What does Tribe teach about christmas meaning?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At Tribe, the teaching on Christmas starts not in Bethlehem but much further back. Brian Hunter has made the point more than once that, as he says, "The story of Christmas doesn't begin in a barn in a little Judean village of Bethlehem. The story of Christmas actually goes all the way back to a garden." God created people for relationship, gave them free will, and watched that gift get used to cut humanity off from him. Even in that moment, Brian has taught, God already had a plan, building a nation and sending prophets who caught glimpses of what was coming, including the vision in Isaiah 9 of a people in darkness seeing a great light and of chains being broken.
The heart of what Brian keeps returning to is the strangeness of how the plan arrived. Isaiah 9 reads like a promise of a warrior champion, a liberator large enough to match the oppression being described. The congregation at Tribe has sat with that expectation and then watched it collide with verse six, where the champion turns out to be a child. Brian has pressed on what it means that God's answer to the darkness was a baby born to poor parents in a place with no room, not a general or a king. He has also pushed back on reading passages like this as only warm holiday sentiment, pointing out that Isaiah 9 includes verses about boots soaked in blood being burned as fuel, and that flattening prophetic writing into a greeting card misses most of what is actually there.
At the same time, Brian has been consistent that the gift is not narrow. The savior came through Israel, but was never meant to stop there. God, Brian has said, "always goes one step further than what you expected." The door opened at Christmas is still open, and the teaching at Tribe connects that offer directly back to John 3:16 and to the kind of new creation described in 2 Corinthians.
Taught from Isaiah 9:1-7 · Luke 2 · John 3:16 · 2 Corinthians 5:17 · Matthew 2:1-11
The passage taught · Isaiah 9:1-7
1 But there shall be no more gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time, he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali; but in the latter time he has made it glorious, by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.
2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who lived in the land of the shadow of death, on them the light has shined.
3 You have multiplied the nation. You have increased their joy. They rejoice before you according to the joy in harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the plunder.
4 For the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as in the day of Midian.
World English Bible
The messages that teach on it
- December 14, 2025 Born Champion A Jackson Hole pastor explores Isaiah 9 at Christmas, asking what it means that God answered the world's cry for a champion by sending a baby.
- December 22, 2024 Fuel for the Fire Brian Hunter walks through Isaiah 9:1-7 verse by verse, asking whether each line points to something already fulfilled, unfolding now, or still coming when Jesus returns.
- December 25, 2023 Tribe Christmas Eve Service Brian Hunter shares the Christmas story on Jackson Hole's Town Square, tracing it from the garden to Bethlehem and inviting anyone to receive forgiveness and new life.
Mentioned along the way
- December 7, 2025 The Promise of Rest A Jackson Hole pastor traces the biblical feast of Sukkot to Jesus' arrival as the fulfillment of Israel's hope, promising rest and provision for weary lives.