24 December (Midnight) and 25 December (Morning) - commenting on one set of readings only
Theme The best news ever
Sentence NZPB p. 555
Collect
Christmas Eve service: NZ PB p. 555
Son of God, light that shines in the dark,
child of joy and peace,
help us to come to you
and be born anew this holy night.
Christmas Day service: NZPB p. 556
Son of God, Child of Mary
born in the stable at Bethlehem,
be born again in us this day
that through us the world may know
the wonder of your love.
Readings
Isaiah 9:2-7
Psalm 96
Titus 2:11-14
Luke 2:1-14
What kind of news drives the shepherds to leave their flocks in the middle of the night to race to a stable to worship a baby? To call the news 'good news' is accurate - that is the meaning of 'gospel' - but not very helpful. A better sense would be to call this news the 'best news ever.' All the good news in the world - the birth of a new baby, a promotion with massive pay rise, the All Blacks winning the World Cup three times in a row ("Come, 2019!!") [that didn't happen, by the way] - falls well short of the news which sets the shepherds racing to the stable. They hear the best news ever. We hear it too in our four readings.
Isaiah, centuries ahead of the actual birth date of Jesus, celebrates the best king ever. The psalmist celebrates God as the best God ever and sneaks in a preview of God coming to earth. Paul writing to his friend and colleague Titus reminds him that what happened in the birth of Jesus was nothing less than the appearance of the generous, unconstrained love of God which brought salvation for all (v.11).
Isaiah, centuries ahead of the actual birth date of Jesus, celebrates the best king ever. The psalmist celebrates God as the best God ever and sneaks in a preview of God coming to earth. Paul writing to his friend and colleague Titus reminds him that what happened in the birth of Jesus was nothing less than the appearance of the generous, unconstrained love of God which brought salvation for all (v.11).
In Luke's gospel the angel announcing this best news ever says it is of 'great joy for all the people' (v. 10). There is that word 'all' again. What on earth could the best news ever be when it is best news for everyone?
Going back to Titus, Paul lays out this best news ever in terms of our relationship with God. What state is that relationship in for humanity? What state is that relationship in for you and for me? If all were well there would be no need for talk of salvation, for peace and goodwill. But all is not well. The relationship has been broken. Instead of peace there are wars between countries and bitter conflicts between individuals. Instead of prosperity for all there is a growing gap between rich and poor. Instead of sober, pure living we inhabit a world drenched with pornography and awash with liquor and drugs.
It is a wonder God has not washed his hands of us and left us to our own selfish devices. Or even wiped us from the face of the earth. That would be bad news. Instead we have the best news ever,
"For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all.'
God is not deterred that we have rejected him and spurned his will for our lives. Instead God has entered our world, hiding his glory, taking on the ordinary life of a baby who will grow to be a man. That man will die on a cross a death which absorbs all the bad stuff so the rift between us and God can be healed. Only with that healing can the world itself be healed.
Each Christmas we pause to celebrate this gift from God full of possibility for a new world. The challenging edge to this message is,
What we are going to do about it for the next 364 days! Something or nothing?
Christmas 1 (Sunday 26 December 2021)
This could be celebrated as "St Stephen, the first Christian Martyr" or "Christmas 1". The readings etc below are for the latter.
Theme: I must be in my father's house
Sentence: Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favour (Luke 2:52).
Collect:
Heavenly Father, tender and compassionate,
create in us, your family, love so true and deep
that in this broken world
we may be a sign of unity.
Readings:
1 Samuel 2:18-20, 26 Samuel was ministering before the Lord and grew in stature and favour with the Lord and with the people
Psalm 148 Praise the Lord!
Colossians 3:12-17 Clothe yourselves with Love and let the word of Christ dwell in you richly
Luke 2:41-52 Did you not know I must be in my Father's house?
There has never been a child which has not given its parents some moments of anxiety. But few children have caused their parents anxiety by remaining in church longer than their parents! "Mum and Dad, stop talking to your friends, it's time to go home."
Jesus was clearly precocious. He not only had a striking devotion to being in his (heavenly) Father's house, he had an eager enquiring mind which sought out teachers, listened to what they taught and probed them with many questions.
Samuel, by contrast, took a role in devotion to God in the temple of his day due to his mother's striking commitment to God. In fervent prayer Hannah had pressed God to grant her a child, that prayer being answered, she now gave Samuel to the Lord, to be his temple servant. But something in Samuel's story catches Luke's attention: he draws on the impression Samuel made before God and the people to describe the impression Jesus made on God and the people (1 Samuel 2:26//Luke 2:52).
Our psalm overflows with praise to God. We could say it as part of our praise at Christmas time for the gift of Jesus Christ. We could also say it as an example of what constitutes the heart of temple worship, as experienced by Hannah and Samuel in one era and by Mary, Joseph and Jesus in another era: adoration of the Lord God of Israel.
Paul writing to the Christians in Colosse gives us a very rich or 'thick' passage: every verse yields a sermon (or two). Every verse is worth reading followed by a very long reflective pause. Do I understand that I am one of God's chosen ones, holy and beloved? If I understand that, have I clothed myself with compassion, kindness, etc? This is not some spiritual abstraction: with such 'clothing' we will bear with one another, forgive each other, doing so knowing we must because we are a forgiven people.
We could work through the remaining verses of the passage in this kind of slow way. Here we simply ask what connection we might find between this passage and the gospel reading? At least two connections spring to mind.
(1) When we let the word of Christ dwell in us richly (v. 16), that word is the teaching of Christ which is grounded in a deep knowledge of the scriptures of Israel.
(2) For Jesus the temple in Jerusalem was a place of worship and of learning. Praise and preaching go hand in hand. Here in Colossians, Paul's exhortation to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly is a both/and instruction as he goes on in the same verse to write, 'teach and admonish one another in all wisdom and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God.'
Sentence: Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favour (Luke 2:52).
Collect:
Heavenly Father, tender and compassionate,
create in us, your family, love so true and deep
that in this broken world
we may be a sign of unity.
Readings:
1 Samuel 2:18-20, 26 Samuel was ministering before the Lord and grew in stature and favour with the Lord and with the people
Psalm 148 Praise the Lord!
Colossians 3:12-17 Clothe yourselves with Love and let the word of Christ dwell in you richly
Luke 2:41-52 Did you not know I must be in my Father's house?
There has never been a child which has not given its parents some moments of anxiety. But few children have caused their parents anxiety by remaining in church longer than their parents! "Mum and Dad, stop talking to your friends, it's time to go home."
Jesus was clearly precocious. He not only had a striking devotion to being in his (heavenly) Father's house, he had an eager enquiring mind which sought out teachers, listened to what they taught and probed them with many questions.
Samuel, by contrast, took a role in devotion to God in the temple of his day due to his mother's striking commitment to God. In fervent prayer Hannah had pressed God to grant her a child, that prayer being answered, she now gave Samuel to the Lord, to be his temple servant. But something in Samuel's story catches Luke's attention: he draws on the impression Samuel made before God and the people to describe the impression Jesus made on God and the people (1 Samuel 2:26//Luke 2:52).
Our psalm overflows with praise to God. We could say it as part of our praise at Christmas time for the gift of Jesus Christ. We could also say it as an example of what constitutes the heart of temple worship, as experienced by Hannah and Samuel in one era and by Mary, Joseph and Jesus in another era: adoration of the Lord God of Israel.
Paul writing to the Christians in Colosse gives us a very rich or 'thick' passage: every verse yields a sermon (or two). Every verse is worth reading followed by a very long reflective pause. Do I understand that I am one of God's chosen ones, holy and beloved? If I understand that, have I clothed myself with compassion, kindness, etc? This is not some spiritual abstraction: with such 'clothing' we will bear with one another, forgive each other, doing so knowing we must because we are a forgiven people.
We could work through the remaining verses of the passage in this kind of slow way. Here we simply ask what connection we might find between this passage and the gospel reading? At least two connections spring to mind.
(1) When we let the word of Christ dwell in us richly (v. 16), that word is the teaching of Christ which is grounded in a deep knowledge of the scriptures of Israel.
(2) For Jesus the temple in Jerusalem was a place of worship and of learning. Praise and preaching go hand in hand. Here in Colossians, Paul's exhortation to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly is a both/and instruction as he goes on in the same verse to write, 'teach and admonish one another in all wisdom and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God.'
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