December 24, Christmas Eve Service

Lessons: Psalm 98; Isaiah 52:7-10; Hebrews 1:1-12; John 1:1-14

Sermon Title: Glory, Glory

The One who comes reveals grace and truth. Is he your light in your darkness?

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 Turn It Over[1]

A parts manager for a small electronics shop, had occasion to order part No. 669 from the factory. But when he received it he noticed that someone had sent part No. 699 instead.

Furious at the factory’s incompetence, he promptly sent the part back along with a letter giving them a piece of his mind.

Less than a week later, he received the same part back with a letter containing just four words: “TURN THE PART OVER.”

 A.                  If we turn Christmas over what do we find

 B.                 Looking at it from all sides.

 C.                 We see the glory of the Lord.

 I.                     Glory, Glory, Hallelujah, Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.

 A.                 The line is from the Battle Hymn of the Republic.

Samuel and Julia became a part of the US Sanitary Commission that tried to assure sanitary conditions in the Prisoner of War Camps during the Civil War. Though their efforts saved lives near the end of the war, many men died from infection early on.

In 1862, President Lincoln invited Samuel and Julia to Washington as a result of their voluntary work with the Sanitation Commission. While there, the Howes visited a Union Army Camp in Virginia. Here they heard the men singing a song about John Brown. Freeman Clarke, a clergyman who had read Julia’s published poems encouraged her to write a new song for the war effort. It would replace “John Brown’s Body.”

According to Julia’s own account, she awoke the next morning at dawn with the lines of a new song echoing in her head.

“I awoke in the gray of the morning, and as I lay waiting for dawn, the long lines of the desired poem began to entwine themselves in my mind, and I said to myself, “I must get up and write these verses, lest I fall asleep and forget them!” So I sprang out of bed and in the dimness found an old stump of a pen, which I remembered using the day before. I scrawled the verses almost without looking at the paper.”

In February 1862, a poem titled, ‘The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” was published in the Atlantic Monthly. The poem was put to the music of “John Brown’s Body.” It became the North’s best known Civil War Song.

 B.                 The fourth verse speaks of the glory of God.

In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me:
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men
            free;
While God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! While God is marching on.

 C.                 Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.

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 II.                What do the lessons say.

 A.                  What does the Psalmist say in Psalm 96:1-3 (NRSVA)?

¹  O sing to the LORD a new song;
        sing to the LORD, all the earth.
²  Sing to the LORD, bless his name;
        tell of his salvation from day to day.
³  Declare his glory among the nations,
        his marvelous works among all the peoples.

1.     Declare his glory among the nations.

2.     Declare his light and truth among the peoples.

 B.                 What does Isaiah say in Isaiah 9:2 (NRSVA)

²  The people who walked in darkness
        have seen a great light;
those who lived in a land of deep darkness—
        on them light has shined.

1.     The people who live in a land of deep darkness on them the light has shined.

2.     Darkness is ignorance.

3.     Light is knowledge and truth.

 C.                 What does Luke write about in Luke 1.8-14

⁸In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. ⁹Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: ¹¹to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. ¹²This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” ¹³And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,

¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
                       and on earth peace among those
                               whom he favors!”

1.                      The glory of God shines forth in the angel’s visitation

2.                      We hear it again in the song that they sing.

 D.               What does Paul say in Titus 2:11-13 (NRSVA)?

¹¹For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all, ¹²training us to renounce impiety and worldly passions, and in the present age to live lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly, ¹³while we wait for the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

1.                      The light of the glory of the Messiah is revealed in the manger in Bethlehem

2.                      It shines even unto the end of the world as we wait for the glory of the blessed apperance of the risen Christ.

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 III.            Have we seen the glory of the Lord?

 A.                  We see through the eyes of another, but we see.

 B.                 C. S. Lewis, wrote:

"The man who is contented to be only himself, and therefore less a self, is in prison. My own eyes are not enough for me, I will see through those of others. Reality, even seen through the eyes of many, is not enough. I will see what others have invented .... in reading great literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself. Like the night sky in the Greek poem, I see with a myriad eyes, but it is still I who see. Here, as in worship, in love, in moral action, and in knowing, I transcend myself; and am never more myself than when I do."

 C.                The testimony of the Bible writers is true and trustworthy.

 D.                It would not be there for us otherwise.

Amen!