Signs and Glory

• Symbols: candles, nativity, etc.
• Rejoicing in the arrival, recognizing the arrival as a sign

Christmas Eve has arrived! The Advent wreath is ready; the candles are waiting to be lit; the familiar carols are ready to be sung. This is a worship service (or services) to relish in the traditions of this day. This is the time to bring in the familiar rituals, stories, and songs that have shaped your community’s worship for years upon years, as you welcome the Christ child. And, at the same time, every year, we tell the story a bit differently. We come to worship at the foot of the manger carrying a little more sorrow, happiness, anxiety, or contentment than we did the year before. We come to the same story year after year to encounter it anew because of how we have changed as individuals and communities.

This year, we have extended the “signs and…” theme into Christmas Eve and Christmastide. If Advent is about the “already and not yet” of God’s kingdom, then even in the celebration of the birth of the Christ child, we are looking for signs. We pay attention to how God showed up then so we can recognize how God shows up among us now. On Christmas Eve, one of those signs is glory—the glory of the Christ child in the manger, the glory of angels appearing to shepherds, the glory of God making a home among us in a smelly, scratchy stable. So, bring the Nativity to the altar. Fill the space with candles. Sing the glorious hymns. Rejoice in the answer to our longing and waiting!

Help your congregation notice where the glory resides in the story so they can learn to pay attention for God’s glory to show up in the same places today. Perhaps you sing a hymn like “Star-Child” (The Faith We Sing 2095) or “Like a Child” (The Faith We Sing 2092). Perhaps you share in a prayer of confession or lament for all the ways humans harm the home God creates for us. Perhaps you gather the children up front and let them help the congregation think of the least likely places God might show up so that we can all pay attention and be ready when God does, indeed, give us glimpses of glory in unlikely places. Find the ways for Christmas Eve to not be the end but the next chapter of watching for signs and following where God leads with faithfulness and hope, for the journey is only beginning.