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Welcome - Pastor Ben
Hope Candle
Congregational Song - “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”
Reading by Meg of Isaiah 9:2-7
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
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
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
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
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?
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