This Bible Study was written by Charlene Fairchild and used with her WOMANSTUDY Bible Study groups and with the London Conference UCW. It can be used by groups or by individuals. Permission is granted for use by groups provided the appropriate acknowledgement is made. If you do use it and find it useful please let me know.

A Holy Christmas
Kir-Shalom
Sermons & Sermon - Lectionary Resources

A Christmas Study I

Charlene Elizabeth Fairchild

SCRIPTURE     Isaiah 9:2-7; Psalm 96;Titus 2:11-14; and Luke 2:1-20

FOR REFLECTION
These are the readings for Christmas Eve at midnight from "The Book
of Alternative Services" of the Anglican Church of Canada.  They
have been chosen, arbitrarily, in order to glimpse some of the joy
and awe of Christmas.

ISAIAH 9:2-7
     Look at Isaiah 8:19-22 to understand what kind of darkness the
     people have been walking in.  Look at Judges 7 which describes
     the defeat of the Midianites referred to in verse 4.  What
     kind of liberation is this that is promised or prophesied? 
     How is it to happen?  Verse 2 talks about "a great light." 
     Who is or what is the great light?  See verses 6-7.  Imagine
     the people Isaiah was talking to and how they might have heard
     this news in their situation.  How do you hear the news where
     you are at?  Does this passage give you hope?  What kind of
     Saviour are you looking for?  Where do you find in the New
     Testament the fulfilment of this promise?  Look at Matthew
     4:12-17 and Luke 1:26-38 and John 8:12-20.  How have you
     experienced the Living Christ?  Which title or name do you
     feel most close to?  Do you have yokes and burdens that need
     to be broken?  Have you asked for this blessing (release from
     your burdens)?

Psalm 96
     This psalm of thanksgiving of King David also appears in I
     Chronicles 16:8-36.  Why?  When did it get sung?  See I
     Chronicles 15 & 16:1-7.  The song is addressed to different
     people in its three differing sections (verses 1-6, 7-10, 11-
     13).  Who are they?  Why "sing a new song"?  What is supposed
     to happen?  What is the psalmist urging his hearers to do? 
     Why will the trees of the forest "sing for joy?"  How do you
     feel about that?

Titus 2:11-14
     What are we taught by "the grace of God?"  Why?  What did
     Jesus' first coming and death on the cross accomplish?  What
     is our hope?  Why is this important to think about on
     Christmas Eve?  Or any other time of the year?

Luke 2:1-20
     Every year, on Christmas Eve, we try to imagine ourselves
     there, at the stable in Bethlehem, peeking over Mary's or
     Joseph's shoulders or around some big hairy animal "chuffing"
     in the cool night air.  Our sense of awe and wonder; our deep,
     deep emotion and //our excitement and joy is infectious.  We,
     of course, have the privilege of knowing the story in a
     different way than Mary and Joseph, who lived it.  They knew
     the story in the fragments of everyday life, one day at a
     time, one significant happening at a time.  How did they feel? 
     They were living on the edge of God's promises much as we are
     today living on a set of promises.  They were two ordinary
     folk who God had chosen, just as we have been chosen.  You
     feel the power and the joy and the wonder of the Christmas
     story.  Do you feel the power and the joy and the wonder of
     the Christian story?  Are you an Easter Person as well as a
     Christmas Person?  What does Christmas have to do with Easter?

     What does the Christmas story have to say about kings and
     rulers, about political and economic forces, about the
     "prisons" of rules and regulations built up around us, about
     impossible circumstances?  Why do we see the power of earthly
     rulers so much more clearly than the power of God.  Why did
     God send angels to the shepherds and not some other group? 
     Read the Magnificat in Luke 1:46-55 again.  Hear it as the
     shepherds, as Mary, might have heard it.  God used ordinary
     people.  What does that say to you about your own life with
     God?  Do you hear God speaking to you in the events and people
     of your everyday life?

MEDITATION/PRAYER
The Following hymns and psalms are very useful for meditation and
prayer.

HYMNS
Angels From The Realms Of Glory
As With Gladness
It Came Upon The Midnight Clear
O Come All Ye Faithful
Once In Royal David's City
'Twas In The Moon Of Winter Time
Wise Men Seeking Jesus

PSALMS
- #'s  8, 45, 68, 89, 110, 112

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