If you look at Hymn number Fifty-six in the Hymnal, . . . you will notice that as well as the verses being numbered . . . they are also dated, beginning with December Seventeenth and going on through December Twenty-third.  The verses are dated because before they were put together as a hymn, . . . they existed individually as “The Great O Antiphons,” used, for centuries, in the Daily Prayer Offices of the Church to introduce and end the Song of Mary.  And each day, beginning on December Seventeenth, a different “Great O Antiphon” was used to invoke into our lives one of God’s seven mercies associated with the entry of Jesus into the world.  . . . And so, we sing “O come thou Wisdom and order our lives;” “O come thou Lord and govern us;” “ O come thou Branch of Jesse and free us;” “O come thou Key of David and open heaven to us;” . . . and so on.

    The “Great O Antiphons”, as I have said, begin on December Seventeenth.  On December Sixteenth, one of the Lessons appointed to be read at Daily Morning Prayer or Daily Evening Prayer in our Church . . . is from the Gospel according to Saint Luke.  I will read it to you,

Then they seized [Jesus] and led him away, bringing him into the high priest’s house.  Peter followed at a distance; and when they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat among them.  Then a maid, seeing him as he sat in the light and gazing at him, said, “This man also was with him.”  But he denied it, saying, “Woman, I do not know him.”  And a little later some one else saw him and said, “You also are one of them.”  But Peter said, “Man, I am not.”  And after an interval of about an hour still another insisted, saying, “Certainly this man also was with him; for he is a Galilean.”  But Peter said, “Man, I do not know what you are saying.”  And immediately, while he was still speaking, the cock crowed.  And the Lord turned and looked at Peter.  And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said to him, “Before the cock crows today, you will deny me three times.”  And he went out and wept bitterly.

Each of us is exactly like Peter; . . . each of us desires a good outcome for our lives; . . . each of us wishes to do good and be happy; . . . each of us wants to please God so that nothing bad happens to us.  But when we are left to our own devices, like Peter, our courage fails us and we cannot endure in the good; . . . we cannot endure in the good but conform ourselves, instead, to the culture around us, becoming so careless and self-indulgent that no one would guess that we are a Christian . . . because we so vigorously, by our living and by our speaking; . . . we so vigorously deny knowing or believing in Jesus.  . . . And during the penitential season of Advent, on December Sixteenth, we are reminded of this.  On December Sixteenth Holy Scripture reminds us that off to one side of our lives, . . . if we look; . . . off to one side of our lives we can see the Lord Jesus turn; . . . He turns and looks at each one of us . . . with disappointment in His eyes.  And the very next day . . . on December Seventeenth . . . we cry out to God, “O come thou Wisdom and order our unruly hearts and souls;” . . . “O come, O come Emmanuel and ransom us from the slavery to worldly and devilish things we have sold ourselves into!

    And tonight we remember that the Lord God Almighty has heard and does hear our appeals to Him from among the wreckage of trying to go it alone as if God were not Emmanuel; . . . as if God were not with us.  . . . Tonight we remember that the Lord God Almighty has heard and does hear our lonely appeal for His seven mercies that give us Wisdom and Governance and Liberty and Access to God and Happiness and Peace . . . and that Ransoms us from slavery to the world, . . . slavery to the flesh, . . . and slavery to the devil.  . . . Tonight we remember that the Lord God Almighty has heard and does hear our appeal to save us from the misery of Peter.

    But the response of the Lord God Almighty to our appeal is not to make us better at going it alone.  The response of the Lord God Almighty to our appeal is to send us a companion; . . . to send us His Son, Isaiah says:

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given . . . and his name will be called “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

And so, when the angel says to the shepherds that, “to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour,” . . . the manger in which the infant Saviour is found is a sign of the humility that we must allow His wonderful counsel to guide us into; and the swaddling cloths are a sign to us that we must be bound to the infant Saviour Who is, in fact, Father over us; to Whom we owe allegiance and obedience, renouncing in His Name and after His example (Saint Paul writes to Titus); . . . renouncing irreligion and worldly passions which threaten to pollute our lives; . . . renouncing these things and embracing, instead, habits of the heart and mind that the infant Saviour shall teach us . . . so that we might live sober and upright and godly lives in this world . . . in imitation of His own.

    But there is more.  As you can see, there above our Parish Altar is a stained glass triptych.  And in the left hand panel (in the gospel side panel) of the window is depicted the birth of our infant Saviour which we celebrate tonight.  . . . And there, pictured in that panel are Mary and the Holy Infant . . . and Joseph . . . and the astonished shepherds.  . . . But if you look closely, . . . in the lower corner, lying on the stable floor, is a lamb.  But it is not a resting lamb with its legs tucked under its body the way four legged creatures tend to do.  Oh no.  It is a lamb lying on its side, with its legs straight out and hooves together . . . as if it were tied up in preparation for sacrifice.  . . . The image is intentional.  . . . It is there to remind us that our infant Saviour was born not simply to instruct us; . . . He was born also to redeem us.  Our infant Saviour was born to be a sacrifice for our sins; . . . to make restitution to God the Father for every sin that humanity has ever committed in defiance of God . . . and every sin you or I shall ever commit when we, like Peter, try to go it alone.  Our infant Saviour can do that because He is called “Mighty God”: Son of the Most High God, . . . Son of God the Father Almighty.  . . . The Son has willed to be a Ransom for sin, . . . and the Father has accepted His offering.  We know this because three days after our infant Saviour shall die upon the Cross for our redemption; . . . three days after His death our infant Saviour shall rise from the Tomb.  . . . He shall rise from the Tomb, as a living man and not as a ghost; . . . He shall rise as a sign that whoever shall appeal for God’s mercy as a consequence of the Son’s offering . . . shall have life; . . . shall have the Father’s unconditional forgiveness.

    All of this is the consequence of the fact that the Lord God Almighty has heard and does hear our appeal for His mercies.  All of this is the consequence of the desire which God has that humanity stop resisting Him; . . . that humanity stop trying to go it alone without Him.  And so, on this tremendous night, we celebrate the regard which God has for us, . . . and we surrender ourselves to be at peace with God and with one another in honor of His sacred regard, . . . not just for a night or a season, . . . but for the duration of each of our sacred lives, . . . just as the angels counseled us to do when they praised the Lord God Almighty in the presence of some shepherds who were in the region of Bethlehem . . . so many years ago.