Christmas Eve Worship 2023

We're glad that you all are here to celebrate Christmas Eve with us.

As we get started, we are grateful for those of you who are visitors with us.

We'd love to get a record of your time with us.

You can do that the analog way with the visitor card on the seat back in front of you.

So do it the digital way.

If you look on the very back of your worship guide, you'll see our church website.

And if you go there, there's a banner at the top of every single page

with a link to our digital visitor card.

And that just helps us to connect with you and to connect with our community.

You'll also see on pages 9 and 10 what's happening in the life of our church.

And I do want to highlight on page 9,

the Ladies Come and Go Fellowship is not resuming on Friday, January the 5th.

So if you go on Friday, January the 5th,

you may be able to do a good ring doorbell recording.

With that, Paul and Molly Bishop are going to lead us

in the lighting of the Advent candle.

Thank you.

John 1, 10-14.

John 1, 10-14.

He was in the world, and the world was made through him,

yet the world did not know him.

He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name,

he gave the right to become children of God,

who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh,

nor of the will of man, but of God.

And the word became flesh and dwelt among us,

and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son,

from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Thank you.

To stand and to join me for our call to worship.

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.

Those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness,

on them has light shone.

You have multiplied the nation.

You have increased its joy.

They rejoice before you, as the joy at the harvest,

that they are glad when they cry before you.

For to us a child is born,

to us a son is given,

and the government shall be upon his shoulder,

and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor,

Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Luke 1, 26-38

In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God

to a city of Galilee named Nazareth,

to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph,

of the house of David.

And the virgin's name was Mary.

And he came to her, and he said,

Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you.

But she was greatly troubled,

and was saying, and trying to discern

what sort of greeting this might be.

And the angel said to her,

Do not be afraid, Mary,

for you have found favor with God.

And behold, you will conceive in your womb,

and bear a son,

and you shall call his name Jesus.

And he will be great,

and he will be called the Son of the Most High.

And the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David,

and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever,

and of his kingdom there will be no end.

And Mary said to the angel,

How will this be, since I am a virgin?

And the angel answered her,

The Holy Spirit will come upon you,

and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.

Therefore, the child to be born will be called Holy,

the Son of God.

And behold, your relative Elizabeth,

in her old age,

has also conceived a son.

And this is the sixth month with her,

who is called barren.

For nothing will be impossible with God.

And Mary said,

Behold, I am the servant of the Lord.

Let it be to me according to your word.

And the angel departed from her.

You may be seated.

Now, the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way.

When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph,

before they came together,

she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.

And her husband Joseph, being a just man,

and unwilling to put her to shame,

resolved to divorce her quietly.

But as he considered these things,

behold,

an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream,

saying,

Joseph,

son of David,

do not fear to take Mary as your wife.

For that which is conceived in her

is from the Holy Spirit.

She will bear a son,

and you shall call his name Jesus.

For he will save his people from their sins.

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet.

Behold,

the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,

and they shall call his name Emmanuel,

which means God with us.

When Joseph woke from sleep,

he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him.

He took his wife,

but knew her not,

until she had given birth to a son,

and he called his name Jesus.

Jesus.

Luke 2,

1 through 7.

In those days,

a decree went out from Caesar Augustus

that all the world should be registered.

This was the first registration

when Quirinius was governor of Syria.

And all went to be registered,

each to his own town.

And Joseph also went up from Galilee,

from the town of Nazareth,

to Judea,

to the city of David,

which is called Bethlehem,

because he was of the house and lineage of David,

to be registered with Mary,

his betrothed,

who was with child.

And while they were there,

the time came for her to give birth.

And she gave birth to her firstborn son,

and wrapped him in swaddling cloths,

and laid him in a manger,

because there was no place for them in the inn.

And in the same region,

there were shepherds out in the field,

keeping watch over their flock by night.

And an angel of the Lord appeared to them,

and the glory of the Lord shone around them.

And they were filled with great fear.

And the angel said to them,

Fear not,

for behold,

I bring you good news of great joy,

that you will be for all the people.

For you unto is a born,

this day,

in the city of David,

a savior,

wrapped in swaddling clothes,

cloths,

and lying in a manger.

And suddenly there was,

with an angel,

a multitude of heavenly hosts,

praising God and saying,

Glory to God in the highest,

and on earth peace among those

with whom he is pleased.

When the angels went away from them into heaven,

the shepherds said one to another,

Let us go to Bethlehem

and see this thing that has happened,

which the Lord has made known to us.

And they went with haste

and found Mary and Joseph

and the baby lying in a manger.

And when they saw it,

they made known the saying

that had been told to them

concerning this child.

And all who heard it wondered

at what the shepherds told them.

But Mary treasured up all these things

and pondered them in her heart.

And the shepherds returned,

glorifying and praising God

for all they had heard and seen

as it had been told to them.

Friday, that's the biggest shopping day,

but Christmas Eve.

And I certainly hope that's not true of you.

But we give gifts to one another

at Christmas.

And we do that as just a small token

of the greatest gift

that we've received from Christ,

a gift of our salvation.

And tonight we have another opportunity

to show Christ's love,

which is to take an offering

that goes to our Deacons Mercy Fund.

And this is a fund

that the deacons of our church

use to support those who are in need

in very tangible ways,

whether it's paying a utility bill

or helping out someone with rent.

And so we're going to celebrate that now

as a chance to bless others

as God has blessed us.

Good evening.

My name is Matthew Capone

and I'm the pastor

here at Shine Mountain Presbyterian Church.

And we're just delighted

that you've joined us

this evening for your Christmas Eve.

I always forget to mention something

at the beginning

and I forgot to mention, of course,

that on our last hymn,

we have our candles.

And the way to light these

is just to turn them clockwise.

Don't do it now.

I'm just doing that

for demonstration purposes, okay?

So we'll turn out the big lights

and we'll have little lights together.

And we'll talk about that in a minute.

The year that I turned,

nine years old,

I started violin lessons

and I was given this practice book

to make a way of checking off

if I practiced every single day of the week.

And on the front of the book,

there was this little illustration

of this pig sitting in front of a plate

and he had a knife and a fork.

And it said,

only practice on the days you eat.

Then I became a teacher

and I gave my students

sort of a similar sheet for their homework.

And at the top,

it had this Latin phrase

that meant repetition is the mother of memory.

And the point is practice is ongoing, right?

It's something that has to be done

every week and every day.

We have sung songs tonight

that we sang last year.

We read all of the same readings

that we read last year on Christmas Eve.

And no one,

at least I hope none of you would say,

well, I don't understand

why we're singing Silent Night.

We sang that in 2022.

We've been there.

We've done that.

And repetition is the mother of memory.

It's not just the mother of memory

for students who need to learn their homework.

Repetition is what we do as Christians.

Memory is what we do as Christians.

We're a religion of remembering.

In the Old Testament,

God tells his people over and over and over,

remember what I did for you.

Remember I brought you out of slavery in Egypt.

That's how the Ten Commandments start.

I'm the Lord your God

who brought you out of the land of Egypt,

out of the house of slavery.

And the New Testament is a book of remembering,

telling us over and over,

remember Christ's death and his resurrection.

Remember what God's done for you in the past.

Remember what that means for you now.

So why do we have Christmas every December?

I mean, we could treat it like a leap year, you know?

We could have it just every few years.

And the reason is that same simple reason.

We are doing it to remember.

Remember, we come back year after year

to remind ourselves of the story.

And what is it that we're remembering?

Well, we're remembering a lot of things.

One of them is what Paul and Molly read for us

at the very beginning from John chapter one.

There is real darkness in the world.

And there is also real light.

It's the same thing we saw in our call to worship

in Isaiah chapter nine.

The people who walked in darkness

have seen a great light.

It's what we sang in,

Lo, how a rose, ear blooming.

It came, a flower it.

By the way, a flower it is a tiny flower, okay?

It came, a flower it bright, amid the cold of winter.

And that's why at the very end of this service,

in just a couple minutes,

we're gonna turn off the big lights

and we're gonna use our little lights

as another reminder that Christ is coming.

He has come as the light in the darkness.

He's the light of hope,

whether it's strained or broken relationships.

He's the light of hope for our anger

and our misunderstandings.

He's the light of hope for addiction

and war and famine and terrorism.

We are screwing on these lights

to turn them on as a small sign,

a small reminder

that the people who walked in darkness

have seen a great light.

Now our remembering,

it's not just darkness out there in the world.

Part of the remembering we do as Christians

is that there's real darkness in us as well.

The light of hope

is not simply for the world

outside the walls of the church.

The light of hope is also for the people

who are inside the walls of the church.

It's the light of hope for our own battles

against our own pride

and fear

and selfishness

and lies

and wounds

and pain

and abuse.

Jesus is

the light

of the world.

If you were here this morning,

we talked about Mary's song

from Luke chapter 1

Luke 1 · chapter mention

and Mary tells us,

verse 50,

His mercy

is for those

who fear Him.

So this is not just some vague

feel-good light

about there being goodness

in the world.

No, this is a very specific,

direct hope

for a specific people.

the people who have faith

and trust in Jesus Christ,

the people who embrace Him

as the light of the world

and know that outside of Him

they have no hope.

Those are the people

who experience

the light.

Those are the people

who no longer

have to walk

in darkness.

It's those who confess

that they need the light

and that they cannot produce it

on their own.

In 2008,

Time magazine

had an interview

with then-presidential hopeful

John McCain

and they asked him

about his faith.

And he told them a story

about his time

as a prisoner

in a POW camp

during Vietnam.

There were times

at night

where they would tie him up

with ropes

into these very cruel positions

so that he'd be filled

with pain.

And he had a guard

at one point

who was the night guard

and this guard came along

one evening

and loosened his ropes

so that he could have

some relief.

And then later

as his watch ended

he came back

and tightened the ropes again

so that no one

would know

the mercy

that he had shown

Senator McCain.

McCain then goes on

to say a month or so later

it was Christmas Day.

He said,

I was standing

in the dirt courtyard

when I saw

that same guard

approach me.

He walked up

and stood silently

next to me

not looking

or smiling at me.

Then he used

his sandaled foot

to draw a cross

in the dirt.

We stood wordlessly

looking at the cross

remembering

the true light

of Christmas

even in the darkness

of a Vietnamese prison camp.

Brothers and sisters,

we are not

in a prison camp.

we do live

in a dark world.

And we come together

to sing

and to read

to remember

the light

that's true.

The true light

of Christmas

that shines

no matter how dark

things are

outside.

Let's pray.

Our Father in Heaven,

we thank you

and we praise you

for the light

that you have

brought into the world.

We thank you

that you give us

not an abstract

pie-in-the-sky hope

but you give us

a real flesh-and-blood hope

that you sent

your Son

and our Savior,

our Lord Jesus,

who lived the life

that we should have lived

and died the death

that we should have died.

That he obeyed

on our behalf

and he was punished

on our behalf

so that we could

walk in the light.

We ask all these things

in the mighty name

of Jesus Christ.

Amen.

You all have a very

Merry Christmas.