December 24, 2017 - Fourth Sunday in Advent - Christmas Eve - Emmanuel

Since Christmas Eve fell on a Sunday this year the intentions were to worship at the morning and evening services. A little snow and ice changed our evening plans and, perhaps as a result, Christmas worship substantially changed this year.

Yet there were many unexpected moments in the morning worship as well so it was not simply the timing of the worship making for a different expedience, although that certainly contributed. There was one bulletin for both services so these same reflections for an 8:00 PM worship.

The choir attendance was as small as expected so the choir sang one song during offering I Wonder as I Wander. The song felt like like a mysterious but also very humble offering.

The undercurrent of God's being here-but-not-here mostly flowed through the words, music and emotion of the Christmas hymns the congregation sang. Pastor Ray gave a children's sermon was about how God brought good news to the shepherds who would have been an unexpected audience, not intended to hit the ball out of the theological ballpark or designed to highlight the end of our Advent journey. The repeated emphasis was on how stinky and smelly the shepherds were. Theologically sound but not as traditional a sermon.

Not being part of intended, central audience the sermon was focused on distanced me in a way I generally don't feel for Christmas services. Pastor Ray here, in essence, dramatized how God's message was delivered that first Christmas to that particular audience. He took a traditional "Wow" factor out of the sermon, that harmonized with what this service was all about. 

The birth narrative, instead of centering on the miraculous, was brought down to earth and felt more commonplace. Singing "Oh, come all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant" felt unreal and in need of some examination. Can the faithful be joyful and triumphant when God makes a promise to the world? Am I one of the faithful? Today the verse that seemed straight-forward in meaning was "No ear may hear his coming; but, in this world of sin, where meek souls will receive him; still the dear Christ enters in." in O Little Town of Bethlehem.

The contrast of darkness with lit candles in the Service of Light has been dramatic for me in past years. In the morning light, the lit candles continued to emphasize the commonplace and ordinary.

To close we sang Joy to the World with the last verse being:

He rules the world with truth and grace
and makes the nations prove
the glories of his righteousness 
and wonders of his love,    
and wonders of his love, 
and wonders, wonders of his love.

Today every time we sang about God's rule and glory there was a more complex and complicated reaction to the words describing God coming into the world. To me, this morning, proclamations with kingly adjectives came from our human grammar not God's. When we sang "join the triumph of the skies" in Hark! The Herald Angels sing. it felt like an attempt to push God up and back into heaven instead of celebrating Emmanuel, God with us.

Our God is a God of surprise and reversal. Perhaps our God claims something more than dutiful, routine love while cherishing that kind of love that we can give as well.

I suspect this will not be a consistent view I will treasure for future Christmas Eve services but it will likely be among the things I will intermittently ponder other Christmas days.