I'll tell you right now it will be different from past years. We are trying something other than ending with candles and Silent Night (we are still singing Silent Night on this its 200th anniversary just not to end the service)!
The Scripture Readings that will be a part of the service are:
- John 1:1-5
- Luke 1:46-55
- Luke 2:1-20
- There Is No Silent Night by Rt. Rev. Dr. Richard Bott (current Moderator of the United Church of Canada
- No Longer Alone by Miriam Therese Winter (off an old Medical Mission Sisters Christmas album)
And of course there will be carols sung and choir singing and handbells played.
The Christmas Reflection is called The Revolution Starts Tonight....Again
Early Thoughts: The World is about to turn. But then that is true every Christmas.
Beyond the cute pageants and the familiar carols and the TV specials (many of us learned the King James Version of the Christmas story by watching Linus recite it in answer to Charlie Brown's question -- some of us still sing Hark the Herald Angels with faces turned up just like the Peanuts gang) lies a deeper side of this night. The child born this night will change, and is still changing the world.
Before Jesus is born Mary sings (or says, which is actually the verb in the Biblical text) one of the passages we will hear this Christmas Eve. It talks about filling up the poor and hungry while sending the rich away empty, about lifting up the lowly and sending the proud and mighty tumbling. When Jesus is grown he will say things like "Blessed are the meek" and "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because God has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor". Christmas marks the turning of the world.
Christmas reminds us how much God loves the world. Christmas reminds us that God is still active in the world. Christmas reminds us that God has a hope for the world. For God's hope to become reality the world will need to be transformed. The world will need to be redeemed, set free from old habits and chains. The coming of the Kingdom of the Prince of Peace, Love incarnate, the Word-Made-Flesh comes with a revolutionsary amount of change. And it starts tonight.
Jut like it started last Christmas Eve. And the one before that, and all the others. The Revolution seems slow to take effect. But when God breaks into the world, when Christ is born, when once again we hear the angel say "For unto you is born this day in the City of David" we know that God is still there and that the revolution starts tonight...again.
Birth means change. Are we ready for it?
--Gord
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