The Humble King (Christmas Thanksgiving Service)

The infant Jesus laid aside the throne of heaven and was born in the lowliest of places, a stable and a manger. To rescue humanity, held in darkness by the sin of the first man, Adam, he had to come in a body without sin and overcome the power of death through his death on the cross and his resurrection.

Because he descended to the very lowest place, Jesus was able to embrace all humankind. Those who follow Jesus, who came as the light, have now become children of light, and each must set the light of life they have received upon a lampstand. Yet the light a person carries can shine only on what lies around them, so brothers and sisters in the faith need to gather together and keep one another’s lamps from going out. The strong crushing the weak by the logic of power was no different in the Rome of Jesus’ day than it is in the world today; but as in the dream of the great statue that Daniel made known, all those kingdoms will fall, and only the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, the living stone, will stand forever.

Christmas marks that forgiveness of sins and that life, but it must not end there. Having received that grace, God’s people are called to love their families and their fellow believers, and to grow into mature Christians who hold the light of life high in a world growing ever darker.