Sunday 21st
Christmas Communion
Welcome
67 Once in Royal
David’s City
Prayer and the
Lord’s Prayer
Happy Christmas!
Lovely
poster in the porch with Happy Christmas in lots and lots of different
languages.
How
many Christmas greetings can we put together.
Today
we give a special greeting to George and Barbar Cullis who join us in Church
Membership from Market Street Church, Baptist URC church in Nantwich – with
greetings from Sue Moult the Church Secretary.
We welcome George
and Barbara Cullis into Church Membership
Reading: Hebrews 1:1-4 and 2:1
1In
the past, God spoke to our ancestors many times and in many ways through the
prophets,2but in these last days he has spoken to us through his
Son. He is the one through whom God created the universe, the one whom God has
chosen to possess all things at the end. 3He reflects the
brightness of God's glory and is the exact likeness of God's own being,
sustaining the universe with his powerful word. After achieving forgiveness for
human sins, he sat down in heaven at the right-hand side of God, the Supreme
Power. That is why we must hold on all
the more firmly to the truths we have heard, so that we will not be carried
away.
News
from around the world
– mission partners
Stefan
and Birgit
Stefan
has come over to Germany for a course and is with Marit spending Christmas with
the family. While Birgit, Simeon and
Jacob are back in Rolandia, Southern Brazil where Stefan is lecturing in OT
studies in one of Brazil’s biggest evangelical theological seminaries. He has been teaching on a course in Germany –
a student who will be returning back in the Sertao, a rural area in
norther-eastern Brazil, antoerhs student works with Eastern European victims of
human trafficking here in Germanyu. Another is a midwife in Paksitan, someone
from Hamburg working with migrants and another from Japan.
Pretty
lonely and isolated for them – as Birgit finishes the term teaching … and
working in a drug rehabilitation centre –
Three
gifts for the tree.
Another
international link – Chiks –
News
from Sue …
We
light the fourth of our Advent candles … thinking of that world-wide family of
the church we belong to …
Lighting
the fourth candle
Hope – Peace –
Love - Joy
Hy-Spirit
Christmas song
Offering
and Dedication
It’s
party time for the younger children
What
was missing from our Nativity?
Look
at the picture –
Our
Christmas nativity drew on the carol On a Starry Night – and it only tells the
story of the shepherds. So when we
dressed up the youngsters there were only shepherds and angels – no wise men,
no kings.
In
part that’s traditional isn’t it? The
wise men came after the birth and are traditionally associated with Epiphany.
But
… I hold light to that tradition … we’ve been singing We three kings quite
lustily with youngsters from Belmont and from Pittville who joined us for their
carol services.
Another
way of looking at it is that we told the story of Chrsitmas from Luke’s Gospel
– all about shepherds, nothing about Wise men, let alone Kings.
Matthew’s
gospel has another perspective altogether – it tells the story of Wise Men,
Magi – doesn’t really mention they are kings.
But it does mention another King at the time, King Herod.
So,
let’s think of the story of the wise men – it’s a lovely story of three wise
men thinking they would find the King in a palace, going to the palace in
Jerusalem, the king of the day being terrified, after all he was king –
arranging to dupe the three wise men into finding out where the child was to be
born.
They find the Christchild – fall down and worship him and present their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.
Lovely
story …
But
dig away at the story and there is a dark side.
A
dark side you will rarely find in a school nativity play.
And
it is such a pity because the school nativity play reduces the story to a pretty
children’s story.
Whereas
the story is a very dark one indeed.
Herod
the builder – with the palace you see from Bethlehem – the National Geographic
verdict on Herod –
Herod
blended creativity and cruelty, harmony and chaos, in ways that challenge the
modern imagination
This
is a dark side to the story … that now unfolds further …
Reading: Matthew 2:13-18
After they had
left, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph and said, “Herod will
be looking for the child in order to kill him. So get up, take the child and
his mother and escape to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you to leave.”14 Joseph
got up, took the child and his mother, and left during the night for Egypt,15 where
he stayed until Herod died. This was done to make what the Lord had said
through the prophet come true, “I called my Son out of Egypt.”16 When
Herod realized that the visitors from the east had tricked him, he was furious.
He gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its neighbourhood who were
two years old and younger — this was done in accordance with what he had
learned from the visitors about the time when the star had appeared.17 In
this way what the prophet Jeremiah had said came true:18 “A
sound is heard in Ramah, the sound of bitter weeping. Rachel is
crying for her children;she refuses to be comforted, for they are dead.”
This
is the cruel world Jesus enters into …
Let’s
return to the message of Christmas – in some ways that says it all …
When
horrific things happen, God is there with us, through those things – to give us
a strength to go through them,
To
keep going and not to give in
And
to bring into those situations healing where people are hurting – and work for
peace and for justice.
Another
partnership we celebrate at Christmas time is the partnership we have with the
de la Salles Scout group.
Christmas
greetings personally from them,– and they share with us for Chrristmas a prayer
…
This
is the prayer that speaks into the horrors of a world at war where in that war
even children are targeted in the atrocity that has hit home at us so hard this
week.
Prayer
for peace and justice
from
the de la Salles school.
We
pray to You, Lord
God
of life and God of those who hope!
Listen
to our prayer for the whole world
For
peace among all peoples,
For
prosperity in all lands.
We
pray to You that evil may be overcome
And
that all wars may end.
We
pray to You especially for the members of our Lasallian Family,
Who
suffer from war, injustice and intolerance,
And
for the children
And
young people
Who
are poor and neglected.
We
pray too, God, for peace in our lives,
In
our towns, in our schools,
In
our families and in our own hearts.
We
pray for a peace that the world cannot give us
We
pray for a peace that will make us whole
And
transform us into ambassadors of Justice for your sake.
Lord,
give us Your Peace!
Amen.
From the squalor
of a borrowed stable
Prayers
of Concern
Point out the
prayers for this week – in our Advent and Christmas prayer calendar – are based
on the ancient prayers of the church – the O’s of Advent that is the basis of O
come, O come, Emmanuel.
66 O
come, O come Emmanuel
Christmas
Communion
59
Hark the herald angels sing
Words
of Blessing
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