Worship
Service for December 24, 2022
Preludes
Call to Worship
L: During Advent we see God’s love embodied
in our Savior’s birth.
P: Christ is our light and source of
everlasting love.
L: Advent calls us to love others with
patience and kindness.
P: Christ is our light and source of
everlasting love.
L: Advent calls us to be slow to anger and
quick to forgive.
P: Christ is our light and source of
everlasting love.
L: Advent reminds us that Christ commanded us
to love as he loved.
P: Christ is our light and source of
everlasting love.
L: Tonight, our Advent waiting comes to an
end. Our hope finds its home in the
coming of the Christ child, our Light and the source of everlasting love.
The Advent Wreath
Tonight is the night
for which we have been waiting. The
Advent wreath will be completed with the Christ Candle in the center. “For unto us a Savior is born and the order
of the world will be upon his shoulders.”
With the birth of Christ our lives are centered, focused, turned toward
God. We light this candle because Christ
is the center of our lives.
Lighting of the Christ
Candle
Prayer:
Dear God, who comes to
us in Jesus, on this night as we celebrate the birth of Your Son, let the power
of Christ come into our hearts that we might find peace with You forever. AMEN
Hymn – O
Come, All Ye Faithful Hymn #249 Brown Hymnal
We welcome Baby Jesus
Prayer of Confession
Gracious God, who promised to
send a Redeemer to Your people, we confess that we have not trusted Your
promise, but have busied ourselves with activities which obstruct its
fulfillment. We give presents, but fail
to be present with one another. We
socialize with friends, but fail to welcome the stranger in our midst. We create commotion, and refuse to receive
Your peace. Forgive us, God, for our
busyness and our lack of trust. Teach us
to wait with expectant patience for the fulfillment of Your promise to us. AMEN.
Assurance of Pardon
L: Tonight, a new ruler sits on the throne
over all creation, one of God’s own choosing.
God’s word of peace shakes the trees and rattles the walls of the
earth. Tonight, with the angels we cry
out, “Glory,” for God has done a new thing through Christ out Lord.
P: Let us rejoice and be glad, for God comes
to us this night! We shout with one
voice, “Glory!”
Hymn – O, Little Town of Bethlehem Hymn #250
Brown Hymnal
Scripture Reading #1 Micah
5:2-5
Anthem – O Holy Night sung by Faith Battan
Hymn – It Came Upon a Midnight
Clear Hymn #251 Brown Hymnal
Scripture Reading #2:
Luke 1:39-45
Hymn – Joy to the World
Scripture Reading #3: Luke 2:1-20
Sermon – Christmas Eve Meditation
(based on the Christmas
Story)
There are four gospel accounts in the New Testament. We know them by the names of their purported
authors; Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
Each of them tells the story of Christ’s life – the Good News to all who
believe. Two of the gospels – Mark and
John say nothing about Christ’s birth.
Mark begins his story
with John the Baptist who was sent to prepare the way for the Messiah.
“The
beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in the prophet Isaiah, ‘See,
I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare the way; the voice of
one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths
straight.’ John the Baptizer appeared in
the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of
sins. Jesus shows up on the scene in
Mark to be baptized by John as an adult in the river Jordan.
John’s
gospel is poetic and a bit abstract in nature, claiming that Jesus was the Word
of God and the Light of the World. In
the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and
without Him not one thing came into being.
What has come into the being in Him was life, and the life was the light
of all people. The light shines in the
darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
Matthew
begins his gospel with the genealogy of Christ to support the claim that the
Messiah would come from the house and lineage of King David and even be able to
trace his roots all the way back to Abraham.
Matthew then tells the story of an angel coming to Joseph in a dream to
accept Mary, his girlfriend, to whom he was engaged, but not yet married and to
accept the child she was already carrying because this child was from the Holy
Spirit, would be the Son of God and would save His people from their sins. Matthew then jumps to the story of wisemen in
the east seeing a star in the heavens that they interpreted as a marvelous sign
that a significant birth of a new king had occurred. So, they followed the star to Bethlehem to find
this new king.
Luke
tells the most comprehensive story of Jesus’ birth and the one that we’ve built
most of our Christmas traditions upon.
In our service this evening we read most of that account. There are some central figures in the story
and there are some secondary ones, as well.
And then there are some that aren’t even mentioned, yet we have entire
cultural or traditional stories about them.
So, who are the central
figures:
We
have Mary and Joseph as central figures to the story, and of course the most
central of all is Jesus. I think we
should also claim the angels as central to the story. Afterall, an angel came to Mary, one to
Joseph in a dream, and an entire chorus of angels came to the shepherds.
Secondary
figures might be the shepherds who were just out keeping watch over their
flocks at night when news of Christ’s birth came to them. We could include the wisemen, as well, who
traveled from a far distance to comprehend the meaning of the Star they’d
seen. We might even include Zechariah
and Elizabeth, Mary’s cousin as they played a role in welcoming the early news
that a Messiah would be born to Mary and Joseph and that they, in their older
years, would also bear a son who would become John the Baptist. Interestingly, we don’t normally include them
in our Nativity scene, however.
Some of you might know
that I collect Nativity Sets from all over the world. I currently have over 60 of them. Many and maybe even most of them concentrate
on the three main figures – Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus. Some of them include the Wisemen from the
East who brought Mary and Joseph gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh for
Jesus – whom they found living in house.
King Herod was enraged that the Wisemen didn’t return to him to tell
where they’d found Jesus so he had all the children under the age of two
killed. Because of this, it’s implied by
Scripture that Jesus may have no longer been an infant, but a young toddler by
the time the Wisemen came.
Some
of my nativity sets also include the shepherds who came to worship the baby
Jesus. They nearly always come with
accompanying sheep which mingle with the cattle who also share the space with
the donkey that brought Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem. Although, there is no such mention in
scripture that any beast of burden were present on the wondrous night. Some of the sets also include an angel that
is there to watch over the scene, perhaps to make sure that the shepherds found
their way to Bethlehem and to continue praising God.
Every now and then, I
obtain a set of Nativity figures that include some additional characters. Who do you think they might be?
One of
them is, inevitably, the Innkeeper and sometimes, I even get a drummer
boy. The story of a drummer boy showing
up to the Manger Scene is a completely fictitious story. There is no evidence or passage from
Scripture about a drummer boy. Likewise,
there is no specific mention of an actual innkeeper. Luke simply says that there was no room for
Mary and Joseph at the inn, located in Bethlehem. It is implied that if there was a Bethlehem
Inn that there must be an innkeeper who told Mary and Joseph that he had no
room for them. Scripture also never says
that Mary and Joseph were taken to an isolated barn out in the middle of the
wintry cold where Mary gave birth to a baby boy who they named Jesus. However, scripture does say that the baby
would be found in a manger – a trough made for animals to eat out of. So, again, it’s implied that Mary gave birth
to Christ in a stable made for animals.
Are
any of those details important? Not
really. Our stable scene that we use
from year to year is a retelling of the story – summarized in beautiful
simplicity with the lowly working-class shepherds, the highly sophisticated,
elite wisemen, the hallowed angels, the beasts of burden, and perhaps some made
up characters as well – like the innkeeper and drummer boy, along with the main
characters of Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus all present under one shabby chic
stable. There is nothing wrong with that
– it makes our eyes glisten in wonder and our hearts burst with joy.
But,
after you’ve gone home tonight and sat among the twinkling lights of your
Christmas tree, I’d like for you to ponder the relevance of this ancient
story. The story we read and tell one
another this night, where a just man by the name of Joseph contemplated with
anger and hurt feelings the news brought to him by an angel, then accepted his
role as the human father of Emmanuel, God-with-us, Jesus the Messiah. The story where a young girl by the name of
Mary answered the appearance of an angel with a resounding “yes” and bowed
gracefully to her role as the Mother of God.
The story about an innkeeper who could not find room for an expectant
mother and her worn weary husband in the inn, but perhaps found them a place
tucked away in a lowly cattle stall. The
story where shepherds, afraid of the appearance of angels in the heavens who
sang to them among the shining stars of a Savior born to them that night, about
peace on earth, good will to all, then with excitement rushed to Bethlehem to
see the newborn king. The story of
wisemen in the east who saw and followed a star bringing impractical gifts of
Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh.
I want
you to ponder when tomorrow’s chaos of unwrapped gifts is over, when the beauty
of Christmas decorations seems a tad over the top, after your big meal with
family and friends is over, when the dishes are stacked up waiting for someone
to wash them, and everyone is off playing with their new toys, I’d like you to
take a moment and think about the real meaning of Christmas as written by
Howard Thurman.
“When the song of the angels is stilled. When the star in the sky is gone. When the kings and princes are home. When the shepherds are back with their
flock. The work of Christmas
begins: To find the lost, to heal the
broken, to feed the hungry, to release the prisoner, to rebuild the nations, to
bring peace among others, to make music in the heart.”
Dear Friends, on this Christmas Eve night, may the
greatest event in human history touch not just your heart, but let it rest in
the inner workings of your soul to inhabit your entire being so that the work
of Christmas can truly begin. Thanks be
to God. AMEN.
Offertory – Sweet Little Jesus Boy sung by Ashley Mayersky
Candle Lighting
Hymn – Silent Night
Benediction –
Postlude
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