Christmas Day

WE PRAY

Almighty God, you created us in your image and even more wonderfully restored us through your Son, Jesus Christ. As he came to share our human life, help us to share in the life of his divinity. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

WE READ

Merry Christmas! Today is the culmination of our patient and expectant waiting! Today ’s verses reinforce our understanding of who Jesus is and what he’s come to do in and for creation. Psalm 85 bears witness to God’s covenant faithfulness and forgiveness. Through Jesus, our wrongdoings are forgiven, our sins are covered, and we are assured that God is not furious with us. In a rather picturesque word picture, the psalmist declares that “Faithful love and truth have met” and “righteousness and peace have kissed.” The prophet Micah paints another vivid picture, this time of the nations making their way to the Lord ’s house for teaching and instruction at the feet of the Master. Disputes will be settled, and implements of war will be transformed into tools that give life rather than take it. Peace will reign, not because the strong enforce it, but because the “least significant” allow themselves to be used by God. Power is made perfect in weakness.
The author of 1 John reminds us that all that we are able to do, especially love, comes from the one who is love, the Son who has now come into this world so that we can love and live through him. God’s love is the beginning, middle, and end of what it means for us to live in covenant faithfulness with God and with all of our neighbors. John ’s gospel caps things off with a singular verse proclaiming Jesus ’divine origin and Jesus ’absolute authority over all things seen and unseen.
It is through the lens of 1 John and the gospel of John that we must read the rest of the passages we have pondered this Advent. As we marvel at a royal baby born not in a palace but in a stable in Bethlehem, we are invited to rest in God ’s transforming presence in history and here and now. It is God ’s transforming presence that brings with it love, justice, humility, self-sacrifice, and peace. May we always live in faithful response to the transformative presence of Jesus Christ in the world and in us.

Psalm 85

1 Lord, you’ve been kind to your land;
you’ve changed Jacob ’s circumstances
for the better.
2 You’ve forgiven
your people ’s wrongdoing;
you’ve covered all their sins.
3 You’ve stopped being furious;
you’ve turned away
from your burning anger.
4 You, the God who can save us, restore us!
Stop being angry with us!
5 Will you be mad at us forever?
Will you prolong your anger
from one generation to the next?
6 Won’t you bring us back to life again
so that your people can rejoice in you?
7 Show us your faithful love, Lord!
Give us your salvation!
8 Let me hear what the Lord God says,
because he speaks peace to his people
and to his faithful ones.
Don’t let them return to foolish ways.
9 God ’s salvation is very close
to those who honor him
so that his glory can live in our land.
10 Faithful love and truth have met;
righteousness and peace have kissed.
11 Truth springs up from the ground;
righteousness gazes
down from heaven.
12 Yes, the Lord gives what is good,
and our land yields its produce.
13 Righteousness walks before God,
making a road for his steps.

Micah 4:1–5

But in the days to come,
the mountain of the Lord ’s house
will be the highest of the mountains;
it will be lifted above the hills;
peoples will stream to it.
2 Many nations will go and say:
“Come, let ’s go up
to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of Jacob ’s God,
so that he may teach us his ways
and we may walk in God ’s paths!”
Instruction will come from Zion
and the Lord ’s word
from Jerusalem.
3 God will judge between the nations
and settle disputes of mighty nations,
which are far away.
They will beat their swords
into iron plows
and their spears
into pruning tools.
Nation will not take up sword
against nation;
they will no longer learn
how to make war.
4 All will sit underneath
their own grapevines,
under their own fig trees.
There will be no one to terrify them;
for the mouth of the Lord of
heavenly forces has spoken.
5 Each of the peoples walks
in the name of their own god;
but as for us, we will walk
in the name of the Lord our God
forever and always.

Micah 5:2–4

2 As for you, Bethlehem of Ephrathah,
though you are the least significant
of Judah ’s forces,
one who is to be a ruler in Israel
on my behalf
will come out from you.
His origin is from remote times,
from ancient days.
3 Therefore, he will give them up
until the time when
she who is in labor gives birth.
The rest of his kin will return
to the people of Israel.
4 He will stand and shepherd his flock
in the strength of the Lord,
in the majesty of the name
of the Lord his God.
They will dwell secure,
because he will surely become great
throughout the earth;

1 John 4:7–16

7 Dear friends, let ’s love each other, because love is from God, and everyone who loves is born from God and knows God. 8 The person who doesn’t love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how the love of God is revealed to us: God has sent his only Son into the world so that we can live through him. 10 This is love: it is not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son as the sacrifice that deals with our sins.
11 Dear friends, if God loved us this way, we also ought to love each other. 12 No one has ever seen God. If we love each other, God remains in us and his love is made perfect in us. 13 This is how we know we remain in him and he remains in us, because he has given us a measure of his Spirit. 14 We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the savior of the world. 15 If any of us confess that Jesus is God ’s Son, God remains in us and we remain in God. 16 We have known and have believed the love that God has for us.
God is love, and those who remain in love remain in God and God remains in them.

John 3:31

The one who comes from above is above all things. The one who is from the earth belongs to the earth and speaks as one from the earth. The one who comes from heaven is above all things.

WE THINK

• What stands out to you from today’s reading?
• Are you confused or stumped by what you’ve read?
• Is there anything you encountered that makes you think, “I don’t know about that…”?
• What resonated with you as particularly meaningful?
• How do today’s readings reshape your understanding of what power and greatness look like in God ’s kingdom?
• What does it mean for Jesus to “come from above” and still live among us in humility and love?

WE FEEL

• In general, what emotions seem to be dominant at this moment?
• How have those emotions affected the relationships you have with those around you?
• What are you doing, or have you done, to submit those emotions to the Lordship of Jesus Christ?
• Where have you seen God at work this week?
• Where in your life do you most need to experience the kind of peace and restoration described in Psalm 85 and Micah?
• What emotions does the idea that “God is love” stir in you today, especially in the context of the birth of Christ?

WE BELIEVE

God is love. If we take nothing else from our journey this Advent, let that be it. We believe that God is love. We believe that God calls us to remain in God ’s love through living our lives, not solely for our own sake, but in love for the sake of those around us, friend and enemy alike.
We believe that God ’s love is what heals the world. It is what compels people to lay down their weapons, turning from destruction to life-giving creation. It’s what draws us to God so that we might learn God’s ways and walk in the paths of righteousness. And, as we said just a few days ago, it is God ’s love that moved God to take up residence among us in the form of a little baby boy born in Bethlehem. Truly, God is with us! Let us proclaim with our entire beings, Joy to the World!

WE PRACTICE

Choose one of the following practices to do today:

Extend Love in Action

Write a note of encouragement or reconciliation to someone who has been on your heart, reflecting the self-giving love of God made visible in Jesus.

Quiet Worship

Find a quiet moment today to reflect with gratitude on the birth of Christ. Light a candle and pray Psalm 85:10-11, slowly, allowing the words to sink in: “Faithful love and truth have met; righteousness and peace have kissed.”

PRAYER

Oh God, thank you for always loving us. Thank you for loving us in our sinfulness. Thank you for becoming one of us so that we might clearly see what your love means for us and for those around us. Help us to love our neighbors in the same way you have loved us. Amen.