Show Notes
In this episode of Peaceable and Kind, host Derek Vreeland reflects on the Christmas season, emphasizing the joy and significance of the holiday. He discusses the 12 days of Christmas, the importance of Epiphany, and the traditions that make the season memorable, including candlelight services.
Derek also explores the prophetic significance of Isaiah’s words regarding the birth of Jesus and the call for peace and goodwill in our lives. He encourages listeners to embody the spirit of Christmas by being peacemakers in their communities as they enter the new year.
Scriptures mentioned in this episode:
Luke 2, KJV
Isaiah 9:1-7, NLT
Matthew 4:13, 17
Psalm 46:10
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Transcript
Narrator: Welcome to Peaceable and Kind, the podcast where we explore the transformation. Each week your host, Derek Vreeland, will delve into the stories, scriptures, and practical steps that help us embody these essential Christian virtues.
Derek Vreeland: Welcome back to another episode of Peaceable and Kind. I am your host, Derek Vreeland, and let me wish you a very merry Christmas. We are in now the Christmas season, and I don’t know when or where you’re listening to this episode, but I hope you have. A fantastic Christmas. And if you enjoy episodes like this one, let me invite you to subscribe to Peaceable and Kind. To leave a rating or a review, all of that helps. And I do hope you had a great Christmas. Yesterday was Christmas Day And today, when this episode is dropping, today is the second day of Christmas So today is the day for your true love to give you two turtle doves. Of course, you you know the song The Twelve Days of Christmas, one of our favorite Christmas carols. You hear that on the radio. Do people still listen to the radio anymore? I know I’m typically listening to streaming music or I’m listening to a podcast. But for me, when it’s the Christmas season, I typically flip back over to the FM station of the radio when I’m in the car. Because I want to listen to Christmas music. I am a huge fan of Christmas. And so I say you put that Christmas tree up whenever you want. I know there’s a tradition, you know, you don’t put your Christmas tree up till after Thanksgiving. We had our tree up, I think, two or three weeks before Thanksgiving. And I say listen to Christmas music whenever you want. As for me, when it is the Advent and Christmas season I love, particularly in the car, uh, to listen to all of those traditional Christmas carols and even some of the the newer, more modern Christmas songs. But the 12 days of Christmas is a classic. You know, the song On the First Day of Christmas, My True Love Gave to Me. And in that first line, when I was a child, I thought. What was given on the first day of Christmas was a Jinna pear tree. Yeah, you know the line. It’s it’s my true love gave to me, a partridge in a pear tree. But I always heard that as a child that my true love gave me a gini pear tree. And I’m like, what what’s a what’s a jini pear tree? I had no idea. But uh I love that Christmas carol and uh with its 12 drummers drumming and the nine ladies dancing and the five golden rings. I love those Christmas carols because it does bring up a lot of fond memories. I, as a child, always loved Christmas. I, as a child, would not necessarily get up early. I mean, my parents trying to get me up for school is like raising the dead But Christmas morning I was always up early. And I love when I was the first one to wake up on Christmas morning and make my way into the living room and normally my parents would leave the Christmas tree lights on all night. And so I’d walk into that dark room that was only illuminated. uh by the Christmas tree lights and of course see all the gifts around the tree and as a child I was excited to get to the present and gift opening But I have fond memories of the the magic that was surrounding those moments. And it’s something about the lights shining in a dark place. And so I love today, uh still to listen to Christmas music. And that song, The Twelve Days of Christmas, is one that’s been around for a long time. But did you know that that song is rooted in the Christian tradition that we celebrate Christmas not just on one day, but twelve days Now I know on our calendars, December twenty-fifth is Christmas Day. That’s true. But for Christians historically Christmas was a 12-day celebration, a 12-day feast. So let me give you permission. Right now, you continue to eat those Christmas cookies and all those Christmas goodies for the next 12 days because from December 25th which is Christmas Day, until January the sixth, which is Epiphany, we are celebrating Christmas. You know about Epiphany, right? Epiphany is that day on the Christian calendar that often gets overlooked, but the Epiphany is marked by the visit of the Magi. those wise men who came upon their camels to worship the newborn king Historically, we think this event perhaps took place a few years after the birth of Jesus, but in the way we celebrate, we mark it twelve days after Christmas Day. So January 6th is Epiphany when we remember the worship of these non-Jewish magi who came to worship the Jewish king. Epiphany is about remembering that this Jewish king who was born in Bethlehem as a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes, that this Jewish king is the king of all of the nations, that this is not just the Jewish Messiah, Savior, and King but the savior and king for the whole world. So Christmas is a 12-day celebration from December 25th until January 6th. So in that time Not only indulge in all of your favorite Christmas treats, but keep that tree up. Keep the lights on your house on all the way through Epiphany or longer. You know, there’s also a a practical aspect here. I like keeping the lights on the house as long as we can because the days are short in winter, at least here in the Midwest. And so I advocate keep all the decorations up, the tree, the lights, at least through Epiphany And I hope that this Christmas season is a Christmas to remember for you And one of the ways to make Christmas memorable is to keep the focus on Jesus during this time. It is, after all, his birthday Our church has traditionally offered multiple Christmas Eve services every year This year we had three identical Christmas Eve services at 2 p. m. and 4 p. m. and 6 p. m. And Christmas Eve at our church is a real highlight. We have a live nativity with a live Mary and Joseph. Sometimes we have a live baby Jesus, sometimes it’s a baby doll. It just depends on the availability of newborns. My oldest grandson, uh Leo, got to be baby Jesus a couple of years ago. And that’s always fun when you have a a live baby Jesus, but we have live actors. who will stand in as Mary and Joseph, shepherds and wise men, and then we have live animals. The wise men will enter into our sanctuary upon camels, real camels. These are camels that come up from Oklahoma. We work with a family that has provided uh the animals for Christmas Eve for a number of years, a wonderful family. Uh they spend every Christmas Eve with us, but there are live camels. And it’s funny, we talk about the magic of our Christmas Eve service. And I know for a number of people They’re just there for the camels. They want to see those camels walk into our sanctuary. So the wise men come in on camels. When Mary and Joseph enter, Mary is riding on the back of a donkey. Uh Jenko has been the same donkey we have used for a number of years uh that comes with this family from Oklahoma. And then we have shepherds all of course dressed in costume who will bring in sheep and put them in a little stable. um next to the manger on our platform. And so the live animals, the whole live nativity help to create that magic of Christmas Eve, but I’ll be honest, my favorite moment in our Christmas Eve service is the candle lighting at the very end. So we promote this as a candlelight Christmas Eve service. So when people come into our sanctuary, we hand each person a candle. Everyone gets a candle. Mom and Dad. Grandma, grandpa, kids, everyone who walks in gets a candle. And at the very end of the Christmas Eve service Our pastor will light his candle from a candle lantern that’s on the stable next to the manger up on the platform. And he’ll talk about Jesus being the light of the world. And he walks down from the platform into the congregation. And some of our ushers will then light candles off his candle. And usually I run down there too, because I love this. So we’ll light our candles off of his candle, and then we begin to spread the candlelight throughout the sanctuary. I’ll walk up to a section of pews and I’ll just light the candle of the person on the far end of the pew. I light their candle and I always say Merry Christmas and then they’ll pass on the candlelight And I like to be in a back section because once I go to the end of the row of that section, then I stand in the back of our sanctuary. which is usually darkened at this point, and I watch as the candlelight begins to spread. And then there’s this orange glow That is filling our sanctuary, and it’s such a beautiful moment. As we are spreading the candlelight, we usually sing silent night together. And by the end, everyone has their candle lit. We’re singing Silent Night. And even though we have live animals and the camels and all that, that moment Where our sanctuary is illuminated by candlelight, and you can hear everyone singing Silent Night. That is the most magical moment in our Christmas Eve service To me, it is one of the best ways to remain focused on Jesus in the Christmas season is on Christmas Eve. When Advent is coming to an end and we’re transitioning into the 12 days of Christmas, we do so with this beautiful candlelight service. I’ve noticed that a lot of churches do this, both modern churches and more traditional type of churches have a candlelight communion service, which I find so beautiful. And it’s interesting that in a world where so many modern churches have laser lights and stage lights and fog machines and bright screens. That simple candlelight still captures our imagination, and I love it. Special moments like that make every Christmas a Christmas to remember And there are, of course, other things that we can do to make Christmas memorable. One of the things I like to do in my own devotional life. Is to read those Bible passages that tell the story of the birth of Jesus Of course, Luke 2 is the most memorable. That is the one that is read in the Charlie Brown Christmas special. I know I watched that growing up as a kid. I think it’s still around. I think you can find it uh on TV or in some streaming service these days. I love the Luke Two Christmas story. And of course if I read Luke Two I like to read it in the King James Version. That’s what you’ll hear in the Charlie Brown Christmas special. I am a fan of modern translations. As many of you know, I have for the last two years been reading through the message, which is a contemporary translation. And I love the message so much. It uses contemporary language. And Luke 2 in the message is a beautiful translation But again, because of the nostalgia from childhood, I like to read at least Luke 2 in the King James Version. But in my Bible reading in the Advent and into the Christmas season, I also like to read some of the Old Testament prophecies. that predict and speak of the birth of Jesus. And in Advent this year, which in the Daily Office Lectionary Reading Cycle, this is year one, The Daily Office Lectionary Bible Reading Plan is a two-year cycle. And with Advent, this year we started with year one. And year one in Advent has us in Isaiah. And it was the second week of Advent, maybe it was the third week of Advent. It had us reading Isaiah chapter 9. And this is one of my favorite prophecies about the birth of Jesus. It is Isaiah chapter 9 that we hear the wonderful counselor, mighty God. Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace part. Often you’ll see that Bible verse on Christmas cards. That’s Isaiah 9. 6 But I’d like to read through Isaiah 9, start up in verse 1, and then read down to verse 7. This passage from Isaiah speaks so clearly, not just about the birth of Jesus, but about the mission of Jesus. Isaiah 9 gives us a beautiful forecast. for what the coming of Jesus would look like. So Jesus is the word made flesh, the eternal God. Who took on human flesh, who was born in Bethlehem and laid in a manger. And Isaiah 9 begins to forecast what will the ministry and the mission Of this babe born in Bethlehem look like. So let me start with Isaiah chapter 9, verse 1, and I’m going to be reading from the New Living Translation. So every two years I read through the Bible using the Daily Office Lectionary, and I like to read from a new translation every two years. So we just wrapped up reading through the message and I just started in uh the beginning of Advent a new translation, the new living. Which is actually my second time I’ve spent two years reading through the New Living Translation, and I loved it so much I wanted to go back to it. It is a modern contemporary translation. It is not as imaginative as the message. So the message will take a lot of artistic liberties in how it translates. The New Living Translation is a little closer to the Greek text, but it is still in modern English. And so the New Living Translation is a very faithful translation. And it’s also extremely readable, which is why I like it. So I’m going through it again, another two years, through the New Living Translation So I read this passage during the season of Advent. So let me start, Isaiah chapter 9, verse 1. Nevertheless, the time of darkness and despair will not go on forever. The land of Zebulun and Nephtali will be humbled, but there will be a time in the future when Galilee of the Gentiles which lies along the road that runs between the Jordan and the Sea, will be filled with glory. Pause there for just a moment, to say that the expectation in the first century Jewish world was that the Messiah, the king, the servant of God, would come from Galilee. And Jesus, his family, was from that region, and there were Other would-be messiahs, so-called prophets, who came before Jesus, and they also came from Galilee. And that’s because of what Isaiah 9. 1 said. But let me continue. Verse 2. The people who walk in darkness will see a great light. For those who live in a land of deep darkness, a light will shine. Now this little portion of scripture is quoted also in the New Testament in Matthew chapter 4. Which in Matthew’s Gospel, this appears at the very beginning of the ministry of Jesus. So this is not the birth of Jesus. That was earlier in Matthew’s Gospel. But by Matthew 4, this is after Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness. And Matthew 4, starting in verse 13, says of Jesus He went first to Nazareth, and left there and moved to Capernaum, beside the Sea of Galilee, in the region of Zebulon and Nephtali. This fulfilled what God said through the prophet Isaiah. And then Matthew goes on to quote Isaiah 9:2. And then if we skip down to Matthew 4:17, from then on Jesus began to preach: repent of your sins and turn to God. for the kingdom of heaven is near. In Matthew’s gospel he has an agenda And part of that agenda is to show how Jesus fulfilled what the Old Testament prophets, the Hebrew prophets, had to say about the coming Messiah and King. Okay, back to Isaiah 9, because we really want to focus on the Christmas story, the birth of Jesus. So Isaiah chapter 9, let me pick it up in verse 3. You will enlarge the nation of Israel, and its people will rejoice. They will rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, and like warriors dividing the plunder. for you will break the yoke of their slavery, and lift the heavy burden from their shoulders. You will break the oppressor’s rod, just as you did when you destroyed the army of Midian The boots of the warrior and the uniforms bloodstained by war will all be burned. They will be fuel for the fire. Pause there for just a second. This is a beautiful poetic image of the end of war. When it speaks of the boots of the warriors and their uniforms bloodstained by war, these items will be burned. They’ll become fuel for the fire. This is a beautiful image speaking of the end of war. That when Messiah comes, when the servant of God comes. he will bring the end of war. For me, this is connected to Psalm forty six. Psalm forty six, verse ten, speaks of God who makes war to cease in all the world. He breaks the bow, shatters the spear, and burns the shield with fire. That’s Psalm 46 And that’s the same kind of imagery used by Isaiah in Isaiah 9. 5, speaking of uniforms that are bloodstained by war. They’ll be burned up. Then Isaiah chapter 9, verse 6, For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders, and he will be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. And this again is the verse that you often see on Christmas cards, that a child is born to us. In celebrating Christmas, every year we are celebrating what Isaiah said hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus. that a child would be born, and we would celebrate. Isaiah says that the government will rest on his shoulders and he will be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, Prince of Peace. The government will rest on his shoulders Jesus came not only to be a religious leader, but indeed to be a political leader Because as we saw in Matthew chapter 4, when Matthew is connecting the launch of the ministry of Jesus, to Isaiah’s prophecy, what does Jesus come proclaiming? Repent, for the kingdom of God is near. The kingdom of God is the government of God. Jesus came not to start a new religion. Jesus came as a fulfillment of all that God had said and done in the Old Testament and to pronounce and to inaugurate the kingdom of God Which is not just a spiritual kingdom that is in heaven. Matthew uses that language. It speaks of the kingdom of God as the kingdom of heaven. No, this is a kingdom that is to be on earth. Jesus is ruling and reigning, but it doesn’t look like any other earthly government because Jesus rules and reigns not through coercion, but through love. And so Isaiah says of this child to be born, this son to be given, he has these four names, wonderful counselor. Mighty God, everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace. And the Prince of Peace part is expanded in the very next verse, Isaiah 9:7, His government and its peace will never end. He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David for all eternity. The passionate commitment of the Lord of heaven’s armies will make this happen. Jesus is the Prince of Peace And Isaiah says that his government, his kingdom, and its peace will never end Of course, peace is what the angels were singing at the birth of Jesus Do you remember that in the Luke 2 account of the birth of Jesus? Luke chapter 2, verses 13 and 14, and let me read this from the King James Version, and suddenly. There was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. The angels were singing about peace on earth at the birth of Jesus Isaiah, all the way back in Isaiah chapter 9, he says that when this child is born, that the government will rest on his shoulders and there will be a peace that never ends through him. And I believe that I think if we’re going to make this Christmas a Christmas to remember, then what we need is a bit of a revival of our imagination. that peace on earth and good will towards everyone is possible. This is why followers of Jesus are called to walk by faith and not by sight. Because if we look at the world around us, we see a lot of conflict, we see a lot of discord We see a lot of division and acrimony. It requires a new imagination. I think a Christmas imagination. That this gift given to us by God the Father, the person of Jesus, is going to lead us into a place of peace if we’re willing to go. And so if we want to stay focused on Jesus and make this a memorable Christmas, why don’t we have a little peace on earth and goodwill towards everyone? I say, let’s do that together. Let’s see what we can do in our small little corner of the world to sow those seeds of peace and goodwill. This is how Jesus rules and reigns. He doesn’t rule and reign by passing laws that require people to do things Jesus is ruling and reigning through the church, through his people, through his followers. His reign is known and seen and experienced when it’s lived out by me and you. So let’s just make a decision right now during this Christmas season that we are going to live as peacemakers, as those who are sowing seeds of peace and goodwill wherever we go. We can’t change everything about our broken world, but we can be that change that we want to see in the world. So as we reflect during the Christmas season, heading all the way to Epiphany into a new calendar year, 2025. Let’s do so with peace and goodwill in our hearts that we might be living, breathing examples of the kingdom of God. I do hope you have a wonderful Christmas season. I pray all of God’s best for you into a new calendar year. Because yes, 2025 is just around the corner. And let’s make 2025 a year of peace and kindness. Well, that’s all I have for you today. Thank you for joining me for this episode. Merry Christmas. Go in peace and be kind.
This transcript was generated with AI and may contain errors.