2:1 In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This was the first registration when1 Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 And all went to be registered, each to his own town. 4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, 5 to be registered with Mary, his betrothed,2 who was with child. 6 And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.3
8 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. 10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.
[1] 2:2
[2] 2:5
[3] 2:7
(ESV)
Luke 2:1-10
2:1 In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This was the first registration when1 Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 And all went to be registered, each to his own town. 4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, 5 to be registered with Mary, his betrothed,2 who was with child. 6 And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.3
8 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. 10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.
[1] 2:2
[2] 2:5
[3] 2:7
(ESV)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
We're gonna be in Luke chapter 2 this morning. Over the first three Sundays, of December, we're looking at the story of Christmas from different angles, different approaches for the Advent sermons. Last week, Joel, looked at the story of Christmas from, kind of the angle of the classic Christmas carol, Oh Little Town of Bethlehem, and the role that that little village played in the story of salvation. And today, we're gonna be approaching the Christmas story, from the angle of the song Silent Night. And so let's, let's turn, to the birth account in Luke's gospel, Luke chapter 2, beginning with verse 1.
Jeffrey Heine:And let us listen carefully, for this is God's word. In those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary his betrothed, who was with child.
Jeffrey Heine:And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. And in the same region, there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shown around them, and they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, fear not, for behold I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.
Jeffrey Heine:For unto you is born this day in the city of David a savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you. You will find the baby wrapped in swaddling cloth and lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased. When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.
Jeffrey Heine:And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known to them the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.
Jeffrey Heine:So the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your grace and your love, without which not one of us would be here this morning. We thank you for your word, and we trust that the spirit will lead us to truth and faith as we hear you speak to us.
Jeffrey Heine:So it is with all confidence and all humility that we ask. Lord, speak, for your servants are listening. We pray these things in the name of the father, and the son, and the holy spirit. Amen. The song Silent Night was written in 18/16 by a minister named Joseph Mohr in a little Austrian village of Oberndorf.
Jeffrey Heine:Father Mohr was a priest at a chapel, called Saint Nicholas. I'm sure that many of you have heard the story before, how the classic Christmas carol, Silent Night, was written, but for those of you who haven't, on Christmas Eve, 18/16, Moore was off visiting a family in the mountains outside of the village. The family had just welcomed a new baby, and Father Moore was going to visit them because they would not be able to make it to the Christmas mass that evening. And while Father Mohr was away, the church organist Franz Gruber, which I'm not sure if you are looking for a baby name, but look no further. Franz Gruber.
Jeffrey Heine:Franz Gruber, which sounds like it would be one of my kids' names. Franz Gruber Heineck. Does that sound right? But Alright. Franz Gruber finds out that the church organ was broken.
Jeffrey Heine:It's terrible news. There would be no music for the Christmas mass. And Father Mohr began his journey home through the snowy woods. He thought about the family that he was just leaving, the mother and child. He thought about how quiet and still the night was in the woods.
Jeffrey Heine:And along the way home, Moore composed the poem. Silent night. Holy night. All is calm. All is bright.
Jeffrey Heine:More decided that he would ask Franz Gruber to set the poem to music. And when he arrived back at Saint Nicholas, he found the organist was distraught. Gruber shared the dreadful news. The organ was broken. There would be no music for Christmas Eve.
Jeffrey Heine:Father Moore declared there will be music. He asked Gruber to get his guitar and to put this new poem to music. And that night, there in the snowy Austrian village on Christmas Eve 18 16, The song Silent Night was sung for the first time. But that's not the end of the story, because how did that little poem and that little chapel and that little village become the 3rd highest selling single of all time, besides it being recorded by Bing Crosby? A hell lot to do with it.
Jeffrey Heine:A few months later, in the spring of, 18/17, an organ mender came to the village chapel, and he repaired the organ. And he asked Franz Kruber to test it out. Kruber, still with a tune lingering in his head from Christmas Eve, he played Silent Night. And it was so good that the organ mender could not get it out of his head, and he returned to his village. And all the children in his village were so happy to see him returning home.
Jeffrey Heine:Remember when you would see the organ mender making his way back to the village? You would join with all the other village children to greet him. Well, that's what happened here. All the children gathered around the organ mender, and he sang to them this new song, Silent Night. And they passed it on from there around the world.
Jeffrey Heine:The end. It's a lovely story. It's a Hallmark Channel story. There's only one problem. It's not true.
Jeffrey Heine:A few parts are true. A few principal things are true. Silent Night was written by Father Moore. He wrote it in 18/16. He was, the minister at Saint Nicholas's in Austria.
Jeffrey Heine:Franz Gruber really did write the music 2 years later. But outside of that, the rest is a legend. Made up. The broken organ, the writing the poem on the snowy walk home, scrambling to compose, the music, on the guitar before the Christmas Eve service, all made up. The part of the story that I don't like is that the organist gave up on music after an hour.
Jeffrey Heine:He just sat on the porch like a goon and waited. You see, why not just play another song on the guitar? There are other Christmas songs that people already know. You don't have to scramble 2 hours before the service. But this made up story, Silent Night and the Broken Organ, It's a story that's been told for almost a 100 years.
Jeffrey Heine:It was made up the first time we see it, my many miles away from Austria in America, in 1930. In 1956, a short film was made in America about this legend of Silent Night, and that film helped spread this better story. And still today, you can find new additions, new versions of people retelling this grander story. But there isn't any record of the details until 1930. So how does this happen?
Jeffrey Heine:How does it go from a simple poem to a grand legend? What is this urge to make things more extraordinary, more impressive? What is this penchant for trying to improve our stories? The impulse to make a better version. We do this with so many things.
Jeffrey Heine:We build things up in our minds, we set standards that nothing can live up to, and we we set out to try and rewrite a better story. The story of the entrance of God into his own creation, entering in to be a part of his own creation is extraordinary. And it happened in an unbelievably simple way. The story of the birth of Jesus to the Virgin Mary on a night in the little town of Bethlehem is far more extraordinary than we have ever imagined. And at the same time, it is far simpler than we have ever imagined.
Jeffrey Heine:So simple, in fact, that at the entrance of the eternal king of kings, no one even noticed. The poem Silent Night, it offers a picture taken from Luke chapter 2 that it highlights the simple handful of people that God awakened that night to care. And I think it's worth our time to consider these people with the hope and the prayer that we too will care this Christmas. First things first then. We need to admit that that night in the little town of Bethlehem might not have been that silent after all.
Jeffrey Heine:The tiny village was overbooked with families, returning for the senses. Surely, there were relatives who had not seen one another for a long time, and this unwelcome census had provided an opportunity for families to reunite and reconnect. Over the next couple of weeks, I'm sure that many of you will be traveling for Christmas celebrations at parents' or grandparents' homes. Homes that were plenty of space years ago for a mom and a dad and a few kids. But not grown kids and their spouses and their children, and maybe another generation That's what it's like at both of my grandmother's homes in Kentucky.
Jeffrey Heine:They're they're, 94, both of them, and they both live in their homes by themselves. And they live simple, quiet days and silent nights. And then like a whirlwind, 5 generations of families show up. And the kids want to open presents. It gets loud quickly.
Jeffrey Heine:It gets hot quickly. Someone keeps turning the television on. We can't open the presents yet because we have to wait on their uncle. Someone opens a window because it's getting so hot. A kid gets hurt playing, someone yells that they're getting cold.
Jeffrey Heine:Is the uncle ever going to show up? It's chaos. And imagine that kind of family chaos in Bethlehem. Hardly a silent night. Add in that Joseph's family is from Bethlehem.
Jeffrey Heine:That's that's why he had to return to the city of David for the census. That's where his family is from. And surely, Joseph is not the only living family member in his entire family. So if they're there, how is it there's no place for Joseph and Mary to stay? Regardless of whether or not the place they're staying is a barn or a stable or a shed, one thing is for sure, it doesn't seem like they're with their family.
Jeffrey Heine:Can you imagine the conversations happening where Joseph's family is gathered? Did you hear he brought her? Everyone knows she's pregnant, and it's not his. He even said it's not his child. And he married her anyway?
Jeffrey Heine:Doesn't Joseph have any sense, any pride? Who is this pregnant teenage girl? Does he realize how this makes us look? And why did he even bring her to Bethlehem? She doesn't even go here.
Jeffrey Heine:For those playing Jeff's sermon movie reference, bingo, we are up to 3 now. This type of fam family drama could very well be the reason why there wasn't a place for Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem. They're a scandal. So the night might not have been all that silent in terms of volume, but it was silent in another way. The night was silent in caring.
Jeffrey Heine:Think of it. The King of kings, the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, the awesome God was born to the deafening silence of apathy. The evidence of God's love, the manifestation of His grace, the glory of God incarnate, and no one cared. The truest silence of that night was not a gentle quiet, it was a cold indifference. But it was a holy night, extraordinary and simple, a mother and a child.
Jeffrey Heine:It should be of no surprise to us that it's Luke who shares with us the most descriptive and detailed account of Jesus' birth story. Luke would have received this account firsthand from Mary herself. And Luke included details that were not vital for conveying this his, telling of Jesus' life and ministry. Surely, the details of the death and resurrection were of greater importance, but these details of the birth, they were important to Mary, remembering that they had to travel when she was so soon to give birth, that there wasn't a place for them to stay. She had to wrap the baby in cloth, and she had to lay him down in a feeding trough.
Jeffrey Heine:In the first few weeks, when my oldest child was born, Mary June, named after the mother of Jesus and the wife of Johnny Cash. I called Ryan Devillaneau and Brian Johnson, lucky for this service, you got both of them present. I called, those guys nonstop asking for advice. I remember charting out feeding schedules and trying to figure it all out. I was terrified.
Jeffrey Heine:I remember wondering if the dishwasher was getting the bottles clean enough to be sterilized for her to use again. I I bought gallons of purified water for her formula because tap water was not going to cut it. If I could have covered the entire world in hand sanitizer, I would have. If you came to visit, I tried. See, there there in the indifferent village of Bethlehem, blessed virgin Mary laid the son of God in the hay of a feeding trough.
Jeffrey Heine:All is calm. All is bright. Round yon virgin, mother, and child, holy infant so tender and mild. An animal's quarters and an animal's trough, this was not the plan. This was not what Mary had dreamed of for her first child.
Jeffrey Heine:But this had always been God's plan, the simple and extraordinary plan of God. The disciple and gospel writer, Matthew, tells the story of Joseph, the man engaged to young Mary. Mary had been visiting her cousin Elizabeth in the hill country, and when she returned 3 months later, it was obvious that something was different about her. Joseph finds Mary is pregnant. Before she had left to go to her cousin's house, the angel Gabriel had visited Mary and told her of the promised child to come.
Jeffrey Heine:He told her the child would be the Son of the Most High, that he would be called Holy and the Son of God. What do you think Mary said to Joseph? What do you think Joseph said to Mary? The poet, w h Auden, imagined this trouble for Joseph in his Christmas poem for the time being. Auden imagines Joseph getting ready to see Mary after she's been gone for 3 months.
Jeffrey Heine:He's very excited to see her, and he's walking up to meet her for this date, and he passes through this crowd in the streets, the people of Nazareth, who've already heard that Mary is pregnant. The rumors are beginning to spread of her version of what happened. Auden writes of the crowd calling out to Joseph, quote, Joseph, you have heard what Mary says occurred. Yes. It may be so.
Jeffrey Heine:Is it likely? No. Mary may be pure, but Joseph, are you sure? How is one to tell? Suppose, for instance, well, maybe, Maybe not.
Jeffrey Heine:But, Joseph, you know what your world, of course, will say about you anyway, end quote. But Joseph was kind. And because he was loving, he wasn't so much angry as he was brokenhearted. And we can infer this because He didn't want Mary punished, which would have been the law. No.
Jeffrey Heine:In Matthew chapter 1, verse 19, we see that Joseph just wants to divorce her quietly. A silent divorce. The divorce would have been the upright thing to do. It would have been the only way to not make a scene, and he didn't want Mary's life ruined, for her to be marked as an adulteress. He he was mulling all over this all over in his mind, the disgrace of marrying this woman who bears a child that is not his.
Jeffrey Heine:Knowing that either his friends, relatives, and community will think that the child is his, and thereby making him the transgressor, or it's not His child, and Mary is the adulteress. And there's Mary, young and courageous, acknowledging the scandal and only offering that this is from God. Joseph just wants it all to be over, and he decides to quietly divorce her. But then the angel goes to Joseph. The angel tells him that the baby that Mary is expecting truly is from God.
Jeffrey Heine:The angel tells him not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife, not that the people won't talk, that he doesn't need to be afraid. The angel tells him that Mary will bear a son, and that he should call the baby Jesus. Because this baby, says the angel, this one that's already caused such a scandal for Joseph, this baby will save God's people from their sins. Through the scandal of the cross, the sinless will suffer for the sins of God's children. So Joseph takes Mary to be his wife, taking whatever social punches might come.
Jeffrey Heine:But this was not the plan. This was not what Joseph had dreamed of for his first child, But this had always been God's plan, the simple and extraordinary plan of God. Silent night, holy night, shepherds quake at the sight, glories stream from heaven afar. Heavenly hosts sing, Alleluia. Christ, the savior is born.
Jeffrey Heine:Until the heavens themselves revealed the news of the birth of Christ, no one cared save for a young virgin mother and her bewildered yet believing husband. And again, it's it's the angels who came to reveal to a simple few that God was on the move, rending the heavens and coming to rescue his people. Outside the city of Bethlehem in a nearby region, shepherds were working the 3rd shift. And as they were watching over the sheep by night, the glory of God, that is the weight of God's greatness, began to shine. God was peeling back the curtain of creation and revealing His majesty, and the light of His glory was piercing through from eternity onto a couple humble shepherds working on a hillside.
Jeffrey Heine:And for a moment, glory was streaming from heaven afar. The angels cried out, Christ the savior is born. Christ, like the name Emmanuel, which means God with us, Christ is a name with a lot of history. It means Messiah, the promised rescuer of God's people. And the angels declared that the Messiah, the long expected, long awaited, long hoped for savior was born this night.
Jeffrey Heine:He is here. They declare it to the shepherds. And what does this mean for the shepherds? It means that God has made a way for their salvation. And what does it mean for them tomorrow?
Jeffrey Heine:It means that tomorrow night, they'll be back on those same hills watching those same sheep under those same stars. It means the extraordinary and the simple. 20 years will go by, 30 years will go by. And as old men, do you think that those shepherds would one day strain to remember the sound of the angels singing? Did they one day strain to remember if anything really happened that night on the hillside?
Jeffrey Heine:Would they one day ask themselves, was it all a dream? The joy, the angels, the believing, the running to Bethlehem, finding the savior in the manger, and finding ourselves in him. No matter how hard we try, we don't get to write a better story for ourselves or for others. We don't get to clean up our stories and make every tragedy end in triumph, every problem find a delightful con conclusion. The credits don't roll as these happy shepherds head back to their sheep.
Jeffrey Heine:Life keeps going. We don't get to write a perfect ending to every catastrophe. We don't always get a silent night out of every broken organ. Those of you who follow Jesus, you have been met by Jesus and His grace. He has changed you.
Jeffrey Heine:He brought you from death to life. He set you free from sin. He liberated you from hatred. He turned you from an enemy of God to a child of God. He has done this, and at some point in your life, you believed it.
Jeffrey Heine:And today, you have laundry to do. You have homework and expense reports, and people you need to apologize to, and you get frustrated with yourself for not being as good of a friend, or a daughter, or a father as you want to be, and you have a hard time remembering to pray and to worship the Lord. You have a hard time remembering all that Jesus has done, and is doing, and will do. And before long, even when you begin to remember these things, you're gonna have more laundry to do. The living Lord met you, brought you salvation, and sometimes you strain to remember if anything really happened.
Jeffrey Heine:Was it all a dream? The joy, the turning, the trusting, the believing, running to Jesus and finding the savior and being found in him. We don't get to rewrite a better story for ourselves. We have to own the story we have, no amendments, no abridged version. But as my friend Doug Webster says, we have to realize that there is a story that redeems our stories.
Jeffrey Heine:And in realizing this, we see that we are less like the Magi, the wise men bringing gifts to Jesus, and we see that we are more like the shepherds than we ever thought possible. Because like those shepherds, we come to Jesus with nothing to offer. We draw near to the one who offers us everything. We are awakened by his glory and his grace in the midst of real, normal life, in the midst of laundry, and joy, and disappointment, and life. And at Christmas, like the shepherds, we are invited to come to the savior, bewildered, needy, and overwhelmed.
Jeffrey Heine:We come as we actually are, and we behold his glory. Because at Advent and Christmas, we remember the story that redeems our story, and it's one that's not about our glory, but the glory of God, who is lying in a manger. The next night for those poor shepherds was another night with the same sheep and the same stars, maybe one new extra star shining bright. But those shepherds weren't the same. How could they be?
Jeffrey Heine:How could you be? Silent night, holy night, Son of God loves pure light, radiant beams from thy holy face, with the dawn of redeeming grace. Jesus, lord at thy birth. In his old age, the apostle John wrote letters to encourage these new church communities where the gospel of Jesus was going out and spreading like wildflowers. And And in one of those letters, the apostle John wanted to encourage the leaders of a church family and remind them just who this God is that they follow.
Jeffrey Heine:And he says this in 1st John, chapter 4, verse 9. We read it together earlier. In this, the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only son into the world so we might live through him. Jesus, the son of God, the pure light of God's love, love manifested for us to see and to know, this is how we know God cares. Not because things are going well for us, or because we have the things which the world would recognize as a blessing.
Jeffrey Heine:No. You can know God cares for you, because he sent his son. He sent his only son into our world so we might live through him. This is love come down, and that is all you need this Christmas to know that God does care for you. He sent his son so you might live through him.
Jeffrey Heine:Everything else, every other blessing is a shadow of that love. Now, it might not have been a quiet, silent night, but the world was silent in its indifference. Indifference to the baby born, helpless, weak, vulnerable, God of God, light of light, very God, a very God, who for us and for our salvation came down from heaven. But today, 2000 years later, after that baby was born in an altogether unimportant town, to, altogether unimportant parents on an altogether unimportant night. Why do you care about that child?
Jeffrey Heine:Billions of babies have been born since that night in Bethlehem. Why do you celebrate this one? Why do you care? I suppose the better question I have to ask is, do you care? Do you care that this child was born?
Jeffrey Heine:Or is the celebration of Christmas so culturally inevitable that it's just easier to go along with the season, but ultimately you are indifferent to the central story being true? Does it matter to you if this baby was really born of a virgin? Does it matter to you if this baby was really wrapped in swaddling cloth and laid in a manger? Does it matter to you if this baby was really named Jesus because the angel said He would save His people from their sins. Does it matter to you if this baby actually grew up to do it?
Jeffrey Heine:To save the people from their sins? That he was born to live and to die and to rise and to reign forever? Do you care? Or like all of Bethlehem and beyond that night, are you indifferent? Is your soul as silent as that night?
Jeffrey Heine:Or perhaps you do care. And if you do, I ask, why? The Magi in the east, the shepherds outside of Bethlehem, they cared because the very heavens declared to them the birth of the savior. So why do you care? This is an important question for each one of us, because what we see from the scriptures is that no one cares of their own making.
Jeffrey Heine:No one cares out of their own volition. Someone had to come to them and awaken them to care. Culture is strong enough to make you drag a fir tree into your home and hang socks above your fireplace. Culture is strong enough to make you watch the same movies and listen to the same music every December. But culture is not strong enough to make you care about this baby born in the silent indifference of the world.
Jeffrey Heine:Only God can make you care. Only God can give you the eyes to see that your only hope is laying in that manger, wrapped in scraps of cloth. Only God can turn you from your willful indifference and awaken sincere affection and everlasting thankfulness. Only God can bring your heart and your mind to the outer limits of understanding, to trust that this baby is actually God in the flesh. Only God can rip the heavens apart and come down to rescue you in all power and all humility.
Jeffrey Heine:We know God cares for us because he sent Jesus to rescue us. How do we know if we care? It's not simply what we feel at Christmas, our emotions. It's not simply what we do at Christmas, maybe our volunteering. It's not simply what we offer at Christmas, our giving.
Jeffrey Heine:No. Our caring will be known in our trusting Jesus. This Advent and Christmas, how will you know if you care? How will you know if you are living and abiding in the love of God? Where will you look to know if you care?
Jeffrey Heine:We will look for the fullness of joy that is found in believing Jesus, trusting him and obeying him. That's how we will know if we care. And if you care, remember, it's not because you have loved God, but because he has loved you first. You care because he cared for you first. His caring brought an end to the silent night of your soul, and in grace, he brought you to care about this little baby born of Mary, Emmanuel.
Jeffrey Heine:For you who, by God's grace, have been awakened to care about this promised child, this Advent, I pray that the Lord would increase your trust, increase your obedience, increase your joy in Christ. And this Christmas, I pray that you would live in the wonder of his story, the story that has redeemed and is redeeming your unabridged story with his extraordinary and simple grace. For those of you who have never cared before, but find yourself longing to care, wanting to care, rest assured that that longing to care is from God. And he who has begun this work, this work of awakening your soul to care, he will see it through. And I urge you to lean in this Advent and Christmas, to dare to believe that this untamable grace is for you, to redeem the real, unedited you.
Jeffrey Heine:And for those of you who simply don't care, I understand. I've often found myself in your shoes. But my prayer for you is my prayer for all of us who struggle to believe at Christmas. I pray that though you might not care right now, that this Christmas you won't be able to look away from the manger of Jesus. I pray that you would be so captivated, so compelled, so drawn to God in the manger, that you will find yourself no longer able to stand indifferent in the silent night of your soul.
Jeffrey Heine:I pray that you would find grace, the grace to give up on indifference. And in doing so, that you would find yourself beginning to care for the one who cares for you, the one who came to rescue all of us from our indifference, rescued so we can know and believe that Christ, the savior, is born. Let's pray. Oh Lord, you know us better than we know ourselves. And each one of us in this room, whether we know it or not, we are desperate for you, desperate for you to be close, desperate for you to speak the truth of your grace into our lives, desperate to know that you really love us.
Jeffrey Heine:So, spirit, turn our attention, the tension of our minds, our eyes, our ears, our hearts, turn our attention to Jesus that we might behold him this advent, that we would believe this love, your love that predestined us for adoption as your children, to believe the care that you have for us and help us to care for you, to love you with our whole hearts, to trust you with all our minds, to obey you with all of our strength. Lord, meet us in this time, we pray. We ask these things in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.