Christmas Eve-2005
Opening song: -God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen/We Three Kings
BOB: Tonight we celebrate the culmination of Advent, the birth of Jesus the Messiah… the long awaited hope of the world. Anticipation. Part of the beauty of the Christmas season is that every year we get to experience again the anticipation. The promises, the waiting, and then again, the Birth of Christ. But most of Advent, like much of our lives, is waiting. The days grow shorter, the nights longer, it’s colder, darker… when will He come?
When will God break into the darkness and bring the Light He has promised to bring?
We relight the Advent Candles of the past weeks to remind us of hope, of God’s promises made and God’s promises kept (Relight candles 1-4)
Let’s pray this together:
Collect/Prayer-
ALL:
Eternal God,
who made this most holy night to shine with the brightness of your one true light:
bring us, who have known the revelation of that light on earth,
to see the radiance of your heavenly glory;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Bob prays…
Amen
BOB: We come together tonight as people have been doing for thousands of years… to tell ourselves the story. To remind ourselves why. We rehearse the details, we remember the plot… we see in the stories of lives of those that came before us our story… our fall, our hope, our redemption.
• Segment 1: The Fall of us all
Chris- The Story of Advent… and the story or our lives, begins thousands of years ago in a Garden.
Read together (Chris, ask someone new to read each screen) Gen 3:1-19 (the Message)
Chris: And so we fell.. from grace to sin, from life to death… from light into darkness…
Rich- Before we sing, let’s take a moment of silence and quiet.
Song- Forgiveness/In the Bleak Midwinter- D
• Segment 2: God’s Promise to Abraham
Chip: The fall left this world and all born into it under a curse… but not without hope. Even from the beginning, from the moment after the first sin, God began to promise a solution, a light for our darkness… and that light would come through one family in particular…
(TOGETHER) Gen 12: 1-3 (the Message)
(TOGETHER) Gen 49: 10 (NLT)
CHIP: One Old Testament prophet put it this way: “This is the… prophecy of the man whose eyes see clearly, who hears the words of God,
who has knowledge from the Most High,
who sees a vision from the Almighty, who falls down with eyes wide open: I see him, but not in the present time.
I perceive him, but far in the distant future. A star will rise from Jacob; a scepter will emerge from Israel.”
Song- O Come O Come Emmanuel - G
• Segment 3: The Prophets Foretell
SARAH: As the years went on, the picture God gave to the people through the prophets grew clearer and clearer. The story of the Messiah, God’s Savior, began to be written… before it even happened.
(TOGETHER) Deut 18: 15-19 (the Message),
(SARAH or Someone from Sumner) Jer 23: 5-6 (the Message):
"Time's coming"--GOD decrees— "when I'll establish a truly righteous David-Branch, A ruler who knows how to rule justly. He'll make sure of justice and keep people united. In his time Judah will be secure again and Israel will live in safety. This is the name they'll give him: "GOD-Who-Puts-Everything--Right.'
(TOGETHER) Psalm 72:10-14 (NLT)
(SARAH or Someone from Sumner) Mal 3:1 (NLT),
"Look! I am sending my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. Then the Lord you are seeking will suddenly come to his Temple. The messenger of the covenant, whom you look for so eagerly, is surely coming," says the LORD Almighty.
(TOGETHER) Mal 4:2 (NLT)
SARAH: And there was the picture… sunrise… light coming into darkness bringing healing… bringing hope.
Song- It Came upon a Midnight Clear
• Segment 4: The peace that Christ will bring is foretold
BRIAN or STARLA: One prophet in particular, Isaiah, gave us beautiful pictures of this prince of peace, the Light of the World.
(TOGETHER- ask someone new to read each screen) Isaiah 35 (NLT)
BRIAN or STARLA: And like the people who first heard those words thousands of years ago, and like those who have heard them ever since, we say: Let it be. Let it be now.
Song- Joy to the World/Let it be now – C
• Segment 5: The Light comes into the World
Interlude: BRYNN reads Ken Gire passage on Mary and Joseph
STEPHEN: And finally… thousands of years after God first promised, the Sun of Rigteousness rose on a small town in Israel… and on us all.
(TOGETHER-)John 1:1-5 (NLT),
(STEPHEN) Luke 2:1-14 (the Message)
1About that time Caesar Augustus ordered a census to be taken throughout the Empire. 2This was the first census when Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3Everyone had to travel to his own ancestral hometown to be accounted for. 4So Joseph went from the Galilean town of Nazareth up to Bethlehem in Judah, David's town, for the census. As a descendant of David, he had to go there. 5He went with Mary, his fiance’, who was pregnant.
6While they were there, the time came for her to give birth. 7She gave birth to a son, her firstborn. She wrapped him in a blanket and laid him in a manger, because there was no room in the hostel.
8There were sheepherders camping in the neighborhood. They had set night watches over their sheep. 9Suddenly, God's angel stood among them and God's glory blazed around them. They were terrified. 10The angel said, "Don't be afraid. I'm here to announce a great and joyful event that is meant for everybody, worldwide: 11A Savior has just been born in David's town, a Savior who is Messiah and Master. 12This is what you're to look for: a baby wrapped in a blanket and lying in a manger."
13At once the angel was joined by a huge angelic choir singing God's praises:
14Glory to God in the heavenly heights,
Peace to all men and women on earth who please him.
(TOGETHER-) John 1: 10-14
STEPHEN and BRYNN light Christ Candle in center of table.
BOB:
Christ came to save us. It’s really that simple- to save us from judgment, to save us from sin, to save us from ourselves. That’s why the language of peace and good will is so central to Christmas- Christ came to make it possible for us to have peace with God, peace with ourselves and peace with others. So why don’t we? If Jesus is the light of the World, why is the world so dark? Did Christ fail?
The Gospel of John puts it this way: “The light from heaven came into the world, but they loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. They hate the light because they want to sin in the darkness. They stay away from the light for fear their sins will be exposed and they will be punished. But those who do what is right come to the light gladly, so everyone can see that they are doing what God wants."
The reason why the coming of the Prince of Peace has not yet brought the peace we so need is that so many of us in this dark world continue to nod our heads to Christ, but so few of us bow our knee to Him. The peace we want- peace with God, peace with ourselves and peace with others, I think, only comes through… surrender.
Surrender to Christ. Surrender to God’s way of doing things. It’s so nice to think about the shepherds coming and kneeling before the baby Jesus. It’s so nice to think about the kings, coming from so far away to worship and kneel before Christ. But what about us? And our knees… our stubborn, willful knees… I guess that’s the real question tonight. We can prepare for God. We can wait. We can listen and try to hear what He is saying... but until we are willing to surrender, my fear is that peace will remain an illusive thing: peace with others, peace with ourselves, and peace with God.
The message of Christmas isn’t just about Christ coming to you. It’s about you coming to Him.
Christmas asks us questions: It asks us “God has come to you…Will you come to God?” It asks us “Will you admit not only that Christ is the savior, but that He is your savior? Will you admit that you need a savior?”
Christmas tells us that what is wrong in our lives cannot be fixed without help from God. And Communion is the symbol of God’s solution. The reason Jesus was born was to give His life, to pay the penalty for our sin. These elements represent His body and blood which was given for us. And taking communion pictures an acceptance of what Christ has done for us. It’s a very profound symbol. If you want to, if you willingly turn from darkness to Light, to Christ, to the savior, the King… this table is for you. Come and take it and find forgiveness, find a Savior… find peace.
Communion
Songs--Light of the world/Hark the herald angels - E
Bob leads Prayer (All): “God our Father.
in this night you have made known to us again
the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ;
confirm our faith and fix our eyes on him
until the day dawns
and Christ the Morning Star rises in our hearts.
To him be glory both now and for ever.”
•
Segment 6: Contemplation/Stations/Candle lighting
There are some stations around the room… I invite you over the next few minutes to get up from your place and visit them. Each has something to ponder, something to do, something to pray. Spend your time at one in particular or visit them all… this is your time to quietly meditate, reflect and talk to God.
Quiet music
Wrap up
(BOB)Now let me bless you, we’ll sing one more song and go.
Blessing: We praise God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we belong to Christ. Long ago, even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave him great pleasure.
So we praise God for the wonderful kindness he has poured out on us because we belong to his dearly loved Son. He is so rich in kindness that he purchased our freedom through the blood of his Son, and our sins are forgiven. He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding…now you also have heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you.
Song-O Come All Ye Faithful - G
