Posts tagged “Christmas Eve”

Sermo Dei: Christmas Eve (early)

Posted on December 24th, 2012

I’d prefer not to depend upon God. He seems, to my selfish heart, unreliable. Better to depend on things that seem more stable, more immediate: the money I can spend, the muscles I can flex, the authority and influence I can wield, the alliances I can make. Relying on God is for losers. Better to make your own way, cut your own deal, implement your own strategy. Tell the story in your favor, deceive, even outright lie if you have to, so that you can stay in the game, stay on top. Relying on God is for losers. So thought King Ahaz. He’s the one to whom the Immanuel prophecy is addressed: “The virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his…

Categories: Sermons

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Christmas Eve 2011 Solemn Vespers

Posted on January 17th, 2012

December 24, 2011: Christmas Eve (Early) Solemn Vespers Matthew 1:18-25 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Joseph is the father of Jesus. Does that scandalize you? Joseph is the father of Jesus. That is the point St. Matthew is making in the first chapter of his gospel.  He begins this way: “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham.” Genealogies were important to the Jews. The first book of the Bible, Genesis, is filled with them. And not just genealogies—lists of fathers and sons—for the sake of nostalgia. The biblical genealogies are the record of a promise, a promise made by God, long ago, to our first parents,…

Categories: Sermons

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Sermon at Christmas Eve Lessons and Carols

Posted on December 24th, 2010

Part one of the Great Christmas Eve Service Time Experiment is concluded. We had more than I expected at 5pm Lessons and Carols; it will be interesting to see if anyone shows up for the 11pm “Midnight Mass.” Here’s my sermon for the Lessons and Carols service: In the beginning, God made the world, and He made it for man. God made man in order that He might have someone on whom to bestow His benefits. God made man to give gifts, presents, to man. But our first parents rejected God’s gifts. They sought instead to seize what God had not given. And so they died. Adam’s sin was ours, and we have added much thereto. Adam’s death was ours as well, and we…

Categories: Sermons

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Luther on the Gospel for Christmas Midnight

Posted on December 24th, 2010

This is the great joy, of which the angel speaks, this is the consolation and the superabundant goodness of God, that man (if he has this faith) may boast of such treasure as that Mary is his real mother, Christ his brother, and God his father. For these things are, all of them, true and they come to pass, provided we believe them; this is the chief part and chief good in all the gospels, before one derives from them teaching concerning good works. Christ, above all things, must become ours and we his, before we undertake good works. That happens in no other way than through such faith; it teaches the right understanding of the gospels and it seizes hold on them in…

Categories: Theology

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Christmas Eve and the Bidding Prayer

Posted on December 21st, 2010

We’re moving to two services on Christmas Eve this year (along with one on Christmas Day) so I’m bringing back the Anglican “Lessons and Carols” for the earlier service (late night will be a “Midnight Mass” at 11pm). One thing that always bothered me was the usage of the Bidding Prayer on Christmas Eve, as it seemed altogether out of character with the night. So I turned to the resident fountain of wisdom, Fr. Charles McClean (author of the revision to Piepkorn’s The Conduct of the Service, both of which you can purchase in a single volume here). Serving with Fr. McClean is like having my own personal Liturgical Wikipedia that responds to email or voice queries. Here’s what happened when I put to…

Categories: Liturgy

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Christmas Eve: Three Meditations on the Hymn, "O Savior of Our Fallen Race"

Posted on December 24th, 2009

O Savior of our fallen race, O Brightness of the Father’s face, O Son who shared the Father’s might Before the world knew day or night, O Jesus, very Light of Light, Our constant star in sin’s deep night: Now hear the prayers Your people pray Throughout the world this holy day. “He knows if you’ve been bad or good, so be good, for goodness’ sake!” I’m not sure how Santa determines goodness, but when God reviews our year, our life, and the collective life of all humanity, He says, “None has been good, no, not one” (cf. Rom. 3.10). Technology is improving; our collective knowledge in science and medicine continues to grow; but mankind is not improving. We are deteriorating.

Categories: Sermons

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