Story-telling
God, tonight we gathered together to tell the old old story.
Tonight
we listen for angels and shepherds and a baby’s cry.
Tonight
we look to the old story and ask that you would be born in us again
this year.
Tonight,
this year, God, we listen for the story of PEACE
Peace
in a world so given to conflict.
All
year we have heard the stories of the ways things go badly.
This
night, and in the year to come, open our ears to the other stories,
the
stories of the kind and good things people have done and are doing
for each other.
And
in hearing those stories may we be re-committed to our own acts of
kindness,
the
small ways we can make “Peace on earth, Goodwill to all” a
reality.
Tonight,
this year, God, we listen for the story of HOPE
Hope
in a world that gives us so many reasons to despair.
Tell
us, we pray, the stories that lie beyond the despair.
When
the world falls apart at the seams,
remind
us that you are there as we stand in the wreckage,
helping
us to pick up the broken pieces.
Open
our hearts to feel your presence,
open
our souls to the possibility of new hope, new life.
Tonight,
this year, God, we listen for the story of JOY
Joy
in a world where so many struggle and grieve.
Life
does not always go as we had planned,
some
days it feels like life never goes as we had planned.
Help
us find the possibility of joy both on the good days and the bad.
When
the bad news makes us depressed, show us the Good News hiding in the
shadows,
and
let that Good News fill our heart with joy again.
Tonight,
this year, God, we listen for the story of LOVE
Love
in a world so full of fear and hatred.
You
would have us act lovingly to friend and family and enemy.
In a
world where love is so sorely needed, help us all take the risk to
live.
Show
us the drama of love enacted in our community.
Help
us bear the wounds and scars that may come with being vulnerable,
open and loving.
And
when love seems too hard,
help
us remember that we can love others because we are loved with a love
that will not let us go.
As we
gaze at the baby in the manger,
may
we see Your amazing love for the world shining across the miles and
centuries.
And
may that love fill our own hearts to overflowing.
This
year, this night, God, we listen for the story of CHRIST
The
story of You coming to share our lives.
The
story of You coming to change our world.
The
story of love and hope, of peace and joy.
A
story that happened a long time ago in a place far away,
a
story that happens in this very place this very day.
Help
us, God, to hear the story, help us, God, to welcome the baby,
Help
us, God, to live into the new world that Christmas brings.
We
pray in the name of the Baby who lies in the manger.
Joy
to the World! The Lord is Come!
So Be
It! AMEN
