Celebrating the Incarnation

As we prepare to celebrate the Incarnation next week, I’d like to encourage you all to participate in our Christmas worship services, and even pray about someone in your life you may want to invite. Even as our society becomes more secular, many people in our community who may not have a meaningful faith in Christ, or may not have a church home, associate Christmas, at least vaguely, with church – especially Christmas carols and stories about the birth of Jesus. Because of that, many are more likely to respond to an invitation to come to church during this season than at any other time of the year.

We have several opportunities for worship over the next week. First, our Lessons and Carols service will be Sunday at 5 p.m. Lessons and Carols is a traditional Anglican service of nine scripture readings with carols sung after each reading. At Christ Church we also incorporate art, time for silence, and contemplation (a gift in the midst of the chaos of this time of year!), and the music is offered by a unique blend of in-house musicians – from our choir to the violin to the tuba! There is a reception with food and drink following the service in which we can engage with and enjoy one another, as well as with any visitors who may come.

On Christmas Eve our children will be sharing their Christmas pageant at 5 p.m. The pageant will last for approximately 30 minutes, and the children will act out the story of Christmas in costume, reading, and song (always with unplanned humor!).

Then, at 6 p.m. we will have our traditional Christmas Eve service. We’ll sing Christmas carols, hear God’s word, and share communion as we celebrate the Incarnation – God taking on human flesh in the person of Jesus Christ. The sermon will be geared toward those who may have drifted away from Christian faith, those who are nominally Christian, and also those who are consciously non-Christian. The hope is that the goodness and love of God demonstrated in the Incarnation will be clearly on display, inviting all of us into greater intimacy with God as we celebrate.

Finally, on Christmas Day we’ll meet for worship at 10 a.m. Again, we’ll sing, hear God’s word, pray, and share communion as we remember God’s great embrace of his broken creation.

The great 20th century theologian Karl Barth said that Jesus Christ is God’s “Yes” to our “No.” As we, both individually and collectively, come to grips with the mess that we’ve made in our lives and in our world, the fact that God chose to come humbly and gently, in vulnerability and peace, rather than in anger and judgment, comes as a word of grace, a word of hope. The Word that became flesh (John 1.14) is Jesus, and Jesus is the word that all of us, whether inside or outside of the church, need to hear. Please pray that God might lead you to someone you might bring to hear this wonderful Word this week.

Peace,

Chris