(the Sunday before Epiphany on January 6th)
(Wise women also came… image by Jan Richardson)
See also prayers for the New Year and resources for a focus on Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Bible readings
Jeremiah 31:7-14: A promise of God’s restoration for God’s exiled people in which God commits to bringing God’s people back to their home, including the disabled and blind, and mothers who are expectant or in labour.
OR Sirach 24:1-12: Wisdom speaks of how she filled all of creation, but then God commanded her to make her home in Jerusalem and to take Jacob as her inheritance.
Psalm 147:12-20: An exhortation for God’s people to praise God because has blessed them and made them secure. God commands the forces of nature, but also proclaims God’s word to God’s people. (*)
OR Wisdom of Solomon 10:15-21: Wisdom delivered God’s people from their oppressors, leading them through the Red Sea. And Wisdom puts clear words into the mouths of infants, and those who can’t speak.
Ephesians 1:3-14: We have been blessed in Christ because we have been redeemed and forgiven and made to be God’s children. God has revealed God’s plan to us, to make the universe one and whole, and has given us the Spirit as a down payment on our inheritance.
John 1:(1-9), 10-18: The pre-existing Word, who was with God and is God, became flesh and dwelt among us, revealing God’s grace and glory to us and giving us the power to become God’s children.
(Bible summaries by John van de Laar, Sacredise)
(*) inclusive language in the Psalms – reflections by Fr Michael and Christine Robinson)
There is a great sense that the words of these readings cut like a knife, reading them side by side. If I were to turn the news channel on right now, I would hear stories of anxiety about finance and provision, fears about border protection, tyrannical leadership and deep, deep trouble in the Holy Land. Has nothing changed since Jeremiah shared his word from God?
Of course, we live in the ‘now and not yet.’ Our long-promised rescuer has long since come, but God is still at work in our frail and fragile world where human beings still walk in darkness, and fail to accept Him – is this a day of doom and despair? Is this a season of anxiety?
We do not belittle the pain and anguish people are suffering across the globe, but we do live in the sure and certain hope that we have in Christ.
This sense of light in the darkness – hope in the midst of despair, is not just a ‘nice thought’ as the Christmas celebrations begin to fade. This is everything and it is the hope that our world needs to hear, the light that our world needs to see.
As we prepare for this Sunday, perhaps we need to take some time to hold these two conflicting realities side by side and to remember where our hope comes from.
(Becky May, on the Church of Scotland Weekly Worship website)
Opening words
Celebrate God’s grace!
How comforting it is to know God always accompanies us.
Approach God in awe!
How amazing it is to consider that God has created each of us and each star in the heavens.
Praise the living God!
How good it is to sing praises together.
(Source: Ana Gobledale, Worship Words)
Opening words
Praise the Holy One!
How good it is to sing praises to our God.
For God is gracious, and a song of praise is fitting.
God heals the broken-hearted.
God binds up their wounds.
God determines the number of the stars.
God gives to all of them their names.
Great is our God, and abundant in power.
Sing to God with thanksgiving.
Praise the Holy One!
(Source: Ana Gobledale, Worship Words)
Call to worship
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. John 1:1
Come let us worship God
Child in the manger, incarnate Word.
Come and be present to this mystery, sing, pray, listen, respond and receive
silence
and know that in this mystery we are loved
God is love.
(Source: Brunswick UC)
Prayer of confession
Most holy and loving God, we surrender to you our fears and proud opinions, our short-sighted folly and our pompous wisdom, our familiar sins and apathy towards change and renewal. Forgive us any pain we have inflicted on others and our world. Trusting your grace, we earnestly pray: “Create in us a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within us.” Through Christ Jesus we pray. Amen!
In Christ’s name I declare to you: Your sins are forgiven!
Thanks be to God!
Take up your forgiveness with thanksgiving and live as those liberated from shame and self-doubt. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ enables us. Amen!
Prayers of Adoration and Confession
We pray in adoration, praising and adoring God for being God; and in confession, bringing before God the incompleteness and brokenness of the world and our lives. In response we hear God’s word of healing grace. In Sally Douglas’ most recent book, ‘Jesus Sophia’, she excavates biblical and early Christmas understandings of Jesus as the female divine. This prayer of adoration and confession, based on John’s prologue, are a gift from this book.
There will be times of intentional silence. Many of us are not used to silence, it takes time to get used to this gift as we pray. Let’s breathe deep as we prepare to pray together.
Ground of our being, Water of life, Fire of truth
Holy One – Sacred Three,
Divine dance of love
your grace restores us.
silence
You spoke the world into being
proclaiming all things good
delighting in each one
calling us into your story.
silence
When we failed to heed your voice, preferring our own
you did not shun us, but pitched tent among us
the Word, Holy Wisdom, made flesh.
In Jesus Sophia we encounter your love in person:
teaching, healing, and feasting
in friendship and fierce compassion
silence
undoing violence, and exposing evil
in friendship and fierce compassion
silence
living, dying, rising, and abiding with us
in friendship and fierce compassion
silence
In Spirit Holy you dwell within us
burning away the lies
setting us free for love
emboldening us for justice and mercy
silence
Ground of our being, Water of life, Fire of truth
Holy One – Sacred Three
we are still before you
may the eyes of our hearts be opened
silence
This day may we give you the glory
in our speaking, doing and being in love. Amen.
Word of Grace
And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. John 1:14
In the name of this Jesus, Holy Wisdom and Love our sin is forgiven.
Thanks be to God
(Source: Brunswick UC, using ‘Morning Prayer’ by Sally Douglas from her book Jesus Sophia)
Passing the peace is a tradition rooted in Scripture that embodies our identity as peacemakers (Matt. 5:9; 2 Cor. 5:20) and trains ours hearts, hands, and tongues in the ways of peace.
The peace of Christ be always with you
And also with you
A sign of peace is exchanged.
Psalm 147 – Mother of All Creation
It is good to sing praises to you,
Mother of all creation.
And to recognize the touch of your love.
You bring us home, help us heal,
You love your creation
You call every one of your stars by name.
You bless the young, the poor, the ill
You wait forever for the lost to turn to you.
Your love is music to our hearts, and we sing.
You are in the clouds that darken the sky
You send the rain which gives us life.
The cycles of the seasons and the growth of the plants
are your delight.
You provide food for the wild animals
even the young ravens when they cry.
You love the horse’s proud strength
and the athlete’s prowess.
You crave our love and attention.
And so we pray.
We give thanks for life, for children, for the beauty of the snow
that lies soft in the morning.
We give thanks for the storm,
the hail, scattered like popcorn on the grass.
We are in awe of your power.
When the seasons turn, the growing warmth
reminds us of your warmth
The flowing waters remind us
of the life which comes from you.
Thank you, Mother of us all, help us
to keep your love in our hearts and to love your creation.
(Source: Christine Robinson, Psalms for a new world)
EPIPHANY
Brightly shining star
drawing wise men from the east
portends a new realm.
Gold, frankincense, myrrh
offered in homage to one
born to disrupt us.
The wise men depart
warned in a dream to go home
by another road.
Likewise warned by night
Joseph, Mary and child flee
paranoid Herod.
These refugees lived
Safely and free in Egypt
not in detention. (c) Jeff Shrowder, 2015
MUSIC
Singing from the Lectionary Christmas 2C – music suggestions for each lectionary reading
Together to Celebrate (Rev David MacGregor’s website) – music suggestions
Rise and shine, your light has come by Joseph M.Martin (see Youtube clip)
Tune: Sussex Carol (since we’re still in the Christmas season)
Or another of many music versions of these words eg Jared McKenna ‘Arise, Shine, for your light has come‘ (drawing on words from Isaiah 60:1 and relates to the Gospel reading) or Gary Alan Smith (see Hymnary or P.10 on this link)
Or Arise your light is come by Ruth Duck (Youtube video here) – links with justice
(piano only, with lyrics – Youtube video here). Also a link on Hymnary.
“Lord the light of Your love is shining” (Shine Jesus Shine)
“Longing for light, we wait in darkness” (Christ be our light)
It’s also traditionally the Sunday when the Wise Ones from the East make their appearance so that could be another avenue for music.
