For unto us a child is born
Christmas at St. Paul's
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Christmas Eve service was beautiful and powerful - a witness to the love of God bursting into our world. And the joy this brings.
Donald Hartmann sang a glorious rendition of ‘O Holy Night’, that fit right into the theme of the sermon - and Christmas itself…
Fall on your knees! Oh hear the angel voices
Christmas Eve Sermon notes:
About six weeks ago, I had a dream…
I was in St. Paul’s, sitting on the floor, and there were shadows on the wall
Suddenly the shadows turned to the candelabra from the altar - and the candles burst into flame!
Everyone exclaimed in shock and joy
I fell on my face - prostrating myself in awe and wonder at God’s real presence
What does it mean? I don’t know!
Just that even though I was clearly dreaming, I felt the power of God’s presence. I knew God was speaking to me.
It reminded me of the shepherds in the field the night that Jesus was born
They all saw the same vision - angels announcing the birth of the Messiah
And they had the same reaction! Terror. And exclamation.’
And they ran to Bethlehem to see what had happened. And they told everyone who listened.
But they went back to work the next day. No one really knew what it meant for many years.
But they knew they had experienced the raw, immediate power and presence of God breaking into the world.
And this, I think, is what Christmas is really about.
Christmas didn’t really become a holiday until the 400s
Before then, people were much more interested in Jesus’ death - and resurrection - than they were his birth.
It was only after Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire that people started really wondering where and how Jesus was born. What it was like.
And they reached back to the stories of the shepherds - all gone by then.
All the way back to the moment God was born into our world.
But the stories lived on. The testimony. ‘I was there. This happened’.
The shepherds witness of God bursting into the world - our world - breaking the boundary between heaven and earth.
I did a little AI research as part of my sermon prep
Given how the human population spread across the earth
There is about an 80% chance that any of us is related to one of those shepherds that night (I assume maybe 8-10 shepherds)
‘If you take the story literally’ says AI!
And that’s the thing - right??
Christmas isn’t just a heartwarming story about a young couple and some farm animals and angels.
And it isn’t really a question of ‘did this happen?’ or ‘did it happen the way we tell it?”
It’s an absolute certainty that at least a few of us are descended from those who were there - who saw the star, who heard the angels sing.
Who can testify to God’s literal presence breaking into the world. Born to us, for us.
Was it all a dream? Did it really happen?
I’m not sure that’s the question to ask.
I think maybe the question is: ‘IS God with us?’
And we know the answer to that. Because some of us were there.
God has come into the world - we DO see and feel God’s power and glory. Quite frequently, actually.
Tonight, we don’t just tell the story again.
We testify. We witness. We SING. We praise. We glorify.
We KNOW the power of God with us.
We don’t know what it means. We don’t have to. We just fall on our knees.
Merry Christmas!
May Christ, the Son of God, be manifest in you - that your life may be a light to the world.
And the blessing of God Almighty, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, be upon you - and remain with you - always.
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