Christmas Eve Service
Christmas Eve • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Welcome - Pastor Ben
Hope Candle
Congregational Song - “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”
Reading by Meg of Isaiah 9:2-7
2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone. 3 You have multiplied the nation; you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil. 4 For the yoke of his burden, and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian. 5 For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire. 6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
Reflection on Hope
Have you prepared him room, he who is our hope? Hope is a reality for the needy. Hope is not something the satisfied and the rich hold on to or seek. Hope is for the hungry, the broken, the sick, and the poor. It builds life into those who would rather give up. Our hope and the substance of it are entangled in the coming down of God. In the condescension of the almighty we find our hope. For our redemption he endured humiliation. Let us do away with this noble talk of humility, for our hope to take shape, God endured humiliation for our sake. But in his humiliation we find our peace.
Peace Candle
Congregational Song - What Child is This
Reading by Bella McLaughlin of Isaiah 11:6-9
6 The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. 7 The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 8 The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. 9 They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
Reflection on Peace
Have you prepared him room, he who is our peace? The peace this passage speaks of is a peace we do not now. Watch any documentary on the relationship between the predator and the prey and your know what happens, slaughtering occurs. Peace is not merely the absence of conflict, it is the substance of active harmony between all creation and our triune God. This peace can be found in no other than the 2nd person of the trinity who is also our Joy.
Joy Candle
Song - special music “O Holy Night” by Paul & Katherine Grobey
Reading by Grobeys of Isaiah 49:13-16
13 Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth; break forth, O mountains, into singing! For the Lord has comforted his people and will have compassion on his afflicted. 14 But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me.” 15 “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. 16 Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.
Reflection on Joy
Have you prepared him room, he who is the substance of our joy? A nursing mother cannot forget her child, but in light of the divine love, it is more likely for a mother to neglect her infant than for God to neglect his chosen people. Rejoice for God has come to comfort the hardship and the strife that we endure. He has heard. He has seen and he has answered. Let all rejoice for creation groans with labor pains for the new creation is coming.
Love Candle
Congregational Song - Away in a Manger
Reading by Jim Rider of Hosea 11:1-4
1 When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. 2 The more they were called, the more they went away; they kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning offerings to idols. 3 Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk; I took them up by their arms, but they did not know that I healed them. 4 I led them with cords of kindness, with the bands of love, and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws, and I bent down to them and fed them.
Reflection on Love
Have you prepared him room, he who is the substance of our love? We find love in him for all that is love, is found in our triune God, but God is not only love. And no matter how many times, the beloved child of God seeks after other gods, the Lord pursues her. The book of Hosea is a story of covenantal and radical love to an unfaithful bride. The faithful groom Hosea represents is Yahweh and his unfaithful bride, Gomer, represents Israel. Here Israel is represented as the firstborn son looking back towards the exodus from Egypt and forwards towards the fulfillment in Jesus as we see in Matt. 2:15. Jesus will be the new Israel and the obedient son who does the will of God the father. Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love find their telos or their end in one name, the name of Jesus.
Christ Candle
Congregational Song - Joy to the World
Reading by Pastor Jon Mark of Luke 2:4-7
4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, 5 to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. 6 And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
Light the Christ Candle and pass out the candles
Reflection on Christ
Christmas seems to fly by once it draws near, the events and parties pile up and before you know it, Christmas is gone. After that its new years and needing to remember to write the date with the correct year. I know for some of you this christmas is a challenging season of another holiday without a loved one, sickness that doesn’t seem to pass, and finances that never seem to get in the black. My prayer is that no matter where you are at or what you find your life in the context of you have prepared room in it for Jesus.
I am struck in a new way by the idea of preparation for an infant as we had a baby girl a few months ago. We had Drs appointments tracking her growth and development. We cleared away a room to be hers decked out in all the things a baby could need. We picked out a suitable name and educated ourselves on taking care of a child. We knew that this life would be our responsibility, as her parents, to steward and to tend with love and care. For many people it is an understood idea that things have to be moved around and changed to make room for a new child.
I wonder then why it is we make often make so little room for the God of the universe and our celebration of him. I think of my inconsistent commitment to revel in the awe and the wonder of the birth of the incarnate God. I hope you receive this reflection as an encouragement to receive Christ if for the first time and for those united to Christ to ponder what it means for us to prepare him room.
Prepare Him Room
By Jon Mark Goldsmith
Jesus is the substance of our hope, peace, joy, and love. Have you prepared him room? This question stands as one for all the ages from generation to generation. You may respond with a guffaw and disdain for the insulting simplicity of the question. But when you reflect on your Christmas season thus far, some of you have moved around your living rooms and homes to display lights, ornaments, and decadence of all kinds. You have made room for Christmas trees and hosts of gifts beneath them or at least the hope of gifts. You have obviously made time for an annual religious celebration. Yet, the question still lingers, have you made him room? Or have you made room for worship of materialism in the name of Jesus? Have you prepared the Christ room, or instead, the worship of your expectations in his name? Have you prepared the Messiah room, or rather, the worship of idols while humming Christmas carols?
Surely a people in need of hope, peace, joy, and love would recognize their rescuer when he arrived. Certainly, they must have adorned the highways and the byways with news of his arrival. Naturally all other kings and queens would have been present to pay him homage.
The apostle John in the power of the Holy Spirit tells a different story when he says, “The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him (John 1:9-11).” God was entering the world, but the world did not care and even his own chosen people didn’t give an ear.
Look at Mary and Joseph on the road to Bethlehem. Shame hovers like a storm cloud waiting for its impending descension. They are engaged, but unmarried. Yet, Mary holds her hands over a round belly protruding clearly with internal pokes and prods from a child. To any onlooker surely this is not how children are to be born. They seemed to have brought shame on themselves and upon their families.
But in the womb of Joseph’s betrothed is the divine child. God incarnate is coming. Mary is not wrapped in shame, but in honor! She has made room in her womb for the life of the world! Gawk at the beauty of her words, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word (Luke 1:38).” Her child deserves robes of majesty and light to snuff out the piddly sun! Where are the heralds? Where is his parade and the roaring trumpets? Where are the gift givers and the cheering crowds? Have they not received the news?
Perhaps the greatest moment of incongruity in all of redemptive history resides in this moment. Mary, a young woman, gives birth in a field among the animals because there was no room in the homes or hearts of Bethlehem. Lying amidst the slobber and the straw is the light of the world. Let us dispel the notion he did not cry nor that he filled diapers. He was and is fully human! Let us neither disregard the glory of his divinity! What joy Mary must have felt in the first breaths of Jesus as she drew him near in intimacy and nakedness. The infant in her arms had come to undo the curse of sin. Let us look to Mary, the mother of Jesus, for her example of preparing room for the Christ. How have you prepared him room?
Listen to the hope from John’s Gospel, “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God (John 1:13-14).” There is still time to prepare him room!
Song - “Silent Night” Acapella-ish
Merry Christmas and hope to see you tomorrow! :)