Collegiate United Methodist Church/Wesley Foundation
11pm Christmas Eve 2024
  • O Come, All Ye Faithful
  • O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

      • Isaiah 9.2-3NRSVUE

      • Isaiah 9.4-5NRSVUE

      • Isaiah 9.6NRSVUE

      • Isaiah 9.7NRSVUE

  • It Came Upon the Midnight Clear

      • Isaiah 62.6-7NRSVUE

      • Isaiah 62.8-9NRSVUE

      • Isaiah 62.10-11NRSVUE

      • Isaiah 62.12NRSVUE

  • Away in a Manger

      • Isaiah 52.7-8NRSVUE

      • Isaiah 52.9-10NRSVUE

  • The First Noel

      • Hebrews 1.1-2NRSVUE

      • Hebrews 1.3-4NRSVUE

  • Hark the Herald Angels Sing

      • Luke 2.1-3NRSVUE

      • Luke 2.4-6NRSVUE

      • Luke 2.7NRSVUE

      • John 1.1-4NRSVUE

      • John 1.5-9NRSVUE

      • John 1.10-13NRSVUE

      • John 1.14NRSVUE

  • Louisville Woman

    ​
    And the final story from Louisville Public Media
    ​
    Setting the scene
    It was a rainy September as a woman lay under an underpass. The woman was unhoused, and 9 months pregnant. She was about to give birth in a way that few could have ever imagined.
    Knowing that she was entering labor she asked her husband by her side to run and find a phone to call for help.
    She was isolated and alone.
    She grabbed a blanket and a few personal effects as a bright orange city dump truck pulled up to remove her makeshift bed.
    At this point she was approached by a police officer whom she quickly explained the situation to. Her plight was quickly dismissed, as the officer spoke into the radio “I don’t for a second believe that this woman is going into labor,”
    The woman was walking closer to the street to be ready for the ambulance when it arrived, when she was told to stop.
    She asked a question no one should even be thinking of under the circumstances “Am I being detained?”
    The words surely felt like a ton of bricks “Yes, you’re being detained, You’re being detained because you’re unlawfully camping.”
    As he continued his paperwork, the woman’s labor intensified. Just before the ambulance arrived, she received her citation. Frustrated and feeling dismissed, she tossed it aside, to use the word disappointment is probably an understatement.
    Just a few hours later she gave birth in a hospital, both mother and child healthy. But the events surrounding her citation reflect a larger truth about systemic marginalization—about how society often fails to meet the needs of its most vulnerable, prioritizing punitive measures over compassionate care.
    Thus ends the final reading....
    ​
    (leave a moment of pause)
    ​

    Reading the Story

    Protestant Christian theologian, Karl Barth is quoted as "take your Bible and take your newspaper, and read both. But interpret newspapers from your Bible." He has often quoted as inviting people to hold their Bible in one hand and their newspaper in another.
    ​

    The Parallels

    ​
    The parallels between these two stories seem rather striking. The story of a person experiencing homelessness in Louisville and the story of Mary and Joseph.
    Both journeys marked by a lack of shelter and the harshness of the many systemic failures around them.
    Both stories with doubters and judges. People I could imagine whispering behind Mary and Joseph’s back saying “I don’t believe for a second that their baby is the Savior”
    Both feature a certain rejection a turning away, an isolation from the world and the community at large. One in an underpass and the other in a stable.
    Both stories of vulnerable people being overlooked, or not taken seriously.
    ​

    And yet God Enters Into THIS World

    ​
    When we sing Emmanuel, Emmanuel that means that God is here
    That God is with us
    That God entered into THIS world to be with people like you and me
    God took on skin and bone in a world that was not much different than ours
    A world of judgement, pain, isolation
    A world where people die and we grieve them. A world where relationships aren’t perfect. A world where we don’t live in perfect harmony with the earth.
    Here these words once again
    Isaiah 9:2 NRSV
    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.
    ​
    And Hear these words as well....
    ​
    Hebrews 1:1–2 NRSV
    1 Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds.
    ​
    The good news of Jesus Christ for all people in all times is that....

    There is no place that God has not already shown up in

    ​
    There is no darkness too dark for a God that is with us
    There is not oppression too horrendous for God to be with Us
    There is nothing that we can do that would make God not want to be with us
    For
    ​
    John 1:5 NRSV
    5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
    ​

    The question we ought to ask is not if God is here? The question we ought to ask is where is God in the midst of my life?

    ​
    Where is it that the Christ child is being born a new in me?
    Where am I called towards hope, peace, joy, and love?
    Where is God at work within me?
    ​

    Wrapping Up

    ​
    It is on this holy night, we remember that God does not remain distant or indifferent to our struggles. God enters into them...
    Making ordinary, sacred
    The vulnerable, beloved
    and the forgotten, redeemed.
    ​
    And as we prepare in a minute to enter into the communion table we are reminded that:
    God’s love is in, around, and through these elements, and when we partake in them we are reminded that God’s Love is in, around and through us.
    The light that shines in the darkness comes to meet us in our world as it is.
    The Word became flesh, dwelt among us, and calls us to dwell among others.
    ​
    ​
    ​
    ​

      • Isaiah 9:2ESV

      • Hebrews 1:1–2ESV

      • John 1:5ESV

  • Silent Night, Holy Night
Collegiate United Methodist Church/Wesley Foundation
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