Prelude

Welcome

Call to Worship:
God is telling a story in our lives. It’s quite a story-full of the promises God makes and our struggles to trust; full of mystery and angels with surprising news; full of hard endings and unexpected new beginnings.

Come, hear the story pay attention to the angels’ message in your heart in this place and time.

Then join all creation in worshiping the God who tells it full of grace and truth; who comes in Jesus, the Word made flesh, and makes our story holy.

Opening Hymn: Good Christian Friends Rejoice

Prayer of the Day:¹
Let us pray.
Almighty God, you gave us your only Son to take on our human nature and to illumine the world with your light. By your grace adopt us as your children and enlighten us with your Spirit, through Jesus Christ, our Redeemer and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen.

Christmas Story

Gospel Reading: John 1:1-14

¹In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was in the beginning with God. ³All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being ⁴in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. ⁵The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

⁶There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. ⁷He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. ⁸He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. ⁹The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

¹⁰He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. ¹¹He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. ¹²But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, ¹³who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

¹⁴And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.

This is the Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God!

Sermon

Hymn of the Day: Go Tell it on the Mountain

Prayer:²
We waited. And imagined a savior. We imagined power. One like the world but stronger and on our side. We imagined a king on a white horse wielding a sword. We got a baby born in a stable among the livestock. We imagined the work done for us through the destruction of our enemies. We receive a baby who will teach us our calling to seek reconciliation and to love expansively. Praise be to God for the unexpected babe of Bethlehem. Praise to the wisdom of love. Amen!

Lord’s Prayer:
Gathered into one by the Holy Spirit, let us pray as Jesus taught us saying:
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 trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory,
forever and ever.  Amen.

Benediction:³
Let the love that shaped earth and heaven dwell within us this Christmas.

Let the love that created humanity dwell within us this Christmas.

Let the love that overcomes suffering and hatred dwell within us this Christmas.

Let the love that causes us to rejoice with loved ones dwell within us this Christmas.

Let the love that forgives and renews dwell within us this Christmas.

Let the love that brings reconciliation after separation dwell within us this Christmas.

Let the love that brings the blessing of peace dwell within us this Christmas.

And may we share that peace with all people near and far.
Amen.

Benediction:
May the Lord bless you and keep you.
May the Lord’s face shine on you and be gracious to you.
May the Lord look upon you with favor and give you + peace.
Amen.

Sending Hymn: The First Noel

¹ https://re-worship.blogspot.com/2018/12/christmas-call-to-worship.html
² written by Anne Fraley, rector of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in South Windsor, CT. Posted on RevGalBlogPals. https://revgalblogpals.org/
³ in Prayers for Christmas, posted on the Christian Aid website. http://www.christianaid.org.uk/

Portions reprinted from Evangelical Lutheran Worship, copyright 2006.  Used by permission of Augsburg Fortress, license #SBL09796L.  Music reprinted from the ELW, by permission of OneLicense, license #A712349.  Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America.   Used by permission.