Home Church 2nd Sunday after Christmas January 3rd, 2021

Home Church 2nd Sunday after Christmas January 3rd, 2021

Guest Presiders:  Susan Brockley, Betty Schultze

Guest Speakers: Owen McCooey, Catherine Woodward

We acknowledge these lands upon which we worship are the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Snuneymuxw First Nation.

Preparing the Space Around Us

Whoever you are and wherever you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here! Welcome if you are gathering on zoom or if you are worshipping at home with the bulletin. We are one community and all part of the body of Christ. I invite you to prepare the space around you

so that for the next hour you can be fully in this worship experience, not to keep out the realities of the world, rather to focus us, in the midst of it all, on God. If you need to go and get something or shift something around you, feel free.

Preparing the Space within Us

Let us prepare now the space within us for a time of worship. I invite

you to sit quietly, perhaps with feet on the floor, taking a couple of deep breaths and bring yourself into this moment. Open yourself to the presence of God who is with us and within us . . . as you intentionally open yourself to God, open yourself also to what you need from this time of worship.

Silence

Greeting
One:    The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God,

            and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

All:      And also with you    

Opening Prayer

God, the well-spring of life, pour into our hearts the living water of your grace. By your light we see light. Increase our faith, and grant that we may walk in the brightness of your presence. Amen. (1)

Hymn: Hark! The Herald Angels Sing VU #48

1 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 hosts proclaim,

"Christ is born in Bethlehem!"

[Refrain:]

Hark! the herald angels sing,

"Glory to the newborn King!"

2 Christ, by highest heaven adored,

Christ, the everlasting Lord,

late in time behold him come,

offspring of a virgin's womb.

Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;

hail the incarnate deity.

pleased with us in flesh to dwell,

Jesus, our Emmanuel! [Refrain]

3 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. [Refrain]

Call to Confession
As we begin a new year in the shelter of God’s love, let us be truthful about our lives, about our living, and about our limits. Let us offer to God and each other that truth as we pray, first in silence, and then together.

Silent Confession

Prayer of Confession
Holy God,
Author of life and Source of all hope,
Creator, Redeemer, Sanctifier: hear our prayer.
We know that the blank slate of a new year seems so promising –
we haven’t done anything too awful, not yet.
And we know that the blank slate of a new year is also an illusion;
time continues, and our lives flow from one day to the next,

from one year to the next.
In this time, we know we are sometimes remarkable and generous, bearing light to the shadows, and we know we are sometimes full

of despair and selfishness, hoarding light and goodness for ourselves.
We invite you on our journeys, O God.
We seek your presence with us in the darkness and the light,
in our remarkable moments and our awful ones.
We seek your presence, and bask in your love, through Christ. Amen.

Assurance of Forgiveness
Friends, sisters, brothers: hear this good news and see the grace of God:
We are forgiven. We are free to go and live in the light of love.
Thanks be to God. Amen. (2)

Peace of Christ

              The Peace of Christ be with you!

              And also with you!

Let us greet one another with the peace of Christ.

First Reading    Lisa Griffith      

Listen for the Word of God to you this morning…

Ephesians 1:3-14       

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, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory. 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; this is the pledge of our inheritance towards redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory.

Reflection on Ephesians: Owen McCooey

Silent Reflection

Gospel Reading                                   

One:      God be with you.       

All:        And also with you

One:      The Good News of Jesus Christ according to John

All:        Glory to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

John 1: 1-18      Mollie Ford

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. (John testified to him and cried out, ‘This was he of whom I said, “He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.” ’) From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.

One: This is the Gospel of Christ;

All:   Praise be to Jesus Christ

Reflection on the Gospel: Catherine Woodward                                   

Silent Reflection

Prayer after the Reflection    VU #53

Eternal God,

In Jesus Christ your light shines in our darkness,

            Giving joy in our sorrow

            And presence in our loneliness.

Fill us with the mystery of your Word made flesh,

Until our hearts overflow with praise and joy,

For he is the beginning and the end of all that exists,

            Living forevermore. Amen.

A New Creed: Let us affirm our faith . . . 

We are not alone,

    we live in God’s world.

 We believe in God:

    who has created and is creating,

    who has come in Jesus,

       the Word made flesh,

       to reconcile and make new,

    who works in us and others

       by the Spirit.

We trust in God. 

We are called to be the Church:

    to celebrate God’s presence,

    to live with respect in Creation,

    to love and serve others,

    to seek justice and resist evil,

    to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen,

       our judge and our hope.

In life, in death, in life beyond death,

    God is with us.

We are not alone.

    Thanks be to God.

Prayers of the People   Betty Schultze                                                                                       

One:    Loving God

All:      Hear Our Prayer

Lord’s Prayer

Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name,

your kingdom come,

your will be done,

on earth as in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.

Forgive us our sins

as we forgive those who sin against us.

Save us from the time of trial

and deliver us from evil.

For the kingdom, the power,

and the glory are yours

now and for ever. Amen.

 

Offering  (3)

Our heavenly Father:

By your generosity, we have received

all that we have and all that we are.

Grant that we may so use

the things which you have entrusted to our care,

that we may become more and more your children

in spirit and truth;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen                                   

Glory to God whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine. Glory to God from generation to generation, in the Church and in Christ Jesus, for ever and ever. Amen.

Hymn: It Came upon the Midnight Clear  v 1, 2, 3    VU #44

1 It came upon the midnight clear,
that glorious song of old,
from angels bending near the earth,
to touch their harps of gold,
"Peace on the earth, good will to all,
from heaven's all-gracious King!"
The world in solemn stillness lay
to hear the angels sing.

2 Still through the cloven skies they come
with peaceful wings unfurled;
and still their heavenly music floats
o'er all the weary world;
above its sad and lowly plains
they bend on hovering wing,
and ever o'er its Babel sounds
the blessed angels sing.

3 Yet with the woes of sin and strife
the world has suffered long;
beneath the angel strain have rolled
two thousand years of wrong;
and warring humankind hears not
the love song which they bring.
O hush the noise and cease your strife,
and hear the angels sing.

Blessing    Iona Community

If you are with another person, you’re invited to bless each other,

taking every other line.

One:      The Creator’s blessing be yours on your road, on your journey,    guiding you, cherishing you.

N-Z:       The Son’s blessing be yours, wine and water, bread and stories, feeding you, challenging you.

A-M:      The Spirit’s blessing be yours, wind and fire, joy and wisdom,       comforting you, disturbing you.

All:        The Angel’s blessing be yours, on your house, on your living, guarding you, encouraging you. Let us walk together, a community on a journey, sustained in God’s blessing. Amen!

One:      Let us go now in peace to love and serve the Lord.

All:        Thanks be to God! Alleluia!

 

1. (https://www.anglican.ca/wp-content/uploads/BAS.pdf p. 131 - adapted)

2. (Beth Merrill Neel https://holdfasttowhatisgood.com/liturgy/prayer-of-confession/   -   

    adapted)

3. (0R003 Celebrate God’s Presence)