Christmas Eve, St. Peter’s 2019
December 24:Christmas Eve 2019
St. Peter’s Great Falls
Pre-liturgy
Announcement
The liturgy this year will be different from any you’ve experienced. I tried to structure our worship and celebration tonight around a couple of requirements.
- We should sing as many Christmas carols as we can
- We needed to not go too late
- We don’t have a professional choir – it’s just us
To that end the key element you will notice is a series of readings that are in fact selections from a longer piece. I will say more about it in the homily. For now my minimal hope is that at the end of it we can all say, “I’m glad I was here.” And for all of you who help make it possible tonight – Thank you!
Introduction
It was many months ago that Cindy had invited me to be with you tonight. Most liturgies I have led at this time of year have presumed that there were numerous gatherings in the church in the weeks leading up to this holy night. It’s a different story here. I tried to think of how we could celebrate a Christmas Mass with the solemnity that it deserves.
I wanted there to be lighted candles. I thought about the emotions I felt as a teenager when being up past midnight was an adventure all to itself. At our house in those days Christmas didn’t really start until Christmas eve mass. My mother kept Advent pretty strict for us.
I also thought about the tradition started in England over a century ago. King’s College, Cambridge. Truro Cathedral in Cornwall. There the singing of Christmas carols was accompanied by the readings from scripture, beginning with Adam and Eve in the garden, their rejection of the blessings of the garden, the human compulsion to prefer our own ways over God’s ways, the prophetic call to return to faith, and finally God’s response to the whole mess in the gift of His Son, Jesus.
I knew we didn’t have a professional choir here at St. Peter’s, so the enjoyment of singing was going to be up to us and our good cheer.
The main puzzle piece that fell into place for me was the thought of hearing some selections from a narrative I first learned about in the early 1990’s. Gretchen Pritchard told the story of the Bible – all in one sitting – at a workshop on the Easter Vigil and the baptism of adults in the Catechumenate. 1
I have often read the entire narrative at the Easter Vigil in the various parishes I have served. I love its beginning and ending. She starts off saying, “It all begins the way all good stories begin, ‘Once upon a time …’” and she ends it – doing a fairly good paraphrase of Revelation 22 – by saying, “The prince and princess get married and live happily ever after.”
No of course the Bible’s message is more complex and sophisticated than that of a children’s fairy tale. Sort of like Christmas is more than the sum total of the Christmas carols we sing tonight.
It comes down to something as plain as:
There was a very great need for Redemption. God saw the need and had an un-dying love for humanity. He provided the Redemption in Jesus.
Grand Story of the Lessons
The big story is that God is a great and mighty God. He loves to make things. He loves to love. He is willing to do whatever it takes.
We in this place and this time are the characters in God’s great story. We may be small and insignificant in the larger context of the universe, but we are the most important people right here and right now, for telling the story. Tonight we celebrate and remember the power and meaning of the Incarnation. And we give thanks. To God.
A few weeks ago Mary Pat and I watched an amazing movie called Beasts of the Southern Wild. The main character in the movie is a 6 year old girl named Hushpuppy. Her wisdom is so far beyond her years that you can scarcely believe it when you hear it. And yet it is so true. At one point she says:
Hushpuppy: The whole universe depends on everything fitting together just right. If one piece busts, even the smallest piece. the whole universe will get busted.
What we celebrate tonight is God’s fixing the whole universe, all the busted pieces. And you and I are certainly included in that category: small and seemingly insignificant, but without us the universe is busted.
We are here to celebrate our place in the whole universe and in God’s redemption of that creation – His creation. That’s what the Incarnation is all about. The redemption is real – even, yea especially, when we can’t see it.
You may have heard the phase: “It will be all right in the end. If it’s not all right yet, it’s not the end.” That’s it. That’s the message. Or in the final words of the Gospel of Matthew:
“And look, I am with you always; yes, to the end of time.” (NJB)
Notes
Seasonal Blessing
Christmas Season Blessing
May Almighty God, who sent his Son to take our nature upon
him, bless you in this holy season, scatter the darkness of sin,
and brighten your heart with the light of his holiness. Amen.
May God, who sent his angels to proclaim the glad news of the
Savior’s birth, fill you with joy, and make you heralds of the
Gospel. Amen.
May God, who in the Word made flesh joined heaven to earth
and earth to heaven, give you his peace and favor. Amen.
And the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit, be upon you and remain with you for ever. Amen.
or this
May Christ, who by his Incarnation gathered into one things
earthly and heavenly, fill you with his joy and peace; and the
blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
be among you, and remain with you always. Amen.
Gretchen Wolff Pritchard is the author of Go, Tell It on the Mountain, a collection of pageant scripts, currently being revised and expanded. She also creates, illustrates, and publishes The Sunday Paper lectionary series for children. Other projects include Beulah Land felt story kits; Alleluia! Amen; and New Life. Check out Gretchen’s book Offering the Gospel to Children, and her blog at thesundaypaperblog.wordpress.com. ↩︎
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