The Nativity of Our Lord - Christmas Eve Candlelight Service of Lessons & Carols

Opening Hymn

Choir Anthem

Christmas Eve Sermon

Lessons and Carols

Lesson one: The Genealogy-From Scandal to Savior
Throughout Advent, we have walked through the scandalous genealogy of Jesus Christ. Now hear how Matthew brings this family tree to its climax, naming all five women who prepared the way for the Messiah.

Matthew 1:1-6, 16

These five women-Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and Mary-remind us that Jese did not come from a perfect family. He came from our kind of family. Flawed. Broken. Scandalous. Real. And that is precisely why He can save us. As we sing, we celebrate that Christ comes from every skeleton in the closets to bring us to live.

Lesson two: The Virgin’s Yes-When God Broke His Pattern
Every woman we hav studied this Advent has a scandal in her story; Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Bathsheba. But Mary? Mary’s scandal was different. Her scandal was a miracle. Listen to how God broke His own pattern.

Luke 1:26-38

Mary said yes. Not knowing what it would cost her. Not understanding how it would work. Simply trusting that the God who works through broken people would work through her. And because she said yes. the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

Lesson three: The Birth-Heaven Invades Earth
The journey from genealogy to manger brings us to Bethlehem, the city of David, where the son of Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and Mary would be born in the humblest circumstances imaginable. Caesar though he ruled the world. But on this night, the true King entered as a refugee, born to a teenage mother in a stable because there was no room at the inn.

Luke 2:1-7

The King of Kings, whose genealogy includes prostitutes and foreigners and victims of abuse, is born among the cattle. From the beginning, Jesus identifies with the outcast, the overlooked, the ones with nowhere to go. He comes to margins because that is where we all are without him.

Lesson four: The Shepherds-Good News for the Despised
Who did God tell first? not the priests. not the scholars. Not the powerful. God sent His angels to shepherds-the lowest class of society, the ones who smelled like sheep and couldn’t come to the temple because their work kept them ceremonially unclean. Just like Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba before them, the shepherds were the unlikely messengers of grace.

Luke 2:8-14

The angels proclaim what this whole series has been teaching us. This savior is for all people. The prostitute. The foreigner. The victim. The shepherd. You. Me. All of use who need grace. As we sing we join the angel chorus in celebrating that Christ is born for the whole messy, broken, beautiful human family.

Less five: The Shepherds Return-Spreading the Scandal
The shepherds did what every person in this genealogy has done. The couldn’t keep quiet. When you encounter the grace of God, when you discover that Jesus comes from people like you and for people like you, you have too tell someone. Listen to what happened when the shepherds found the baby.

Luke 2:15-20

Mary treasured these things in her heart. She knew what we have learned this Advent-that God’s way of saving the world is scandalous, surprising, and absolutely trustworthy. He comes through the broken. He comes from the margins. He comes to us.

Luke writes that Mary “treasured up all these things in her heart.” Tonight, we treasure the truth that has carried us through Advent. Jesus comes from Tamar, from Rahab, from Ruth, from Bathsheba, from Mary. He comes from the scandalous to save the scandalous. He comes from skeletons raise the dead. He comes from the broken to heal the broken. God has kept his covenant with His people, and we are blessed by it. On the most holy night, we sing…

Closing Hymn