Christmas Eve: Savior

12.24.2021 - 5pm and 11pm

📷

Luke 2:1–20 NRSV

1 In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 All went to their own towns to be registered. 4 Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. 5 He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. 8 In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: 11 to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!” 15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. 17 When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. 19 But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

Patient Faith

📷

They waited. For 500 years, nearly double the history of our nation, Israel waited in captivity, exile, and silence from their God. Every year they would light candles. They would pray to God. They would do their best to survive another day under the ruling forces around them, the outside cultures working their way in, and they would wait.

They had no Billy Graham's or Dwight Moody's. There was no Alan Hirsch or Andy Stanley for Joseph and Mary to go to hear from God. The priests had sold out to the Romans and the Scribes and Pharisees were so focused on fixing everyone that they had left out the possibility of God showing up to lead. Their whole world was so focused on getting power, they were willing to kill each other to gain and keep it, one family, one tribe against another. There was no prophet like Moses to speak to them on God's behalf, no shepherd-king like David to guide and provide for them. They were on their own. Yet even after 500 years, they did not lose hope.

Mary and Joseph inherited that patient faith and persistent hope from the community that raised her: family, friends, and neighbors. They were taught the scriptures in a way to recognize an angel when they saw one, not to think angels were from "once upon a time in a land far away". They had faith without sight so that they could recognize the sight of faith when it came knocking on their doors and showing up in their dreams.

They would celebrate the birth of Christ, the Messiah, and king patiently. They knew full well that it would take 9 months of pregnancy before the birth of Jesus, and that it would take years after He was born before He was big enough and old enough to rescue them from the darkness they lived in. Long before the savior was on the throne, Mary and Joseph invited Him into their home.

Not just a baby. Not even just the Son of God. Their savior.

Mary and Joseph, a couple who were nobody enough to get a room in Bethlehem, who could pass invisibly anywhere in the Middle East, Northern Africa, or the Roman Empire did not think they could just hide away until God saved the world. Nor did they think they had enough encounters with angels to expect that they were good enough, they didn't need to be saved. They knew that the brokenness of the world had made its way into their home and they needed to invite Jesus into their home, their family, because they too needed a Savior.

We need a Savior too and tonight we are inviting Jesus into our church together and we want you to take Him home with you.

Angels and Shepherds

📷

The shepherds were minding their own business, which was where everyone wanted them to be anyway. Out of sight and out of mind. I grew up in a farming community and spent many days in my dad's small engine repair shop. The locals would come in and share the daily gossip while picking up their chainsaw and lawnmower supplies. This time of year it was snow blowers. You could always tell when the farmers came in, especially the pig farmers. You could almost smell them before they got through the door. It wasn't a surprise either because you could smell their farms from half a mile away, just driving down the highway. It was the smell of those who tended livestock.

There was never any room at the inn for shepherds. Everyone knew they slept outdoors with their animals, and they could stay outside with them all the time unless they were in their own house. No one invited a shepherd home.

Like Mary and Joseph, they were invisible people, and they could have traveled anywhere in the Roman Empire and blended into the background as animal handlers. The shepherds knew that they were part of the heartbeat of society and culture in Israel, especially regarding sacrifices made at the Temple in Jerusalem, but they also knew they were replaceable. People wanted the sheep, not the shepherds.

It was the most unlikely of gatherings. The highest of the high and the lowest of the low. The angels, the ministers of heaven, who served in the presence of God Almighty, came to these unclean shepherds. And so it was that those who never got invited to the party were visited by the messengers of heaven with a special invitation: the Messiah, the promised Son of God was born and they were invited to the birth.

A Birthday

📷

What was that birthday party like? Well, up until the past couple of centuries, births took place in the home, with the family gathered around to help during these traumatic moments. It was not clean and sterile like hospital births today. It was dangerous at the best of times, but especially far from home and family to take care of new mothers and their babies.

In the palaces of ancient times, newborn princesses and especially princes might be taken from the mother's arms and presented to a courtyard full of royal family members, decorated leaders, and other very important people. Many of you, in fact, have a near-perfect image in your mind of what the birth of a newborn king might have looked like in the ancient world. It is the opening scene of Disney's The Lion King, where the prophet monkey anoints the head of baby Simba and presents him to the members of his kingdom. The current king and queen, the new father and mother, look on with pride and joy. The whole kingdom rejoices. This was the small earthly honor that Jesus deserved.

Look at how He was received on the night of His birth. The courtyard of heaven came to worship Him. They brought shepherds as the important guests. Poor Mary and Joseph were doing their best to just have this baby that did not belong to them. They had no prophet (monkey or otherwise) to lift Jesus up when the angels showed up and they started smelling the shepherds approaching. There was no family tradition they had to lean on at that time. It was one more day trusting in God, one day at a time, with surprises around every corner.

That night, those who walked in darkness saw a light. It was small, but they had waited 500 years to see it. They could wait a few more years for this child to grow into the one who would save them all from the darkness of sin and death. Even though the light of Jesus remained a small child though, the shepherds courageously shared what they had received in Bethlehem with all those in the dark world around them.

Bringing it Home

Darkness has a place in our home. Sin and death are not strangers to our families. We don't like to talk about it, but it is true. It is also true that, as much as we like treating this room in this building as God's house, things get awkward when God steps onto the scene.

We can throw up our hands in exasperation and say we don't have control over our lives as we fall back into the darkness. But the darkness around us does not mean we are without hope. It only shows that we need a savior. We are not the light ourselves. We are vessels, and we get to choose what we carry: darkness or light, death or salvation.

There is a savior and He has come into the world for you. He invites you into His presence, His love, and His light. We don't have to wait for Christ to grow up to become our savior but we need the same patient, persistent faith to allow Christ to grow that light in us, and the courageous love to share that salvation with those in the darkness around us.

As we gather at Christ's table, let us confess our need for the light of Christ, receive the saving, sustaining, and redeeming grace He brings us, and share it with those all around us.

PRAYER OF CONFESSION and PARDON

Merciful God, we confess that often we find darkness more comfortable than light.

We confess that we find your good news frightening and unsettling,

especially when we consider its demands as well as its promises.

We confess that Christmas has become more to us than the birthday of the Christ,

partly because we do not want a Christ-Child in our lives or in our world.

Forgive us, break us, bend us, remake us.

Give us the courage to lay ourselves open to the wonder and healing of your coming.

Be born again into our world, be born again into our hearts and lives.

Hear now our silent and personal confessions as we prepare ourselves for your nativity.

The true light that enlightens all has come into the world.

That light shines on in the darkness, and the darkness has never been able to put it out.

This is the good news: God has heard our confession. God has forgiven our sin.

Thanks be to God!

THE GREAT THANKSGIVING

FOR CHRISTMAS EVE, DAY, OR SEASON

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

Lift up your hearts. The pastor may lift hands and keep them raised.

We lift them up to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

It is right to give our thanks and praise.

It is right, and a good and joyful thing,

​always and everywhere to give thanks to you,

​Father Almighty (almighty God), creator of heaven and earth.

You created light out of darkness and brought forth life on the earth.

You formed us in your image and breathed into us the breath of life.

When we turned away, and our love failed, your love remained steadfast.

You delivered us from captivity, made covenant to be our sovereign God,

​and spoke to us through your prophets.

In the fullness of time

​you gave your only Son Jesus Christ to be our Savior,

and at his birth the angels sang

​glory to you in the highest and peace to your people on earth.

And so, with your people on earth and all the company of heaven

​we praise your name and join their unending hymn:

The pastor may lower hands.

Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might,

heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.

The pastor may raise hands.

Holy are you, and blessed is your Son Jesus Christ.

As Mary and Joseph went from Galilee to Bethlehem

​​and there found no room,

​so Jesus went from Galilee to Jerusalem and was despised and rejected.

As in the poverty of a stable Jesus was born,

​so by the baptism of his suffering, death, and resurrection

​​you gave birth to your Church,

​​delivered us from slavery to sin and death,

​​and made with us a new covenant by water and the Spirit.

The pastor may hold hands, palms down, over the bread, or touch the bread, or lift the bread.

As your Word became flesh, born of woman, on that night long ago,

so, on the night in which he gave himself up for us, he took bread,

​gave thanks to you, broke the bread, gave it to his disciples, and said:

"Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you.

Do this in remembrance of me."

The pastor may hold hands, palms down, over the cup, or touch the cup, or lift the cup.

When the supper was over he took the cup,

​gave thanks to you, gave it to his disciples, and said:

"Drink from this, all of you; this is my blood of the new covenant,

​poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins.

Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me."

The pastor may raise hands.

And so, in remembrance of these your mighty acts in Jesus Christ,

we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving

​as a holy and living sacrifice, in union with Christ's offering for us,

as we proclaim the mystery of faith.

Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.

The pastor may hold hands, palms down, over the bread and cup.

Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here,

​and on these gifts of bread and wine.

Make them be for us the body and blood of Christ,

that we may be for the world the body of Christ, redeemed by his blood.

The pastor may raise hands.

By your Spirit make us one with Christ,

​one with each other, and one in ministry to all the world,

until Christ comes in final victory, and we feast at his heavenly banquet.

Through your Son Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit in your holy Church,

​all honor and glory is yours, almighty Father (God ), now and for ever.

Amen.

PRAYER AFTER COMMUNION

We are filled with joy for we have heard good news of great joy.

We are filled with love for we have tasted the sign of God's great love.

We are filled with hope for the angels still sing in our world

and there is a Light for us to follow.

PASSING THE LIGHT OF CHRIST

Now, as we dim the lights again, we are reminded that Christ sends us to carry Him out into the dark world, to share his light with those around us, one person at a time.