CALL TO WORSHIP/OPENING PRAYER
We count it in mere hours now. Soon the first pains of labour will be felt.
Soon the Light will shine in the darkness, soon the baby will be born.
Soon God will once again break into our lives,
coming in a way that is expected yet unusual, challenging our expectations and calling us to see life differently.
God of birth, God of light, in this time of song and prayer and silence,
reawaken in us the awe of Christmas.
As we hear again the story of a young woman and a surprising visitor,
remind us that we are called to respond to you in unexpected ways.
And when we leave this place,
may we be willing to sing praises for a young woman who said YES and the birth that we prepare to celebrate.
We pray in the name of the child who even now is starting to push from the womb, who would later teach his friends to pray saying...
COMMISSIONING:
It has been done! The News has been shared!
A young maiden will bear a child, and she will call him Jesus.
But that is the beginning of the story, a story that has not yet ended.
A story that includes us, a story of which we are a part.
So we go out to live the story,
to tell of the Hope that is being born among us the Christmas, to share the Love of the season with the world, to be agents of Peace in times of trouble, to sing songs of deep and abiding Joy.
As you go, may God go with you. Challenging us to respond God's Call
in ways that are new, unexpected and a little unsettling.
And as Tiny Tim said so very well...
God Bless Us Every One. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment