Broadway Christian Church ·Columbia, Missouri

Morning Worship ·December 24, 2004

Christmas Eve Worship

Call to Worship

Tonight old dreams die and new dreams come to life.  The promise is fulfilled!

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace.

Hope gives way to joy, and prayer to proclamation.

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace.

Our candles illuminate our story.  Dawn invades the night.  The light of the world has come.

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace.

And this light is a light for all; igniting a flame in the soul, warming us from within, radiating love, lighting our lives with the presence of God with us and among us now and always.

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace, goodwill to all!

Meditation
Rick Frost

I am so glad you could be here with us tonight.  I know some of you have traveled from far away.  Some maybe have come from just next-door, but you have made an effort to be here.  I know you have been busy getting ready for all kinds of things, finishing up the year, and all the things that need your attention. 

In all the rush, have you noticed how often you have had to wait?  You know… airport security check points.  You stand in line, and you wait.  You are going to a ball game or a concert, but you sit in your car and wait.  You dine out at the restaurant, and you put your name on a waiting list.  And this is the one we really love.  You are talking to a friend on the telephone, and you hear this little click, and she says, “Could you hold for just a minute?  I have another call coming through.”  Don’t you really love that?  For such busy, productive people, we spend a lot of time waiting. 

And, of course, as you know, God’s creatures, God’s family, God’s people have been waiting for tonight for a long, long time.  The purpose driven, the restless have been waiting – waiting for some one, some thing worth believing in.  Some one, some thing to give themselves to without reservation.  The lonely, the isolated, the rejected yearn for warmth, and love, and friendship.  The sick, the bereaved, the broken long for a healing, comforting, compassionate touch.  The physically, emotionally, spiritually hungry crave to be fed.  The war ravaged, the terrorized, wounded pray this night for peace.  The oppressed, captive, caught in a trap long to be free.  You get the idea.  Millions, billions, literally today, of God’s creatures, even though they may not understand what it is, are waiting.  They’re just waiting.

Perhaps you are one of those persons tonight.  Perhaps you came to church this night with some vague sense that something is right in the world.  Maybe there is a sense that there is something good, and right, and loving in you, a warm glow you don’t really know how to name or talk about, but which you would very much like to affirm, and celebrate, and move from out there on the edge of your life to possibly somewhere closer down deep inside.

And of course, as you know, tonight – the night of nights – the wait, the long, long wait for us is over.  “Tonight,” the Spirit says, the Bible says, the Church of two millennia says, “the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation to all.”

Tonight over a billion people somewhere on this globe will witness to the fact that on this night of nights, we meet the truth, we meet the way, we meet the life.  The truth for us has a face.  The way has a name.  The life has a voice that speaks. 

For thousands of years now, empires have been built and toppled.  They come.  They go.  The dominant impose their will and their ways with troops, with guns, with planes, with ships, with bombs, and with garments (the Scriptures said tonight) rolled in blood.

But tonight… tonight… the night of nights for us, the Creator of all that is has an announcement to make.  We have a Savior.  We have a Messiah.  Time’s up.  The Anointed One of God is here.  The old ways, the old kingdoms, the old empires are done.  As of tonight, the reign of peace is established.  “For unto us is born this day, in the city of David, a Savior who is Christ the Lord.”

Did you get that?  Did you hear that?  Power is about to be shifted from the rulers and the ways of this world to an eternal rule and a way founded by some rather amazing things.  Some of the songs you’ve heard tonight, about the wonderment of shepherds, about the cry of a baby.  These are all of the things that tonight is about.  How is that going to happen?  Very simply, really.  Very simply.  People all over this globe, one person at a time, sooner or later, is going to share, is going to receive, is going to welcome him.  The founder of a new kingdom, “on earth as it is in heaven.”  A new leader who will demand new followers.  Those new followers will become a new kind of citizen.  It will be a new world, and they will be living and willing to live new ways.

What are those new ways?  They are amazingly clear.  They are amazingly simple.  They are amazingly straightforward.  “Love your Creator.  Love your neighbor.  Love yourself.  And yes, love even, and most especially these days, your enemy.  Keep your word.  Be kind to the poor.  Pay your debts.  Tell the truth.  Honor your marriage vows.  And commit no acts of violence.”  That’s it.  Very simple.  I told you it was. 

This is the way, the only way that life gets changed.  It is the only way this world is going to be saved, transformed, salvaged.  This is the way to life now and to life eternal.  And it all starts tonight.  On this night of nights.  And you and I are invited.  You and I and the whole world are invited to receive in our heart of hearts the gift – the greatest gift in the world.  “For unto us is born this day…”

I visited with Neil Miller earlier this afternoon.  Many of you know that Neil was in a tragic, terrible, awful, serious automobile accident earlier in the week.  As he lay in that room, literally not able to move, I said to him, “Neil, you know this is probably going to be one of the most unusual Christmases of your life.”  And Neil, in his typical fashion had a few things to say about that.  I asked Neil when I was ready to leave, “Neil, I’m going to speak to the people who come to this worship service tonight, and I wonder if you might have a message for them?  If you were in my place, what would you say?”

With tears running down his cheek that he could not even move to wipe, he said, “Tell them it’s for real.  Tell them it’s for real.  That what they celebrate tonight is real.”

“For unto us is born this day, in the city of David, a Savior who is Christ the Lord.” 

In that spirit, folks, go from this place with a new commitment to live the new way, and to love and serve the Living God, and each other, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

And we all say together… “Amen.”

Charge for the Bearers of Light

Jesus said he was the light of the world.  Now he sends us out to be light to the world, sharing the gifts of God’s love to all people.  “Let your light so shine before all people that they may see your good works and glorify God in heaven.”