Enjoying the Company

This is another of those “low Sundays” that we face in the worship life of the church. We want to hold on to the joy of the season, but it has already begun to fade, and the world around us has already turned away to the next thing (New Year’s Eve? Valentine’s Day?) But we live into Christmastide. We seek to embrace all that God has in store for God’s people by diving into the meaning and purpose of Christ. We look forward, in other words, to Resurrection even now.

Not that we begin talking about Easter just yet. But we walk with Jesus and his family through the traditions and the blessings and the promises. Isaiah 61:10-62:3 is about celebrating the fulfillment of the promise. Luke 2:22-40 is about acknowledging the child who brings completion with him, through the words of Simeon. So, lean into the promises, continue the invitation, welcome the stranger, live into the presence of grace among us.

We want to hold on to the energy, even though we are weary. We want to acknowledge our struggles, even while we live in hope and with open eyes to see God at work in our world.

Prayer of Confession

O God, you search us out and know us,
and all that we are is open to you.
We confess that we have sinned.

In your mercy, Lord,
forgive us and heal us.

When we make no room for Christ,
and fail to welcome him into our lives,

In your mercy, Lord,
forgive us and heal us.

When we follow shooting stars
and squander our gifts in Herod's court,

In your mercy, Lord,
forgive us and heal us.

When we seek to cut down those
who might rise above us,

In your mercy, Lord,
forgive us and heal us.

When we sanitize your birth place
and erase from memory the poor and displaced,

In your mercy, Lord,
forgive us and heal us.

When we sing sweet sentiments over Christ's birth,
and fail to rejoice over his everyday presence,

In your mercy, Lord,
forgive us and heal us.

We turn to you, O Christ,
perfect union of Spirit and flesh;

We renounce evil;
We claim your love;
We choose to be made whole.

(http://laughingbird.net/Seasonal.html)

Prayer of Confession

Holy Friend, Savior and Healer of the world, we in your church family admit to you the frustration we feel for our part in the evil that infests humanity.

We are called to truth
but we prefer darkness to light because our investments are there.

We are called to hope
but we slide into the negativity of the snide and lost.

We are called to grace,
but we are at times as mean-spirited as the self-serving.

We are called to mercy,
but we harbor grudges and let slip insidious innuendos.

We are called to faith,
but we live as if everything depended on us.

We are called to love,
but it rarely goes beyond loving those who love us.

God of abundant loving, please forgive your church family for our failure to uphold and express the generosity of your ways. Forgive us for those sins of which we are ashamed, and for the sly sins which as yet we have not recognized and brought out into your light. Please be to us, not the God we deserve but the Savior who heaps grace upon grace. In you alone we place our trust. Through Christ Jesus our Redeemer,

Amen!

Forgiveness

Sisters and brothers in the family of God, though a sinner myself, I have a commission from the Living God to proclaim to you the forgiveness of sins and the life abundant. In God you may receive the grace, mercy and peace which make renewal undeniable. Through Christ Jesus our Savior.

Thanks be to God!

(Rev. Bruce Prewer, Australian Church Resources, http://www.bruceprewer.com/DocB/BCHRISTMAS1.htm)

Affirmation of Faith

WE BELIEVE
(based on Isaiah 61:10-11)

We believe.
We believe joyfully in the God of love,
with all our being we celebrate our God.
As soil after drought produces green shoots
and as garden seeds spring into new life,
so our God produces justice and praise
to spring up among all nations.

We believe in God
who dresses us in the garments of salvation;
who by the grace of Christ
covers us with the robe of righteousness,
adopts us into the holy family
and promises to make us a crown of beauty,
a royal diadem in the hand of God.

This we believe through Christ Jesus.
May the Holy Spirit strengthen our belief.

(Rev. Bruce Prewer, Australian Church Resources, http://www.bruceprewer.com/DocB/BCHRISTMAS1.htm)