and again—in acts and words that will bring the peace, the joy, and the power of a God that comes to be with us, to be for us, and to be in us.

 

Didn’t Mary hold dear what she saw? I don’t think that she held it to keep it for herself. Eventually, she shared it with others.

 

Maya Angelou, who is a civil rights activist and a writer, once said, “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”

 

We have a story inside us. As we read today, the best news ever is in us—a story with great intensity that the world needs to hear. To keep it inside us is to agonize and to deprive the world from remembering that the good news is louder than the noise of fear, despair, and hopelessness, and that the loudness of despair in the world may never, ever stop the unfolding reign of love of our God.

 

May this time, my siblings in Christ, be an opportunity for you and for me to let this world know that nothing will stop the unfolding, in-breaking of God’s reign in Jesus, who is the good news.

 

So the shepherds heard the story, and when they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child.

 

You and I are the medium through which the intensity of the sound of this story travels. You and I are the channels. You and I are the means. You and I are God’s instruments for this story to continue to bring life to a world that is yearning for hope, for love, for peace.

 

Siblings in Christ,

 

Christmas blessings to all of you, wherever you are in your journey. Christmas blessings to you and to your loved ones. Christmas blessings to you in everything that you do. Christmas blessings that will give you the courage and the boldness to be the medium, the channel, for this story to be told once again and again.

 

My dear siblings in Christ, let us rejoice in the good news that God is with us in Jesus.

 

Amen. Amen.

 

 

 

 

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