Our Christmas Eve worship service can be viewed on Facebook here -
https://www.facebook.com/david.p.charlton.9/videos/10164599062320298
Here is the text of my message that evening -
Opening Meditation
This evening’s service is a bit different from our usual Christmas Eve worship, both in structure and circumstance. And why not, since everything else about this year has been different? In other years, our service was based upon the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, a Christmas Eve tradition of King’s College, Cambridge. That service was begun in 1918 by a new young chaplain just returned from the battlegrounds of World War I. In that first service he prayed, “Let us remember before God all those who rejoice with us, but upon another shore and in a greater light…”
This evening, as we gather, we are missing some of those who rejoiced with us in years past. They have moved on to that other shore, and now live in that greater light. We miss them so much, but we take comfort in the promise that they have now taken their part, as described by the book of Hebrews, in that great cloud of witnesses that surround us. While not with us in a visible, tangible way, we know they are with us, nonetheless.
The pandemic has taken a great toll on us, taking loved ones from us, creating an economic fallout that has fallen hard upon so many, and has torn our social fabric, while removing so many of the cherished traditions and practices from our lives.
But we gather here this evening, a few of us in-person, and many more connected through technology, in part to proclaim that the pandemic will not stop us from celebrating Christmas, nor from proclaiming the Good News that God has entered into the world in the person of Jesus. In spite of all we have experienced this year, in spite of all the hardships and all the losses, we come this evening with hearts full of hope and expectation. While Christmas comes this year in the midst of so much hardship and suffering, let us remember that Christmas was born in hardship and suffering. Mary and Joseph were compelled to travel to Bethlehem, their ancestral city, not because of an opportunity to gather with family and friends, but as a result of the Roman mandate to participate in a census that would add to an already crushing tax burden. Their journey would be arduous, not only because of Mary’s pregnancy and the difficulty of travel, but because of the interruption to life and livelihood that the trip brought about. Our presence here this evening is our way of saying to the pandemic, and to all the other interruptions, challenges, and difficulties of life, that hope endures, and it endures every day, and through every circumstance.
And now, as we gather here, we rejoice that it is Christmas Eve! On this Christmas Eve, in this most unusual of years, we ask that God would calm our spirits, still our hearts, and help us to hear the wondrous news that Christ is born. We pray that when we leave this place, on the cusp of Christmas morning, we will always remember that we go forth under the banner of the Good News of Jesus Christ. May we carry that Good News always, and may the hope, peace, joy, and love of this Advent season, and all Advent seasons, be with us now, and forevermore.
Christmas Eve Meditation – A Light in the Darkness: Joy
During the months of Advent, I have offered messages on the theme A Light in the Darkness. The messages are based on the meaning of four of the Advent candles – peace, hope, love, and joy. The final of those messages is that of joy, and I am offering that message this evening. It will be brief, as we have already had a full service.
In thinking about the Advent services several weeks ago, the idea of joyseemed out of place this year, as 2020 has offered us so few reasons to be joyful. It has been a tough year, and all of us have suffered a number of losses. We began the year with the hope of a new year, and all the promises and possibilities that a new year brings. Perhaps 2020 would be our best year ever. Perhaps it would be the year we made a change we knew we needed to make. Perhaps it would provide us with a needed new beginning. We certainly didn’t think of it being a year that would bring us so much suffering and so much loss. It was very early in the year when we began to hear reports of this strange new disease, that came to be known as Covid-19, but we didn’t pay much attention. The first reports came from halfway around the world, where it seemed to be a problem for someone else. How could it be a concern for us, where it would have to cross oceans and continents? And then it came closer, but it still seemed too far away to be a concern for us. And then it arrived on our shores. Even then, however, we couldn’t grasp what its arrival would mean to us. In late February, Nick and I accompanied Tanya on what proved to be the last of her business trips for the year. The final stop of the trip was Orlando, and one day, as we ate lunch, we thought, can you imagine if this disease became serious enough that they had to close these amusement parks for 2 or 3 days? We couldn’t imagine what was ahead. None of us could imagine what was ahead.
When first canceled in-person worship, I assumed it would be for 2 weeks, maybe 3. Certainly, I thought, we would be back by Easter. When it became obvious that we would not be back for Easter, I began saying we would have our Easter once we got back to church, thinking it would be a week late, maybe 2. And then the weeks continued to roll on, and as they did, we began to understand in a very real, very painful way what we were up against. As the weeks continued, the losses began to mount. At first, most of us didn’t know anyone who had contracted Covid. Then, as the weeks past, we all knew someone who had, and then we all knew someone who had lost their life to the dreaded disease.
I don’t say all of this to make you feel bad this evening; we all feel plenty bad enough about this year, that’s for sure. I say it, because I want us to remember that in spite of everything that we have experienced this year, in spite of all the losses we have suffered, in spite of the weight we have all felt upon us, God has been with us, and God has been with us in a powerful way, and the reality of God’s presence is a very real reason to rejoice.
So, in spite of what we have been through this year, let us be joyful. Let us be joyful, as were the shepherds to whom the angels announced the good news of the birth of Jesus. As Luke writes, 8 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. 10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord(Luke 2:8-11).
As the shepherds were watching over their flock, I imagine they were thinking about all their problems and struggles, especially since it was night, and it is the nighttime when our problems and struggles weigh heaviest upon us. Like us, they probably wondered how they were going to pay their bills. Like us, they probably missed their families, from whom they surely experienced some amount of separation.
And the angels crashed into their worries and their problems and told them to not be afraid, and that there was a reason to be joyful. That is the exact message we need right now – do not be afraid, and there is a reason to be joyful. I know it is hard to avoid feeling fearful. I have been fearful for much of this year. I will, though, take the angels at their word and believe that we should fear not. I will fear notbecause we have been given good tidings of great joy– Jesus is born. That is good news! That is the best news! Let us then, in spite of all we have suffered, be joyful tonight, and tomorrow, and every day to come!
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