Merry Christmas! Our December 25 Christmas Day worship service is available on video through Facebook. You may view it without being a member of Facebook. All scheduled worship services from Thanksgiving through the end of the year will be online only with minimal in-person participation to reduce COVID risks.
The December 27 Sunday worship service will be held without in-person attendance because of the rise in COVID cases in our state. It is scheduled to be streamed live on the DeSoto Redeemer Facebook page. We will post a direct link to the recording here as soon as it is possible after the service.
We are glad to share our worship with you. Click on “Contact Us” above to find out more about our faith family and what we believe.
Christmas Day Sermon
Isaiah 52:7-10 | Psalm 98
Hebrews 1:1-4 [5-12] | John 1:1-14
“Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds.” That’s what the author of Hebrews tells us, and echoes the words of St. John this morning as well. What they are trying to describe to us is the Mystery of the Incarnation. Notice, it is called the Mystery of the Incarnation. It is a mystery.
For millennia now, the Church has tried to describe the mystery. We find it in all of the Creeds. Christ is conceived of the Holy Spirit overshadowing Mary. How? Ah, that’s the mystery. God, who created everything, has now performed another act of creation. And all of the lessons for Christmas Day deal indeed with creation, Creator, and a new creation – Christ. Does our Savior come to us first in all of his heavenly glory? No. He comes in a quieter, gentler but even more amazing fashion. In many and various ways we would say as nothing out of the ordinary. But it is quite extraordinary. He comes to us first as a human baby, helpless. He comes to live a full human life. The Author of Creation comes to us as part of the creation; he comes as one of us. How does this take place? In the normal fashion, but also it is still very much a mystery. He, through whom creation comes, comes in the form of a creature. Do not try to figure it out. It’s a mystery.
Why does he come? That could also be considered a mystery. He comes in the form of a babe also with a mission. He comes to redeem humanity, and the very world itself, from the darkness into which we have fallen. The mystery of salvation is that God works our salvation through His Son, whose birth we celebrate this day. Through the life whose birth we celebrate, we are given new life in faith. He, who began Creation with the words, “Let there be light,” commences our salvation by entering into the darkness into which we have fallen through the light of new life, a newborn babe. Darkness cannot bear light. Light shatters it. Just as Christ crushes our darkness, and that of the world, through his own light; sin, death and evil are destroyed as they will try to extinguish his light. They cannot hold him. He breaks through their power, and so reclaims us as his. As a matter of fact, we are made new creations through his creative power. We are given, and share in his light, our darkness is broken and taken from us through his grace, and our faith in him.
As we celebrate Christ’s birth this day, we need to remember that he continues to come to us daily. His life and light are always breaking into our world to dispel the darkness into which we find ourselves. It is worthy that we should remember that today. Not just because it is Christmas Day, and we celebrate the birth of Jesus. But also because it is a day which reminds us also of the first day of Creation, when God said, “Let there be light,” and that Christ is the life, “and the life was the light of all people.” God in Christ becomes manifest, Incarnate Word, and so God’s new creation, bringing God’s New Covenant. And, really every day is a day in which he rises as the first fruits of the new Creation. Every day, in a sense, is a Christmas, and an Easter, the day on which he utterly destroyed the powers of darkness; sin, death and the devil. Today is the day upon which our faith is vindicated. Our salvation is begun. God’s plan has commenced. He comes to us still, anew, every day.
He comes to us now in his Holy Supper. How? In the words of Luther, “It is a mystery.” But Luther said Christ is present in the Supper because he promises to be. And it is on the promises of Christ, born this day, that our faith and hope have and always will rest. For Christ, the Author of Creation, is also the guarantor of our redemption. To Him be all glory, laud and honor, this day and always, Amen.
Pastor Rose