Order of Service / First Sunday after Christmas / December 31, 2023

*Gathering Hymn Go Tell It on the Mountain (#43 VU)

Welcome

Lighting the Christ Candle

Call to Worship

One: Come to worship the vulnerable infant Jesus. Come to enter into the ordinary reality of daily living that follows his birth.

  All: We are here, feeling like there is something missing. In the aftermath of starry night twinkles, impressive angel choruses, and the awe-filled celebration of the lowly shepherds, we are seeking still more wonder, more brilliance, more spectacle.

One: Come to worship the one whose helplessness invites us to participate actively. Come to discover our creative purpose even in the ordinariness of our lives.

All: We come to be assured, to be inspired, to be equipped, to be sent out.

*Gord Dunbar. Gathering ACE 2023-2024, page 35.

Opening Prayer (Unison)

Mother God, who labours to birth our faith journey, who nurses us with love’s colostrum, who nurtures us for justice, who teaches us self-giving, who assures us of our worthiness, who opens us to the gift of creative compassion and strengthens us to respond to your calling, wean us now so that we may be fed by the Spirit’s challenges. Clothe us in your loving-kindness and surprising generosity. In our worship, may we be reborn by your grace. Amen.

*Gord Dunbar. Gathering ACE 2023-2024, page 35.

*Opening Hymn Angels, from the Realms of Glory (#36 VU | vs. 1,3,4)

Prayer of Confessional and Renewal (Unison)

Another year has come and gone, Lord Jesus, and the world is still far from the image of your

kingdom. We acknowledge that the work of this transformation is your work, but we know we

have a role to play. We recognize the barriers of sin placed on this transformation: sin in the world and sin in our hearts. In this holy season, may we, with quiet humility, reflect upon our own thoughts, words, and actions. (a time of silent reflection) Amen.

*Taylor Croissant. Gathering ACE 2023-2024, page 36.

Words of Assurance

One: God hears our prayers and understands our failings.

  All: The God of love and compassion works within us to create anew, again and again.

One: Let us go forth in that renewal, vowing to be the best we can be as forgiven people.

  All: Thanks be to God. Amen.

*Sharon Winegarden. Gathering ACE 2022/2023. Page 48

Announcements and Minute for Mission

Time for God’s Children

Prayer for Illumination

Proclaiming the Scriptures

Isaiah 61:10-11 God Clothes me with salvation and righteousness.

Psalm 148 (VU 871) Let the creation praise God.

Luke 2:22-40 Jesus is presented in the temple.

This is the Good News from the Bible.

  Thanks be to God.

Anthem

Sermon

*Hymn O Radiant Christ, Incarnate Word (#84 VU)

*Offering

*Offertory Hymn (#81 VU | v. 3, As with Gladness Men of Old)

As they offered gifts most rare at that manger crude and bare,

So may we with holy joy, pure and free from sin’s alloy,

All our costliest treasures bring, Christ, to you, our heavenly King.

*Offertory Prayer (Unison)

We discover Jesus, friend and sibling, in all our neighbours, near and far away. May we reflect your love and grace, O God, and through these gifts of time and money, do for others all that we would do for Jesus. Amen.

*George Allan. Gathering ACE 2023-2024, page 39.

Prayers of the People and Lord’s Prayer

*Closing Hymn All the Way My Saviour Leads Me (#635 VU)

*Commissioning

One: As we go out into the world,

All: May we remember all the wisdom that God, the Creator, and Jesus, the Christ, have taught us.

One: May we use those teachings daily, as we interact with others.

  All: May we spread kindness and love everywhere we go, in Christ’s loving name. Amen.

 *Stephen Ernst, Gathering ACE 2022/2023. Page 50

*Commissioning Song Walk with Me (#649 VU | Refain)

Walk with me, I will walk with you and build the land that God has planned where lave shines through (x2)


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