ABOUT THOSE CHRISTMAS LIGHTS …
Isaiah 9: 2-7
LUKE 2: 1-19 read by Linus
DECEMBER 24, 2025 CHRISTMAS EVE
I am curious … how many of you have taken time to drive by homes whose Christmas lights are incredibly special displays of the season? As I continue my unofficial poll … how many of you have placed light displays on your front lawns or on the outside of your homes? Now … keep those hands up … any of you rival Chevy Chase’s Christmas Vacation light display?
Ah, the lights of Christmas … we look upwards in this Sanctuary, and we can see our celebration of the Christmas Eve star every Sunday throughout the year. Some of you have a star on the trees in your homes. Those of us who know the Christmas story by heart remember the star shining in the East … David’s star … the star of Bethlehem shining down with a brilliancy to indicate where Jesus was, God’s gift … the babe.
Do you wonder where Jesus is today? Or perhaps are you inquisitive as to why the lessons of Jesus are not the focus of the collective group of people who call ourselves Christians. The lesson of Christmas is different than the message of a babe in a manger although if you are someone like me who connects Scriptural dots together to create a message then you will have taken the descriptive words of the prophet identifying Jesus as WONDERFUL COUNSELOR, MIGHTY GOD, ETERNAL FATHER, PRINCE of PEACE or my all time fav … IMMANUEL … GOD IS WITH US.
As you join me in tonight’s Christmas celebration service … what are you thinking about? I know on Christmas Eve my mind wanders … I am taken back to my childhood … I remember traveling to Bethlehem and imagining Joseph, Mary, and the baby … I love the songs and the cards of the season … the joy that seems to dominate our perspectives makes me happy and I always wonder why we lose that collective joy on December 26th … why our open air greetings to strangers turn to smirks or judgment.
GOD IS WITH US … a simple concept … a Jesus identifier but a challenge as to whether we want God with us or are we concerned that if we sensed God with us on a regular basis God might not be too happy with our meme’s … our posts or our endorsements of human activities that challenge what God has told us to do beginning with the two most prominent and essential commandments of God … IF … IF we consider Jesus to be an essential factor in our life rather than a plastic Christmas figurine.
I know that this congregation has heard those two commandments with great frequency … commandments that I think should be in the public view at all times but for some reason many do not want to be reminded of God’s being with us all the time and also remembering what God expects. The essential Christmas message … that then morphs into our life’s direction with Jesus sharing our daily lives is two-part … LOVE GOD and LOVE ALL of our NEIGHBORS!
Basically, that is the message wrapped up in the angels’ message to those worn-out sweaty shepherds in the field … GOOD TIDINGS of GREAT JOY which shall be to … ALL PEOPLE!!! Don’t you just love that ALL PEOPLE part … God declaring love for ALL folks regardless of where they come from … no matter what they look or sound like … the CHRISTMAS GIFT … the lesson of the day is that we are getting GOOD TIDINGS of GREAT JOY!!! And, God’s directive on and for EARTH … PEACE and GOOD WILL TOWARD MEN … and we have already heard the angels declare that this is about ALL PEOPLE … later Jesus will direct us to LOVE ALL PEOPLE … ALL of our NEIGHBORS even when some in the world want us to mock others … harm others … judge others … GOD’s directives … God’s CHRISTMAS connection … GOD ALWAYS WITH US … tells us to be different and to accept the gift of Christmas. One small child came to save the world from itself. GOOD TIDINGS of GREAT JOY for ALL PEOPLE!!
This year for some reason I have focused in on the light of the Advent Wreath … each week a new candle is added to the collective reflection of God’s love for humanity … first there was the candle of HOPE. Then PEACE, JOY and finally LOVE.
I want to be hopeful … I think we all need hope in our lives and perhaps on this Christmas Eve when we shout MERRY CHRISTMAS to each other and to the world we who have chosen church as part of our two days of Christmas awareness need to embrace the HOPE that Jesus offers rather than the pessimistic realities of the world.
I think when we stop focusing in on God and Christ it is so easy to lose our hope. It’s so easy to extinguish the HOPE candle and when we are without hope we can easily get lost in the confusing world that surrounds us.
Love … and yes, I know I am not following the candles proper order but together we need to hear God … obey God and once we have hope we need to understand that God expects each of us to be the ones who deliver God’s message to the world. And, frankly this is the essential part of my message for this Christmas Eve … look around this sanctuary … different faces … different life histories … even different sports teams that we cheer for but there is One God … as Paul would write, ONE MEDIATOR and that is Jesus Christ. Since we are together in person or online for Christmas Eve services I have to assume that each of you here at St. Paul’s and those of you online have at least a modicum of connection to Jesus Christ and to God so as 2025 reaches its conclusion we are past due on fulfilling our responsibility when we receive the Christmas gift of Jesus.
It’s important to understand that yes, Jesus is a two-way street from God. For all the roads we’ve each followed … and for all that we have discovered or not found along life’s paths. For all of our dreams … God is asking us to take Jesus’ hand in partnership and to become the light of God in the world … not necessarily traveling to a far off land or even becoming a pastor or church leader but the LOVE CANDLE … the LOVE LESSON … the GOOD SAMARITAN’s clarity should be waking us up … to be the lights that share with the world God’s love and taking it beyond just saying MERRY CHRISTMAS to a store clerk during the month of December thinking that takes care of our role.
That’s a tough one … it means staying in touch with God and Christ throughout the year and not just when we sing shhhh SILENT NIGHT HOLY NIGHT because unless we show love … unless we unite to show the light of God through our love for all of our neighbors ALL will not be calm. And, we will basically be rejecting God and Christ.
So, remember … be a LOVE CHILD … haha those of you who lived through the Sixties and Seventies will have different image but this is the COMMAND of GOD the need for us to be the LIGHT IN THE WORLD … it means that we understand that God is right here with us … God will never leave us and all we are asked to do is BELIEVE but frankly believing means more than just saying you went to church on Christmas Eve or that you are a Christian or that you know the words to Christmas carols.
The next two candles fall right in line … if you truly LOVE ALL of your neighbors as Jesus loved THEN you will be a peace maker not an instigator nor a divider but a uniter and when we unite we find peace and through peace we can establish love and BINGO we have fulfilled God’s online requirement to love and by being peacemakers we are showing that we love GOD too …
Finally, and this church knows this from me … when you hold Jesus as an essential part of your life. When you focus in on being hopeful rather than pessimistic … when you love all of your neighbors discovering what incredible people God has provided you with in this life … when you have peace well you absolutely have no other choice than to filled with joy!! Perhaps you will start bursting out in singing the great carol of the season that this service ends with ‘JOY TO THE WORLD THE LORD HAS COME … LET EARTH RECEIVE HER KING” or you’ll change your favorite Bible verse to Paul’s admonition in Philippians and First Thessalonians … “Rejoice in the Lord ALWAYS, Again I say Rejoice!” JOY ALWAYS … that’s what makes our faith strong … that’s what can change your life around … giving you hope, offering you a connection with God’s love making you a person known for your love of all equally sharing that love with the diversity of humanity that God has given us loving inclusively like Jesus did … fulfilling that directive.
And, peace will come … joy will be there … so take the words of Christmas … sing them out loud! Realize that through God’s love everyone can be forgiven and given a new start beginning tonight … this CHRISTMAS EVE … the night that your world can begin again connected with the gift of Christmas … and you will have the opportunity to find better days! You and I can be God’s lights in this world of darkness. AMEN