Wednesday 24th December – Christmas Eve

24-12-2025, christmas eve, Isaiah 9:2-7, pastor adrian kitson

²The people walking in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of deep darkness
a light has dawned.
³You have enlarged the nation
and increased their joy;
they rejoice before you
as people rejoice at the harvest,
as warriors rejoice
when dividing the plunder.
⁴For as in the day of Midian’s defeat,
you have shattered
the yoke that burdens them,
the bar across their shoulders,
the rod of their oppressor.
⁵Every warrior’s boot used in battle
and every garment rolled in blood
will be destined for burning,
will be fuel for the fire.
⁶For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
⁷Of the greatness of his government and peace
there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne
and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
with justice and righteousness
from that time on and for ever.
The zeal of the Lord Almighty
will accomplish this.

I think there will be a lot of ‘zeal’ around the place tonight. All of our girls and boys, and even us big people in a different kind of more reserved way will be pretty ‘zealous’ tonight or tomorrow morning when we get stuck into that gift wrapping in very zealous fashion to get to the presents!

God is zealous. God is passionate and committed. Isaiah, the voice of God to a nation in trouble about seven centuries before the first Christmas speaks of God as very zealous – a ‘warrior God’ who is on the move; active, restless, planning, working hard … but for what?

For light in all our darkness – like the darkness Bonhoeffer’s fiancé, Maria, feels late Christmas eve when the gifts and celebrations are over, as she ponders her man sitting in a deprived Nazi prison cell in Berlin all alone and without her…

I’m in the dark depths of night, and my thoughts are roaming far afield. How all the merry-making and rejoicing and candlelight are over and the noise and commotion of the day have been replaced by silence, inside and out, other voices can be heard … The chill night wind and the mysterious darkness can open hearts and release forces unfathomable, but good and consoling … Can you think of a better time than night-time? That’s why Christ, too, chose to come to us = with angels – at night (God is in the manger, Maria von Wedemeyer to Bonhoeffer, Dec 25, 1943)

God is committed and passionate about light in your dak night – the world’s dark night. He arrives at night.

God is zealous for a new dawn, an enlarged human community of peace and joy at the expense of all and any dark forces, violence, narrow-mindedness or despair. God is zealous for hope – to give the world hope.

Against all things that damage us and diminish us Isaiah is very clear: God will take vengeance on all those forces so that evil and dark forces of hate and violence that create so much damage and despair for human beings, as they again did last Sunday night in Bondi, will be shattered like warrior smashing a bar across your shoulders placed there by your captor.

Not only will God shatter the bringers of hate, despair and fear, he will make the desire to live these ways obsolete and forevermore unable to be achieved. Like when all the boots of all the warriors of war are thrown on the bon fire because they will no longer be needed. This is how the words and behaviours of all who have oppressed and destroyed and brutalised people in whatever way will be rendered silent, gone, out of the way.

But friends, this passionate, committed zealous God on the warpath against all human striving and sin and self is only the pre-dinner nibbles – the curtain-raiser to the main game. God is zealous for a grander reason than mere vengeance, says Isaiah on Christmas Eve.

God’s real heart in levelling all people and things; of administering just-deserts of human hate is not vengeance – it is something way more; something life-giving not life-taking.

His heart for this world and you and me is new governance of our lives. A governance that is strong, wise, growing and expansive, wrapped in the love of a father for his children and full of peace – peace as in reconciliation/forgiveness, – a peace borne of self-giving love for each other.

And how will this be. When will this zeal of God for our life and hope come? Who will carry us to this joy and life and hope, in all our sadness and pain and loss and trouble?

Surely a strong man; a smart man; a wise man … a political leader, a military leader, a rich scientist, a deal-maker, an autocrat, a technocrat, a space-traveller, a pleasure seeker with power … ?

No. A man, to be sure. But not that kind of man or God.

His heart is in that manger. He is in that manger. There, there is light to live by. There is that freedom for which he longs and we long. As Isaiah says, in that child-God, there is that joy of a farming family getting the final pay for their bumper crop or vintage or tax result. All the struggle is worth and it and will be worth it. There is plenty now and will be plenty up ahead.

Why so?

“… in this child the everlasting fatherly love of God is revealed, and the child wants nothing other than to bring to earth the love of the Father. So, the Son is one with the Father, and whoever sees the Son sees the Father. This child wants nothing for himself. He is no prodigy in the human sense, but an obedient child of his heavenly Father. Born in time, he brings eternity with him to earth; as Son of God he brings to us all the love of the Father in heaven. Go seek, and find in the manger the heavenly Father who here has also become [by faith] your dear Father (God is in the Manger, Bonhoeffer).

Open those presents with zeal, for sure.

But trust that God is zealous for you and for his world still.

This baby tells you that God is active, restless, on the move, searching, calling us back, shedding light for us to live under.

So, with all the zeal you can muster, enjoy the closeness of the baby and the Father, in him is our light and our hope and our joy.