Christmas Eve
December 24, 2019
Isaiah 9:2-7; Psalm 96; Luke 2:1-20
Opening Prayer: (adapted from a blessing written by Brother David Steindalrast)
May you grow still enough to hear the small noises earth makes in preparing for the long sleep of winter, that you yourself may grow calm and grounded deep within.
May you grow still enough to hear the trickling of water seeping into the ground, so that your soul may be softened and healed, guided in its flow.
May you grow still enough to hear the splintering of starlight in the winter sky and the roar at earth's fiery core.
May you grow still enough to hear the stir of a single snowflake in the air so that your inner silence may turn into hushed expectation. Amen.
Lord, it is night. The night is for stillness. Let us be still in the presence of God.
Most often, Christmas is experienced as anything but stillness and silence. Starting back in September/October with the first signs of Halloween costumes and candy in the stores…the busy-ness and frenzy begins. And it doesn’t stop…until after the New Year’s parties and the kids have gone back to school after a long Christmas break.
There are joyous celebrations and parties and community gatherings that bring people together, in ways that don’t always happen throughout the year. That is wonderful. It’s always a good thing, when people can lay aside any differences, grievances, worries…and just come together, enjoy each other’s company, and celebrate all that is good in this life.
This time of year, especially, during the Christmas holidays, the celebrations and events are numerous. Sometimes, too numerous.
And with all the noise and glitz and celebrations happening….people often forget to just stop for a moment…and just be…be in the presence of the love of God…and to connect, once again to the source of their joy, their peace, their hope…to remember, in their hearts…the beloved story of God’s love, born to us on this Holy Night…
In our gospel reading from Luke tonight, there is so much going on in the story…Mary and Joseph are traveling…the time comes for Mary to give birth…and she ends up laying her firstborn son, wrapped in bands of cloth, in a manger…because there was no place for them in the inn…the shepherds, their fears, the angels, the good news and joy proclaimed about the birth of a Savior, the Messiah, the multitude of heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!” The shepherds going to Bethlehem and finding Mary and Joseph and the child lying in the manger…then they go and tell others what they saw…and those who heard the story were amazed at what the shepherds had told them….
But, nestled down deep, well below all the noise, in the heart of all that was happening, listening to all the words, and the angels songs, and looking at the flurry of all that was going on in this story…was Mary…
Mary was sitting in stillness and silence and awe… she treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.
On this Holy Night… Mary was sitting in stillness and silence and awe…
My hope and my prayer for all of us gathered tonight, is that we can take some time, together, on this Holy Night…to celebrate, yes…but to also mark this special Christmas Eve…by following Mary’s example of sitting in stillness and silence and awe….pondering all that is being celebrated…to be reminded once again, of the gift of Hope born for us this night…the gift of God’s love, God’s Peace, God’s joy given to each one of us, in the birth of Jesus…a blessing, a sign…that this is the moment where heaven and earth meet…in the stillness, in the silence…is where we meet God…where we know God…where the peace that surpasses all our understanding…is born anew in us, this Holy Night…
Closing: Christmas Prayer ~ written by Roddy Hamilton
When all of time is crushed into a few moments
on the edge of everything
teetering on the brink of a new belief in the future
here is where we meet you, O God.
In the last moments of darkness
before the breaking in of the light
and the cry of a woman and the birth of love
here is where we meet you, O God.
As silence deepens and the wonder stretches
and the ancient past, becomes our longed for future
and the word of the prophets
slip into fulfilment
here is where we meet you, O God.
Creating God
this moment made of every time
and may we breathe along with all those
who have been here before
to the heartbeat of hope
and know this moment so full of expectation
is as sacred as they get
for contained here is all the hope of the future
and the fulfilling of ancient longing
In the snarl of silence
as the universe bends with the weight of anticipation
where the worry is greatest and the moment most urgent
here is where we meet you, O God, in flesh.
Here is where we meet you, O God…on this Holy Night…
Choir Special: O, Holy Night
Rev. Julie Platson
St Peter’s by the Sea Episcopal Church
Sitka, Alaska