For the week of December 29 – 1st Sunday after Christmas Day
Morning Prayer: From our mother’s womb You have known us, O God. You call us to follow You through all our days and seek us even when we wander. As we advance in years, clothe us with Your love, that we may grow in grace and find favor in Your sight; through Jesus Christ. Amen. (Lectionary Prayers)
Morning Hymn: #224 Good Christian Friends, Rejoice
- Good Christian friends, rejoice with heart and soul and voice;
give ye heed to what we say: News, news! Jesus Christ is born today!
Ox and ass before Him bow, and He is in the manger now.
Christ is born today! Christ is born today!
- Good Christian friends, rejoice with heart and soul and voice;
now ye hear of endless bliss: News, news! Jesus Christ was born for this!
He hath opened heaven’s door, and ye are blest forevermore.
Christ was born for this! Christ was born for this!
- Good Christian friends, rejoice with heart and soul and voice;
now ye need not fear the grave: News, news! Jesus Christ was born to save!
Calls you one and calls you all to gain His everlasting hall.
Christ was born to save! Christ was born to save!
Psalm 148:1-6, 14 (CEB)
Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord from heaven!
Praise God on the heights!
2 Praise God, all of you who are His messengers!
Praise God, all of you who comprise His heavenly forces!
3 Sun and moon, praise God!
All of you bright stars, praise God!
4 You highest heaven, praise God!
Do the same, you waters that are above the sky!
5 Let all of these praise the Lord’s name
because God gave the command and they were created!
6 God set them in place always and forever.
God made a law that will not be broken.
14 God raised the strength[a] of His people,
the praise of all His faithful ones—
that’s the Israelites,
the people who are close to Him.
Praise the Lord!
Prayers of Intercession: Thank You, Lord, for hearing our prayers for those dear to our hearts. We now pray as You have taught us: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy 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. Lead us, not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
Offering spotlight: AGAPE Code Blue is seeking volunteers and donations to help with overnight temporary shelter for the homeless when temperatures are 32 degrees and below. AGAPE staff is connecting to churches in Bloomsburg, Berwick and as far away as Northumberland to keep people warm and safe in the winter. To find out how you can help, pop in to the center at 851 Railroad Street in Bloomsburg.
Offering prayer: Lord of Light and Love, we offer these gifts with hearts transformed by the miracle of Your Son’s birth. As the shepherds returned with joy and praise, may these offerings spread Your joy and love. Use them to bless those in need, to bring hope and peace, and to further Your kingdom here on earth. In this season of Christmastide, may we continue to glorify and praise You in all we do. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. (Discipleship Ministries)
Hymn of preparation: #383 This is a day of new beginnings (vs 1-4)
- This is a day of new beginnings, time to remember and move on,
Time to believe what love is bringing, laying to rest the pain that’s gone.
- For by the life and death of Jesus, God’s mighty Spirit, now as then,
Can make for us a world of difference, as faith and hope are born again.
- Then let us, with the Spirit’s daring, step from the past and leave behind
Our disappointment, guilt and grieving, seeking new paths, and sure to find.
- Christ is alive, and goes before us to show and share what love can do.
This is a day of new beginnings; our God is making all things new.
Scripture: Colossians 3:12-17 (CEB)
12 Therefore, as God’s choice, holy and loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. 13 Be tolerant with each other and, if someone has a complaint against anyone, forgive each other. As the Lord forgave you, so also forgive each other. 14 And over all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. 15 The peace of Christ must control your hearts—a peace into which you were called in one body. And be thankful people. 16 The word of Christ must live in you richly. Teach and warn each other with all wisdom by singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Sing to God with gratitude in your hearts. 17 Whatever you do, whether in speech or action, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus and give thanks to God the Father through Him.
Message: Pastor Becky
Do you have New Year’s traditions? Maybe some special foods you eat on New Year’s Day? What are some of the things you are looking forward to? This is starting to sound like the questions I asked at the beginning of Advent, trying to point you to the signs of Christmas. I asked of the signs of Christmas to get you to look for those outward signs of the Kingdom. Those things we notice more prominently during the Christmas season, those signs that God is with us and we point others to them as a part of our witness of faith in Jesus and all that God has promised us through Jesus. What are the signs of the new year?
The new year is a fresh start. The numbers on the calendar depict this freshness – 1/1. The new year begins at the beginning. The signs of the new year, how we are going to start off the new year, those are inward pointing. Those signs reveal to us that we have some personal work to do. We always do, yet the new year seems to call us to begin again to do better for ourselves, for our relationship with God and our relationship with creation.
It's the calendar’s way of calling us into reflection for the things that have passed and to look toward the things we expect or anticipate in the new year. And sometimes that reflection leads us into repentance. We take stock, see what has grieved us or caused us to grieve others. What we did and what we left undone. We think about the things we want to see happen again and the things we definitely don’t want to experience again. So how do we start the new year for the good?
First, we have to make the decision to do the work. It won’t happen on its own; we have to commit to start. Second, you have to get supplies for the work. This may look like a journal for writing down your thoughts paired with a devotional to assist you. Third, designating a time of day to do the work. This too has to be deliberate, because your day will get away from you if you don’t plan. I realize and I am thankful that most of you have dedicated devotional and prayer time. Yet the work of reflection, is different.
Reflection requires being aware of how your life affects others; how you interact with the world. We can have a positive or a negative effect on those around us. Being able to transform how we interact with others and how we see others, transforms the world. And this is where the verses from Paul contained in Colossians will be our guide. These verses give us the framework as to how to behave, while we do the work of reflection.
Paul tells us to put on compassion, kindness humility, gentleness, and patience. These are the virtues or characteristics we want to embrace and grow in ourselves. We may excel in one or two of them, or folks may view us as possessing them, but Paul advocates we have working knowledge of them all. They don’t necessarily come naturally to us, so we have to be deliberate in espousing them. Maybe until we grow into these characteristics we look at them like putting on our clothes. Each article of clothing being one of these characteristics until they become automatic for us.
Next is the practice of forgiveness. I call it practice because none of us are doing perfectly or easily. Forgiveness is something we must do over and over. It helps us to see not only another’s shortcomings, but our own. When we practice forgiveness, we treat each other with the compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience that encourages us to espouse.
We are to remember to love, always in all that we do and say. It covers us from head to toe. We are to love God, love ourselves, and love others.
We are reminded that the peace of Christ must control our hearts. The peace of Christ in our hearts grows our tolerance and combats our self-centeredness. A good question to ask ourselves would be: Is what I am angry about something that would make Jesus angry? We have to begin to understand that most things we get angry about could better be described as sin and are rooted in sin and that says more about us, than it does about Jesus.
Thankful! We are to be thankful people. We need to model thankfulness in our families, our fellowship, our work places, schools, basically anywhere we are. Thankfulness should be one of our crowning characteristics. Test yourself: Keep track as to the times you speak thankfulness to God and others. You will find yourself striving for it.
Paul says that the word of Christ has to live in you. It has to make your heart and mind its home. Yet, be encouraged, you know more scripture than you realize. You have been learning it all along through hymns, Sunday school songs, praises songs. It is living in you, but you have to also release it out into the world.
Releasing out into the world looks like drawing comparisons between a current happening and an account from scripture. It is seeing it happen and naming the story. For example, when something that was lost is found like car keys or that thing you put in a “safe place” but then cannot remember where that was … we recall the story of the widow finding her lost coin (Luke 15:8-9). Maybe it is recalling the story of Jacob and Esau when a family reunites after estrangement (Genesis 33). When we tie current situations with the stories of scripture we begin to see how we are working in a God framework, seeing how God connects the past with the present and then ultimately the future, because God still speaks.
Paul gives us a final charge in this section of Colossians: Whatever you do, whether in speech or action, do it all in the name of Lord Jesus and give thanks to God through Him. If this becomes our lens for living, for interacting with the world, we cannot help but be transformed by God’s word. It changes our behavior and our expectations of ourselves. We want Jesus to be able to claim everything we have done as something He has sent us out to do, to be something done on His behalf. Each of us is chosen by God to be children of God, heirs with Jesus, messengers of the good news of Jesus Christ. Walk softly into this new year, reflecting and repenting as we go for the transformation of the world through Jesus Christ.
Closing Hymn: #431 Let There Be Peace on Earth
Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me;
Let there be peace on earth the peace that was meant to be.
With God our creator, children all are we. Let us walk with each other in perfect harmony.
Let peace begin with me let this be the moment now.
With every step I take let this be my solemn vow:
To take each moment and live each moment in peace eternally.
Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.
The blessing: May the Lord bless you and keep you and make His face shine upon you this week.
