First Sunday in Christmas - A

Texts:  Isaiah 63:7-9; Psalm 148; Hebrews 2:10-18; Matthew 2:13-23

Call to Worship
L:    All God's people - boys and girls, men and women:
P:    come and worship!
L:    Shepherds, wise ones, saints, and angels:
P:    come and worship!  Come and worship!
L:    All who need the Savior, all who long for comfort:
P:    come and worship!  Come and worship Christ, the newborn King!

Prayer of the Day
In your love, which never ends,
Steadfast Grace,
you hear the cries
of all the two-year-olds
cast aside by the world,
and the weeping of their mothers
who cannot feed them
because there is no hope.

Wrapped in an old blanket
to keep you warm in a cold stable,
and smuggled into Egypt to keep you safe,
Marginalized Messiah,
you know the searching of refugees
for a place they can call home,
for a life they can call safe.

Cradling the innocents killed in war,
remembering those driven from their homes
by fear, or greed, or power;
singing laments with all the parents
who cannot give their children
the lives they should have,
you proclaim God's name for us,
Spirit of Sanctuary.

God in Community, Holy in One,
you fill our hearts with you,
for you continue to come into this world.
Give us the peace, the joy, the hope to carry
to all who cry out to you this day,
even as we pray as Jesus has taught us, saying,
Our Father . . .

Call to Reconciliation
Born of Mary, in a child called Jesus, God knew life
as we know it: our pain, our doubts, our temptations,
our hopes.  Without sin, Jesus could choose to judge
us; instead, he redeems us and is the midwife of our
birth into new life.  Let us confess our sins, so we
might be filled with God's grace and joy in this season
of holiness and hope.

Unison Prayer of Confession
   Dweller in eternity, you became a little baby for us.
We chase down the corridors of power, while you enter
the hallways where weakness and suffering reside.  We
grab for more and more, while you let go of glory to
become one of us.  We reduce our Savior's birth to
tinsel, toys, and trash to be placed by the curb, while
you widen your embrace to welcome all thrown out
by the world.
   Forgive us, Joyous Love.  Come among us, filling
our hearts with your grace and truth.  Open our lips,
so we might sing with the angels.  Send us forth with
the shepherds, to tell everyone we meet of the good
news of the birth of the One who brings us life, Jesus
Christ, our Lord and Savior.

Silence is observed

Assurance of Pardon
L:  The news we have hungered for fills our lives;
the news we have been searching for has found us;
the news that is for all people is proclaimed:
a Savior has been born  -  for us!
P:    The One who is our hope has arrived;
the One who is our life has come to us;
the One who is our joy is in our midst:
Jesus Christ the Lord!  Thanks be to God!  Amen.

Great Prayer of Thanksgiving
All creation recounts your gracious deeds,
God of Christmas and beyond:
all the angels praise you from heaven's heights,
sea creatures in the deeps sing your carols;
shining stars twinkle your glory,
flying birds and creeping things echo your songs.
You alone are exalted, shaping all
for the children created in your image.
But temptation spoke to us in dreams,
and we fled into the embrace of death.
You sent prophets to search for us,
so that your hopes might be fulfilled,
but we refused to listen to the
brokenness of your heart.
So Jesus came into our lives
to lift us up and carry us home.

So with the politicians and the powerless,
with the immigrants, as well as the insiders,
we sing our praises to you:

P:    Holy, holy, holy, God of glory above earth and heaven.
       All creation praises you forever and ever.
       Hosanna in the highest!

        Blessed is the One who comes to fulfill
            the words of the prophets.
        Hosanna in the highest!

You alone are holy, God of steadfast love,
and blessed is Jesus Christ, your Child, our Savior.
Putting aside the robes of glory,
he came to be wrapped in diapers.
Experiencing every single thing we do,
he is able to strengthen us in every part of life.
Seeing how sin tricks us, he came
to lead us out of its slavery.
Knowing that it would be infuriated,
he went to the cross,
reducing death to a lump of a word,
as he strode out of it's useless grasp.

As we celebrate the birth of the Child,
as we remember the death and resurrection of Christ,
we recount that mystery we call faith:

P:    Christ died, setting us free from the fear of death;
        Christ rose, filling us with the hope of life;
        Christ will come, to lift us up and carry us to God.

Pour out your Holy Spirit
upon the gifts of the bread and cup
and on your children gathered here.
As we eat of this bread
which restores us to life,
may we hear the mothers
    weeping for their sons
    held captive by poverty;
may we listen to the fathers
    who lie awake in the night
    worrying about their daughters.
As we drink from the Cup
which is your Spirit for us,
    may our sophistications
    be washed away, so we
    can hear the cries of all the
            innocents.

And when your gracious deeds have ended,
and we are gathered in your glory
with our sisters and brothers,
we will fill all time with songs of praise to you,
God in Community, Holy in One.  Amen.

© 2010  Thom M. Shuman