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First Sunday of Christmas
12/28/2025 - 10:30 pm
Christmas Eve
WELCOME AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
CENTERING MUSIC
CALL TO WORSHIP (based on a poem by Ann Weems):
One: Not celebrate? Your burden too great to bear? Your loneliness is intensified during
this Christmas season? Your tears seem to have no end? Not celebrate?
People: We should lead the celebration! We should run through the street to ring
the bells and sing the loudest! We should fling the tinsel on the tree, and
open our houses to our neighbors, and call them in to dance!
One: For it is we above all others who know the joy of Christmas.
People: It is unto us that a Savior is born this day, One who comes to lift our burden
from our shoulders, One who comes to wipe the tears from our eyes.
All: We are not alone, for Christ is born this day to us!
*HYMN #127 Hark the Herald Angels Sing!
Hark! The herald angels sing, “Glory to the newborn King.
Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled!”
Joyful, all ye nations, rise; join the triumph of the skies;
With the angelic host proclaim, “Christ is born in Bethlehem!”
Hark! The herald angels sing, “Glory to the newborn king!”
Christ, by highest heaven adored, Christ, the everlasting Lord,
Late in time behold him come, offspring of the virgin’s womb.
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see; hail the incarnate deity,
Pleased in flesh with us to dwell, Jesus, our Emmanuel.
Hark! The herald angels sing, “Glory to the new-born King!”
Hail the heaven-born Prince of Peace! Hail the sun of righteousness!
Light and life to all he brings, risen with healing in his wings.
Mild he lays his glory by, born that we no more may die,
Born to raise us from the earth, born to give us second birth.
Hark! The herald angels sing, “Glory to the new-born King!”
PRAYER CONFESSING OUR NEED FOR GOD’S GRACE (written by Ann Weems)
One: What concerns me, what lies on my heart, is this: That we in the church, papered and
programmed, articulate and agenda-ed, are telling the faith story all wrong, are telling
it as though it happened two thousand years ago, or is going to happen as soon as the
church budget is raised.
People: We seem to forget that Christ’s name is Emmanuel, God with Us, not just
when he sat among us but now, when we cannot feel the nailprints in his
hands.
All: Help us to see Christ now and living the Christmas story this day and everyday.
MOMENT OF SILENT PRAYER
SONG OF RENEWAL #155 Raise a Song of Gladness
Raise a song of gladness, peoples of the earth.
Christ has come, bringing peace, joy to every heart.
Alleluia, alleluia, joy to every heart!
Alleluia, alleluia, joy to every heart!
ASSURANCE OF GOD’S GRACE
One: Be assured, God is the God of now, and God comes to us in this moment offering forgiveness, grace, peace, hope, joy, and most especially love. Rest secure in the knowledge that in this moment you are made new, and whole again. And that God stands by God’s promises to love you beyond your imaginings. Amen.
*PASSING THE PEACE
Pastor: The peace of Christ be with you.
People: And with you also.
Pastor: Let us pass the peace of Christ
People: The Peace of Christ be with you. (to one another)
SPECIAL MUSIC “Child of the Poor” by Scot Soper
Aislynn & Barbara Barkley
BLESSING THE CHILDREN AND SINGING TO GODLY PLAY
Sing: Like a child love would send to reveal and to mend,
Like a child and a friend, Jesus comes.
Like a child we may find claiming heart, soul, and mind,
Like a child strong and kind, Jesus comes
Today’s Story “The Story of Mary”
Kathleen Krentz & Joyclyn Van
Leader: And as we continue our worship…
Congregation: May God be with you there.
Children: May God be with you here.
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
Leader: Lord in your mercy,
People: Hear our prayer
PASTORAL PRAYER
THE LORD’S PRAYER
As we pray together the Lord's Prayer, you are invited to say this in whatever version is most comforting and meaningful to you. Here is one possible version (ecumenical version) that you can use:
Our Father, who is in heaven, holy be your name.
Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
SCRIPTURES Isaiah 63:7-9; Matthew 2:13-23
RESPONSE
Reader: The word of the Lord
People: Thanks be to God
PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION, from Psalm 19 - responsively
Pastor: May the words of my mouth
People: And the meditations of our hearts
All: Be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord,
Our rock and our redeemer. Amen
SERMON When Times Are Dark 2
MOMENT OF SILENT REFLECTION
*HYMN OF RESPONSE - #147 The First Nowell
The first Nowell the angel did say was to certain poor shepherds in fields as they lay,
In fields where they lay keeping their sheep,
On a cold winter’s night that was so deep.
Nowell, Nowell, Nowell, Nowell, born is the King of Israel.
They looked up and saw a star shining
the east beyond them far;
And to the earth it gave great light, and so it continued both day and night.
Nowell, Nowell, Nowell, Nowell, born is the King of Israel.
And by the light of that same star, three wisemen came from country far;
To seek for a King was their intent, and to follow the star wherever it went.
Nowell, Nowell, Nowell, Nowell, born is the King of Israel.
This star drew nigh to the northwest; o’er Bethlehem it took its rest,
And there it did both stop and stay, right over the place where Jesus lay.
Nowell, Nowell, Nowell, Nowell, born is the King of Israel.
MOMENT OF THANKS
OFFERING OURSELVES AND OUR GIFTS
OFFERTORY
*DOXOLOGY Tune: OLD HUNDRED
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow;
Praise God, all creatures here below;
Praise God above, ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.
*PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING –
One: We have received in abundance. So, also we return with an abundance of joy and gratitude. We pray these gifts be used for the good of your world! Amen.
*CLOSING HYMN #143 Angels, from the Realms of Glory
Angels, from the realms of glory, wing your flight o’er all the earth;
You, who sang creation’s story, now proclaim Messiah’s birth:
Come and worship, come and worship, worship Christ, the newborn king!
Shepherds, in the fields abiding, watching o’er your flocks by night,
God with us is now residing; Younder shines the infant light:
come and worship, come and worship, worship Christ, the newborn king!
Sages, leave your contemplations; brighter visions beam afar;
Seek the great desire of nations; You have seen his natal star:
Come and worship, come and worship, worship Christ, the newborn king!
All creation, join in praising God the Father,
Spirit, Son, evermore your voices raising to the eternal Three in One:
Come and worship, come and worship, worship Christ, the newborn king!
All creation, join in praising God the Father, Spirit, Son,
evermore your voices raising to the eternal Three in One:
Come and worship, come and worship, worship Christ, the newborn king!
*Commitment
One: Mary spoke the words of faith and became the human vessel through which God entered history. Let her words be our own:
All: “Let it be to me according to your word!”
Amen.
*BENEDICTION
POSTLUDE “I Just Feel Like Something Good is About to Happen”