Great and Holy God, in your dear son, our Lord Jesus Christ, you came into our midst as one of us, you have become ours, so that we might utterly become yours! So you have given us the permission, the command and the power to know you, to love and praise you.
To do this in common we have gathered this evening before the festival of your birth. We would like to thank you for the work of your almighty mercy. We must certainly confess at once that we, and our thoughts and our words and our life, again and again fall disgracefully short of what you are and what you do for us. And so we can only ask you not to remove your strong and kind hand from us, and still to be our father and brother, Saviour and Lord.
Grant us too at this time something of the incomprehensible and undeserved grace of your presence! Let us learn in the light of your word and in the power of your spirit to understand you and one another and ourselves a little better, and so let us gain new comfort, new courage, new patience, new hope! Let this take place today and tomorrow everywhere where men—whether they know it or not—wait for the mystery of Christmas to be revealed to them as their salvation and their life! Amen
- Barth, Karl, 1967: Call for God; New Sermons from Basel Prison. London: SCM Press Ltd. S 105.
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