Loading...Glory to God! Glory to God!
Can’t you see it, in your mind’s eye?
Can you hear it?
Gloria, gloria, gloria!
The Good News of Great Joy is sung, is proclaimed, is shouted, is whispered!
The news that God’s love is made real and is here with us —
That news is sung by the angels and
shared by the shepherds.
And, that news is sung by us and
shared in words spoken, prayers offered,
a touch of peace given, a meal eaten together,
a fragile candlelight flame passed around.
We are witnesses of God’s great love for us.
You have been given that love
personified in this young child born, lo those many years ago,
but also in the one who heals you of the pain and grief you know
and in the one who sits with you when you feel lost and outcast
in the one who loves you even when you are most broken
and feel most unlovable.
You have experienced the Good News of Great Joy.
If you’re sitting there thinking, “No, I haven’t!”
then I invite you to experience it now — in our living together
and connecting. Right now. In this space.
Turn to one another, someone you came with: spouse, parent, child, friend;
or someone you don’t know who is sitting next to you, behind you or in front of you.
Turn to that someone, or several someones,
and share some news of joy that you know and want to give away.
[During the sharing, Kimmy quietly sang "I am so Glad Each Christmas Eve']
We are here tonight as witnesses of this unimaginable, yet very real, love of God.
We are here tonight as witnesses of the absurd wonder of the night—
tonight, not just of the night more than 2000 years ago,
but of the wonder of this love tonight.
What we are NOT here for is to see the “magic of the season” or to experience the “miracle of Jesus’ birth.”
Rather, we’re here because of the mystery.
The mystery of the Creator of all, YHWH, El Elohim —
the God of Gods —
who has become human in order to know us, love us, and embrace us.
This mystery of the One who is so vast,
who seeks out ever the one who would prefer not to be found.
This mystery of the One who is almighty
who seeks you who feels you’re not worthy enough, yet or ever.
We are here tonight, drawn together because of the mystery of the One who became Incarnate because of love,
a love greater than anything we can even imagine or fathom.
Gloria, Gloria, Gloria!
The good news of great joy!
A prayer from the New Zealand prayer book:
Welcome, welcome, Jesus Christ our infant savior,
baby who makes every birth holy.
May we, who like the shepherds
Have witnessed in the stable a new of love,
Return to our work with joy.
May we, for whom the heavens have opened
To proclaim that God is with us,
We who have fed on living bread
And drunk the wine of heaven,
Go out to be instruments of your peace, day by day.
