Joyful Christmas Witnesses

Saturday, December 31, 2022

Years ago, an acquaintance shared his frustration after attending a Christmas Eve service at a church his wife likes to occasionally attend. Expecting the “swaddling clothes” narrative of the birth of Christ from the apostle Luke (2:1-20), he complained of having to listen “about some Old Testament prophet.” That was likely Isaiah who is often quoted during Advent, the multi-week, pre-Christmas season of repentance and eager expectation of rejoicing in God becoming flesh to offer Himself as sacrifice to save the world from sin, death, and the devil. It also could have been, I suggested, that the pastor preached from that text because Isaiah had written his record of prophecy some seven hundred years before Christ was born in the flesh, yet Isaiah’s prophecy had come true. It also could have been possible that as pastors can and do recognize occasional worshippers, pastors see popular Christian worship services as opportunities to offer comforting evidence that God-becoming-Man is indeed a miracle worthy of notice and meditation, hopefully encouraging the attendees to see the reality of God in Christ and engage in personal self-examination.

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