Christmas Day
Scripture Reading for Today:
Isaiah 62:6-12
6 O Jerusalem, I have posted watchmen on your walls; they will pray day and night, continually. Take no rest, all you who pray to the Lord. 7 Give the Lord no rest until he completes his work, until he makes Jerusalem the pride of the earth. 8 The Lord has sworn to Jerusalem by his own strength: “I will never again hand you over to your enemies. Never again will foreign warriors come and take away your grain and new wine. 9 You raised the grain, and you will eat it, praising the Lord. Within the courtyards of the Temple, you yourselves will drink the wine you have pressed.” 10 Go out through the gates! Prepare the highway for my people to return! Smooth out the road; pull out the boulders; raise a flag for all the nations to see. 11 The Lord has sent this message to every land: “Tell the people of Israel, ‘Look, your Savior is coming. See, he brings his reward with him as he comes.’” 12 They will be called “The Holy People” and “The People Redeemed by the Lord.” And Jerusalem will be known as “The Desirable Place” and “The City No Longer Forsaken.”
Psalm 97
1 The Lord is king! Let the earth rejoice! Let the farthest coastlands be glad. 2 Dark clouds surround him. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. 3 Fire spreads ahead of him and burns up all his foes. 4 His lightning flashes out across the world. The earth sees and trembles. 5 The mountains melt like wax before the Lord, before the Lord of all the earth. 6 The heavens proclaim his righteousness; every nation sees his glory. 7 Those who worship idols are disgraced— all who brag about their worthless gods— for every god must bow to him. 8 Jerusalem has heard and rejoiced, and all the towns of Judah are glad because of your justice, O Lord! 9 For you, O Lord, are supreme over all the earth; you are exalted far above all gods. 10 You who love the Lord, hate evil! He protects the lives of his godly people and rescues them from the power of the wicked. 11 Light shines on the godly, and joy on those whose hearts are right. 12 May all who are godly rejoice in the Lord and praise his holy name!
Titus 3:4-7
4 But— When God our Savior revealed his kindness and love, 5 he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit. 6 He generously poured out the Spirit upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior. 7 Because of his grace he made us right in his sight and gave us confidence that we will inherit eternal life.
Luke 2:1-20
The Birth of Jesus2 At that time the Roman emperor, Augustus, decreed that a census should be taken throughout the Roman Empire. 2 (This was the first census taken when Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 All returned to their own ancestral towns to register for this census. 4 And because Joseph was a descendant of King David, he had to go to Bethlehem in Judea, David’s ancient home. He traveled there from the village of Nazareth in Galilee. 5 He took with him Mary, to whom he was engaged, who was now expecting a child. 6 And while they were there, the time came for her baby to be born. 7 She gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no lodging available for them.
The Shepherds and Angels8 That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep. 9 Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They were terrified, 10 but the angel reassured them. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. 11 The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David! 12 And you will recognize him by this sign: You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.” 13 Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others—the armies of heaven—praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.” 15 When the angels had returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, “Let’s go to Bethlehem! Let’s see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” 16 They hurried to the village and found Mary and Joseph. And there was the baby, lying in the manger. 17 After seeing him, the shepherds told everyone what had happened and what the angel had said to them about this child. 18 All who heard the shepherds’ story were astonished, 19 but Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often. 20 The shepherds went back to their flocks, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen. It was just as the angel had told them.
NLT
A Peculiar Kingdom Joy
by Elle Pyke
Elle Pyke is a dreamer, starter and a community builder who dreams of the church in Canada becoming a place where everyone can find belonging and flourishing. She's one of the founding members and Directors at New Leaf and has served as a Lay Minister and on numerous Boards in the charitable sector.
Elle is completing her MA in Theology and Culture at St. Stephens University in New Brunswick.
When she's not busy starting new things, she can be found planning a good party, playing on the shores of Lake Huron and passionately cheering for the Blue Jays! She lives with her beautiful family in the Waterloo Region in Ontario.
Joy to the world!
It might be a cold and broken hallelujah, but it's a hallelujah nonetheless.
We made it.
Christmas Day 2020.
Precious reader, we all know the kind of year it’s been and the weight it has given to this Advent season of yearning, waiting, hoping and longing. There are moments I still find myself shaking my head, reluctant and unable to fully grasp all that has transpired this year. On this Christmas morning, perhaps you find yourself in a similar place - I’m longing to rejoice and yet find myself holding back, ever so slightly, knowing the grief of our collective moment.
Writing this final Advent reader reflection has been so difficult; thinking about joy in these present circumstances has not come naturally to me. But the unease I feel in penning these words gives me pause that perhaps there are others that need these words as much as I do. Maybe celebrating Christmas and finding joy in the suffering today, is a more authentic way to celebrate the birth of Christ.
It is easy to announce “Joy to the word” when we find ourselves in times of celebration and anticipation of good things through the Christmas season. But the world Jesus was born into was not one void of suffering, it seems there was very little to celebrate. The people of Israel were under the oppressive boot of the Roman empire, living in an age of sadness, yearning, and darkness. And yet, the birth of Jesus, the light He brought to the world, was that much brighter because of the darkness that surrounded him.
Like some of you, I’ve had to push back against the theology of my childhood that told me I could “pray the bad day away” or that a Jesus follower is called to effortlessly float from victory to victory. Over the years, a new spiritual formation had to take place in my life where I allowed grief, suffering and lament to reside in my theology and in my heart.
Regardless of my growing ability to wrestle with the more difficult realities of life and weep with those who weep, while Jesus always calls me to set up a tent in grief, suffering and lament, He has never permitted me to build a home there. My grief, suffering and lament, while it produces good fruit for a season, turn into rot on the tree if I linger there too long without a counterbalance of the peculiar Kingdom joy that we find in Jesus. Our suffering saviour, a man of sorrows, well acquainted with grief, who also, for the joy set before him endured the cross. The kind of joy that we find in Jesus, this peculiar Kingdom joy, is not incompatible with sorrow; in fact, it is made all the more hearty, resilient and robust while in the midst of it.
I have spent a good number of days in 2020, including today, oscillating between joy and sorrow. Dancing between faith and doubt. Sliding between hope and despair. And what is the antidote that Christmas morning has to offer us?
I want to suggest that this morning Jesus is inviting us to remember.
Remember?
That may seem like a simplistic answer to the complicated times we live in, as lockdowns loom, ICUs fill, and the racialized realities in our world come to light, but remembering is no passive activity. Remembering is active, it’s participatory, and not mere sentimentality. When it feels like there is nothing you can do, as so many of us may feel today, the act of remembering is doing something. Actively remembering and bringing to mind the reality of God’s work in our lives in the past, sets us toward hope and awakens our hearts to the possibility of His work in our lives in the present. Remembering can evoke, sustain, strengthen or restore in us a resilient joy when we need it the most.
As God’s family, we come from a long tradition of a people being called into the act of remembering:
“I will call to mind the deeds of the Lord."
“Remember every road that God led you on.”
“Meditate on all His works.”
“Once again, I will remember what God has done.”
“I will muse on your mighty deeds.”
“Do this in remembrance of me.”
Mary, remembering the words that the angel gave to her, as she gave birth to the hope of the world.
Joseph, remembering the words the angel spoke to him, as he held the prince of peace in his arms.
The shepherds, finding the baby in a manger, remembering the words of the angel that said to them ‘Do not be afraid; for see — I am bringing you good news of great joy for all people.”
We’re in good and holy company this Christmas morning remembering the ways in which God has been gracious to us, how Jesus has been good to us, and how the Spirit has been present to us. Our sufferings can give birth to this peculiar Kingdom joy when we pause to remember the ways in which God has been faithful in the past and will indeed be faithful to us again.
Remembering the goodness of God today is an act of joyful resistance and resilience. As Karl Barth describes it, “joy is a continuous defiant ‘nevertheless.’ ” [1] And this moment, of all moments, we need a joyful nevertheless.
So, on this blessed 2020 Christmas morning, may we be a people who nevertheless, joyfully remember, entering into this peculiar Kingdom joy.
May we remember, nevertheless, that unto us, in the midst of all the injustice and suffering of the world, a baby is born and the government will rest on his shoulders.
May we remember, nevertheless, that His name is wonderful counsellor, mighty God, everlasting father, prince of peace. This one who calls us to a radically countercultural, subversive, upside-down way of peace and love.
May we remember, nevertheless, to celebrate the mysterious spiritual reality of the incarnation, not ashamed to be one of us, and the joy as we await His coming once again to make all things new, forever.
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