3 Ways to Talk about Worship using the Christmas Story
If you’ve been following WLC long, you know we’re big fans of teaching in worship. We love bringing the Word and worship together. We believe it’s the worship leader’s job to teach the church about worship! The Christmas season makes that fairly easy, so I want to challenge you to be intentional about teaching in your coming Christmas services!
Of course, we can urge people to simply “remember the reason for the season” and begin singing from there, but I hope you’ll dive a little deeper than that. As you are singing Christmas songs, as you’re pointing to Jesus, I hope you’ll show your church that Christmas, from the very beginning, has always been opportunity for worship. In fact, I would argue it’s one of the biggest reasons for worship in all of history. And if you look through scripture, the Christmas story is full of people on their knees before the King.
Your Christmas set lists should be more than kitschy, feel-good songs. They should be songs of adoration. They should be declarations of faith. They should be songs that discuss one of the greatest moments in all of history. A moment that changed EVERYTHING! A savior was born.
Below, I want to share with you 3 worship-related ideas you can share with your church during the Christmas season. I’m writing these out the same as I would if were saying it to my church. Feel free to use any/all of these thoughts!
Mary and Elizabeth
In Luke chapter 1 we find the story of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Specifically, in verses 26 through 38, we find where Mary finds out she’s pregnant. You may know the story. An angel appears to Mary with news of her pregnancy, scripture tells us Mary “was greatly troubled by this” (verse 29), but being faithful to her God, accepts the word of the angel.
After this encounter, likely scared and uncertain what the future would look like (can any first-time parents relate?), she takes off to her cousin Elizabeth’s house. Imagine Mary’s situation: she’s a teenager, she’s pregnant, she’s not married, she’s engaged but there’s no way it can be her fiancé’s baby. And who is going to believer her that God made this happen? In Mary’s mind, I don’t think there’s any way this can end well for her.
I imagine with all of that running through her mind that by the time Mary arrived at Elizabeth’s house she was in tears, or at least close to it. But immediately Elizabeth does something remarkable. She begins to tell Mary what a blessing this pregnancy is. She begins to tell Mary how good God is. And then they worship. Mary bursts out in song saying, “My soul glorifies the Lord!”
Listen, the recognition of blessing should always lead to worship. As we sing today, let’s recognize the blessing of Jesus being born. Let’s recognize the favor of God on His people!
Shepherds
In Luke chapter two we read the story of Jesus being born. You’re probably familiar with most of it: there was no room at the inn, they had to sleep in the barn, and the manger became a crib for baby Jesus. What happens next though, I find really interesting. It’s the worlds most exciting birth announcement! And it’s not even to Mary and Joseph’s friends and family. It was to strangers.
In verse 8 we read that an angel appeared to a group of shepherds in a field. Not Joseph’s college friends who were now shepherds. Not Mary’s cousins who lived on a farm. Random people in a field. The angel showed up, scared these men half to death, and then announced, “The Messiah has been born!” Immediately after, in fact the Word says “suddenly,” a “great company” of angels joined the one that made the announcement and began praising God saying, “Glory to God in the Highest! And on earth peace to those who His favor rests!”
The shepherds went on to worship Jesus in the manger. But let’s talk about that moment with the angels and the shepherds. Why do you think they showed up to strangers in a field? There’s been speculation about this for over 2000 years now, and I’m no theologian, but what if they were just excited?!
What if the angels had all already high-fived each other in heaven, they had announced it over the loudspeakers, they had celebrated with each other, and they just HAD TO celebrate some more! They had share what God was doing! So, they showed up to anyone whose attention they could get!
I don’t know if that’s exactly what happened, regardless though, they were excited! And they praised God! Because God was changing EVERYTHING! Let’s get excited for Christmas this morning because Christmas is the day that God changed everything! Let’s join the angels in declaring, “Glory to God!”
The Three Wise Men
Matthew chapter two tells us of the Three Wise Men. You may also know them as the Three Kings or the Three Magi. They show up after Jesus born with gifts! They’re the kind of people you want to show up to the Christmas party.
We don’t know much about the wise men, really, but it seems they weren’t Jewish. It’s possible they were of Jewish descent, but not living by the law. These men were known to follow dreams, magic, and astrology more than they followed God. But something about the rumors of a messiah compelled them to find Jesus!
Being fans of astrology, they began following a star, believing it would take them to the King. They overshot at first and went to Jerusalem. There, they began asking city leaders where the King was. By the time they got to Jerusalem they were ready to worship. They say it themselves in verse 2, “we have come to worship Him!”
When they finally came to Bethlehem, the word says they were overjoyed! They fell on their knees in worship! They gave gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
When was the last time you were overjoyed at the thought of your savior? When was the last time you fell on your knees in worship? When was the last time you gave something up for the King? The birth of Jesus should compel us to worship! Just as it did for the Three Wise Men.
I hope you find these 3 ideas helpful! They’re simple, but they certainly help to encourage worship, to remember that the Christmas story isn’t just a story, and to engage people with scripture.