What Interest All the Circumstanced of Jesus’ Birth Have for Us

Christmas Day

December 25, 1790

“To bring thanks and worship before you, merciful and gracious God, is always our first concern when we gather to draw heavenly wisdom from the source of your revelations and to remember your blessings together. Especially today, however, nothing must be more pressing for us than this. We would not want to praise you for anything that would somehow enable your goodness to redound to humans in his day. It is the remembrance of the greatest and most priceless gift that you have deigned to give humankind for which we gather here. Praise and thanks to your Son that he became human, that he descended to us, that he did not consider being equal to God thievery; rather, he gave himself up and accepted the form of a servant and became like us in every respect, this in order to bless, or save, us. Praise and thanks to you, O Father, that you have sent your Son to us, him without whom we were lost, and also that you may fulfill the wish of our hearts that this festival too might strengthen us in our faith in Christ, in our love for what is good and in our hope for your further mercy! Amen.

Friedrich Schleiermacher, Christmas Sermons