Monday 24 December 2012

Christmas Eve

Prayer:  Great God,  this is the eve  on which we celebrate   our Saviour’s  birth.    A time of joy and love  and thanksgiving.    Holy Mighty,  Holy Immortal One,  we bow down before You in awe and praise.   We rejoice in the birth of Your son our Saviour.   The Glorious Impossible has come to be in our hearts and lives.  At the name  Emmanual  we celebrate the mystery of God with us.    And we thank You that even this day we can journey to be in Your glory and in Your presence.  With great haste,  help us to go forth with great joy and share Your love with others this very day.    Alleluiah.  Amen.

Merry Christmas!

Read  St Luke  2: 1 – 20

We’ve heard and seen the Christmas story each year in our lives.    Some of us were children and youth in Christmas Pageants.   How many of us over our lifetime were designated as shepherds?   We know the Christmas story.   We attend worship Christmas Eve with our family and friends.   We rejoice in the happy happy happy celebration of this worship.     And then we leave worship and go to our homes and that is as far as the love of Christ gets.  Humm.     This day remember the shepherds.   The angel came to the Shepherds and said, “Fear Not!”   Then the angel tells the shepherds the news of Great Joy — that a Saviour was born in Bethlehem.     The shepherds decide to go see this Saviour which is Christ the Lord.  They kneel down and worship the infant Christ.   And is that the end of the story?  No,  not at all.   The Gospel reading is very clear that they take this great news and share with everyone they meet.     Let us go to Bethlehem and see this thing which has come to pass which the Lord told us about and then share this Great Joy — the Good News of the birth of Christ our Lord   with everyone we meet today and always.    Be a shepherd.

Prayer:  Emmanual,  You are with us every day of our lives  loving us more than we can imagine.  This day,  may we take the love You have given us and share with others.   We give You thanks and praise that in the silence of the evening,  the Angel came to the Shepherds and changed their lives forever.   O Christ,  Son of God,  change our lives forever as we serve You and live in Your glory.    Remind us always to be like the shepherds — to go with great haste to You and then shared Your Good News with everyone they met.   Alleluiah.   Amen.

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