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.
THE PSALM - 20 & 21
Psalm 20
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.
[1] May the LORD answer you in the day of trouble!
May the name of the God of Jacob protect you!
[2] May he send you help from the sanctuary
and give you support from Zion!
[3] May he remember all your offerings
and regard with favor your burnt sacrifices! Selah
[4] May he grant you your heart’s desire
and fulfill all your plans!
[5] May we shout for joy over your salvation,
and in the name of our God set up our banners!
May the LORD fulfill all your petitions!
[6] Now I know that the LORD saves his anointed;
he will answer him from his holy heaven
with the saving might of his right hand.
[7] Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.
[8] They collapse and fall,
but we rise and stand upright.
[9] O LORD, save the king!
May he answer us when we call.
Psalm 21
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.
[1] O LORD, in your strength the king rejoices,
and in your salvation how greatly he exults!
[2] You have given him his heart’s desire
and have not withheld the request of his lips. Selah
[3] For you meet him with rich blessings;
you set a crown of fine gold upon his head.
[4] He asked life of you; you gave it to him,
length of days forever and ever.
[5] His glory is great through your salvation;
splendor and majesty you bestow on him.
[6] For you make him most blessed forever;
you make him glad with the joy of your presence.
[7] For the king trusts in the LORD,
and through the steadfast love of the Most High he shall not be moved.
[8] Your hand will find out all your enemies;
your right hand will find out those who hate you.
[9] You will make them as a blazing oven
when you appear.
The LORD will swallow them up in his wrath,
and fire will consume them.
[10] You will destroy their descendants from the earth,
and their offspring from among the children of man.
[11] Though they plan evil against you,
though they devise mischief, they will not succeed.
[12] For you will put them to flight;
you will aim at their faces with your bows.
[13] Be exalted, O LORD, in your strength!
We will sing and praise your power.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen
Old Testament- Isaiah 25:1–9
[1] O LORD, you are my God;
I will exalt you; I will praise your name,
for you have done wonderful things,
plans formed of old, faithful and sure.
[2] For you have made the city a heap,
the fortified city a ruin;
the foreigners’ palace is a city no more;
it will never be rebuilt.
[3] Therefore strong peoples will glorify you;
cities of ruthless nations will fear you.
[4] For you have been a stronghold to the poor,
a stronghold to the needy in his distress,
a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat;
for the breath of the ruthless is like a storm against a wall,
[5] like heat in a dry place.
You subdue the noise of the foreigners;
as heat by the shade of a cloud,
so the song of the ruthless is put down.
[6] On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples
a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine,
of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.
[7] And he will swallow up on this mountain
the covering that is cast over all peoples,
the veil that is spread over all nations.
[8] He will swallow up death forever;
and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces,
and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth,
for the LORD has spoken.
[9] It will be said on that day,
“Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us.
This is the LORD; we have waited for him;
let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”
The Word of the Lord
Thanks be to God
New Testament - Revelation 1:9–20
[9] I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. [10] I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet [11] saying, “Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.”
[12] Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, [13] and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. [14] The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, [15] his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. [16] In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.
[17] When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, [18] and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades. [19] Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this. [20] As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.
The Word of the Lord
Thanks be to God
Gospel - John 7:53–8:11
[53] They went each to his own house,
[1] but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. [2] Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. [3] The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst [4] they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. [5] Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” [6] This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. [7] And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” [8] And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. [9] But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. [10] Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” [11] She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”
The Word of the Lord
Thanks be to God
- 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.
Go in peace to love and serve the Lord and our neighbors.