Christingle Service 2017

(The following is a Christingle Service I gave to Oasis Christian Fellowship in 2017.)

Oasis Christian Fellowship Christmas Eve Carol & Christingle Service 2017

Introit: “Silent Night”

Introduction

Good evening!  My name is Nick, and I’m a part of the church family here at Oasis Christian Fellowship.  We’d like to offer you a warm welcome to this, our last carol service before Christmas and, as we start, I’d just like to pray for a special blessing on us all this Christmas Eve.

Our Father in Heaven, your loving kindness and goodness – your light, and life, and love - has been available to us since the world began.  I pray that you would work something miraculous in each of us this Christmas Eve, for the glory of your Son, Jesus Christ – Amen!

So, tonight, we’ve got loads of carols to sing over the next hour together, interspersed with a few short talks - a bit like the Nine Lessons And Carols service you might hear on the radio or TV … except we’ve got 10 carols (one of which you’ve just heard; the others we can all sing together) and only 5 talks … and each of those will get shorter as the evening goes on!

We’ll also have a little Christingle section fairly early on - where the younger ones create a symbolic, sweet-skewered surprise, just to ensure your children get a real sugar high just before Santa visits!

Now, if any of you have brought along any guests tonight, who have come from beyond our county’s borders, we are going to start, this evening, by enculturing them in song with our first carol!

Nicknamed “The Sussex Carol”, Vaughan Williams collected the lyrics and tune to “On Christmas night, all Christians sing” while visiting in 1904.

If you wouldn’t count yourself a Christian here tonight and you’ve only come along for the carol-singing, jingle-belling ride, don’t be put off by this first line: for the time you’re with us, you’re as part of the family.

So, let’s warm up our vocal chords now as we stand to sing “The Sussex Carol”!

Carol 1: The Sussex Carol

Christingle Invitation

“All out of darkness we have light, which made the angels sing this night” … Light in the darkness will be our first theme this evening, as we incorporate some elements of a Christingle service into our time together.

A Christingle is essentially an orange with a candle stuck in the top … and a ribbon around it and sweets stuck onto it - every aspect of it represents a different bit of Christmas, and those who know the song can sing about that to us a bit later.

For now, though, if you have any young ones who would like to make a Christingle, please do have them join our helpers at the back, and we’ll process them up the front in about 10 minutes or so.

In fact, why don’t we give everyone who wants to do that time to go get set up, while we sing our next carol: Ding Dong Merrily On High!

Carol 2: Ding Dong Merrily On High

Lesson 1, with Reading 1: John 8:12, 1:4, 9-13; 3:16-17, 19-21

“Evetime songs” were for the evenings, when darkness fell, while “matin chimes” were for the mornings, welcoming the light back again.

The Bible describes God, in the beginning, separating darkness from light, and calling the darkness “night” and the light “day”.

I doubt the symbolism of darkness and light is lost on anyone but, just to make the point, which of the following phrases do you recognise, and what kinds of feelings do they evoke?

·     “Like a thief in the night”? … or, “like a thief in the light”?

·     “Things that go bump in the night”? … or, “things that go bump in the day”?

·     “Nightmares”? … or, “daymares”?

·     “In the dead of the night”? … or, “in the dead of the light”?

The night and darkness tend to be associated with bad things.  In fact, one traditional Christmas reading goes as far as to say: “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.”

Here, darkness is linked to death, as if to give an indication of just how bad these bad things are to God.  … Conversely - and in Jesus - light is linked to life, as we’ll hear in our first reading: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” … In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind … Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light … it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.

So, in Jesus is life, “that life was the light of all mankind”, and that “light has come into the world” … but “people loved darkness instead of light” – that sounds crazy, doesn’t it?!  If the darkness is as bad as death to God, how can we love it?

… Christmas, typically, is a time of overeating (bear with me!) - we all know that eating too much is not good for us: it can lead to obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.  And yet we still serve up far too much food at Christmas anyway!  Why?  Because there is something very comforting about eating.

Similarly, there are things we do – with deeper effects than overeating – despite knowing they’re bad.  Some of these things are bad just for us, some are bad for those around us too - and yet we continue to entertain those things because in some way they comfort us.  We love (at least, our own) darkness.

Many of these things are so familiar or subtle, we don’t recognise them.  But our love of the darkness is not restricted to our own lives – it has pervaded our culture too.  For example, let me ask you this: what is “a day”?  How do we define this 24-hour period that we call “a day”?

We have inherited our “day” from the Romans.  In the century before Jesus was born, the Romans decreed that “a day” starts and ends at midnight.

Prior to this, “a day” started as the sun began to descend from its highest point at noon.  Daylight faded into the darkness of night, which was then flooded out again by the light of dawn, and, finally, the “day” ended with the sun at its peak again.

But the Romans changed all that … and in a very revealing way: they believed that history started and ended in chaos and darkness.  So, both their decree and their belief revealed a worldview based on a darkness-to-darkness story, with no hope of light finally winning over the darkness.

And, actually, they got that right!  From their point of view: without God, it is darkness to darkness.

So, what’s the alternative?  What did the original idea of “a day” represent?

· In the beginning, there was light - when God walked the Earth with mankind.

· This turned into darkness - as we (as all mankind) chose to distrust and reject God.

· God, in unimaginable humility, accepted this rejection and left the Earth to us … but the absence of God - the light of life - brought in darkness and death.

· Thankfully, that is not the end: one day, God will return, and His light and life will drive out all darkness and death forevermore.

The original definition of a “day” proclaimed the hope of light’s ultimate victory over darkness.

We are, now, in the darkness between the original light and the light to come.  But, as the moon provides light in our earthly darkness, God also provided light in our spiritual darkness – and that is what we celebrate at Christmas: Jesus’ birth - the light of the world coming into our darkness.

Why don’t we get our Christingle-lings up the front as we sing the Christingle Carol (do help them out if you know the song)!  When you guys reach the front, just line up to show everyone your Christingles, so we can all share in their light until we finish singing, and then you can take them back to your seats (they’re electronic candles, so the risk of burning the hair of the lady in the seat in front is quite low!)  After that, Jade and Naomi, two members of the church family here, will read a poem Jade wrote for this occasion.

Song: Hope Of Heaven (Christingle Song)

Poem: “Hope, Light and Peace”, by Jade

Link

It was important, symbolically, that Jesus - the Light of the World - came at our darkest, coldest time: not only in the middle of the night, but in the middle of winter too.

He came when we needed Him most.  Our next carol is about Jesus’ coming in the middle of a cold, dark night, in the middle of a cold, dark winter.  Let’s stand now to sing “In The Bleak Mid-Winter”!

Carol 3: In The Bleak Mid-Winter

Lesson 2, with Reading 2: Luke 2:1-7:  In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree … she wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

So, we’ve had a look at Jesus as the light coming into our darkness, but why did He have to come as a baby human being?  Why couldn’t He have just shone out as a great light from the heavens … perhaps with a big booming voice for a bit more effect?!

I’m going to suggest that there are three big reasons why He did it the way He did.  I want to suggest that Jesus became a human being:

1. to meet us where we’re at;

2. to tell us and show us what God is like; and

3. to suffer and die, as a human being, and for our sake.

So, first, Jesus came to meet us where we’re at.  He removed the distance between God and mankind, and got first-hand experience of what it’s like to actually be a human being – a created being.

So, He tasted food like you and I do; He smelled fragrances as you and I do; He felt with the same fingers you and I feel with; He looked through the same eyes and listened through the same ears as we do.

He experienced the stress of being born, the joys and challenges of learning as He grew up, and He suffered frustrations, disappointments, tears, laughter, delight, and joy, as we do.

As light, He came into our darkness, and yet there was no darkness in Him.  That is something that can be said about no-one else in all history.

There is a story that, as a prank, the Sherlock Holmes author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, sent an anonymous telegram to each of about a dozen of his friends, all of whom numbered amongst “the great and the good” of late 19th century Britain – a time when, arguably, moral and ethical living reached something of a peak.

The telegram simply read: “FLEE!  ALL IS REVEALED!” - it wasn’t signed.

By the following morning, all twelve of his friends had left the country!

There are dark secrets hidden deep within each of us that, at best, threaten our honour and dignity – at worst, a lot more than that.

But, despite this darkness in us, and our rejection of Him, the Son of God came down into our dark, self-absorbed world, and He didn’t just visit, He became like us.: born of Mary, He became the Son of Man – “God made Him who had no sin … in the likeness of sinful flesh”, as the Bible puts it.

I mentioned, before, that we rejected the God of light and life, so were left with darkness and death, but God is also love.

True love always puts others first.  So, our rejection of God has left us with a compromised, self-serving version of love, and we often find ourselves doing, saying, and feeling things that we want to keep in the darkness.

That is why we hate the light.

But in our self-absorbing darkness, we can’t know God – and this brings me to my second reason why Jesus became a human being: to show us who God is … what He’s like.

You’ve heard the expression “it takes one to know one”?  Well, God figures you also need to know one to take one!  In other words, we need to know Him before we are persuaded to take Him as our Father.  So, Jesus came to teach us about His Father, in words and actions.

Jesus, as The Son of God, is a ‘chip off the old block’ - like Him in every way, the Bible describes Him as “the image of the invisible God”: if we look at Him, we see His Father.  So, what are He and His Father like?

Well, this brings me to my third reason why Jesus became a human being: Jesus became a human being to die that we might have life.

Does it surprise you to think of Jesus’ suffering and death at Easter as something His Father did too?

It did me, but Jesus Himself said: “the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing”.  On the cross at Easter, Jesus and His Father, God, were separated through death for the first and last time in all eternity.  It was the most terrible and dark time ever … and yet, it bought us forgiveness for our rejection of God.

Another member of the church here, Helen, will now read a poem she wrote about Jesus’ birth and what it brought about, inspired by her own grandson, lying cradled in his father’s hands.

Poem: “A Child Is Born”, by Helen

Link

Let’s stand to sing of the babe in the stall in our next carol: “Once In Royal David’s City”.

Carol 4: Once In Royal David’s City

Lesson 3, with Reading 3: Philippians 2:5-11

Who is God?  What do you think?  … “His shelter was a stable, and His cradle was a stall; with the poor, and mean, and lowly, lived on earth our Saviour holy”.  Our next reading this evening sheds some more light on what God is like:            Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped … and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

When you think of “God”, does this sort of abject humility come to mind?

Jesus, as Son of God, was equal with God His Father, but He did not grasp at that.  Instead, He came down, down, down:

-      from holy heaven to dusty Earth;

-      and not only to Earth, but smelly, grubby, sinful humanity;

-      and not only to humanity, but to be born as a helpless, writhing, incontinent baby, completely dependent on a couple of scandal-scarred, first century teenagers in an insignificant corner of the occupying Roman administration.

This, surely, is an upside-down God, no?  I mean, it’s starting to become hard to think of Him as the Son of God, isn’t it?  But, I assure you, the irony doesn’t end there:

·        He came down, that we might go up;

·        He was born into our darkness, that we might be born again, into His light;

·        He suffered ultimate humiliation, that we might ultimately have dignity;

·        He submitted to Man’s perverted judgement, that we might go free under God’s perfect judgement;

·        He suffered separation from His Father, that we might be united with His Father;

·        He died, that we might live.

His loss has always only ever been for our gain.  In fact, He became our servant to such a great degree, that it would be hard to believe He is the Son of God, had He not then risen from the dead too.

Only God has power over death.  Only God could never be in the shadow of death.  And only God can raise us from the dead to give us a second birth, and this one to eternal life.

This is what the final verse of our next classic carol speaks of:

-     “Light and life to all He brings, risen with healing in His Wings”;

-     “Mild, He lays his glory by, born that man no more may die”;

-     “Born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth”.

Let’s stand to sing “Hark!  The Herald Angels Sing”.

Carol 5: Hark!  The Herald Angels Sing

Lesson 4, with Reading 4: 1 John 4:7-19

“Christ, by highest heaven adored, Christ, the everlasting lord”.

What is your reaction to the phrase, “Jesus Is Lord”?

I’ve been a Christian for almost 20 years, and yet I still find that that phrase bristles – I don’t want a Lord over me!  And yet, I’ve also been around long enough to know that William Ernest Henley is not right either, when he wrote his poem, “Invictus”: I am not the master of my fate; I am not even the captain of my soul.

So, I’m stuck between two worlds.  Before I became a Christian, I chose to not know or trust God at all.  At some point, I got to know Him just enough to put my trust in Him and, at that very point, I became a child of His, which means that, one day, I will know and trust Him completely.

But, right now, I’m just “growing up”.  Like a child growing up in his parents’ home, there are times I push boundaries, argue, and rebel.  But, as a good father, God doesn’t leave me or kick me out, and I can trust Him to finish the long work of pulling me out of the darkness and into the light, that He has begun in me (Philippians 1:6).

So, the phrase “Jesus Is Lord” bristles a bit with me now, but I find myself accepting it more and more as the years go by and I get to know that His being Lord is nothing like any human I’ve known lording it over me.  He is The Servant King.  He is the Lord, who is also my Father.  He is the Lord who loves me this much:

There is a radical verse in the Bible that says: “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us”.  We’ll now hear more of this love in our penultimate reading this evening: Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God ... We love because he first loved us.

I can submit to this Lord.  This Lord gives me rest, and has me rest in His merry, smiling embrace.

Let’s stand to sing of that comfort and joy in our next carol: God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen.

Carol 6: God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen

Reading 5: Luke 2:8-12

Now, I’d like to set up our next carol with our final reading for this evening – another traditional Christmas passage that leads on from our second reading this evening:

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby … So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger.

Let’s stand to sing our next carol: While Shepherds Watched

Carol 7: While Shepherds Watched

Lesson 5

“When the angels had left them, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing!’” … What would you have done if you were in their sandals?

You’ve just been invited by an army of angels to go to visit the Saviour, Messiah, and Lord on His very first day on the planet – chances are you’re not going to say “no”!

So, you ought to take a gift, right?

But you’re a shepherd - socio-economically, one of the lowest of the low.  And it’s the middle of the night: even if you had money to spend, there’s nowhere open to buy anything.  Some of your fellow shepherds have thought to grab a lamb but, in the rush to be on your way, you weren’t able to catch one.  You are woefully unprepared – this could be embarrassing.

As you enter Bethlehem, you are grateful that it is the middle of the night – usually you are not well treated by city-dwellers.  You scurry through the shadows and when you arrive at the stable, Mary and Joseph are a little surprised to see you.  But one of the other shepherds with you tells them everything that happened with the angels, and the message, and the singing, and – remarkably – they just accept all they hear and beckon you in.

Suddenly, the kings arrive!  The sheer brilliance of their clothing, their entourage, and their gifts forces you into the shadows of the stable, behind Mary.

You couldn’t feel more out of place.

And then everyone wants to present their gifts all at once, and Mary looks around for someone to hold the baby so that she can accept the gifts and thank people properly.  But everyone has their hands full, holding their gifts.  Everyone, that is, except you.  You arrived empty-handed.  You – unwashed, unkempt, and unready you – are … ironically, the only visitor who is actually ready and able to receive Jesus … and Mary calls you out of the shadows and into the light, to take Jesus in your arms.

This is all of us tonight.

Wherever you are, with respect to Jesus – be it that you feel unready, unworthy, some combination of the two, or even if you accept completely where you are right now – Jesus has been offered to you, by God, as a gift of light, life, and love.

If you can relate to anything I’ve spoken about concerning our darkness, or our not having life in all its fullness, or the self-serving compromise in our love for others – know that you have been offered the free gift of light, life, and love.  And, as with all true gifts, you do not have to pay for it, and you do not have to give anything in return - you just have to reach out, and accept it.

Jesus said: “Do not let your hearts be troubled.  Believe in God; believe also in me … Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves … Anyone who loves me will obey this teaching.  My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.”

If you want to take any practical steps towards knowing God more, either before you accept Him or as a result of accepting Him, can I point out 3 opportunities you have right now:

One would be to join us, Sundays – you’d be most welcome!  We’ll meet again 4:30pm next Sunday, and then 10:30am each Sunday after that.

Another would be mid-week: Bob and Rosemary, from the church family here, are giving up an evening a week, starting in February, to chat with you more personally – catch them at the back by the door after this (they’re also great people to ask to pray for you, or with you, if you’d like).

Lastly, if you’d rather start off with something just on your own, please take one of the “Four Kinds Of Christmas” books as a free gift from us to you – they’re at the back of the church and in the lobby - just help yourself!

Let’s finish, now, with a final carol, calling all “the faithful” – all who trust in Jesus, the light and life of the world - to come and enjoy His love, singing in exultation.  Let’s stand to sing “O Come All Ye Faithful”.

Carol 8: O Come All Ye Faithful

Blessing  Father, please give us, this Christmas, a deep and certain knowledge and assurance of your love – in Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

Well, folks, we’ve certainly sung for our supper tonight so please do enjoy some minced pies and mulled wine (alcoholic or non-alcoholic) before you leave, and take with you our best wishes for a happy Christmas.

Advent Service 2017 Sermon

This is a sermon I gave to Oasis Christian Fellowship on the first of four Sunday evening "Carols by Candlelight" services in December 2017

Introit (as guests are finding seats and settling): Joubert’s “Torches”, Personent hodie, Gaudete

Welcome

Good evening, my name is Nick, and I am part of the church family here at Oasis Christian Fellowship and, on behalf of the whole church, I’d like to offer you our warmest welcome to our first carol service of 2017!  We are so pleased that you’ve been able to come tonight, and we hope to give you a thoroughly enjoyable evening over the next hour or so.

I, personally, absolutely love Christmas carols – for me, they invoke memories of the many happy family times I’ve been blessed with when I sing - or even just hear – them.  So I am very grateful for the church’s idea to run a carol service on each of the four Sunday evenings leading up to Christmas this year, and for the abundant enthusiasm that has gone into practising the carols, decking the halls, mulling the wine, and mincing the pies!

It also means we can enjoy some different carols each week.  This evening, we are going to enjoy some of the more reflective traditional carols, primarily focussing on those written in a minor key.  We’ll intersperse these with passages from the Bible and a bit of explanation, a bit like the traditional ‘Nine Lessons And Carols’ you may see on TV, except we’ll just have six lessons and carols!  Our “lessons” (or short talks, really) this evening will look at how God had prepped His people for the birth of His Son over two thousand years ago: What were Mary and Joseph to expect of this person, Jesus?  What do we expect: ok, Jesus is born – but, so what?  What does that mean for me?

To help answer these questions, we’d like to take you through just a small number of the many, many prophecies about Jesus - proclaimed and recorded often hundreds of years before He was even born.  And, as part of that, we’re also going to have a look at a tiny number of Jesus’ many, many names - other than “Jesus” - used in some of those prophecies, which should give us some insight into The Man and His Mission.

Our musical theme for tonight was inspired by the classic Advent carol, “O Come O Come Emmanuel”, our third carol for this evening, the music for which is in a minor key.  Other carols written in a minor key include “Torches”, “Personent hodie”, and “Gaudete”, all of which were playing at the beginning… and you’ll be pleased to know that those last two are the only carols we’ve included in Latin!

Some say that music written in a minor key gives a feeling of anticipation, so it’s entirely appropriate for this church-season of “Advent”, as “advent” is Latin for “coming to” or “coming towards” – it’s the season for anticipating the coming of Jesus to Earth.  But, before we get into our carols in a minor key, let’s warm up our voices as we stand to sing that other classic “O Come” carol: O Come All Ye Faithful!

Carol 1: O Come All Ye Faithful

1. O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant, O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem, come and behold Him, born the King of angels;

O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord.

2. God of God, Light of Light, Lo! he abhors not the virgin’s womb; Very God, begotten not created.

3. See how the shepherds, summoned to His cradle, leaving their flocks, draw nigh with lowly fear; we, too, will thither, bend our joyful footsteps:

4. Sing, choirs of angels, sing in exultation; sing, all ye citizens of heaven above!  Glory to God, in the highest;

Lesson 1

The “Advent season” celebrates the anticipation of the coming of Jesus, but what does that actually mean?!  It might be helpful to kick off with our first two ‘other names’ for Jesus, which are “The Son of God” and “The Son of Man”.

Jesus has always been The Son of God, but when He left His Father in heaven to be born of Mary at that first Christmas, He then became The Son of Man too.

As the “Son of God”, Jesus could come to us and say: “Oh yes!  I know God in heaven very well – He’s my Father!”  And, in fact, as His Father’s Son, He would be like Him in every way.  But then, as “Son of Man”, Jesus could go back to His Father and say to Him: “Oh yes!  I know ‘people’!  They are my brothers and sisters!”  So, as both the Son of God and the Son of Man, Jesus could bring God and Man together.  He made a way for all of us, sons and daughters of humankind, to become children of God.

And those who have come to know just how wonderful God is as a Father have been writing songs about this ever since.  Our first carol in a minor key, then, is about how Mary was told that she would be the one through whom the Son of God would become the Son of Man.  Let’s stand to sing “The angel Gabriel from heaven came”.

Carol 2: Gabriel’s Message (The angel Gabriel from heaven came)

1. The angel Gabriel from heaven came, His wings as drifted snow his eyes aflame.  "All hail" said he "thou lowly maiden Mary,

Most highly favoured lady," gloria!

2. "For know a blessed mother thou shalt be, all generations laud and honour thee.  Thy Son shall be Emmanuel, by seers foretold

3. Then gentle Mary meekly bowed her head "To me be as it pleaseth God," she said.  "My soul shall laud and magnify his holy name."

4. Of her, Emmanuel, the Christ was born, In Bethlehem, all on a Christmas morn; And Christian folk throughout the world will ever say:

Lesson 2, with Reading 1: Luke 1:26-38

In our first reading, we’ll hear how Luke - a doctor-turned-investigative-journalist of the time - describes the event we have just sung about.  (Elizabeth, who will be mentioned early in the reading, was a relative of Mary, who – unbeknownst to Mary – was, herself, pregnant with a baby boy, who would go on to be John The Baptist):

In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.  The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favoured! The Lord is with you.”

Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.  But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favour with God.  You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus.  He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.  The Lord God will give him the throne of his forefather David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.  So the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.  Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month.  For no word from God will ever fail.”

“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.

Although we don’t use this word for angels so much, Gabriel, there, is essentially “prophesying” - a “prophet” is someone, whom God sends to tell people what He is about to do.  John The Baptist, mentioned earlier, served as a prophet in the few years before Jesus started teaching.  We’ll look at a few more prophets later but, for now, did you notice the angel’s odd instructions for Mary?

He says: “you are to call him Jesus” … and then He immediately adds: “He will be called the Son of the Most High” … and, not long later: “the child will be called the Son of God” - so many names for such a wee fellah!  It sounds like Gabriel can’t make His mind up!  But, there are actually over a hundred names for Jesus!  And every single one describes something about who He is, what He’s like, or what He came to do.

We’ll sing of some other names for Jesus now in our third carol: “O come! O come! Emmanuel”.  As “Emmanuel” literally means “God with us”, this carol is really a prayer for God to come to be with us – a prayer that was answered on that first Christmas Day.  Let’s stand to sing “O come! O come! Emmanuel”.

Carol 3: O come! O come! Emmanuel

1. O come! O come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel; that mourns in lonely exile here, until the Son of God appear.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel!

2. O come! Thou Branch of Jesse, free Thine own from Satan's tyranny; from depths of hell Thy people save, and give them victory o'er the grave.

3. O come! Thou Day-Spring come and cheer our spirits by Thine Advent here; and drive away the shades of night, and pierce the clouds and bring us light!

4. O come! Thou Key of David, come, and open wide our heavenly home; make safe the way that leads on high, and close the path to misery.

5. O come, Desire of nations, bind in one the hearts of all mankind; bid Thou our sad divisions cease, and be Thyself our King of Peace.

Lesson 3, with Reading 2: Matthew 1:18-25

The name “Emmanuel” was used by a prophet called Isaiah, who told the king of Judah, some 700 years before Jesus was born: “A virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”.  Our second Bible reading this evening describes how Joseph is told that this prophecy is to be fulfilled in his lifetime:

 “This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit.  Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.  But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said:

“Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.  She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).  When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife.  But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.”

Again, here, the angel gives more than one name for the baby.  In giving the reason for the name “Jesus”, the angel explains: “because he will save his people from their sins”, and the name “Jesus” means “The Lord saves”, or even, “The Lord is salvation”.  The other name, “Immanuel”, means “God with us”.  And who He is, what He’s like, and what He came to do are all bundled up together right there in those two names!  The baby is “God” and “Lord”.  This God and Lord loves us and wants to be “with us”, and so He came “to save us”.

But what did we need saving from?

There are many things we need saving from in this world.  Just a brief look at another prophet - Zechariah, the father of John The Baptist – would give one answer:

“The Lord … has come to his people and, … as he said through his holy prophets of long ago, (will save us) from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us … The Rising Sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.”

We need saving from our enemies who hate us and the shadow of death, but also remember what the angel said when giving the name Jesus: “he will save his people from their sins”.  We also need saving from our sins.

Our sins are not actually things like greed, murder, and injustice – these are only symptoms of what sin really is.  Sin, really, is rejecting God as our Father.  Everything else just comes out of that.

The symptoms of sin can make us enemies of other people around us, but sin itself made us enemies of God.  And that is why it was so important that Jesus, the Son of God, became the Son of Man too.  Despite our making enemies of God, God still loves us and Jesus came to offer to make us, sons and daughters of humankind, into children of God again.

Zechariah described this as “The Rising Sun (coming) to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness”, which may remind you of another traditional Christmas reading: “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned”.

That was Isaiah - again, 700 years before Jesus was born - prophesying about Jesus’ birth as ‘light dawning’, driving all darkness away before it.  Our next song, performed by our very own choir, Oasis Hearts And Voices, sings of Jesus - The Great Light - being born into our darkness.

Choral Piece: “Silent Night”

1. Silent night!  Holy night!  All is calm, all is bright; round yon virgin mother and child, Holy infant so tender and mild, sleep in heavenly peace!  Sleep in heavenly peace!

2. Silent night!  Holy night!  Shepherds quake at the sight; Glory streams from heaven afar, Heav’nly hosts sing Alleluia!  Christ the Saviour is born!  Christ the Saviour is born!

3. Silent night!  Holy night!  Son of God, love’s pure light; radiance beams from thy holy face, with the dawn of redeeming grace.  Jesus, Lord at thy birth!  Jesus, Lord at thy birth!

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Don’t worry – we will all have a chance to sing that popular carol a little later.  But, for now, our next carol describes a little more the bleak darkness that Jesus came into, to save us from.  Let’s stand to sing: “In The Bleak Mid-Winter”.

Carol 4: In The Bleak Mid-Winter

1. In the bleak mid-winter, frosty wind made moan, Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone; snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow, in the bleak mid-winter, long ago.

2. Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him, nor Earth sustain; Heaven and Earth shall flee away when He comes to reign: in the bleak mid-winter, a stable-place sufficed; The Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ.

3. Enough for Him, whom cherubim worship night and day, a breastful of milk and a manger full of hay; enough for Him, whom angels fall down before, the ox and ass and camel, which adore.

4. Angels and archangels may have gathered there, cherubim and seraphim thronged the air.  But His mother only in her maiden bliss, worshipped the Beloved with a kiss.

5. 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 I give Him, give my heart.

Lesson 4, with Reading 3: Luke 2:25-35

Instead of a palace of marble and gold for this King of Kings to be born into, a stable-place of straw and smells and draughts and dung sufficed for Him.

Instead of a painted crib, a downy mattress, and clean bedclothes, the Son of God rested in an ox, an ass, and a camel’s feeding trough – a manger full of hay.

Instead of a planned programme of the rich and famous honouring this Ruler of all creation, a handful of shepherds and a few wise men sneak in by night, drop off a lamb and “do their part”, and then scarper again before Herod can track them down.

This is hardly how we’d expect The Son of God to start off His mission to save us.  But, not only did Jesus accept this humble introduction, He went on to suffer humiliation throughout His lifetime, ending up being executed by the very people He came to save.

This is no aloof God, demanding his pleasures at our expense.  No, Jesus is “The Servant King”.  Upturning all our concepts of what it means to be ‘king’, He served us every second of His life, right up to – and in - His death.

Another prophet spoke a little of this, very soon after Jesus’ birth, as we’ll hear in our next reading:

Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout.  He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him.  It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah.

Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts.  When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying: “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace.  For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.”

The child’s father and mother marvelled at what was said about him.  Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”

Our next song, performed by Pentatonix, which we’ll play for you, explores the emotions Mary might have experienced as she considered all she’d been told.

Video Piece: “Mary, Did You Know”

Mary did you know that your baby boy will one day walk on water?  Mary did you know that your baby boy will save our sons and daughters?  Did you know that your baby boy has come to make you new?  This child that you've delivered, will soon deliver you.

Mary did you know that your baby boy will give sight to a blind man?  Mary did you know that your baby boy will calm a storm with his hand? Did you know that your baby boy has walked where angels trod?  And when you kiss your little baby, you have kissed the face of God.

Mary did you know, Mary did you know, Mary did you know?  The blind will see, the deaf will hear and the dead will live again; The lame will leap, the dumb will speak, the praises of the lamb.

Mary did you know that your baby boy is Lord of all creation?  Mary did you know that your baby boy will one day rule the nations?  Did you know that your baby boy is heaven's perfect Lamb?  This sleeping child you're holding is the great “I am”!

Lesson 5                                                                                                                                                                                 

Did you hear the last verse, there?  “This sleeping child you're holding is the great ‘I am’”!  ‘I am’ is one of the stranger names for Jesus, yet it is one given by Himself, as if to answer the fundamental question we all have at some point: does God exist?

But this song takes us far beyond this question, to the very mission of Jesus: “Mary, did you know that your baby boy will save our sons and daughters … will one day rule the nations?  … The dead will live again …”

The dead will live again!  Death is all about separation.  Our sin, remember, is our rejection of God as our Father – in the deepest parts of our hearts, we actually want separation from God.  But, despite our rejection of Him, He still loves us and is always trying to convince us to come home.

So, for example, every day, we can enjoy the blessings of food, water, shelter, the love of our loved ones, the kindness of strangers, the wonders of creation, the very breath we breathe – all this to give us just a taste of God’s love for us.  But we can also endure hunger and famine, natural disasters, disabilities, decay, disease, death, and the cruelty of our fellow man in the world – all this to give us just a taste of what it would be like completely without God’s love.

In this life, God constantly presents us with a choice: “come home, where, with me, all is goodness and light and love and joy, without any tears or pain or sorrows!” … Or: “choose to reject me - and all that I am, in all my goodness and light and love and joy, and know only the tears and pain and sorrows that that leaves you with.”  This choice is ours, until we ourselves die.  God Himself wants no-one to choose separation from Him.  But He won’t force our hand – that would leave no room for love to grow in us.  Instead, He showed His love for us when He died for us on the cross, and He continues to show His love for us in all the blessings He gives us now.  And when we call on Him in prayer.

A few years ago, I went to see The Passion of The Christ in a cinema in central London.  As you’ll know if you’ve ever seen it, it is brutal.  I remember, afterwards, heading home via Waterloo station with a friend who’d watched it with me.  As we walked and talked, we found we couldn’t avoid any longer acknowledging a deep self-centredness in our own hearts.  A self-centredness that, sometimes, we tried vainly to rid ourselves of but, frankly, sometimes we just couldn’t care less about.

We couldn’t reconcile that self-centredness in us with God’s selfless love for us – a love so deep and high and wide and strong that The Son of God chose separation from His Father through death, so that we wouldn’t have to.  A love that saved us from what our own self-centredness actually craved: separation from God.

As my friend got on his train and I settled down to wait for my bus, questions about this raged through my mind.  Just then, my bus turned up.  Despite being a major central London transit point on a weekday evening, the bus was utterly empty apart from the driver.  As I climbed up to the top deck, all of my questions seemed to come to a head in one question, that I put to God in a silent prayer: “God – who am I to you?”

I sat down in one of the front seats of the top deck and looked up.  And there, across the entire front window, was etched as graffiti into the glass three letters: “S – O – N” … “son”.  With this one word, all of the Bible verses I’d ever heard or read, reassuring me that God had taken me as His child and would never leave me again, rushed through my brain, dispelling all previous doubts and questions.

God has such a love for all of us.  And yet many of us remain unconvinced.  We are now going to hear, in song, two contrasting responses to God’s reaching out to us.  The first, performed by our choir (although we were only able to start learning this last week, so do pray for us quickly before we start!) is “Hark! How the bells”.

Choir Piece: “Hark how the bells” (Carol of The Bells)

Hark!  How the bells, sweet silver bells, all seem to say “throw cares away!  Christmas is here, bringing good cheer to young and old, meek and the bold.  Ding dong ding dong – that is their song, with joyful ring, all carolling.  One seems to hear words of good cheer from everywhere filling the air.  Oh!  How they pound, raising the sound o’er hill and dale, telling their tale!  Gaily they ring, while people sing songs of good cheer – Christmas is here!  Merry, merry, merry, merry Christmas!  Merry, merry, merry, merry Christmas!  On, on they send - on, without end – their joyful tone to ev’ry home.

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I do love that song, yet it does raise an awkward question: “Hark, how the bells - sweet silver bells - all seem to say “throw cares away!” … Can I really just throw cares away?  Is dealing with the problems of this life really that easy?

Jesus took all of our cares a lot more seriously than that.  He dealt a final death blow to the very core of all our cares when He made a way back to God as our Father for us.  Now, indeed, we can enjoy a “merry, merry, merry, merry Christmas, on, on, on without end”.

Our next carol describes three people - kings themselves - who recognised Jesus as the “King and God and sacrifice”, who “sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying” gave His all to bring us home.  Let’s stand to sing “We Three Kings”.

Carol 5: We Three Kings

                                                                 

1. We three kings of Orient are, bearing gifts, we traverse afar.  Field and fountain, moor and mountain, following yonder star.

O Star of Wonder, Star of Night, Star with Royal Beauty bright,

Westward leading, still proceeding, guide us to Thy perfect Light.

2. Born a King on Bethlehem plain, gold I bring to crown Him again.  King forever, ceasing never, over us all to reign.

3. Frankincense to offer have I; incense owns a deity nigh: prayer and praising, all men raising, worship Him God on high.

4. Myrrh is mine; it’s bitter perfume; breathes a life of gathering gloom: sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying, sealed in the stone-cold tomb.

5. Glorious now behold Him arise, King and God and sacrifice.  Heav'n sings alleluia!  Alleluia the earth replies.

Lesson 6, with Reading 4: Matthew 2:1-12

Isaiah (mentioned before) and King Solomon (who lived over 900 years before Jesus’ birth) both prophesied about those three kings.  Jesus’ disciple Matthew called them “wise men” and “magi” in our final reading this evening, which mentions yet another prophecy - from Micah, this time, who lived around 700 years before Jesus was born:

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews?  We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.  When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born.  “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written: “‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’”

Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared.  He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child.  As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”

After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was.  When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.  On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him.  Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

King Herod was foiled, and Jesus went on to complete His mission, with a life of teaching us the truth about His Father, and a death on a cross that provided for all of us to be reunited with that Father.

Emmanuel - God With Us … Jesus, The Lord Is Salvation … Son of God, Son of Man … The Rising Sun, The Great Light … King of Kings, The Servant King, King and God and sacrifice.

We have only touched on a few of the many names and prophecies concerning Jesus, His birth, and His mission – but hopefully we’ve seen that He is for us.  Nothing and no-one in all creation would get in the way of Jesus’ plan back at that first Christmas, and nothing and no-one in all creation can get in the way of Jesus’ love for you now.  Let’s celebrate this great news now, as we stand to sing “God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen”!

Carol 6: God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen

1. God rest you merry, gentlemen, let nothing you dismay, Remember Christ our Saviour was born upon this day, to save us all from Satan’s power, when we were gone astray.

O tidings of comfort and joy, Comfort and joy; O tidings of comfort and joy

2. In Bethlehem, in Jewry, this blessed Babe was born, and laid within a manger, upon this blessed morn; The which His mother, Mary, did nothing take in scorn.

3. From God our heavenly Father, a blessed angel came, and unto certain shepherds, brought tidings of the same, how that in Bethlehem was born, The Son of God by name:

4. “Fear not!” then said the Angel, “Let nothing you affright!  This day is born a Saviour, of virtue, power, and might; To free all those who trust in Him, From Satan’s power and might

5. The shepherds at those tidings, rejoiced much in mind, and left their flocks a feeding, in tempest, storm, and wind, and went to Bethlehem straightway, this blessed babe to find:

6. Now to the Lord sing praises, all you within this place, and with true love and brotherhood, each other now embrace; This holy tide of Christmas, all other doth deface.

Blessing

God, our Father, thank you for Jesus – that He, as The Great Light, shone into our darkness; and that He, as Son of God, Son of Man, God and Lord came to save us.  Help us to know and enjoy your love this Christmas and forevermore.  Amen

We hope you have enjoyed our first Advent Carol service.  Do let us send you on your way not only with a song in your heart but with some warm food and drink in your belly too – there will be free mulled wine, mince pies, tea, coffee, and other refreshments available at the back in just a few minutes.  If you are interested in looking further into anything we’ve sung or heard about this evening, please do make sure you take one of the books we are giving away at the back as a Christmas gift from us to you, and feel free to grab me for a chat over refreshments afterwards if you’d like.

We would love to welcome you to any or all of our next 3 carols services - all of which will be different from each other - at the same time each week (with our families service, on the 17^th, starting with Messy Church at the earlier time of 3:30), but, if you are not able to make any of these, then may we take this opportunity to wish you a very happy Christmas!

Carol 7: “Silent Night”

Now, as promised, we would like to give you all the opportunity to sing one of the world’s favourite carols, with the choir all together.  So, let’s stand to sing our final carol: “Silent Night”.

1. Silent night!  Holy night!  All is calm, all is bright; round yon virgin mother and child, Holy infant so tender and mild, sleep in heavenly peace!  Sleep in heavenly peace!

2. Silent night!  Holy night!  Shepherds quake at the sight; Glory streams from heaven afar, Heav’nly hosts sing Alleluia!  Christ the Saviour is born!  Christ the Saviour is born!

3. Silent night!  Holy night!  Son of God, love’s pure light; radiance beams from thy holy face, with the dawn of redeeming grace.  Jesus, Lord at thy birth!  Jesus, Lord at thy birth!