Journey to the Cradle

Carol Service 2023: Journey to the Cradle

In our Carol Service this afternoon, we found in the Garden of Eden, the beginning of the thread that weaves together the grand tapestry of salvation history. 

The disobedience of our forebears began the story that we traced through from Patriarchs and Kings and prophets…from promise to enslavement, to deliverance, to conquest, to exile, to restoration, and finally, through to the great fulfilment of what was first predicted in the Garden…the birth of the Seed of the woman. 

We saw that even from the very beginning of our disobedience, God's mercy shone and still shines through. His promise to send the Redeemer echoes through the corridors of time. 

Abraham, a man of faith, became a pivotal figure in this divine narrative. God's covenant with him marked the beginning of a chosen people…a people through whom all the families of the nations would be blessed. Through Abraham's descendants, God unfolded His plan for salvation. 

The covenant continued with David, a shepherd elevated to kingship, as God promised an everlasting kingdom through his lineage. As generations passed, the whisper of God's promise became a clear resounding melody. Prophets proclaimed hope and foretold the coming of a Messiah…a Deliverer. 

Then, in the fullness of time, Jesus, the Divine second member of the Holy Trinity, broke through onto the stage of human history, taking on human flesh and becoming a Man. Born of a virgin in Bethlehem in fulfilment of the prophetic word, he embodied the culmination of God's redemptive plan. Through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, salvation history reached its zenith. The Lamb of God, sinless and sacrificial, took upon himself the weight and the penalty of our sins, nailing the requirements against us to the cross and disarming the rulers and powers of darkness. 

The Cross, as such, became the bridge between a dying world and the promise of eternal life. In Jesus, God's covenant with Creation finds its ultimate fulfilment. Through faith in Him, we become heirs to the promises made to Abraham and the beneficiaries of the Davidic kingdom. Salvation history, a narrative woven through with threads of love and grace, invites every one of us to participate in the divine drama and to embrace the free gift of redemption.

Through Jesus, we may once more enter through the gates once barred and shut because of sin, and, as such, end where we began. In the Garden. Through Jesus, we come full circle to re-enter Paradise where we may once more walk freely with our Father and Creator God.

And so, the journey we have followed to the Cradle in this service continues…but now in the lives of those whom he weaves into his grand design for Creation. You and I are the threads he uses to bring his beauty to bear upon a bleak and strife-torn world.  Each step forward brings us closer to the time when sin and sorrow will be wiped away by his blessing. We are all participants in the weaving of this grand salvation tapestry as we make known the triumph of our lowly King, but the final stitch is yet to come.

Shall we pray?

© Johannes W H van der Bijl 2023