Christmas Eve – Dec 24, 2022
Isaiah 9:2-7; Psalm 96; Luke 2:1-20
What a night this is to behold…
It’s our first Christmas Eve together, in person, since December 24, 2019….It seems like a lifetime ago…and we all know…that these past few years have been full of a lot of loss, suffering, times of uncertainty and rapid changes that none of us, could have ever imagined…
Yet, these past few years, in the midst of so much uncertainty, has also been a time of great spiritual growth and resilience, many of us didn’t know we had within us…
It’s been an incredible time of learning together what it truly means to live as people of hope; to discover and celebrate together, the little and the big joys that continued to mark our lives together; we’ve learned to reach out and love one another in ways that we never knew were possible…and if we take a close, introspective look, we can see how our once limited perspectives on what love looks like and acts like…was stretched and expanded beyond anything we had yet to dream of…
This is the kind of love, we are talking about tonight, as we celebrate and remember the birth of Jesus, the Love of God, who came down to dwell among us…to remind us of the light, the hope, the peace, the joy, and the love and presence of God who is always among us, always surrounding us, always reminding us…that whatever is going on in our lives…we are not alone…
Emmanuel…God is with us…God has always been us from the beginning…God will be with us…as we walk together in the coming year…
On Christmas Eve, our scriptures and our hymns and our prayers remind us of this good news…The shepherds, the angels, all those looking up at the night sky…saw the stars, saw the signs of God’s glorious light and love coming into the world, a gift given, not just for this one night…but for eternity…forever…
The night sky, the stars, are there for us even today…to look up and remember…this love that was born for us…this love that came down at Christmas…
The stars hanging here on the nativity table, were made by the youth here at St Peter’s…and were brought forward as part of the family pageant last week…So, it was with great joy that I discovered this beautiful book, unexpectedly this week, to share with you tonight…It’s called the Christmas Star…by Margaret Pfister…
That light, that glorious light, that beacon of hope…was born for us on Christmas Day…
Hymn after sermon: Love came down at Christmas (youtube recording/Andrew Remillard)
1 Love came down at Christmas,
love all lovely, love divine;
love was born at Christmas:
star and angels gave the sign.
2 Worship we the Godhead,
love incarnate, love divine;
worship we our Jesus,
but wherewith for sacred sign?
3 Love shall be our token;
love be yours and love be mine,
love to God and neighbor,
love for plea and gift and sign.