Romans 1: 1-7       

Introduction to Christmas Cantata

December 18, 2022

Rev. Dr. Galen E. Russell III

“The gospel concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Prayer: O come, O come Emmanuel! We know you are with us. May we feel your Presence in the music we sing and hear. Please be born in us again. We ask in the Spirit of the Christ-child. Amen.

I love Christmas music! Lot’s of it is uplifting. Some of it moves me profoundly. The best Christmas carols tell the real stories of Christmas. The message of Christ coming into the world. God taking on human form. A holy incarnation.

Without the real story of Christmas, nothing of God’s salvation comes to us. It’s the beginning of the fulfillment of God’s plan to redeem the human race and bring us into God’s real of love, light, and life.

I usually start listening to and singing Christmas carols right after Thanksgiving. It helps get me into the spirit of Christmas. I can just feel that God comes in the music of Christmas. Ah… if only “Sounds of the Season” on the music channels and WARM 103.3 would play more sacred Christmas music less secular, then Christ’s birth story would be told more often… but, maybe that’s just me.

Christmas music is so vital to the story of Christmas. Which starts with Christ being born in the world in that little town of Bethlehem. But, it goes back much earlier … back to the days when God spoke through the prophets recorded in holy scriptures. Paul’s opening words in his letter to the Roman Christians tells the gospel story in brief, almost bullet statements:

• The good news of God was promised through the prophets.
• This good news was about the coming of God’s son Jesus, in the flesh from King David’s royal ancestry.
• People declared that this Jesus was the Christ, the anointed one, the Son of God with power in the Spirit of holiness.
• That holiness was shown as Jesus Christ was raised from the dead by God.
• And we, by the risen Christ, have received grace through faith, and are called to bring others to faith and obedience to Jesus Christ.

That’s the story of God’s good news—briefly stated.

Even though a couple thousand years have gone by, I can’t help but feel like Paul’s words are written to us. That in that simple bullet-statement story that opens Paul’s letter, his words invite us to receive Christ’s grace through faith. His words invite us to share the message of God’s good news about Christ in any way we can to others. Because those stories are preciouis. And were told. And protected. And were eventually compiled and bound together in a book. And retold. And read. And retold. And read. And shared.

That’s what we’re doing today. We’re sharing this message. The Christmas message of Christ being born according to the flesh and according to the Spirit is what our Christmas music is all about. That’s what the Christmas season is about. That’s what our Christmas carols are about. That’s what Camille Saint-Saëns was all about when he wrote this oratorio which our choir is ready to sing.

And we begin to realize that God is present deeply in our lives, and in our music. And God comes again. In the music.

So, as we listen to this Christmas music, let us rejoice in God, our Savior, for God comes in the Music! Amen.