Extended Introductions for a Service of Scripture Readings at Christmas-tide
By Joel D. Biermann
December 18, 2016
These introductions are intended as reflections to enhance one’s hearing of the Nativity story of salvation. The introductions followed by the corresponding reading from Scripture could serve quite well in lieu of a sermon at one of the many worship opportunities during a congregation’s celebration of Christmas (midnight worship, Christmas morning, Sunday after Christmas).They provide a clear proclamation of God’s unfolding plan of salvation. Obviously, a variety of hymns, carols or special music can be interspersed as appropriate and as time allows.
Genesis 3:1-19
In the beginning, God created a beautiful, perfect world. All the creatures in that world lived in harmony—each doing exactly what God had designed it to do—and each serving the rest of creation and so honoring the Creator. It was a good world; indeed, it was a very good world. It was God’s good plan that was being accomplished. And even when the man and the woman foolishly and wickedly defied God’s will, rejected God’s plan, and intentionally rebelled against his lordship; God’s plan continued to unfold: God promised that rebellion, curse, and death were not the destiny of God’s good creation. It would not end in disaster and despair. Here in the tragic story of the fall into sin, we have the proto-evangel—the first gospel, the first promise: Eve’s own offspring would crush Satan, conquer evil, and restore the creation to God’s plan. Sorrow and shame, then, were only for a while, suffering would be overcome, sin would be defeated. With eager anticipation, the man and the woman and with them, all of their descendents down through time began watching and waiting, confident of God’s promise, longing for the curses of their own sin to be swallowed finally in God’s great blessing.
Genesis 17:1-8, 15-19
Adam and Eve were driven from the garden clinging to the promise and longing to see it fulfilled. But generations came and went…and came and went…and time passed into long centuries…and still the creation was waiting for the brokenness to be healed, for the curses to be overcome. And, then, God acted again. The plan was still in motion. Abram was singled-out—called out of an idol-infested world of lies and confusion and called into a special relationship with God. God’s promise would be fulfilled, and it would happen through Abram and Sarai, his wife. The promise would be kept alive and continue through a child—a miracle baby, an infant born to a couple better qualified for the role of great-great-grandparents. But, this child was not the Savior who would restore the Creation…not yet. The child was Isaac—named for Abraham’s joyful (maybe even giddy) laughter. Through Isaac, the plan would continue to unfold—a nation would be born, a nation that would in turn give birth, in the fullness of time, to the longed-for redemption. For now, though, Abram—Abraham, the faithful one, could only wait and hope and trust that the promise would be kept…in a child, in Isaac, and in Isaac’s greater heir!
Isaiah 9:1-7
From the most inconspicuous beginning, from the miracle baby, Isaac, God had grown his nation. But, the nation—God’s chosen people—had a hard time remembering the promise. They too easily became distracted by the business of life and the pursuit of their own goals and plans. So, from time to time, God would step in and remind his people of the promise, and the plan, and call them back again to their purpose—to be God’s witnesses of the Truth. God was still unfolding his plan through his mouthpieces, the prophets. The prophets spoke with God’s authority. The prophets spoke God’s words. Sometimes with fiery words of condemnation and stern rebuke, God would unleash his words to an unfaithful and idolatrous nation. Sometimes, with tender consolation and inspiring words of encouragement, God would lift his broken people out of their fear and despair and restore them to their right place. God used his prophet, Isaiah, to do this work in an exceptional way. Isaiah delivered remarkable promises—promises of the Messiah who would come, and restore all things. By Isaiah, God’s people were taught that the long-promised Messiah would be and do far more than even their most daring believers had ever hoped to dream was possible.
Isaiah 11:1-10
Isaiah saw what God was going to do. Though it was still hundreds of years away, God gave the prophet a glimpse of what was going to come. Just as it had been promised, a child was to be born…a son from David’s line…a shoot springing up from Jesse’s stem. The Messiah would come, anointed—saturated!—with the power of the Holy Spirit, filled with righteousness, executing justice. He was a Messiah that would fix what was broken and deliver grace. But then, Isaiah sees even further ahead…all the way to the end…all the way to the fulfillment of time; and what he sees there makes his readers gasp in surprise and wonder: infants (again)…this time playing with deadly snakes; and little children, toddlers, leading lions on a leash; and wolves and leopards and bears living peacefully with livestock. Isaiah sees ahead to the fulfillment of the original promise—the complete restoration of the whole creation—all things put back to their right places, and all people, all nations, gathered under his reign. This is the work of the Messiah. This is the promise that claims and guides the people of God.
Luke 1:26-38
God’s people had been waiting for thousands of years. The promise had been given and then renewed and refined and reaffirmed again and again, but when the time for the fulfillment finally came, only one of God’s waiting people was told. Only Mary was given the news. What news it was. At last, it was time. It was time for the yearning and hoping and watching to be answered. It was time for God’s Savior to come. It was time to turn back sin and sorrow and suffering. It was time for the eternal reign of David’s Son and David’s Lord to begin. And so it did. The eternal kingdom came. The king’s rule began. It began with yet another miracle, and yet another child. Using natural and ordinary processes, God’s plan unfolded in the most extraordinary way. And according to God’s plan…exactly as it had always been planned…the reign of the Messiah began. The Son of God, the Lord of the nations was enthroned by the power of God…he was enthroned in the womb of the Virgin Mary. A promise kept—the Savior had come; a promise renewed—all of creation would be restored.
Luke 2:1-7
It required a time of waiting—a few anxious months for expectant Mary and her faithful betrothed Joseph, but a few millennia for the creation longing for restoration and the fulfillment of God’s plan; but at last the time came. The promise was kept. The Messiah, the Redeemer came. But, as so often with God’s great plan, the fulfillment wasn’t quite what was expected; and forced together things both utterly ordinary, and altogether remarkable. A Roman census compelled the young couple to travel a week south to their ancestral city of David. And there, at last, the baby was born. But there was no fanfare. By appearances, it was just another child born into poverty—relegated even to an outbuilding for animals, and given a manger for a bed. Nothing grand or glorious, here. Yet, in this place, in this child, the most breathtaking reality had come to pass: God had become flesh.
Luke 2:8-16
All is quiet in the stable, but the fanfare does finally come…to shepherds on the outskirts. Heaven cannot keep quiet, and the birth is heralded by ranks of angels and praises that spill out from heaven and over the Judean countryside. Something remarkable is unfolding—something to make all of creation stop and notice. To fulfill his promise, to restore his wonderful creation, the Creator had joined his creation. God was now a man. This was no philosophical concept or religious dream or fancy. It was concrete reality: God joined became an actual baby, in an actual place, at a specified time in history. God himself had invaded his fallen, broken, creation so that he might recapture it from the enemy and rescue it from futility. The story is common—you could likely tell it yourself verbatim, yet it is no less wondrous for its familiarity. It is the story of God’s coming to his people. It is the story of God transforming the world. It is the story of God keeping his promise, God fulfilling his plan for you.