27th December Read: Luke 2:8-14 “And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their f locks at night.” Luke 2:8 (NIV) In the six verses of this carol the whole of the story of the shepherds and the angels is told from Luke 2:8-14. Read it from the Bible again and then listen to the carol. This carol is attributed to the Irish poet Nahum Tate, and it was the only Christmas hymn authorised to be sung in the Anglican Church before the 1700’s. Before that only the Psalms of David were allowed to be sung; maybe due to its retelling of the shepherds meeting with the angels from the Bible.
Shepherding is actually the first profession that the Bible mentions – “Abel was a keeper of sheep…” (Genesis 4:2). It was dangerous work where they had to protect the sheep from predators, finding grass and water and making sure that all the sheep were safe and none strayed. Shepherds were also considered society’s outsiders. Ceremonially unclean, they were not permitted to worship in the Temple and their character was questionable and so any testimony was inadmissible in court. Yet this carol reminds us that God has a way of turning the social order upside-down. Sometimes the world’s outsiders are considered God’s insiders.
Those that were unclean and not allowed to give testimony were the first that God told the news of Jesus’ birth, and they were charged with telling the world of this history altering news. Their testimony was listened to throughout the town of Bethlehem. All through Jesus’ ministry he reached out and touched those whom society had rejected. This beautiful carol tells of the birth of God’s Son. This is life-altering news. Let’s not keep it to ourselves but use Jesus’ example and step out of society’s norms and share the Gospel like the shepherds so long ago, with all who will listen. Turn this world upside-down and inside-out with the incredible love of a loving God. Sing or listen to: While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks
PRAYER V3: ‘To you, in David’s town this day Is born of David’s line A Saviour, who is Christ the Lord; And this shall be the sign:’ V6: ‘All glory be to God on high, And to the earth be peace; Good-will henceforth from heaven to men Begin and never cease.’ Amen.
by Pastor Jim Strelan
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That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched – this we proclaim concerning the word of life (1 John 1:1).
Read 1 John 1:1–10
As I was growing up, I fought against an idea of God that had him as very removed from me and my life, someone to fear, respect and keep at a distance. Then, there was a movement to bring God closer and be my friend, and this came through Jesus. Some called it the Jesus Revolution. While I would much rather have an idea of God that says he is approachable and nearer than distant, sometimes I think we need to pause for a moment and just consider who he is.
When we think of God in the human form of Jesus, flesh and blood, living our life, understanding our fears, crying our tears, stop for a moment and recognise just who this Jesus is. Especially now at Christmas: the bawling, red, wrinkly baby Jesus in the shed out the back in the feed box is the one who was from the beginning. You might know the song ‘Mary, Did You Know?’. It has the words, ‘Mary, did you know this sleeping baby you’re holding is the Great I Am?’
The writer of 1 John calls on us to pause for a moment and reflect: the one who was heard, seen, touched and with his followers is the one who was from the beginning, one with the Father. That’s mind-boggling. But not so mind-boggling if you have a view of God who is distant from us, who is removed from us. But if he is close to us, with us, even in us, that gives a different perspective. What is proclaimed is an eternal mystery, not just a fanciful, wishful-thinking thing. As wondrous as it is, it is something seen and heard (verse 3).
This eternal Jesus, who is one with the God of the universe, is with you. Little old you, little old me. We are connected, and we are in fellowship (verse 3). Be humbled and be glad.
Jesus, I acknowledge who you are, and I am in awe. I am overawed when I think about how you took on the form of a baby, entering my world, for me and for all. Thank you. Amen.
Jim is a retired pastor who lives with his wife, Ruth, on the north side of Brisbane. He is a proud and not very humble Brisbane Lions supporter. Jim likes to read, listen to music and play golf. He and Ruth love being with their young grandchildren and watching them grow. For Jim, grace is everything, and he will share that however and whenever possible.
Good King Wenceslas 26th December
Read: Titus 3:4-8, 14 “To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.”
1 Peter 2:21 (NIV) On the 26th December (Saint Stephen’s Day), a Bohemian king (modern day Czech Republic) went on a journey through the snowy and harsh winter to provide for (give alms to) poor peasants. With his servant the king struggles against the cold weather, and the servant is about to give up, but the king tells him to place his feet into his footsteps and so together they go step by step through the deep snow.
Wenceslaus l (the original spelling), 907-935, was not a king but rather a much-loved Duke of Bohemia in the 10th century. He was a kind man who had compassion to all, even earning the nickname ‘the father of all the wretched’. Wenceslaus l was eventually sainted by the church after he suffered a martyr’s death. The Holy Roman Emperor Otto l also declared Wenceslaus a king posthumously and made him the patron saint to the Czech Republic. (This is not the same person who actually held the title King Wenceslas l of Bohemia who reigned 3 centuries later.) In Prague there is a statue of Saint Wenceslas on horseback which can be found in Wenceslas Square. John Mason Neale wrote about this story in his lyrics to this beautiful Christmas carol in 1853.
Even though this carol does not tell of the story of Jesus, nevertheless it does share the story of a person who made himself lowly, being a monarch, to help those less fortunate than he. He stepped out into the cold of the world to bring comfort, not just in words but in his actions, giving food, help and money to help those less fortunate. This truly is the essence of Jesus coming to earth as a lowly baby. God sent His Son to earth not as a king to rule, but as a man to help, heal and comfort those in need. As the servant stepped in the King’s footprints so we also step in Christ’s example. This Christmas season remember how blessed we have been and find some time to also bless others in need. Sing or listen to Good King Wenceslas.
PRAYER V5: In his master’s steps he trod, where the snow lay dinted; Heat was in the very sod which the saint had printed. Therefore, Christian men, be sure, wealth or rank possessing, Ye who now will bless the poor, shall yourselves find blessing. Amen.
by Pastor Jim Strelan
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So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger (Luke 2:16).
Read Luke 2:(1–7), 8–20
Do you sometimes feel that your life is so ordinary? Nothing special about it, nothing anyone would write about in a magazine or report on TV news. Just a day-to-day struggle, trying to keep our heads above water. When we think about God, especially at Christmastime, we can easily think about majesty, glory, shining light, accompanied by choirs of angels – other-worldly, nothing at all like your life or mine. And God is in all those things. After all, God is God.
But see what we have when God comes to our earth. He comes as a baby, covered in gunk, bawling his eyes out, desperately seeking his mother’s breast. Not in the most prestigious hospital in the land, but in a cow shed, in a feed box for the animals, with no reporters and cameras and bright lights as witnesses, just some shepherds tired from a night out in the fields. A manger baby. Very, very ordinary if you ask me.
But that’s the magic of God. He loves to be in the ordinary, in muck, the inglorious – where we are. It’s interesting that the Christmas story, as we have it in the Gospel of Luke, consists of both the awesome and the ordinary at the same time. A bit like my experience of life with God. I am in awe of him, worship him, lift up his name, and I know that he is with me in all my ordinariness and brokenness. A traditional image of the baby Jesus in the manger is with his hands open and reaching out as best as a baby can. Reaching out to you and me as if to say, ‘This is for you; this is how I want to be involved with you. Come to the manger with me, and we will journey together. I am born for you. I enter your ordinariness and show you God’.
That’s worth doing what the shepherds did: glorifying and praising God (verse 20). May your Christmas celebration of the manger child bring you great joy.
Thank you, God of all, for choosing to enter our world in the ordinary. Be in the ordinariness of my life. Bless me today as I celebrate the birth of the Saviour. Amen.
Jim is a retired pastor who lives with his wife, Ruth, on the north side of Brisbane. He is a proud and not very humble Brisbane Lions supporter. Jim likes to read, listen to music and play golf. He and Ruth love being with their young grandchildren and watching them grow. For Jim, grace is everything, and he will share that however and whenever possible.
Away in a Manger Christmas Day
Read: Isaiah 7:14; 9:6-7 “While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” Luke 2:6-7 (NIV) The nativity play was going as planned and Joseph and Mary were going from house to house knocking on the doors and asking if there was any room for them. As they continued to get “no room” answers a little voice called from the back “YOU SHOULD HAVE BOOKED!” The hymn, ‘Away in a Manger’ is sung at every carol’s evening or nativity play that I have ever been to. Did you sing it last night for Christmas Eve? Or this morning celebrating the birth of our Lord?
This hymn points to the manger as the source of our adoration and joy. God’s Son being born in a manger – an animal’s feeding trough – highlights the way that God uses our deepest pain, our humiliation, the things that we wish were different, the despised and the forgotten, to bring Him the greatest glory. Jesus was not laid in a manger by accident. Animals go to the manger for physical food, but with Jesus lying on the hay, we can go to the manger for spiritual food. Jesus has peace and love, patience and hope available for all. We can come to Him at any time and never go hungry with His infinite storehouse of nourishment available to any who ask. The hymn has long been attributed to Martin Luther, as it appeared in publications from 1882 as ‘Luther’s Cradle Song’ saying that he composed it to sing to his children.
But more likely it was written to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Luther’s birth, as there is nothing in Luther’s writings which refer to or correspond to this carol. No matter who claims authorship, the beauty of this hymn is the beauty of Christmas as it speaks of the miracle of Jesus’ birth. It is a beautiful petition to grow closer to the Lord Jesus and for blessings upon all our little ones. Sing or listen to: Away in a Manger
PRAYER V3: Be near me, Lord Jesus, I ask Thee to stay Close by me forever, and love me I pray. Bless all the dear children in Thy tender care, And take us to heaven, to live with Thee there. Amen. 2
Silent Night Christmas Eve
Read: Isaiah 9:2-7 “This is how God showed his love among us: he sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” 1 John 4:9-10 (NIV) At every Christmas Eve service since I can remember I think that the beautiful hymn ‘Silent Night, Holy Night’ ends the night and people quietly walk out of church and to their homes. The song is so well-known, and I don’t think any carols evening is complete without it – secular or sacred. Both the words and tune blend into a feeling that Christ is truly present, and we are singing Him a lullaby. This popular Christmas carol was composed in 1818 by Joseph Mohr, a Roman Catholic priest of Austria. Joseph Mohr began his life in very humble circumstances. In 1792 he was born in Salzburg, Austria to a poor spinster knitter. His father, Franz Joseph Mohr deserted the family when Joseph was quite young. As a child, Joseph developed a friendship with the local cathedral organ master who taught him music, art and history.
This organ master, Johann Hiernle recognized Joseph’s musical talents and enrolled him in the famous grammar school in Kremsmunster, Upper Austria. He finally completed his education at the seminary in Salzburg and was ordained as priest in 1815. He was 23 years old. Joseph’s first parish was in the mountains of Austria where one morning he sat and wrote the poem: ‘Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!’ (‘Silent Night! Holy Night!’) Several years later Joseph met and became friends with Franz Xaver Gruber, who was the schoolmaster and organist of St. Nicholas Church in Oberndorf, Austria.
On the evening of 24 December 1818 – history itself is not clear, but it is said that the organ of St. Nicholas was broken and could not be repaired in time for Christmas so Joseph came up with the idea of putting his poem to music so it could be sung by the choir. Franz Gruber wrote the melody and Joseph Mohr transcribed the words to one of the most popular Christmas carols, Christmas Eve 1818. That night ‘Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!’ was heard and sung for the first time in St. Nicholas Church in Oberndorf, Austria. Reflect on the words as you sing it this Christmas and pray that all may recognise this beautiful gift from God. Sing or listen to: Silent Night, Holy Night
PRAYER V1: 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. Amen.
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing 4th Monday in Advent Read: Matthew 1:20b-23
“Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to those on whom his favour rests.’” Luke 2:13-14 (NIV) My mother is a wonder at poetry and can recite the most obscure and funny poems that she learned at primary school in the 1930’s. One such poem she quoted: Hark, hark! The lark at heaven’s gate sings, And Phoebus ‘gins arise, His steeds to water at those springs, On chaliced flowers that lies; And winking Mary-buds begin to ope their golden eyes: With everything that pretty is, My lady sweet, arise: Arise, arise. (By William Shakespeare) The word ‘Hark!’ is an old English term meaning ‘to listen’.
In our Lutheran Hymnal there are 5 hymns beginning with the word ‘Hark’ - obviously something important is about to be said. In the hymn ‘Hark! The Herald angels sing’, the second line tells us what is so important “Glory to the new-born king”, and this is repeated in the refrain each time – just in case you weren’t listening the first time. The fourth line states “God and sinners reconciled”. The word ‘sin’ and ‘sinner’ are not the words people like to hear. But originally it was an archery term that referred to the distance between the bull’s eye and where the arrow landed on the target. So basically ‘sin’ meant ‘to miss the perfect mark’.
In God’s terms, sin means to miss the mark of God’s perfection. We were born that way… but the Good News is that God didn’t leave us that way – He sent His Son to earth for us! This hymn is full of imagery. Written by Charles Wesley (1707-1788), he cleverly wrote the three verses telling in verse one, WHY Jesus came and TO WHOM He came. No wonder the angels were so excited! Verse two tells us WHO Jesus is. Try to list all the descriptions: He is the everlasting Lord, offspring of a virgin’s womb, God with flesh and bones, Immanuel. Verse three tells us HOW the Christ child made eternal life available to all of humankind. He gave up His heavenly position to come to earth as a man and then gave His life so that we could be born a second time and live with God eternally in heaven.
Sing or listen to: Hark! The Herald Angels Sing PRAYER V3: Hail, the heaven-born Prince of peace! Hail, the sun of righteousness! 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. Hark! The herald angels sing, Glory to the new-born King. Amen
O Holy Night 4th Sunday in Advent
Read: Job 38:4-7 “After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was.” Matthew 2:9 (NIV) According to legend, a Christmas song once brought peace to a battlefield. It happened on Christmas Eve during the Franco-German War (1870-1871) as the two sides faced each other in their trenches. A French soldier jumped up and began singing “O Holy Night.” The surprised German soldiers did not fire. Instead, one of them stepped forward to sing ‘From Heaven Above To Earth I Come.’
For a brief time at least, peace on earth prevailed and goodwill was shared among men whose job it was to kill each other. This hymn has its origin in the mid-1800s in France, when the composer Placide Cappeau was asked to write a poem about the birth of Jesus according to Luke 2. He had his Jewish friend Adolphe Charles Adams help him with the music. The French people initially accepted the carol, but Cappeau became influenced by socialist propaganda and walked away from his faith. Due to Cappeau’s stance, the song caused controversy in the Catholic church, to the point where it was banned. But John Sullivan Dwight (a political activist) heard this hymn and music in America. He changed the words a bit, but realising the slavery issue in America, he could relate to the third verse:
“Chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother”. With understanding the history of this hymn: through a man who lost his faith, a Jewish man who composed the music, an American abolitionist, God still managed to get His message of the night when Christ was born to the world! It reminds us that baby Jesus was born into the political unrest of the time, but we can still focus and love all of humankind through Jesus’ example.
It tells us to “fall on our knees…” in awe of the wonder that God sent to earth in a tiny baby. The true meaning of Christmas can shine out with the stars that point us to the Saviour of the world! Sing or listen to:
O Holy Night PRAYER V1: O holy night, the stars are brightly shining; It is the night of the dear Saviour’s birth. Long lay the world in sin and error pining, Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth. A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices, For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn! Fall on your knees! O hear the angel voices! O night divine, O night when Christ was born! O night divine! O night, O night divine! Amen.
Little Donkey 3rd Saturday in Advent Read: Luke 2:4-7
“Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” Zechariah 9:9 (NIV) What do you call a donkey with one leg and a bad eye? A winkey wonkey donkey. Why didn’t the donkey cross the road? He saw what happened to the zebra. Where in the Bible does it say that Mary and Joseph travelled on a donkey to Bethlehem? Nowhere! We can read in Luke that they travelled to Bethlehem from Nazareth, a journey of 145 km. They could have walked or ridden a camel.
So how do we come up in most Christmas Nativity plays that Mary rides on a donkey to Bethlehem? It was a long journey and Mary was heavily pregnant and donkeys were quite prevalent, I think we like to think that Mary didn’t have to walk the whole way. Maybe there is also the association of thirty-three years later Jesus rode a donkey into Jerusalem as King on Palm Sunday (Zechariah 9:9). The Christmas Carol ‘Little Donkey’ was a one-hit-wonder by a British songwriter Eric Boswell in 1959. He wrote many other pieces of music about his home area in Britain, but none made it as big as this simple tune. It is a popular one to perform with children’s musicals and nativity plays. When Eric Boswell was wanting to write a simple song for Christmas, he decided to focus on the treasure that the donkey was carrying to Bethlehem. Christmas can be a time of worries – family, presents, celebrations, food, and the list continues.
Mary and Joseph had worries of their own in trying to get to Bethlehem before census day and before their baby was born… I rather feel they had more issues than us! Were their cares and worries gone with the birth of the baby? Maybe they didn’t focus on them immediately, but having Herod out to kill them might have later become real. As the song says this donkey carried Mary safely… our loving Saviour also carries us with our issues and burdens. Celebrate and enjoy a Christmas filled with joy at the birth of the little Jesus.
Sing or listen to: Little Donkey PRAYER Little donkey, little donkey had a heavy day. Little donkey carry Mary safely on her way. Little donkey, little donkey on the dusty road. There are wisemen waiting for a sign to bring them here. Do not falter, little donkey there’s a star ahead. It will guide you, little donkey to a cattle shed. Amen. 2