Order, Words, & Voices
12.31.23, 1st Sunday after Christmas Eve, Rooted in Ritual, Luke 2:21-38
Order
Pre Worship Music – Spotify – Open and Close
Songs Billy/Team
Father of Love
Hallelujah He Reigns
Participatory Response and Prayer Cricklins
Songs Billy/Team
Give Thanks
Draw Me Close
Passage/Lord’s Prayer Renee
Message Ritual Rick
Music Draw Me Close Billy/Team
Community/Benediction Rick
Closing Peace Rick
Music Jesus, Name Above All Names Billy/Team
Post Worship Music – Spotify – Open and Close
Music (slides) Team
Your Lovingkindness CCLI Song # 818174
Verse
Father of love
Lord of all creation
I will bless Your name
Forever and ever
I will declare
Your grace and Your mercy
And tell of Your unfailing love
Chorus
Your lovingkindness
Is good to all
Your wings of mercy
Lift me when I fall
Your lovingkindness
Meets my ev’ry need
You cleanse me from unrighteousness
And You give new life to me
Verse
Father of love
Lord of all creation
I will bless Your name
Forever and ever
I will declare
Your grace and Your mercy
And tell of Your unfailing love
Chorus
Your lovingkindness
Is good to all
Your wings of mercy
Lift me when I fall
Your lovingkindness
Meets my ev’ry need
You cleanse me from unrighteousness
And You give new life to me
Hallelujah He Reigns CCLI Song # 290455
Chorus
Hallelujah
He reigns in majesty
Hallelujah
He reigns in glory
Hallelujah
He reigns in righteousness
Oh hallelujah hallelujah
Hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah
Hallelujah
He reigns in righteousness
Oh hallelujah
Participatory Response and Prayer (Slides) Cricklins
Leader: Eight days after Jesus’ birth, Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to the Bethlehem church to be baptized. Now in the heart of community, they held him while holding to the ritual of the Law.
Response: They brought him into God’s sanctuary.
Leader: Exhausted and bleary-eyed, these new parents were excited and overwhelmed. As Mary and Joseph brought Jesus into community, we also gather, bringing our prayers and praise into community.
Response: We bring exhausted prayers, bleary-eyed laments, and deep joy overflowing with gratitude.
Leader: We thank God for the backdrop of joy this season brings. We bring thanks for the candles and carols. We bring thanks for turning ordinary moments into holy reminders of God’s promise and sacrifice.
Response: In our abundance, may we also never forget the heartache carried by many.
Leader: 40 days after Jesus was born, Mary and Joseph brought him to the temple for the ritual purification of Mary and the blessing of Jesus. Holding to the Mosaic rituals – they found comfort and affirmation, they experienced connection with others.
Response: Jesus would identify with these, Jesus would be the sacrifice for these.
Leader: Like Mary and Joseph, in our weariness we seek to bring our best to lay before God, to bring hope and peace wrapped up in our swaddled joy. We come together so we can leave in awe and amazement, showing hope and peace to the world in which we live.
Response: Like Mary and Joseph, we strive to be a reflection of God’s light that pierces the darkness.
Leader: Join me in the prayer of Jesus,
[Slides] 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. Forgive us our trespasses, while 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. Amen.
Music (slides) Billy/Team
Give Thanks CCLI Song # 20285
Chorus
Give thanks with a grateful heart
Give thanks to the Holy One
Give thanks because He’s given
Jesus Christ His Son
Verse
And now let the weak say I am strong
Let the poor say I am rich
Because of what the Lord has done for us
Give Thanks
Draw Me Close CCLI Song # 1459484
Verse
Draw me close to You never let me go
I lay it all down again
To hear You say that I’m Your friend
You are my desire no one else will do
‘Cause nothing else could take Your place
To feel the warmth of Your embrace
Help me find the way bring me back to You
Chorus
You’re all I want
You’re all I’ve ever needed
You’re all I want
Help me know You are near
Ending
Help me know You are here
Passage (Slides) Renee
When the time came for Mary and Jesus’ purification according to the law, all three traveled to the temple at Jerusalem to present Jesus to the Lord – for the law states, “Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord”.
They offered a required sacrifice of a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.
There was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon who was righteous and devout, and looking forward to the comfort of Israel, and, at that moment, the Holy Spirit rested on Jesus.
The Spirit had previously revealed to Simeon that he would not die until he saw the Messiah. Led by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple as Mary and Joseph brought Jesus into the space. Simeon took Jesus in his arms and praised God, saying,
“God, you are dismissing me, your servant, in peace, according to your promise, my eyes have now seen your salvation, which you prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.”
Joseph and Mary were amazed at what Simeon said about Jesus. Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, “This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel and he will be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your soul, too.”
Also, there was also a prophet named Anna. She was 84 years old, and had been a widow for many decades. Anna never left the temple, worshiping through fasting and prayer night and day.
As she entered the building that day she saw the parents with Jesus and began to praise God speaking about the child to everyone who were also looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.
Luke 2:21-38
Message Rick
How does a weary world rejoice? That has been our question during lent this year, a question that was possibly forgotten by the key figures in the birth of Jesus narrative. Forgotten because, after generations and generations of oppression and dismissal, those individuals along with most Isrealites had settled into the weariness just as their ancestors had gradually done. As I was preparing my end of year message my plan was to show pictures from the last year that defined our weariness. Pictures of brutal wars in other lands, trials of leaders and their followers who attempted to destroy democracy in our own land through words and physical brutality, destructive evidences of the effects of climate change in all of our lands, the rejection of entire populations of people around the globe and the rejection of women and other peoples in many denominations within our Christian faith, and an unwillingness in our nation to figure out how to figure out to work together to fix the root problems of immigration, 34rd world unimaginable living situations, homelessness, gun violence, and the dismissal of the inconvenient and people in our world that make us uncomfortable and fearful.
I think one picture sums up our weariness, – a picture of a Ukrainian soldier who has been killed in battle in which the Ukrainian forces lost an entire region to the Russians. As the Ukrainians retreated, there was no time to compassionately carry the body of this fallend young soldier and then the Russians chose to not show compassion for a fallen enemy. So, the body remained on a busy dirt road, slowly crushed as tanks and other vehicles drove over the lifeless body, until the body, a son, a father, a brother, a grandson, a husband, a friend, became a one dimensional layer in the dust. Fully identified as former human but also fully dismissed and disrespected in an inhumane moment of time.
This was the world to which Jesus was born into, a world where weariness had become the invisible reality of existence. This, is our world. The question is not just how do we rejoice, but ‘what part can we play to change our world where rejoicing is possible in all moments’.
I chose not to begin with those pictures, you have surely seen enough of them over the past twelve months. Instead, I thought I would show you some picture of rejoicing that has taken place in the past twelve months.
[Screen Share through slides]
Here are some of those moments… (slides for each moment)
- [Slide] Ukrainians celebrate Xmas on Dec 25, breaking w/Russian Church
- [Slide] Girls play angels in Columbia Christmas procession. For nearly 200 years, the city’s Afro-Colombian residents have celebrated Christmas 40 days after the traditional date observing end of slavery.
- [Slide] Although it doesn’t look like it, this is a celebration of 50 years of rap music.
- [Slide] Over 70,000 Young women have participate in a program for adolescent mothers that has helped them stay in school.
- [Slide] Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show fan favorite Striker the Samoyed, smiles for a picture after photographer gave up on tounge.
- [Slide] Celebration of the end of Ramadan – Bangladeshi men nearly filling a whole block in the Kensington neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY.
- [Slide] Midland Texas Chambelanes before a quinceañera in Midland, TX.
- Incoming conductor Gustavo Dudamel leading the NY Philharmonic.
- [Slide] Yusef Salaam on the night of winning a Harlem City Council seat 21 years after his wrongful conviction in the Central Park Five rape case had been overturned – he had spent 7 years in prison beginning when he was a15 years old.
- [Slide] Gabbi Jones, after traveling from Michigan to LA for Taylor Swift concert on 13th birthday..
- [Slide] Sophia Yoo with other students at the School of American Ballet, – training academy for the NY City Ballet. Sophia made her debut as an angel in “George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker.”
- [Slide] Young teens frolicking on Yoff Beach in Dakar, Senegal- Projectection are that more than a third of the world’s young people will live in Africa by 2050. The implications of this “youthquake,” as some call it, are immense yet uncertain. Researchers are excited about a population that is getting ready to chang the world.”
[End Screen Share – next slides will be near the end]
Within the first two years following Jesus’ birth, he encountered an individual who found room for him when there was no room to be found; shepherds who crowded into the stable to see the child that angels had told them about while speaking over themselves to tell Mary and Joseph what the angels said; a Jewish Mohel who performed Jesus’ circumcision, a wholly unpleasant experience, which was the first act of shedding blood for his own people which would eventually be shed for all people; a man named Simeon and a woman named Anna, both of whom who had been waiting for Jesus for years; Wise men, pagans – non Jews, who had been searching for Jesus in the stars for decades; and a paranoid and controlling King who brutally acted impulsively on his own insecurities and fear.
How did Mary and Joseph, Jesus’ earthly parents, rejoice in the midst of their weariness, they rooted themselves in, and on, rituals. They took the steps they knew until God gave them a different path.
Columnist David Brooks writes: “Rituals provide comfort because they remind us we’re not alone. [We think to ourselves] ‘Billions of people have done this before as part of the timeless passages of life.’ Rituals comfort because they concretize spiritual experiences.”
While joy is not necessarily a prominent emotion named in the nativity story, we might imagine that Mary and Joseph are bolstered by the community that surrounds them as they name, circumcise, and dedicate their child. In these ritual acts, they are connected to their ancestors of the past, and those around them in the present. Through the words of the prophets Simeon and Anna, they are connected to those in the future. As they internalize the fullness of Jesus’ calling, they are not alone. Mary and Joseph, overwhelmed and out of place, do what they know to do, they follow the rituals of their parents, their ancestors, to take the next steps even when their situation is anything but a normal path.
Chad Fetzer, pastor of Newhaven Church in Lawton illustration.
On the way they received affirmations, the inn keeper made room because that was the ritual practice of his people. They listened in amazement as the shepherds excitedly repeated the words of the angels. These new parents took the child to the Jewish Mohel whose job was to circumcise the new child, shedding the same blood of identification with the Israelites which would later be the sacrificial act of blood that would deliver all people. They took the child to the temple to be blessed while Mary was purified and in doing so God had an old man named Simeon and a elderly widow to give the parents of Jesus moments of awe which would carry them through the coming backdrops of pain and misery.
Mary, Joseph, and Jesus lived in a weary world that would only become more exhausting and disappointing. Their world, the promised land, had been oppressed by brutal powerful nations. At Jesus birth Israel was ruled by Rome. Seventy years after Jesus birth, following a short rebellion of a small group of Jews, Rome became more and more brutal, the temple was destroyed and most of the Isrealites fled the promised land which was the beginning of the ‘2,000 year diaspora’. The people of Abraham’s promise became a scattered and disconnected people. These people of the land of promise became refugees and immigrants unwanted and mistreated. This people who were awaiting the promised blessing missed that blessing which was absorbed into a backdrop of pain and misery.
We live in a weary world, different but still weary. Few of us know and understand their oppression and mistreatment but we are weary nonetheless. We too step forward in the only ways we know how, reminding ourselves of the rituals of hospitality and compassion, we remember our faith rituals, we still gather on a regular basis, we still pray for each other, we still rejoice in the light given to others, we partake of the bread and wine that remind us of the empty grave. We step forward watching for God’s signposts along the way. All the while keeping our focus on becoming the righteousness of Jesus.
[Screen Share]
Nathan Clark George writes,
[Slide] What wonder filled the starry night when Jesus came with heralds bright!
[Slide] I marvel at His lowly birth, that God for sinners stooped to earth.
[Slide] His splendor laid aside for me, while angels hailed His Deity.
[Slide] Shepherds on their knees in fright fell down in wonder at the sight.
[Slide] The child who is the Way, the Truth, who pleased His Father in His youth.
[Slide] Through all His days the Law obeyed, yet for its curse His life He paid.
[Slide] What drops of grief fell on the site where Jesus wrestled through the night.
[Slide] Then, for transgressions not His own, He bore my cross and guilt alone.
[Slide] What glorious Life arose that day when Jesus took death’s sting away!
[Slide] God’s children raised to life and light, to serve Him by His grace and might.
[Slide] One day the angel hosts will sing, “Triumphant Jesus, King of kings!”
[Slide] Eternal praise we’ll shout to Him when Christ in splendor comes again!
(Nathan Clark George, Rise and Worship)
[End Screen Share]
Prayer (Rick)
God, we know that it is not enough to hear once a month, or possibly only once a year, that we are forgiven. We need to hear it every single week. Every single day we need to be reminded that we are held in Your loving embrace. God, show us those rituals, those objects and memories that serve to constantly remind us of your embrace, sacrifice, and compassion. May we regularly remind ourself of this good news: no matter where we are on our journey of life, love, and faith, and no matter what we have done or left undone, we belong to you. We are claimed. We are known. We are forgiven. We are loved. This is the good news you have given to us. Thanks be to you O God. Amen.
Music (Slides) Billy/Team
Draw Me Close CCLI Song # 1459484
Verse
Draw me close to You never let me go
I lay it all down again
To hear You say that I’m Your friend
You are my desire no one else will do
‘Cause nothing else could take Your place
To feel the warmth of Your embrace
Help me find the way bring me back to You
Chorus
You’re all I want
You’re all I’ve ever needed
You’re all I want
Help me know You are near
Ending
Help me know You are here
Community (Slides) Rick
- Next Sunday, 01.07.24 @ 10:30, Baptism of the Lord, How does a weary world rejoice? We trust our belovedness, Luke 3:21-22 (Jesus is baptized and beloved) Devo books still available today, final week.
- Weariness and Joy tree
- ‘In-Between’ Bible Study beginning January 10, Wednesdays at noon (Tuesdays during Lent). Evening BS if enough interest expressed. Covering passage in-between Sunday passages.
Benediction (Slides) Rick
When our world turns upside down or when the road ahead is unclear, we return to those moments where we saw God’s hands at work in and around us. Moments of ritual, moments of declaration, moments of evidence. Moments which, even though they may have been short were nonetheless real. God was present, God is present.
We come to the sanctuary whatever, and wherever, that is. We gather for connections, for encouragement and comfort. We break bread together at the table. We witness the symbolic, yet very real expression of our hearts and minds, at the pouring of water, the stepping into the stream, letting the flow remove our filth of rejection.
We gather and greet one another as family. And we listen to God’s truth, God’s Word. We pray, silently and vocally, in isolation and in the midst of each other, in gratitude and desperation. We meet in our rituals that anchor us and remind us of our hope.
As we go from here we listen for God, we listen to God. We draw near to God, we draw near to each other. We take of light to the world that God loves, we return to those who God lovingly created.
We go in the Father’s sacrifice, we go in the life and death and life of the Son, we go guided by the power of the Spirit.
Closing Peace (Slides) Rick
Leader: May the hope, peace, joy, and love of the Lord go with you.
Response: And also with you.
Leader: Go in the hope, peace, joy, and love of the Lord.
Let’s sing before we leave
Music
Jesus, Name Above All Names CCLI Song # 21291
Jesus name above all names
Beautiful Savior glorious Lord
Emmanuel God is with us
Blessed Redeemer living Word
Order, Words, & Voices 