O Holy Night

This is West End’s traditional Christmas Eve service, held late to celebrate the joy of the birth as close to Christmas Day as possible. It is a service of holy communion. The Gospel reading is, of course, the story of that birth, and it is read, as is traditional, from the midst of the people. Although we are grateful to be together, much moreso than this time last year, the world is still not the way it should be. We long to hear the good news and hope that the story of the birth of this baby gives us. We can do that by joining the shepherds on a deep, dark night, a people who were not free but under the rule of Rome. Those shepherds, poor and without any power, were faithfully doing their jobs when a messenger from God came to make an announcement about this birth. We get to be part of the transformation of the world, announced to the shepherds on that night long ago.