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I hope all of you had a blessed Christmas Day.  Once again, this was a different kind of Christmas for many of us … seeing family by FaceTime, or Skype, or Zoom … missing the hugs and closeness that this holiday can offer.  If any of you traveled to visit family, I pray that you are safe, and if any of you had family travel to visit you, I also pray that you are safe.  

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What a glorious Christmas Eve!  Music that fills the soul with delight … this church decorated beautifully with greens … and an evening filled with spirit, hope and love. 
 
Two thousand years ago the night was filled with spirit and hope.  That spirit and hope of two thousand years ago is the origin of the spirit and hope we are experiencing this evening.  However, two thousand years ago the evening was filled with spirit, but that was about all … other than sheer darkness.  The world into which Jesus was born was filled with darkness … a literal darkness that the shepherds in the fields knew well.  But it was also a darkness of political and military oppression, economic hardship, and even a darkness in the Temple … supposedly the abode of God.

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This morning Mary sings her song … the Magnificat.  Not once.  Not twice.  But three times … first, as our Hymn of Praise at the beginning of the service.  Again, as the canticle we recited between our first and second lessons.  And, finally we heard Mary sing these subversive lyrics in the reading from the Gospel of Luke.

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​Once again, we hear John the Baptist … John the curmudgeonly Baptist.  This week he is shouting at the people who have come all the way out into the wilderness to hear him preach.  John the Baptist is mentioned in all four of the canonical gospels.  Where did he come from?  What is his story?