Isaiah 9:6-7, Micah 5:2-4 , Jeremiah 23:5-6, Luke 2:8-14 , Matthew 2:1-12 , Psalm 96:1-3
We know instinctively that Christmas is more than shopping mall Santas, silver bells, and snow-flocked trees, but such things are so entangled with our impressions of Christmas that it’s hard to kn...
In our prayers this morning, when I say, “Lord of all glory,” please respond by saying “Hear our prayer”. Lord of all glory... hear our prayer . Our God speaks tenderly to His people and cares for th...
Genesis 28:10–17, Isaiah 9:2–7, Micah 5:2–5, John 1:1–14, Luke 2:8–14 , Psalm 96:10–13
Our family started watching our Christmas movies early this year. We love Christmas Vacation , Charlie Brown’s Christmas, Home Alone (one and two), Rudolph, and Frosty the Snowman ...
Matthew 2:1-2, Luke 2:8-20, Matthew 2:11, John 1:14, John 4:9-10, Micah 5:2, Luke 2:4-7
Christmas in Bethlehem. The ancient dream: A cold, clear night made brilliant by a glorious star, the smell of incense, shepherds and wise men falling to their knees in adoration of the sweet baby, th...
Isaiah 9:6, Philippians 2:6-7, 1 Corinthians 1:27-29, Luke 2:10-12, Micah 5:2, Matthew 2:1-2, 11, John 1:14, Isaiah 52:2-3, John 18:36
Politicians compete for the highest offices. Business tycoons scramble for a bigger and bigger piece of the pie. Armies march and scientists study and philosophers philosophise and preachers preach an...
Luke 2:8-14, Luke 2:1-7, Isaiah 9:6-7, Isaiah 7:14, Luke 1:46-55, Micah 5:2, John 1:14, Matthew 2:1-12, Luke 2:25-38, John 10:10-11
Late on a sleepy, star-spangled night, those angels peeled back the sky just like you would tear open a sparkling Christmas present. Then, with light and joy pouring out of Heaven like water through a...
Matthew 1:22-23, Isaiah 7:14, Luke 1:46-55, Luke 2:1-7, Micah 5:2, Luke 2:8-11, Isaiah 9:6-7
When we turn toward Advent, the name on our lips is Emmanuel, God with us . So much in Christian faith relies on what the faithful actually mean when we say that name. Western Christianity has fo...
Luke 1:18-25, Galatians 4:4-6, Luke 2:1-20, Philippians 4:7, Romans 5:1, Micah 5:2, John 1:14
Pastor: Gracious God, with joy and thanksgiving we gather as Your people to ponder anew the timeless story of Christ’s birth. For at just the right time, You worked in the most unlikely ways to fulf...
Isaiah 9:6, Philippians 2:6-7, Luke 2:10-12, Micah 5:2, Matthew 2:1-2, 11
Who can add to Christmas? The perfect motive is that God so loved the world. The perfect gift is that He gave His only Son. The only requirement is to believe in Him. The reward of faith is that you s...
Isaiah 9:6-7, Micah 5:2, Luke 2:1-20, John 1:5, Philippians 2:6-7, Luke 2:7, Revelation 3:20
It was a time like this, war and tumult of war, a horror in the air. Hungry yawned the abyss— and yet there came the star and the child most wonderfully there. It was a time like this ...
“In historical time, Christmas happened over two thousand years ago in Bethlehem; in theological time, Christmas happens now, in the mystery of God choosing to dwell within humankind, a mystery that t...
Proverbs 23:26, Romans 12:1, Matthew 2:11, 2 Corinthians 8:12, Psalm 51:16-17, Micah 6:6-8, John 6:1-13
What can I give Him Poor as I am? If I were a shepherd I would bring a lamb; If I were a wise man I would do my part,- Yet what I can give him Give my heart.
Isaiah 9:6-7, Micah 5:2, Luke 2:8-20, Matthew 2:1-12, Psalm 9:1-2
O come, Emmanuel. Ignite in us the awe of a child, Looking into a manger scene As we wait on the promise Of the coming infant King In a humble stable. TO LIGHT THEIR WAY
God, you come to us and meet us in the strangest ways: sometimes in the stillness at the eye of the storm or in the midnight of our lives; sometimes in the raging whirlwind or in the high noon of our ...
John 1:1-15, Isaiah 9:2, Luke 1:78-79, Philippians 2:6-7, 2 Corinthians 8:9, Micah 5:2, Matthew 1:23
Just when everything is bearing down on us to such an extent that we can scarcely withstand it, the Christmas message comes to tell us that all our ideas are wrong, and that what we take to be evil an...
Luke 2:8-11, John 10:11, Luke 2:8-20, Psalm 23:1-4, Micah 5:4, Jeremiah 31:13
Legend has it that the choirmaster of Cologne Cathedral was the one who first bent straight white candy canes into their familiar inverted “J” shape. It wasn’t to represent the name Jesus, as is often...
Luke 1:26-38, Isaiah 7:14, Isaiah 11:1-10, John 1:1-14, Isaiah 9:6, Luke 1:39-45, Matthew 1:18-25, Micah 5:2
Pastor: In the midst of darkness, candles have shone. Congregation: Glory to God in the highest! Pastor:: In the midst of darkness, we have seen the light of Christ. Congregation: ...
One of our troubles, is that we have romanticized and sentimentalized the stable and the manger…We see them through the warm glow of our comfortable homes, our candles and our well-fed bodies....Perha...
John 1:14, Galatians 4:4-5, Micah 5:2, Matthew 2:1-2, Acts 17:26-27
The Christian faith can never be separated from the soil of sacred events, from the choice made by God, who wanted to speak to us, to become man, to die and rise again, in a particular place and at a ...
Luke 2:10-11, Psalm 100:2, Luke 2:8-20, Micah 5:2, Matthew 2:1-2, Matthew 2:1-12, Luke 2:15-16, Revelation 19:16, Luke 2:8-20, Psalm 95:6, Philippians 2:10-11, Luke 2:25-38, John 1:14, Isaiah 7:14, Matthew 2:11
Leader: O come, all ye faithful, Joyful and triumphant, People: O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem. Leader: Come and behold Him, Born the King of Angels! O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us ador...
Luke 2:8-14, Matthew 2:1-2, Isaiah 7:14, Psalm 19:1-2, Luke 2:15-20, Micah 5:2, Matthew 18:3-4
My ten-year-old son Jim had to write a play for Christmas for his Sunday School class. He made it a dialogue between two animals at Bethlehem. It goes like this: Donkey: It sure is cold, is it not? ...
Luke 2:1-3, Micah 5:2, John 1:9-11, Isaiah 9:2, Philippians 2:6-8, Matthew 2:13-15, John 4:9-10
This is no time for a child to be born, With the earth betrayed by war & hate And a comet slashing the sky to warn That time runs out & the sun burns late. That was no time for a child to be b...
Luke 2:8-11, Matthew 5:3, Philippians 2:6-8, Isaiah 57:15, Micah 5:2
The shepherds show us that we don’t prepare to receive the king of heaven the same way we prepare to meet the celebrities of our day, through earthly displays of showiness. In fact, receiving our King...
Confusion about Epiphany The celebration of the Epiphany of our Lord can be at once both wholly familiar or somewhat confusing, especially for those who grew up in less liturgical traditions. What ca...