December 17, 2020
Dear friends,
First, let me invite you to worship on Christmas Eve (7pm) and/or Christmas Day (9am). I’m extending to you the same invitation that sounds out every time you hear Bing Crosby’s mellow voice sing “Adeste Fidelis.” “O Come, All Ye Faithful.” Come and behold the king of angels.
That is the marvel of Christmas – that the king of the universe, the creator by whose voice everything was made, the very Son of God himself is found lying in a manger as an infant. It is a marvel beyond imagination. God, who is bigger and stronger than anything, takes up residence among people as a baby who depends entirely on his mother for food and protection and comfort.
It’s that miracle that is cause for such celebration and festivity at Christmas. Sometimes holiday traditions get knocked because folks are concerned about forgetting the reason for the season, but I’m not interested in being cynical. You should enjoy your traditions. You should do everything you can to mark this time of year as different from the rest and make it memorable. You should spend yourself on cheer and goodwill because that is how we feast.
That’s what we call it at church – the Feast of the Nativity. It’s a feast because when something spectacular happens, when a long a season of hunger and want is over, when a time of darkness comes to an end, we are made to go out like calves leaping from a stall. We are made to celebrate and share in our good fortune. What better fortune could there be than that God himself should look on us in such love. That is precisely why we celebrate even though it is only mid-way through what has been forecast to be a long, dark winter.
But that forecast is wrong because the light has already dawned. The cold has broken and our waiting is over. With the birth of Jesus, the cure for sorrow and sin and death has arrived. Emmanuel means that God is here, now, and so we should feast.
That’s why Christmas is worth celebrating. That’s why it’s worth doing it big and loud. Maybe we’d all benefit from being a little more like Clark Griswold. But 25,000 Christmas lights are nothing more than a flickering candle in comparison with the light shining from that manger. So, come, let us adore him. Come to church and hear the Gospel. Hear the story of your salvation. Feast on the good news of great joy for all people. O come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord!
God bless and keep you,
Pr. Buchs