They All Gather Together

Call to Worship

Children of God, we enter the new year as we ended the last: gathered together for worship!

We gather to seek, find, and follow the Light.

The prophet Isaiah calls to us from deep in the past: “Arise, shine; for your light has come.”

We gather to seek, find, and follow the Light.

The magi followed a star to find a small child who is the Light of the world.

We gather to seek, find, and follow the Light.

So, let us receive the call of Isaiah and follow the example of the magi as we begin this new year turning our faces to God whose glory shows up among us as a vulnerable child, a poor carpenter, and a foot-washing servant who is the salvation of the world.

We gather to seek, find, and follow the Light today and every day. Amen.

Written by Dr. Lisa Hancock, Discipleship Ministries, July 2024.

Opening Prayer

Dear God, reveal to us this day what our eyes look for but cannot see; what our ears hear and cannot understand. Shine your light on the pages of our lives. In the places where we share the dark, everyone looks bright, and everything looks right. We are not anxious to move out of our darkness where we are fooled. In the darkness, our motives are not clear, our ideas are not voiced, and our relationships are not questioned. But when your light shines, everything is like an open window. We see clearly. Help us to move on with you, Light of lights. We praise you and pray in the name of Jesus Christ the Lord. Amen.

Written by T. Anne Daniel, The Africana Worship Book, Year B (Nashville: Discipleship Resources, 2007), 129.

Prayer of Confession

Gracious God,
we would like to be among those who saw the coming of the Christ Child,
those who dropped all that they were doing
and traveled to worship the coming of God's love into this world.
We would like to be those who cared for God in infant vulnerability;
who tickled and cuddled and comforted the growing child,
that he might know love and safety.
And yet, merciful God,
we must recognize all the times we are more like Herod.
Whenever we, in our actions or in our inactions,
find our own need for control more compelling
than the needs of others for health and safety.
Whenever we cling to the security of our privilege,
rather than standing up for the rights of the oppressed.
Whenever we are complicit in the harming of innocents
for the sake of profit, or power,
or because we fear to know, and to change,
the injustices of this world.

Loving God,
we confess our sins against you and one another,
and pray that you will fill us with your light,
that we may live our lives as true disciples in your name,
without counting the cost.
In the name of Christ,
the one who showed us the way, we pray. Amen.

Assurance of Pardon

God's light is present in this world.
Present in the Christ child, born to lead us out of darkness.
Present in the star, in all that guides us to love.
God's light is in the world, and the darkness did not overcome it.
God's grace is in the world, and our missteps will not overcome it.
We are loved, we are forgiven. Alleluia! Amen.

Written by Eliza Buchakjian-Tweedy, Pastor at First Church Congregational, Rochester, NH, on http://sermonizing.wordpress.com/. Re-posted on the re:Worship blog at https://re-worship.blogspot.com/2013/12/prayer-of-confession-matthew-2-1-18.html.

Benediction

Beloved, go from this place carrying the blessing of the Light who has come among so that the love of the Christ child may shine within you, casting rays of good news wherever you go. Amen.

Dr. Lisa Hancock, Discipleship Ministries, July 2024.