Biblical Text: Luke 2:1-7
The service is lessons and carols, so there are a multiplicity of texts. The real text is the Day – Christmas Eve – and the entire biblical story. This sermon is a reflection upon the dance between Hope and Realization. We really want the realization, but God likes Hope. Don’t get me wrong, there is a lot of realization, but not completed. And until it is complete, we live in Hope and Faith.
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The recording is most of our Christmas Eve Lessons and Carols service. The sermon is a meditation on the difference between how we tend to celebrate Christmas and what we are looking for vs. the Christmas gift. This is done through a staple modern carol “We Need a Little Christmas” which has the correct diagnosis, if some standard prescriptions that are ineffective.
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The recording is the full lessons and carol service. The sermon though I believe is a good one for this year of many changes. A Christmas Eve reflection on the roll of memory, ritual and God’s repeated announcements of his grace. Merry Christmas. Time to get home to the kids.
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This is our Christmas Eve service which is largely lessons and carols. The sermon starts about 25 mins. Did you come for nostalgia, or did you come to worship? Nostalgia is a brittle thing. The incarnation, Christmas? Not so. Still the newest thing on this old earth. Worthy of worship.
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Our Christmas Eve service is the popular lessons and carols. I’ve included almost all of it in the recording, so the sermon part is about 30 mins in. That part encourages us to think about the parts of Christmas we hear most keenly. Do we hear the cultural detritus that is now passing away, or do we hear the evermore and evermore?
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Biblical Text: Luke 2:1-14
Full Sermon Draft
Christmas eve evening is mostly about the people and the candles, the sights and sounds together. But after 10 years I finally hit a message that I felt was worthy of the night. I’ll say and post that now before tomorrow erases the feeling.
It always helps having both a wonderful opening hymn (Hark the Herald Angels Sing) and a fantastic liturgical piece by the choir (The Magnificat – Vespers Chant). Both are left in.
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The recording for this night just didn’t turn out. The sermon conceit is a challenge: write the great Christmas hymn from the shepherds’ story. Unlike with the Angels or Mary and the Wise Men or even the night or the town, that song about the Shepherds that everyone has first doesn’t exist. What would it have to include to capture the shepherds tale of the incarnation. Take a read to see.
Instead of the recording, I did take some pictures of the place before everyone arrived. Nobody every believes me when I talk about the quality of the light in St. Mark’s sanctuary at night. These snaps capture the warm yellow glow of it.
Biblical Text: Luke 2:8-20
Full Draft
The format was lessons and carols, so the main part of the service, singing all the great carols reflecting on the lessons, isn’t on the recording. But, this is the first Christmas Eve sermon in eight years that I’ve felt solidly good about. So, if you are ok with a single lesson and a homily for Christmas Eve, give this a listen. I think it comes close to the strangeness, the holiness, of the night.
And you can still come to Christmas day Divine Service tomorrow at 9 AM. Merry Christmas.
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This was the message from our Christmas Eve service of lessons and carols. The sermon references many of the key lines from the lessons and how the carols reflect the teaching. I think it stands on its own, but you don’t get the candles and Silent Night.
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Biblical Texts: John 1:1-5,9-14; Isaiah 42:1-3; Luke 2:8-20; John 8:12,12:35-36,46
Full Sermon Draft
I reread this sermon. In my head it is about as tight a presentation of the gospel as I’ve given. But I am also pretty sure it was only able to be heard by those who had ears already.
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