May
the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in Your
sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. AMEN.
Let
us pray, Gracious Father, thank You for sending Your Holy Spirit that continues
to call, gather and keep us in the one true faith. May we celebrate in Jubilee not only the
coming of the Christ Child, but also that the Holy Spirit unites us during this
Advent season, especially all of us saints gathered here at Emmanuel. AMEN.
Right
here in this very sanctuary in July we celebrated with the Counselors of Sky
Ranch the Jubilee of the camp that our congregation helped begin and fund in
Colorado. And today we come together not
only to continue this celebration, but put the perfect exclamation point on it
for us here at Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Goodland, KS, with our celebration
of the Jubilee!
We
join today in Jubilee celebration, because of Jesus Christ entrance into the
world as we know it. In a few minutes all
of you young people will tell the story of Jesus birth, but what all of us need
to understand is that not only do you tell the story and the people here in the
audience hear again the story that never gets old, but we celebrate the Jubilee
of Jesus Birth in the manger in Bethlehem.
We
come to celebrate, because the Holy Spirit fulfills His job to call, gather,
enlighten and sanctify us in the one true faith. This dovetails perfectly with our review of
the Apostle’s Creed. Hence, this week
instead of hearing and reciting again what the Holy Spirit does in the Third
Article of the Apostle’s Creed, I want you to think for a second, who first brought
you here to this church. [WAIT 5
SECONDS].
Do
you remember who it was? Was it your
parents, grandparents, your friends or a relative of yours? Ironically, we may not remember who it was
who did this initially, but I want you to understand that the important part is
there was always someone who did this for each of us. The person who brought us was inspired to
bring them and you, because of the Holy Spirit Who calls us by name, gathers us
in God’s house, opens the scriptures to us as you will do in a few minutes and
keeps us in the one true faith til we go to heaven. This is why we come today to celebrate, not
only the work of the Holy Spirit in each of our lives, but also the entrance of
Jesus Christ in the manger. This is what
the Christmas message of Jubilee is all about.
We are celebrating the Jubilee and the work of the Holy Spirit of
telling of Jesus Birth.
May
we who gather today around the manger because of the work of the Holy Spirit, hear
the clear message of Jesus Birth to save all mankind and come and celebrate in Jubilee,
with hearts, voices, tamborines, drums, bells and songs the Joy of Jesus birth. Thank you to all of you young adults and the
leaders for this gift you are giving to all of us that was given in a lowly
manger to save us. And thank you for you
the children who tell this sacred story of Jubilee for all of mankind,
including all of us saints here at Emmanuel.
AMEN.
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