Every year, I enjoy listening to the BBC’s worldwide
live radio broadcast of the Christmas Eve service from King’s College Chapel in
Cambridge, England. This Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols combines Scripture
readings, prayers, and choral music in a moving service of worship. One year, I
was struck by the announcer’s description of the congregation leaving the
magnificent chapel, saying they were “stepping out of this moment of grace and
back into the real world.”
Wasn’t it that way on the first Christmas? The
shepherds heard an angel announce the birth of the Savior, Christ the Lord
(Luke 2:11), followed by a “multitude of the heavenly host praising God”
(vv.13-14). After they found Mary, Joseph, and the Baby in Bethlehem, the
shepherds couldn’t help telling others about this Child (v.17). “The shepherds
went back to work, glorifying and praising God for everything that they had
heard and seen, which had happened just as they had been told” (v.20 Phillips).
They had been changed by their “moment of grace.” As
they stepped back into their real world, they carried the good news about Jesus
in their hearts and voices.
May we too take God’s grace into the real world this
Christmas and every day of the new year.
Take
the joy of Christmas with you every day. (RBC)
