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 consistently opened this subject by pointing out that most people locate the beginning of the story in the wrong place. As Brian 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 humanity for relationship, gave mankind free will, and when that gift was used to cut humanity off from him, he already had a plan. The long wait through Israel's history, the glimpses given to prophets, and the arrival of a child at just the right time are all one connected story.
A passage Brian returns to repeatedly is Isaiah 9, and one of his consistent moves is to slow the congregation down before verse six. He asks people to sit with the opening verses first and name what they actually see: darkness giving way to light, oppression broken, warriors, harvest, emancipation. His point is that anyone reading honestly would expect a warrior messiah, a large-scale liberator. That expectation is not wrong. Then verse six lands, and the champion arrives as a child. Brian has called this the record scratch of the text. The humility of the actual birth, poor parents, a feeding trough, no ceremony, does not map easily onto the picture the earlier verses paint, and that gap is exactly where the teaching wants the congregation to sit.
The other thread Brian draws out is that God never intended the gift to stop with Israel. The savior was promised through a particular nation, but the reach was always the whole world. And the decision to receive that gift, Brian says, is almost disarmingly simple. "It's almost like a crime that it's so easy." The Christmas Eve teaching at Tribe ends there: with an open invitation and the observation that "He always goes one step further than what you expected."
Taught from Isaiah 9:1-7 · Luke 2 · John 3:16 · 2 Corinthians 5:17
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.