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Woship Resources 2007-2008 — Year A: Passionate for Peace
Return to Year A: 2007-2008
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Christmas
Sunday, December 23, 2007
God Is with Us!
Fourth Sunday of Advent (Love)
Scriptures: Isaiah 7:10–16; Psalm 80:1–7,
17–19; Romans 1:1–7; Matthew 1:18–25/2:1–8 IV; II Nephi 9:23–30;
Doctrine and Covenants 162:7a
Sharing Christ’s Peace
Collectively and individually, you are loved with
an everlasting love that delights in each faithful step taken.—Doctrine
and Covenants 163:10a
Prelude
Welcome
Light the three candles used last week.
Advent Theme Song: “An Advent Song” (Tune: “Away in a Manger,” HS
232/233)
Add a new verse each Sunday.
A candle is burning, a candle of PEACE,
A candle to signal that conflict must cease.
For Jesus is coming to show us the way,
A message of peace humbly laid in the hay.
A candle is burning, a flame warm and bright,
A candle of HOPE in December’s dark night.
While angels sing blessings from heaven’s starry sky,
Our hearts we prepare now for Jesus is nigh.
A candle is burning, a candle of JOY,
A candle to welcome brave Mary’s new boy.
Our hearts fill with wonder and eyes light and glow,
As joy brightens winter like sunshine on snow.
A candle is burning, a candle of LOVE,
A candle to point us to heaven above.
A baby for Christmas, a wonderful birth,
For Jesus is bringing God’s love to our earth.
We honor Messiah with the CHRIST candle’s flame,
Our Christmas Eve candles glad tidings proclaim.
O come, all ye faithful, Rejoice in this night,
As God comes among us, the Christians’ true light.
—Used by permission, Sandra Dean, Ottawa,
Ontario, Canada.
Light the fourth candle—the candle of love, as well as a larger, white
candle—the Christ candle.
Reading: “Making Room for Jesus”
Silent Meditation
Hymns
“Now Sing to Our God” NS 40
“Angels from the Realms of Glory” HS 231
Scripture
[A]n angel of the Lord appeared to [Joseph] in a dream and said, “Joseph,
son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child
conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are
to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this
took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:
“Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him
Emmanuel,” which means, “God is with us.” When Joseph awoke from sleep, he
did as the angel of the Lord commanded him.—Matthew 1:20–24
*Hymn
“Once in Royal David’s City” HS 240
OR “Of the Father’s Love Begotten” HS 220
*Invocation
*Response
Disciples’ Generous Response
Each Sunday, as part of the Disciples’ Generous Response, we ask you to
integrate the message of “share equally” between Local and World Ministries
Mission Tithes. Offertory stories are provided to keep the church in touch
with how contributions to Mission Tithes spread the peace of Jesus Christ.
Please use the stories, testimonies, and up-to-date contribution information
as part of your offertory ministry. Visit
www.CofChrist.org/offertory
to print a copy, or contact your pastor, congregational financial
officer, or worship coordinator for a copy.
Scripture: Doctrine and Covenants 162:7a
Reflection
Live simply so others can simply live.… Wise and prayerful financial
planning and management of our resources brings financial wholeness in
life. Responsible spending frees us from being enslaved to possessions.
We are free to respond to God’s grace and love, living in health and
harmony with God and the world. —Becoming a Generous
Disciple (Independence, Missouri: Herald
Publishing House, 2004), 45–46.
Hymn
“Joseph, Kind Joseph” Sing during receiving of tithes and
offerings. HS 234
OR “Take My Life and Let It Be” HS 408
Blessing and Offering of Mission Tithes
Christmas Message
Based on Isaiah 7:10–16 and/or Matthew 1:18–25/2:1–8 IV
Ministry of Music
“Mary, Did You Know?” Mark Lowry and Buddy Greene.
Word Music. Performed by many artists.
OR Hymn: “What Child Is This?” HS 257
Christmas Prayer
An Advent Sending Forth
The shepherds were dirty, hard-bitten, and unbelieving.
The wise men were probably astrologers, opportunists, and in the end they
snuck away into the night.
Mary and Joseph were uncertain, at first unwilling, and perplexed
throughout.
And the manger—the manger was nothing more than a feeding trough for the
cows, the donkeys, and the camels.
To such people as this, and to such a place and time as this, the child
of hope was born. He came accompanied, to be sure, by angelic voices, by
guiding stars, by mystery, and wonder, and awe. But still he came to broken,
confused, searching, doubting, and altogether ordinary people.
And that is why the advent candles burn each year. They are lit anew each
Christmastime because the experience of our lives continues to make us yearn
for a word of hope, an act of love, a feeling of peace, and a song of joy.
They burn because the tender, delicate Christ Child lying in the rough,
hurriedly assembled straw, is a powerful symbol of that which is most vital,
most compelling, and most central to our lives.
Go forth with the joy of this day and the spirit of this season burning
in your heart, stimulating your mind, guiding your hands to perform acts of
love and caring and support.
Go forth and tell it—tell it on the mountains and in the valleys and in
the byways of your life. Tell the wondrous and joyful news that Jesus Christ
is born.
—Grant McMurray in Prayers and Readings
for Worship, Vol. 2, Peter Judd, ed. (Independence, Missouri: Herald
Publishing House, 1996), 86.
*Response
“Go Tell It on the Mountain” HS 249
OR “Angels We Have Heard on High” HS 237
*Postlude
Making Room for Jesus
This reading could be used as a drama. As a narrator reads, someone could
approach a door, knock on it, and wait. Then when it is not opened, they could
kneel beside the door, etc. Include children and youth in the drama.
A weary hand knocks on the door of an inn, and there is no room!
No room, God of love, for love to be born.
Oh, how we need your gift of love!
Love of neighbor, love of enemy, love of self.
Healthy love, holistic love.
Healing love that melts the ice of alienation, that warms each heart with
the wonder of acceptance
for every child that love has birthed.
Surely there is room for love?
Love that seeks and saves. Love without strings.
Love for love’s own sake—uncaused, uncalculated, unrequiring.
A weary hand pounds on the door of an inn, and there is no room!
No room, God of peace, for peace to be born.
Oh, how we need your gift of peace!
Peace unwilling to sleep in the shadows, unwilling to live and die in
speeches made and slogans said.
Surely there is room for peace?
Peace beyond politics, power, and position.
Peace that wages war against conflict, avarice, and inequity in a world
where peace for me
and mine alone is not peace at all.
A weary hand hammers on the door of an inn and there is no room!
No room, God of hope, for hope to be born.
Oh, how we need your gift of hope!
Hope that finds the holy in a blade of grass, a bird’s song, an infant’s
cry.
Hope that makes the future now. That looks beyond what is and yearns for
what can be.
Surely there is room for hope?
Hope sprinkling its promise on the dark night of the soul?
Hope for harmony! Hope for one more try!
Hope that justice will have its day.
A weary hand raps on the door of an inn and there is no room, dear God,
for your child to be born!
No room in a world where hunger cries and innocents die—where war is dressed
in angel’s wings
and rhetoric is king.
But the miracle of Christmas is that your child comes anyway
And love, hope, and peace find room in every heart made larger by the joy of
his coming!
May the joy of this season spill out in word, deed, and song.
Joy to the world! Joy for the world! The Lord is come! Amen.
—Danny A. Belrose, Wave Offerings
(Independence, Missouri: Herald Publishing House,
2005), 131.
Sermon Helps
Scriptures: Isaiah 7:10–16; Psalm 80:1–7, 17–19; Romans 1:1–7;
Matthew 1:18–25/2:1–8 IV; II Nephi 9:23–30; Doctrine and Covenants
162:7a
Exploring the Scriptures
Today is the fourth Sunday of Advent. We have remembered that Advent is about
what is to come. We have been reminded that peace, hope, and joy are all part of
what God sends us. Today we focus on “love”—the last theme of Advent. God is
love, and God is with us through the greatest “gift” of love—Jesus.
We turn again to Isaiah and his prophecy to King Ahaz as recorded in the
seventh chapter. If there was ever a time when King Ahaz needed a clear sign
that God was with him, it was at this particular moment in Judah’s history. The
country was in decline and besieged from without. It was only twenty-five to
thirty years from political extinction.
Ahaz would not ask for a sign from God, but Isaiah shares a powerful vision
of what is coming. Isaiah says that God will provide a sign in an ordinary
event: a pregnant woman will bear a child and call him Immanuel. For Israel, a
sign was visible evidence of God’s presence with the people. Basic to Israel’s
belief was the understanding that God did not stand apart from them, nor was God
limited to human cause-and-effect understanding of the world. Israel’s faith was
grounded in the understanding that God was with them.
God’s signs are seen in both the ordinary and the extraordinary. In the
ordinary act of the birth of a child, Israel saw a sign. Born with this child
was God’s message of hope, bringing light to people at a dark time in their
history. This was God’s sign of love that Ahaz and his people were not alone.
Centuries later, Matthew’s record of the birth of Jesus includes this
prophetic quote from Isaiah (Matthew 1:23) and a reference to the sign that is
coming. Like Israel, we are challenged to find God’s signs in both the ordinary
and extraordinary of our world. God’s signs are anything that reminds us of God
with us. At Christmas, we see the sign as God’s gift to the world, God’s Son.
The first chapter of Matthew reminds us that the words spoken by the prophet
are fulfilled through the ordinary: a young woman conceiving and bearing a son,
named Emmanuel, which means, “God is with us” (Matthew 1:22–23). Like Israel, we
have peace, hope, and joy, because God is love and love is with us also.
Empowered by this sign, we are sent forth to share with others the good
news that God is love and love is with us. We see a continuous cycle of the
receiving and sharing of this news.
Central Ideas
1. Signs from God are found in the ordinary and the extraordinary.
Sometimes we fail to see the signs of God that are all around us. For
something to be sign-ificant, does not mean that it has to defy
natural law. It only has to remind us of God’s presence with us. Signs come
as a hug from a friend, a smile from a stranger, or a special experience
with nature. Our days are full of signs from God that God is with us.
2. God’s gift of Jesus is a sign of Emmanuel, God is with us.
Jesus’ birth broke into the history of the world. Jesus came in an
unexpected form with a counter-cultural message. This ordinary birth has
had, and continues to have, extraordinary impact on the world.
3. Seeing God’s sign and accepting God’s gift of love begins a cycle of
receiving and sharing. As the first principle of a Disciple’s Generous
Response teaches, a disciple practices generosity as a spiritual discipline
in response to God’s grace and love. We are able to be generous only after
we have received God’s grace and love—only after we have accepted the
promise that God is with us.
Questions for the Speaker
1. What signs are present in your life reminding you that God is with us?
2. What does “Emmanuel, God is with us” mean to you?
3. What does it mean to accept God’s gift of love?
4. What changes are required in your life to more fully experience the
cycle of receiving and sharing?
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