Christmas Festival Eucharist
Christmas Day at 10.30am come together with friends and family for Mass to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.
Overview
Christmas is finally here and both of our readings give us a vision of Emmanuel, God with us, the arrival of God on earth. In Isaiah 52:7-10, this arrival is obvious, it is “in plain sight”; it is welcomed as the people “break forth into singing”; and it immediately impacts everyone and everything: Jerusalem is redeemed, the people are comforted, all nations see their salvation. The people have waited in darkness and finally God has arrived and brought about peace and goodwill on earth. But in our gospel reading,
John 1:1-14, God’s arrival is very different. It is not in plain sight but unrecognized and unseen: “the world did not know him … his own people did not accept him”. John’s gospel does not offer us an perfect ending, it offers instead a beginning, echoing the opening lines of Genesis and the start of all life. In this new story of creation, we do not sit and wait for God to bring salvation, we become the vehicles of that salvation. John does not tell us about the birth of Jesus, he tells us about the possibility of our own rebirth: we are the ones who are invited to be born again “not of the will of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God”. We are the ones who are called to live out God’s promise of redemption, salvation and freedom not just in God’s time but in our time.
FIRST READING
Isaiah, 52:7-10
How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of the messenger who announces peace,
who brings good news,
who announces salvation,
who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns.’
Listen! Your sentinels lift up their voices,
together they sing for joy;
for in plain sight they see
the return of the Lord to Zion.
Break forth together into singing,
you ruins of Jerusalem;
for the Lord has comforted his people,
he has redeemed Jerusalem.
The Lord has bared his holy arm
before the eyes of all the nations;
and all the ends of the earth shall see
the salvation of our God.
GOSPEL
John 1:1-14
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.
And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.
This year we are supporting Ace of Clubs, The Children’s Society, Tearfund and Holy Spirit Clapham
