Our church was not one of the 10% of American churches that cancelled Sunday services on Christmas day, I’m happy to say. We had a wonderful service. Pastor Douthwaite’s sermon was on the “great reversal” of the Fall of Adam and Eve that God worked through the gift of His Son. Especially striking was something that I had never thought about: Our fall took place when mankind ate the fruit of the forbidden Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil. So the reversal of this curse also involves eating. We eat the fruit of the Tree of Life; namely, the body and blood of Christ crucified.
The Word who became flesh is flesh still and comes to you, for you, in that same body and blood today on this altar. And that final, dreadful part of the sentence once spoken to Adam has been reversed – and now the fruit of the Tree of Life is ours again! And so while Adam ate and died, for you and me it has been proclaimed: the day you eat of this, you shall surely live! This is My Body, this is My Blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sin. And we feast upon the Lamb of God. The flesh and blood of our Lord is truly the first – and best – Christmas gift.
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