The Bible provides us with two rather different accounts of the birth of Jesus. The traditional Christmas story that we sing about in Christmas carols and see in nativity scenes is a combination of these two different accounts. Elements from each account have been drawn together to form a unified and apparently cohesive story.
In this study series during Advent, we will read the two accounts of the birth of Jesus in their own right and also compare the one account with the other account. And because we are moving into “the year of Matthew”, we will start with an introduction to the apocalyptic nature of Matthew’s Gospel. This characteristic explains some important things about the way that the author of this Gospel approached the task of writing his particular story of Jesus.
This short series started on Thursday 24 November. This series had just four sessions and finished on 15 December.
Below are the recorded videos of the sessions.

Written by Rev Elizabeth Raine
Elizabeth is minister at Tuggeranong Uniting, beginning her ministry here in December 2018.
Over the years, she has had a number of diverse and interesting placements, such as a school chaplaincy, a tenancy worker with UnitingCare, a congregational minister, a lecturer at UTC, a Presbytery minister, and as an Intentional Interim minister.
More from Rev Elizabeth Raine