Dec. 28, 2025 | Word Out!
Download the Bulletin from December 28, 2025
READINGS AND SERMON
First Reading: Isaiah 63:7-9
7 I will recount the gracious deeds of the Lord,
the praiseworthy acts of the Lord,
because of all that the Lord has done for us
and the great favor to the house of Israel
that he has shown them according to his mercy,
according to the abundance of his steadfast love.
8 For he said, “Surely they are my people,
children who will not act deceitfully,”
and he became their savior
9 in all their distress.
It was no messenger or angel
but his presence that saved them;
in his love and pity it was he who redeemed them;
he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.
Second Reading: Hebrews 2:10-18
10 It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings. 11 For the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father. For this reason Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters, 12 saying,
“I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters;
in the midst of the congregation I will praise you.”
13 And again,
“I will put my trust in him.”
And again,
“Here am I and the children whom God has given me.”
14 Since, therefore, the children share flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared the same things, so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death. 16 For it is clear that he did not come to help angels but the descendants of Abraham. 17 Therefore he had to become like his brothers and sisters in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the people. 18 Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested.
Gospel: Matthew 2:13-23
13 Now after [the magi] had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” 14 Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt 15 and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, “Out of Egypt I have called my son.”
16 When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the magi, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the magi. 17 Then what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:
18 “A voice was heard in Ramah,
wailing and loud lamentation,
Rachel weeping for her children;
she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.”
19 When Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, 20 “Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child’s life are dead.” 21 Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. 22 But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And after being warned in a dream, he went away to the district of Galilee. 23 There he made his home in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, “He will be called a Nazarene.”
Sermon—Rev. Paul Hoffman
Our carefully-curated Christmases get a reality check this morning, with Jesus’s newborn family fleeing for their lives, and unknown numbers of innocent children losing their lives as the cries of grief from their families echo across Bethlehem and throughout the land. It’s a far cry from the candlelit, silent, holy night that you no doubt enjoyed right here on Christmas Eve, and that millions close their Christmas Eve worship with across the globe.
But this Jesus, this “Holy infant, so tender and mild” is no department-store ornament meant to add beauty to our Christmas home decor. He is not an online presence designed to be a cash-cow for retailers with limitless schemes, and click-in shoppers with bottomless appetites for the new and the novel.
This Jesus, the Jesus of the Bible—the Jesus who comes to a confused and struggling young couple living under the thumb of an unbelievably relentless, torturous tyrant and his empire—this Jesus is a Savior who can enter in to the dark and dangerous corners of our lives and live there with us, making God real; making God present.
As is often the case with church Christmas pageants, there are kids involved who would rather not be; they, too are often the objects of our carefully-curated Christmases, up front in bathrobes and rip-cloth sashes by well-meaning parents and grandparents and pastors and youth ministers—but often all of that is more grounded in nostalgia than in reality.
Well, such was the case with a set of siblings who annually pitched their Sunday School teacher fits, as year after year, they were more trouble than anyone could imagine. But this year that I want to tell you about was the year that Mrs. Moorhead gave birth in early November to a baby, a baby boy that really stole the show. You see, they were used to having a doll in the manger, but with the Moorhead baby being born so close to Christmas and so well behaved to boot, all the adults involved thought, “Why not? Let’s have the doll-baby Jesus in the church attic this year, and have fourth-grade Mary and Joseph bring Evan Moorhead to the manger. We’ll surprise everyone.”
Well, no one was more surprised than the two siblings from the top row of the risers, the troublemakers. One elbowed the other and shouted loud enough for the back row of the balcony to hear, “Holy smokes! This year, we got ourselves a real, live Jesus!”
A real live Jesus.
Not just this year, but every year since the birth of Jesus in a barn behind Bethlehem’s Inn, we too have gotten ourselves a real live Jesus. He is one sturdy enough to withstand the trials and tribulations of the real lives of real people—real people like you and me. People with troubles too numerous to name, even if we are people of great privilege. We live in a time when it seems like there are few good choices. We look around and see great suffering; people, like in today’s story, hiding out, or fleeing for their lives. People dying innocently, and, even in our own most-comfortable circumstances, we are just one diagnosis from disaster, one market-crash away from ruin, one flood or landslide or earthquake away from the destruction of everything we’ve dreamed of and built.
Many of our King County and Western Washington neighbors have seen such destruction this month. Maybe you know some of them, maybe you are one of them. But this year, like every year past and every year yet to come, we have got us a real live Jesus. He is the one who has come from God to know our pain, to hold our hand, to comfort us in our sorrows, to end our death.
He can do all these things, because through Christ, the One Eternal God has chosen to become as one of us; to live our human experience, flawed though it may be. He has come to those dark and dangerous corners of our lives. He has felt our grief, touched our festering wounds, known our heartaches, lived our disappointments, and when his young life was finally annihilated by the most evil, power- hungry, immoral of leaders, he faced death head on. And he won.
He won. He overcame our final, fatal enemy.
This year, we’ve got us a real, live Jesus. Born of Mary, son of Joseph, illegal immigrant, diner with sinners, friend of the outcast, on our side. He will not intervene in all that ails the human family and wave it away as with a magic wand, but he will live it with us, and he has died to redeem us.
And in the end, he has made all things new.
Merry Christmas. Christ is very much alive, and He is with us here and now.
This year, we’ve got ourselves a real, live Jesus.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.