Pastor's Message

O Come, let us adore him, Christ, the Lord.

I love worshiping at our Christmas Eve Candlelight Service. On that evening we begin by standing and singing the great hymn, O Come All Ye Faithful. That hymn, that procession of choir, cross, book, people and clergy is an invitation to worship our God – the one thing in our lives worthy of our time, our praise, our service, our love, our trust, our devotion. The event of God’s incarnation – that our God, for our sake and for our salvation becomes a human being, suffers, dies, rises and ascends – is truly cause for joy, thanksgiving, praise and worship.

God’s messengers, the angels, tell the shepherds in the field what God is doing in the little town of Bethlehem, and those shepherds go and worship. The heavens explode in a sustained burning light that tells the eastern sages that God’s salvation is coming near. The wise men come and worship. As God’s people, we too hear the good news story of God’s love and salvation. How can we respond in any other way: O Come, let us adore him, the Christ, our Lord.

God has created us to live in communion with God and in community with one another. God, in Jesus Christ, has restored our communion with God and reconciled us to our neighbor. God, the Holy Spirit, has gathered us into a community of saints where sins are forgiven, resurrection is anticipated and life in the world to come is our hope and inspiration to live lives of love and service. We witness to this good news most strongly when we gather as a community in worship – on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and on every Sunday throughout the year. When the sun rises, early on the first day of the week, how can we as God people respond? O Come, let us adore him, the Christ, our Lord.

When the procession cues us up and the organ begins to play O Come All Ye Faithful, I hope you will be part of our worshiping community of saints that evening. More than that, I pray that each of us at Holy Trinity will be so captured by the greatest of the good news of God’s love in Jesus that we are inspired to make the worship of God as a community of saints the first priority in our life. Who or what else is as worthy of our praise and devotion? Who or what else has loved, blessed and saved us so wonderfully? Who or what else can we do but take time to come and adore the Christ, our Lord. See you in worship.