Christmas Day Principal Service of Worship Reflections

As we gather for our Christmas Day Principal Service, we come together to celebrate the birth of the world’s Savior. We warmly welcome people of every race, language, and faith to join us in this joyous celebration. I invite each of you to participate fully and rejoice with us at the birth of the One who fulfills the deepest and best hopes of all people and all faiths.

The hymns and readings today remind us that the Child of God was born into this world at a specific time and place. This is more than the celebration of an idea or a philosophy; it is the coming of the Divine to be one with us, joining the sacred with the earthly to create a new life. That life is ours to share with God, with one another, and with the entire world.

Our first two readings from Holy Scripture look forward—in the case of Isaiah—to the coming of Christ, and in the Epistle to the Hebrews, they remind us that it was nothing less than God who came to us. Just as God sent the child Jesus, so we are adopted through water and the Holy Spirit as God’s children.

The Gospel reading is John’s great hymn of the Incarnation—the Word becoming flesh. The Word, made flesh in Jesus, comes to unite with us in the Eucharist.

You are all invited to join us in this celebration, regardless of your race, language, or faith, for Christ is the salvation of all people in all times. We hope that you will find in this service a renewed certainty that God has visited the people. We know that in this birth, the deepest and best hopes of humanity are fulfilled. May the holy child of Bethlehem be born in our hearts this day.