Our Christmas celebration continues throughout the Twelve Days of the Christmas Season. Today we are reminded that in the family of believers, it is our brother Jesus who changed the future for Abraham’s descendants. To be about the Father’s will meant sharing in our humanity and destroying the power of death.
The Festival of the Nativity of our Lord - Christmas Day
Christmas is a day to celebrate the fact that what once was hidden is now revealed. That isn’t the case just because presents that were once wrappedhave been opened. It’s because the baby born in Bethlehem is the Word make flesh. God’s Son reveals for all to see what our God is like. Today we celebrate his love and his salvation, both of which are clear seen in the Christchild.
Our worship service this today is an adaptation of “The Festival of Lessons and Carols” service traditionally held at King's College, Cambridge, England on December 24th. The Festival was first held on Christmas Eve, 1918. It was planned by Eric Milner-White, who at the age of thirty-four had just been appointed Dean of King’s after experience as an army chaplain. A revision of the Order of Service was made in 1919, involving rearrangement of the lessons. In almost every year some carols have been changed and some new ones introduced by successive Organists. However, the backbone of the service, the lessons and the prayers, has remained virtually unchanged for nearly 100 years.
Find Your Christmas Peace - Christmas Eve Candlelight Service
“Peace” is often used to describe the feeling we get as we sit around the fire with friends, family, and lots of great food. The peace of Christmas is sometimes equated only with the comfort of the season or with family members setting aside differences. In reality, the peace of Christmas is so much more. The peace announced by the angels on the night of Jesus’ birth signaled the end of hostility and strife between God and mankind. Because of the Christchild, the war with God as ended. Peace is ours!
God's Family Tree (Sunday School Christmas Service)
The worship service follows the tradition of the Jesse Tree. The image of the “stem of Jesse” Isaiah 11:1 points us to Christ’s human origins and Family Tree, which traces the history of God’s plan of salvation from Adam and Eve to the reign of Jesus. Pictures or symbols of the various ancestors and prophets are placed on a tree. The service ends with the celebration of the birth of the Christ Child.
Rejoice in God Your Savior! (Midweek Advent Service)
As we gather around God's Word, we will consider Mary's Song (the Magnificat) in Luke 1 and rejoice in God our Savior who keeps his promises!
Ready or Not: The "To Do" List (Advent 2)
It sure is easy for what is urgent to crowd out what is important. That’s never truer than this time of year. Even as we urgently get ready for Christmas, we also want to make sure we are prepared for what is important: Christ's second coming. This week we focus on how we get ready for that day. The Bible calls it repentance: acknowledging our sin and turning to God for mercy and pardon. And yet, even repentance is not something that we produce in ourselves. Through God's Word, the Holy Spirit works this important change in our hearts and so that we will be ready rather than not.
Ready or Not: Bright Lights (Advent 1)
It sure is easy for what is urgent to crowd out what is important. That’s never truer than this time of year. Even as we urgently get ready for Christmas, we also want to make sure we are prepared for what is important: Christ's second coming. This week, we thank God that he gives us plenty of warnings and signs that remind us that the end is near. Those signs raise our sights to a life after this one and keep us from getting caught up in the sins and stresses of this present age. May his loving reminders always keep us ready for his return.
Ready or Not: Playing for Keeps (Christ the King Sunday)
It sure is easy for what is urgent to crowd out what is important. That’s never truer than this time of year. Even as we urgently get ready for Christmas, we also want to make sure we are prepared for what is important: Christ's second coming. This week we remember that there is more to our existence than our short time on earth. Just as Christ was raised from the dead, we look forward to a resurrection on the last day. This eternal perspective completely shapes our current existence. It determines what we consider to be important and how we judge our life’s value and worth. May we always remember that we belong to an eternal kingdom of which Christ is the King.
Ready Or Not: Naughty or Nice
It sure is easy for what is urgent to crowd out what is important. That’s never truer than this time of year. Even as we urgently get ready for Christmas, we also want to make sure we are prepared for what is important: Christ's second coming. This week we focus on the verdict that each of us will hear on the day of judgment. Unlike our judgments, which can be skewed by emotion, bias, or lack of information, Christ's judgment will be perfectly just. While this is a frightening fact to those who do not know him, God'speople take comfort in the fact that the one who loved them enough to suffer and die for them will also decide their eternal fate.
Ready Or Not: Jesus Is Coming
It sure is easy for what is urgent to crowd out what is important. That's never more true than it is in this time of year. Even as we urgently get ready for Christmas, we also want to make sure we are prepared for what is important: Christ's second coming. This week we are reminded that, because we do not know the day or hour of that return, we must always keep watch. By God's grace and through his Spirit, we will be ready for the day when we are called to the wedding feast of Jesus.
Reformation: God Is Our Refuge and Strength
Lord, keep us faithful to your Word! The Festival of the Lutheran Reformation of the Church emphasizes the true Church's unfailing reliance on the Word of God and unflinching testimony to it in the face of persecution. Jesus promised to pour out his Spirit on the Church that we might be God's mouthpiece even before kings. Today the Church prays that the Lord give us the strength to be faithful and the peace of knowing our lives are safe in his hand.