Christmas II

Gathered through the power of the Holy Spirit, we worship God with gladness. We encourage you to pray over the words that follow, and follow the links within the liturgy. Prayers in this service are adapted from Celebrate God’s Presence (UCPH). Thanks this week to Cor and Heather!

PRELUDE: “Ring A Bell for Peace” (Collibole/Jacquet)

OPENING PRAYER

Arise, shine, for your light has come,
and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.
See, darkness covers the earth
and thick darkness is over the peoples,
but the Lord rises upon you
and the glory of the Lord appears over you. Amen.

HYMN OF PRAISE: “Arise, your light is come!”

Arise, your light is come!
The Spirit’s call obey;
show forth the glory of your God,
which shines on you today.

Arise, your light is come!
Fling wide the prison door;
proclaim the captive’s liberty,
good tidings to the poor.

Arise, your light is come!
All you in sorrow born,
bind up the broken-hearted ones
and comfort those who mourn.

Arise, your light is come!
The mountains burst in song!
Rise up like eagles on the wing;
God’s power will make us strong.

PRAYER OF CONFESSION

Lord of All,
You claim each of us, and name us
citizens of your heavenly realm.
Yet we resist, imagining instead
that we belong to this world.
Free us, God, to see our allegiance to you
and our place in your Kingdom,
now and ever.
Amen.

ASSURANCE OF PARDON

God will give us what we need:
strength for today,
hope for tomorrow,
and forgiveness
for all that is past.
Amen.

SPECIAL MUSIC: “Twas in the Moon of Wintertime”

FIRST READING: Psalm 147

How good it is to sing praises to God,
how pleasant to laud the Most High.
You are building Jerusalem, O God,
and gathering the scattered exiles of Israel.
You are healing the broken-hearted,
and binding up their wounds.
You count the number of the stars,
and call them all by their names.
Great are you, O God, and mighty your power;
yes, and your wisdom is infinite.
You raise up the lowly,
and bring down the wicked to dust.

Sing to God in thanksgiving;
make music on the harp to our God,
who covers the sky with clouds,
who prepares rain for the earth,
who makes the hills green with grass.
You give the cattle their food,
and the young ravens when they cry.
You set no store by the power of a horse,
nor by the strength of a warrior’s thighs.
But your delight is in those who revere you,
in those who rely on your mercy.

Hallelujah, O Jerusalem!
Zion, praise your God.
For God has strengthened the bars of your gates,
and blessed your children within you.
God has established peace within your borders,
and filled you with the finest wheat.

You send your word to the earth, O God;
your command runs swiftly.
You give snow like wool,
and sprinkle hoar-frost like ashes.
You scatter hailstones like bread-crumbs;
you send the cold, and the waters stand frozen.
You utter your word and the ice melts;
you blow with your wind and the waters flow.
You make known your word to Jacob,
your statutes and decrees to Israel.
You have not done this for any other nation,
nor have you taught them your laws.

SECOND READING: Ephesians 1.3-14

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 just as he chose us in Christ[a] before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. 5 He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace 8 that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight 9 he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. 11 In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance,[b] having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, 12 so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory. 13 In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; 14 this[c] is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory.

HYMN: “When heaven’s bright with mystery”

When heaven’s bright with mystery
and science searches nature’s art,
when all creation yearns for peace
and hope sinks deep in human hearts,
appear to us, O Holy Light;
lift from our eyes the shades of night.

When Herod barters power and lives
and Rachel’s weeping fills the night,
when suffering’s mask marks every face,
and Love’s a refugee in flight,
reveal to us your word of grace
and make us witness to your peace.

When fragile faith, like desert wind,
blows dry and empty, hope erased,
when withered grass and fading flower
proclaim again our day’s brief space,
breathe on the clay of our despair
and work a new creation there.

When heaven’s bright with mystery
and stars still lead an unknown way,
when love still lights a gentle path
where courts of power can hold no sway,
there with the Magi, let us kneel,
our gifts to share, God’s world to heal.

REFLECTION

Ironically, one of my favourite films begins with the news that the theatres have been closed on account of the plague. Henslowe, the owner of the Rose Theatre, has just been accosted by Mr. Fennyman, the producer (aka “the money”). Demanding to know what will happen to the play he is paying for, we get this exchange:

Henslowe: Mr. Fennyman, allow me to explain about the theatre business. The natural condition is one of insurmountable obstacles on the road to imminent disaster.
Fennyman: So what do we do?
Henslowe: Nothing. Strangely enough, it all turns out well.
Fennyman: How?
Henslowe: I don’t know. It’s a mystery.

“It’s a mystery” becomes a touchstone throughout the film, as we get a highly fictionalized account of how a young Shakespeare transforms “Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate’s Daughter” into the play we know and love. Does anything in this account resemble what really happened? I don’t know, it’s a mystery.

I share all this because of my love for romantic comedies set in Elizabethan England, and because of one critical verse in our reading:

God has now revealed to us his mysterious will regarding Christ—which is to fulfill his own good plan. And this is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together in Christ—everything in heaven and on earth.*

So often with St. Paul, we get the answer to the question without actually getting the question. Sometimes the question appears earlier in the text, and sometimes the question may have come in the half of the correspondence we did not see, and sometimes the question is just a question someone might ask. In this case, it seems to be the last one, the kind of question that lives all around us: what is God’s plan?

This is not the micro “plan for your life” question, although we are certainly part of God’s larger plan. This is a larger question, like ‘what is it all for?’ What is God’s plan for creation and creature, the work of God’s hands. And where does Christ come in, aside from in the present season?

Maybe that’s too many questions, so we’ll stick with ‘what’s the plan?’ Imagine that something as simple as ‘what’s the plan’ inspired Paul to write. And further imagine that Paul is addressing an audience that understands the troubles of this life. There is the obvious “nasty, brutish, and short” nature of life at the time, and then there are the universal constants of loss, heartache, and a quest for some semblance of meaning.

What is the plan? For much of time, the answer would be “it’s a mystery.” Seasons of life and faith unfolded, and God would chide and bless in good measure, sending prophets and people of goodwill to communicate God’s desire for our lives. Being human, we found ways to enjoy the blessing and ignore the guidance, often finding trouble even before trouble could find us. God needed a new plan.

God being God decided to take the bold step of entering our world. And since the plan called for experiencing all of human life, an obvious part of the plan was to enter our world as a child. The details are well known to us. And upon entering our world, there would need to be a sign, some manifestation of the unfolding before us. In time, we would come to call this Epiphany, which we mark on January 6—the season of light.

At Epiphany, we celebrate the first light of God’s plan. All the signs come together, the star of Bethlehem and the Light of the World, the Word made flesh and the light that shines in the darkness, the very light that the darkness shall never overcome. ‘The time was right,’ as Paul tells us, because “at the right time he will bring everything together in Christ—everything in heaven and on earth.”

Just now you might be thinking ‘ah, yes, but the trouble remains.’ And that would be true. The coming of the light didn’t take away our trouble, it simply began a process that continues to this day. Recall that Jesus prayed “Thy will be done (meaning God’s plan), on earth as it is in heaven.” This tells me that the plan continues, with a beginning, a middle, and a future end. And this is where we find ourselves. In the very middle of God’s plan, a plan that continues here in the heart of Epiphany.

Here’s how I know: “You are the light of the world,” Jesus said, and then he said ‘you must let your light shine for others, that they may see me in you, and in the God who made you’ (Matthew 5 and John 14). When we let our light shine for others, God is glorified, and the light is cast further and further in the shadow places of our world. We don’t make the light, we cast the light. This is always God’s work, the work that we share. But in sharing this work, in casting the light of love and mercy, we see Christ in others and in ourselves. And the plan continues, ever forward, to that final moment when heaven and earth are joined again.

May the light of love and mercy surround you, as you surround others, Amen.

*New Living Translation, adapted.

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE

Blessed are you, gracious God:
you have given us life and freedom
to be your people in the world.
Blessed are you, gracious God:
you have called us into the church,
and into this community of faith,
pilgrims together on the journey into new creation.
Blessed are you, gracious God:
you have touched our hearts with hope,
so that we long to see the day of your salvation.

Help us to bless those you love:
the poorest among us, both in material things
and in the spirit of comfort,
the weakest among us, those who are ill
and those who live with pain of every sort,
the most vulnerable among us,
who lack some deep need,
and those given to grief, who have lost a loved one,
or lost some part of themselves.

Help us to build your Kingdom:
to walk with those who seek justice,
to stand with those who are wronged,
to pause with those who have a story to tell,
to cry out with those who have no voice.

Your Kingdom come, Lord, your Kingdom come.
Amen.

THE LORD’S PRAYER

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 trespasses
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.

HYMN: “O splendour of God’s glory bright”

O splendour of God’s glory bright,
from light eternal bringing light;
O light of life, light’s living spring,
true day, all days illumining:

come, Holy Sun of heavenly love,
pour down your radiance from above,
and to our inward hearts convey
the Holy Spirit’s cloudless ray.

O joyful be the passing day
with thoughts as clear as morning’s ray,
with faith like noontide shining bright,
our souls unshadowed by the night.

O Christ, with each returning morn
your image to our hearts is born;
O may we ever see anew
our Saviour and our God in you!

BLESSING

Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way,
and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless
until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again. Amen.
—1 Thessalonians 5:23

God be with you till we meet again;
loving counsels guide, uphold you,
with a shepherd’s care enfold you;
God be with you till we meet again.