In 1973 scientists from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration sent a spider into space. The scientists were curious as to the effects that zero gravity might have on a spider and her web. The spider who volunteered for the mission was named Arabella.

As the scientists suspected, zero gravity, did have an affect on the spider; indeed, it brought out the finest in this web mistress. Unbound from earth’s Newtonian laws, she spun ornate and dazzling webs. This artistic arachnid delved into her labor of love with an intensity and creativity unmatched by earthly spiders.

She sculpted each individual filament, spinning webs that were asymmetrical patchworks of inventive originality, each filament varying from the previous in tension and strength. Arabella fine-tuned her masterpiece by altering the bore of a few strands, and broke earthly patterns with her heavenly creation.

Tonight, on Christmas Eve, we are invited to view an infinitely more intricate, delicate and glorious web. In this instance, however, it is God who is the master weaver … and who, in a direct reversal of Arabella’s journey, comes from heaven to earth to weave the web.

In Christ, God has come to earth and, entering our atmosphere, was unbound by the laws of gravity and mortality … and, indeed, even of nature. Upon entering earth as Christ, God was moved to weave together a dazzling array of persons, creatures and events into a glorious and colorful web …  a web more stunning and lovely than any earthly creature dared dream of. It is a web that spans and binds together heaven and earth … and, it binds us together, you and I, and all the other you’s and I’s who share space on this planet.
 
Watch and listen now as God weaves the Web. It will be woven in carol and story, in prayer and candle lighting. And if you watch and listen well, not only will you hear tell of how God wove a story of dazzling originality from the filaments of prophets and angels, of a star and wise men, of kings and a child, of animals and a stable. If you attend carefully to this story you will hear how God is, even now, weaving the filaments of your life, your city or town into this sacred story of redemption.

The web God has woven in the birth of Christ encompasses all – everyone and everything. It encompasses the children of the South Asian tsunami, and the victims of Katrina, Rita and Wilma, and the violence in Darfur and the Sudan, and the earthquake in Pakistan and Kashmir, and all the wars and all the soldiers. In this earthly atmosphere of war and greed, of death and disaster, God weaves a sparkling web whose filaments are peace and hope, joy and resurrection.
 

Welcome, then to Old South Church on this Christmas Eve. Whether, like the magi, you have journeyed from afar to worship the Christ child, or whether, like the Inn Keeper, this is your home and church, you are welcome here. Welcome to this house of prayer for many nations on this holy night in which God weaves a most magnificent web.

We turn now to an adaptation of the traditional English service of Lessons and Carols, a service first held on Christmas Eve in 1918 at King’s College Chapel in Cambridge, England. We begin with the words of the Bidding Prayer.

THE BIDDING PRAYER
Beloved in Christ, this Christmas Eve let it be our care and delight to prepare ourselves to hear again the message of the angels: in heart and mind to go even unto Bethlehem and see this thing which is come to pass, and with the shepherds and the Magi adore the Child lying in his Mother's arms.

Let us read and mark in Holy Scripture the tale of the loving purposes of God; and let us make this sanctuary, dedicated to the worship of the living God, glad with our carols of praise:

But first let us pray for the needs of God’s whole world; for peace and goodwill over all the earth; for unity within the Church Christ came to build.

And let us at this time remember in Christ’s name the poor and the helpless, the cold, the hungry and the oppressed; the sick in body and in mind and those that mourn; the lonely and the unloved; the aged and the little children; and all who know not the loving kindness of God.

Lastly let us remember before God all those who rejoice with us, but upon another shore and in a greater light, that multitude which no one can number, whose hope was in the Word made flesh, and with whom we for evermore are one.

These prayers and praises let us humbly offer up to the throne of heaven, in the words which Christ himself hath taught us, saying: Our Father...

THE LORD’S PRAYER
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever.  Amen.