Call to Worship – December 25, 2016

This day brings unparalleled excitement to children, unusual stress to young parents, and waves of pleasant nostalgia to old people.  The Christian world gathers to celebrate the birth of him who inspired Christianity to come into being.  We join with countless millions of people all over the world who gather around, of all things, a manger.  God continues to work His marvelous will through means even the most starry-eyed among us could never imagine.  Therefore let us, with Christmas confidence, worship God.

 

Pastoral Prayer

 

            It is with profound gratitude that we gather before Thee on this Christmas day, O God.  We thank Thee most for the gift of the baby born long ago in highly improbable circumstances to a highly improbable pair of village peasants.  We thank Thee for the enormous transformation his birth has effected in the world ever since, and for the way that many hundreds of millions of people through twenty centuries have come to know Thee by knowing him and what he said and did and taught.  We thank Thee for the joy at Christmas we feel, to be part of the Christmas panoply of believers who make this holiday unique in our experience, both in the past and in the present.  Help us now to reflect the warmth and hope of the light which first pierced the earth’s darkness on the first Christmas.

 

            We pray for anyone for whom this Christmas brings not an inner glow of the spirit but a deep longing of the heart.  Uphold those who are separated from family members by distance or estrangement, or especially by death.  Grant a renewal of faith to those whose faith has been severely battered by painful circumstances over which they have no control, and which have propelled them into a tailspin of doubt or despair.  As for those who approach Christmas with their usual Scrooge-like funk, surprise them by  the astonishing joy which only this day can produce, and bring them into the happy circle of worldwide Christmas revelers.

 

            We praise Thee for the inner contentment we experience simply by being here with one another.  We are grateful for the friendships which have grown through the years by an association with this congregation. Lord God, we are thankful for the entire Church of Jesus Christ, and for our inclusion in it on this, the day which symbolizes the beginning of the Church.  Help us to feel enveloped by a community of faith which transcends time and place, and extends from the deepest spot in our being to the most distant reaches of the earth.  We ask everything in the name of the one born in Bethlehem, Jesus Christ, Thy Son.  Now we pray together as he instructed us, saying, Our Father….