Christmas Pack #15
Reclaiming Christmas
Reclaiming Christmas: Models for Prayer and Worship
Index for this Section- An Epiphany Prayer
- Introduction
- Litany for the First Week of Advent
- Litany for the Fourth Week of Advent
- Litany for the Second Week of Advent
- Litany for the Third Week of Advent
- Prayer for Christmas Eve/Day
- A Sermon Illustration
Reclaiming Christmas: Models for Prayer and Worship
Introduction
Throughout Advent, people of faith gather to worship and to prepare for the coming of Christ to the world. During the frenzy so many experience in the weeks before Christmas, worship can offer an oasis in the storm and a foundation for our Advent journey. In "keeping" Advent, we can be reminded of the reason we celebrate. And we can reclaim Christmas as a joyous and fulfilling celebration of Christ's birth!
This resource offers litanies for the four weeks of Advent and prayers for Christmas and Epiphany. Also included is an idea for a children's sermon. Use these worship elements as is, adapt them or use them as inspiration for your own creations.
Litany for the First Week of Advent
(based upon Psalm 25:1-10)
LEADER: To you, O God, our creator,
We open wide the doorways to our souls.
PEOPLE: Lead us to your truth and teach us.
For you are the source of our salvation.
LEADER: We walk on your pathways
And travel along your avenues.
PEOPLE: Lead us to your truth and teach us.
For you are the source of our salvation.
LEADER: Remember neither our sins nor our failures:
In your mercy and kindness, think of us.
For in the quiet and stillness of this sanctuary,
we wait for you.
PEOPLE: Lead us to your truth and teach us.
For you are the source of our salvation.
LEADER: We come down from our pride and you guide us.
We are meek and you reveal your pathways.
PEOPLE: Lead us to your truth and teach us.
For you are the source of our salvation.
ALL: Your pathway is love;
Compassion and justice, your avenue.
And along them, we will travel.
Litany for the Second Week of Advent
(based upon Luke 1:68-79)
LEADER: O God, since the dawn of civilization,
Humanity has waited for the fulfillment of your promise.
PEOPLE: The oath which God swore
To our mothers Sarah and Hagar and our father Abraham.
LEADER: The promise spoken through the prophets of long ago.
PEOPLE: The oath which God swore
To our mother Rebekah and our father Isaac.
LEADER: The promise that we would be saved from the hand that despises us.
PEOPLE: The oath which God swore
To our mothers Rachel and Leah and our father Jacob.
LEADER: The promise that we can become your servants without fear,
In holiness and righteousness, as long as we live.
PEOPLE: To prepare the way, to get things ready,
You sent the prophet John,
LEADER: To tell of salvation by the forgiveness of sins.
ALL: Through God's tender mercies,
The dawn from on high will break upon us,
To give light to those who sit in the shadows of death,
To guide our feet to the way of peace.
Litany for the Third Week of Advent
(based upon Isaiah 12:2-6)
LEADER: Can you see it, God is our salvation!
We can trust and not be afraid:
For God is our strength and our song!
PEOPLE: Shout and sing for joy,
For in our midst is the Holy One of Israel!
LEADER: With joy we shall draw water
From the wells of salvation.
PEOPLE: Shout and sing for joy,
For in our midst is the Holy One of Israel!
LEADER: We shall all say, "Praise God,"
And we shall call upon God's name.
We will tell everyone all over the world what God has done.
PEOPLE: Shout and sing for joy,
For in our midst is the Holy One of Israel!
ALL: The LORD has done wonderful things.
Shout and cry out:
Great and wonderful is the Holy One of Israel.
Litany for the Fourth Week of Advent
(based upon Luke 1:47-55)
LEADER: Holy is your name, O God.
And great are the things you have done!
PEOPLE: Our spirits rejoice in God our savior.
Our souls magnify the Lord.
LEADER: For you looked with favor on the young woman, Mary.
With hundreds of generations past, we call her blessed.
PEOPLE: Our spirits rejoice in God our savior.
Our souls magnify the Lord.
LEADER: The tables will be turned:
The mighty will be put down and the poor shall be lifted up.
The rich shall be sent away empty
And the hungry filled with good things.
PEOPLE: Our spirits rejoice in God our savior.
Our souls magnify the Lord.
ALL: As was promised to our ancestors,
To Sarah and Abraham and their descendants forever,
In mercy, you have remembered the people.
Prayer for Christmas Eve/Day
Holy Child, source of smiling joy and eternal hope,
look upon us with tender eyes.
Holy Child, bring your gentle light to the hidden corners of our lives,
so our fears are rendered small and powerless.
Holy Child, touch our wounds
and lift the hurts and resentments we carry.
May our words be clear and our actions kind.
Holy Child, draw close to those who celebrate
on this holy night
without a special loved one, and be near
to those whose health or poverty
dims the angelic chorus.
In all and in each, cause our hearts to leap in wonder
our eyes to tear with joy
and our souls to swell with love.
O Holy Child of Bethlehem, be born in us today.
Amen.
Larry J. Peacock
Malibu United Methodist Church, Malibu, California
(Reprinted from Water Words, a quarterly worship resource)
An Epiphany Prayer
God, our creator, your light has come upon us. You have given us a new song. To everyone we know and don't know, we will declare how wonderful you are. You alone exist above and beyond the idols and things towards which we so often strive.
On this day we remember the mysterious magi, who traveled from the East to visit your son Jesus. Scripture tells us they opened "their treasure chests" and offered the Christ Child gifts of gold and priceless resins for making incense. Help us, also, to open wide our treasure chests and offer you gifts of our time, our possessions and our praise.
You have brought salvation to all. You have opened wide the heavens and showered us with unimaginable grace and love. You have gained our freedom from all those things that enslave us.
So, today, we pause from our busy lives to thank you, to celebrate with friends and family, and to rededicate ourselves to being the disciples of your Son and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
A Sermon Illustration
"WHOSE BIRTHDAY IS IT, ANYWAY?"
Matthew 3:1
In the land of Puzzling Tales there lived an eight year old boy by the name of Jason. Now in this land and in the neighborhood where Jason lived, the unexpected always happened.
Instead of football, they played kneeball; instead of the children "going to school," the teachers were busy "going to homes"; and in the summertime it was not uncommon to see water freeze and in the wintertime leaves grew on trees. It was a funny, strange place.
One incident in the land of Puzzling Tales stands out. When it was time for Jason's 9th birthday, as usual, the unusual happened.
Jason's grandparents came from their home across the state to help celebrate, but of course when they got to Jason's neighborhood, they went immediately to the Brown's down the street and visited and stayed there.
When Jason's mother baked the birthday cake, she gave it to the letter carrier to eat.
And when all the neighborhood kids heard it was Jason's birthday, they exchanged gifts with one another and, of course, Jason got none.
There was a blizzard of birthday cards. The post office had to hire extra workers and work longer hours to handle the deluge of cards. Of course, in the land of Puzzling Tales the unexpected was the expected and all the kids, the moms and dads, the grandparents, even a couple of dogs and a parakeet got cards, while poor Jason got none.
Finally, about nine o'clock, in a fit of frustration and anger, Jason went out of his house, borrowed the school cheerleaders' megaphone, rode up and down the street on his unicycle and shouted at the top of his lungs, "WHOSE BIRTHDAY IS IT, ANYWAY?"
And the night was so silent that all night long echoes bounced off the mountain sides: "Whose birthday is it, anyway? Whose birthday is it, anyway?"
The baby Jesus will be kidnapped again this year and held ransom for millions of dollars. This year people will surrender more than twenty billion dollars to stores to buy gifts to swap.
But it is Jesus' birthday! Jesus ought to receive the gifts. Jesus said, "Inasmuch as you have done it to the least of these, my brethren, you have done it to me." We give to Jesus when we give to the poor, the weak, the hungry, the homeless, the refugees, the prisoners.
It will be a great birthday celebration when God's people begin in earnest to give once again to Jesus. For, after all, it is his birthday, isn't it?
Reverend Arley Fadness
Shalom Lutheran Church, Harrisburg, South Dakota
December 7, 1980
Make copies of this resource under the Creative Commons attribution, not-for-profit license.
Page updated 11 Sept. 2013
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