Christmastide
Rejoice! Advent, the season of waiting, has given birth to the joy of Christmas. Christmas is not a single day but a season of twelve days. Twelve days to linger over the mysterious and shocking reality that God has come, but not as we would have expected. The incarnation, that the eternal Son of God has come in humility as a baby, is at the heart of Christmas. Jesus was born, given to us as a gift, the gift of his life to save our own. Jesus, fully God and fully man, will forever have a body like ours. May we never doubt God’s commitment to rescue his creation. Rejoice!
- Calling -
O Lord, open our lips.
And our mouth shall proclaim Your praise.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning, is now and will be forever. Amen. Alleluia!
Alleluia. Unto us a child is born:
O come, let us adore him. Alleluia!
- Constitution -
Read/Listen, Meditate, Pray, and Contemplate on God’s Word, remembering that God is with you and ready to speak to you because he loves you.
Praying the Psalms
Psalm 39
To the choirmaster: to Jeduthun. A Psalm of David.
[1] I said, “I will guard my ways,
that I may not sin with my tongue;
I will guard my mouth with a muzzle,
so long as the wicked are in my presence.”
[2] I was mute and silent;
I held my peace to no avail,
and my distress grew worse.
[3] My heart became hot within me.
As I mused, the fire burned;
then I spoke with my tongue:
[4] “O LORD, make me know my end
and what is the measure of my days;
let me know how fleeting I am!
[5] Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths,
and my lifetime is as nothing before you.
Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath! Selah
[6] Surely a man goes about as a shadow!
Surely for nothing they are in turmoil;
man heaps up wealth and does not know who will gather!
[7] “And now, O Lord, for what do I wait?
My hope is in you.
[8] Deliver me from all my transgressions.
Do not make me the scorn of the fool!
[9] I am mute; I do not open my mouth,
for it is you who have done it.
[10] Remove your stroke from me;
I am spent by the hostility of your hand.
[11] When you discipline a man
with rebukes for sin,
you consume like a moth what is dear to him;
surely all mankind is a mere breath! Selah
[12] “Hear my prayer, O LORD,
and give ear to my cry;
hold not your peace at my tears!
For I am a sojourner with you,
a guest, like all my fathers.
[13] Look away from me, that I may smile again,
before I depart and am no more!”
Psalm 40
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.
[1] I waited patiently for the LORD;
he inclined to me and heard my cry.
[2] He drew me up from the pit of destruction,
out of the miry bog,
and set my feet upon a rock,
making my steps secure.
[3] He put a new song in my mouth,
a song of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear,
and put their trust in the LORD.
[4] Blessed is the man who makes
the LORD his trust,
who does not turn to the proud,
to those who go astray after a lie!
[5] You have multiplied, O LORD my God,
your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us;
none can compare with you!
I will proclaim and tell of them,
yet they are more than can be told.
[6] In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted,
but you have given me an open ear.
Burnt offering and sin offering
you have not required.
[7] Then I said, “Behold, I have come;
in the scroll of the book it is written of me:
[8] I delight to do your will, O my God;
your law is within my heart.”
[9] I have told the glad news of deliverance
in the great congregation;
behold, I have not restrained my lips,
as you know, O LORD.
[10] I have not hidden your deliverance within my heart;
I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation;
I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness
from the great congregation.
[11] As for you, O LORD, you will not restrain
your mercy from me;
your steadfast love and your faithfulness will
ever preserve me!
[12] For evils have encompassed me
beyond number;
my iniquities have overtaken me,
and I cannot see;
they are more than the hairs of my head;
my heart fails me.
[13] Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me!
O LORD, make haste to help me!
[14] Let those be put to shame and disappointed altogether
who seek to snatch away my life;
let those be turned back and brought to dishonor
who delight in my hurt!
[15] Let those be appalled because of their shame
who say to me, “Aha, Aha!”
[16] But may all who seek you
rejoice and be glad in you;
may those who love your salvation
say continually, “Great is the LORD!”
[17] As for me, I am poor and needy,
but the Lord takes thought for me.
You are my help and my deliverer;
do not delay, O my God!
Psalm 41
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.
[1] Blessed is the one who considers the poor!
In the day of trouble the LORD delivers him;
[2] the LORD protects him and keeps him alive;
he is called blessed in the land;
you do not give him up to the will of his enemies.
[3] The LORD sustains him on his sickbed;
in his illness you restore him to full health.
[4] As for me, I said, “O LORD, be gracious to me;
heal me, for I have sinned against you!”
[5] My enemies say of me in malice,
“When will he die, and his name perish?”
[6] And when one comes to see me, he utters empty words,
while his heart gathers iniquity;
when he goes out, he tells it abroad.
[7] All who hate me whisper together about me;
they imagine the worst for me.
[8] They say, “A deadly thing is poured out on him;
he will not rise again from where he lies.”
[9] Even my close friend in whom I trusted,
who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.
[10] But you, O LORD, be gracious to me,
and raise me up, that I may repay them!
[11] By this I know that you delight in me:
my enemy will not shout in triumph over me.
[12] But you have upheld me because of my integrity,
and set me in your presence forever.
[13] Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting!
Amen and Amen.
Old Testament Reading
Zechariah 14
[1] Behold, a day is coming for the LORD, when the spoil taken from you will be divided in your midst. [2] For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken and the houses plundered and the women raped. Half of the city shall go out into exile, but the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city. [3] Then the LORD will go out and fight against those nations as when he fights on a day of battle. [4] On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley, so that one half of the Mount shall move northward, and the other half southward. [5] And you shall flee to the valley of my mountains, for the valley of the mountains shall reach to Azal. And you shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the LORD my God will come, and all the holy ones with him.
[6] On that day there shall be no light, cold, or frost. [7] And there shall be a unique day, which is known to the LORD, neither day nor night, but at evening time there shall be light.
[8] On that day living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea and half of them to the western sea. It shall continue in summer as in winter.
[9] And the LORD will be king over all the earth. On that day the LORD will be one and his name one.
[10] The whole land shall be turned into a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem. But Jerusalem shall remain aloft on its site from the Gate of Benjamin to the place of the former gate, to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the king’s winepresses. [11] And it shall be inhabited, for there shall never again be a decree of utter destruction. Jerusalem shall dwell in security.
[12] And this shall be the plague with which the LORD will strike all the peoples that wage war against Jerusalem: their flesh will rot while they are still standing on their feet, their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths.
[13] And on that day a great panic from the LORD shall fall on them, so that each will seize the hand of another, and the hand of the one will be raised against the hand of the other. [14] Even Judah will fight at Jerusalem. And the wealth of all the surrounding nations shall be collected, gold, silver, and garments in great abundance. [15] And a plague like this plague shall fall on the horses, the mules, the camels, the donkeys, and whatever beasts may be in those camps.
[16] Then everyone who survives of all the nations that have come against Jerusalem shall go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Booths. [17] And if any of the families of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, there will be no rain on them. [18] And if the family of Egypt does not go up and present themselves, then on them there shall be no rain; there shall be the plague with which the LORD afflicts the nations that do not go up to keep the Feast of Booths. [19] This shall be the punishment to Egypt and the punishment to all the nations that do not go up to keep the Feast of Booths.
[20] And on that day there shall be inscribed on the bells of the horses, “Holy to the LORD.” And the pots in the house of the LORD shall be as the bowls before the altar. [21] And every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holy to the LORD of hosts, so that all who sacrifice may come and take of them and boil the meat of the sacrifice in them. And there shall no longer be a trader in the house of the LORD of hosts on that day.
New Testament Reading
John 17
[1] When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, [2] since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. [3] And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. [4] I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. [5] And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
[6] “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. [7] Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. [8] For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. [9] I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. [10] All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. [11] And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. [12] While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. [13] But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. [14] I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. [15] I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. [16] They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. [17] Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. [18] As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. [19] And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.
[20] “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, [21] that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. [22] The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, [23] I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. [24] Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. [25] O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. [26] I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
- Communion -
Pray for yourself, others, our church, our neighbors, and the world.
Pray the Lord’s Prayer & the collect of the week:
Our Father who art in heaven...
O God, you make us glad by the yearly festival of the birth of your only Son Jesus Christ: Grant that we, who joyfully receive him as our Redeemer, may with sure confidence behold him when he comes to be our Judge; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
- Commission -
The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God, and of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord; and the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be with you, and remain with you always.
Go in peace to love and serve the Lord and our neighbors.