No Room? No Way!
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For December 25, 2022:
No Room? No Way!
Dean Feldmeyer
Luke 2:1-7
We were supposed to leave on vacation the next morning but we were too excited to sleep so we loaded the car and took off, getting a head start on our 14-hour trip from Columbus, Ohio to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. We drove until we were tired and then stop and get a hotel room for the night, completing the trip the next day.
Three hours later. 9:00 pm. We arrive in Charleston, West Virginia. No rooms available in any hotels. “Sorry. Summer, ya know. Vacation season. Ya shoulda made a reservation."
Midnight. Wytheville, Virginia. Same thing. No vacancies. “Sorry. Summer, ya know. Vacation season. Ya shoulda made a reservation.”
3:00 am. Winston-Salem, North Carolina. “Sorry. Summer, ya know. Vaca…” Yeah, yeah, I know. I shoulda made a reservation.
We gave up on the search, fortified ourselves with Red Bull, coffee and chocolate and drove the rest of the way. Completed the trip. 9:00 am. Myrtle Beach, at last. Our hotel: “Oh, sorry, Mr. Feldmeyer. Your room won’t be ready until after 4:00 pm. It says that right there on your rental agreement. See?”
So, we got some breakfast. Went to a long movie and slept sitting up in the theater until we could get into our room. And we did, eventually, get into our room, after only a brief detour to a movie theater, our later day equivalent of a stable, I guess.
Poor Joseph and Mary. There were no movie theaters in those days. They had to settle for a smelly old stable.
In the Scriptures
“O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie.”
Christmas card images of Bethlehem are always about the same. In the foreground: Joseph standing next to Mary who is sitting sidesaddle on a donkey. It’s dark or nearly so and they have paused atop a small hill to look down upon the quiet, picturesque little town. Here and there a candle burns in a window. A big, whopping star shines above the whole scene.
Of course, the artist has taken some poetic license with what was probably historical reality. We know, for instance, that people, especially couples with a pregnant young girl, didn’t travel alone in that part of the world in those days. And they didn’t travel at night. They traveled in groups, the bigger the better, and they traveled only in the daytime for safety’s sake.
And, while Bethlehem might have been a sleepy little village most of the time (scholars and historians put the population at somewhere between 300 and 400 souls), this was a special occasion. Caesar had ordered a special census, a counting of all of the people in his empire and, to facilitate the counting, Quirinius, the governor of Syria who was in charge of the census in this area, ordered all men and/or heads of households to go to their hometowns to be counted.
So, Joseph took Mary and they set off from Nazareth to Bethlehem (about a 4-day journey on foot) where Joseph’s people were from. No doubt they were met with a little town crammed with people in what amounted to a giant family reunion. The only inn in town, we know, was full. Joseph would have tried to track down some distant relatives to ask for shelter for the night but, apparently, he struck out there, too. Nothing open, no beds available.
I imagine some entrepreneurial souls setting up tents on their front lawns and renting cots to those in need of a resting place but those were all taken as well. Finally, Joseph gives up, returns to the inn to see if there were any cancelations (there weren’t) and the innkeeper offers to let him stay in the stable which he had swept out for just such a need. Only half the price of a room in the inn, too.
Joseph takes it and you know the rest of the story. Poor Joseph and Mary. No room in the inn. They have to settle for a smelly old stable.
In the News
Having no place out of the elements in which to stay is not a plight limited to our Lord and his parents for one brief time in their lives. It is all around us, today. And those who suffer from that plight come from all walks of life.
25-year-old Maxwell Frost heard that running for public office was a service to the community, win or lose, because it gave people choices. It brought issues to the forefront. It made elections count for something. So, this past November, he ran — and he ran big time. He had no intention of losing.
No school board or county commission for Maxwell. He ran for congressional representative from the 100th district in Florida. He quit his job and worked driving for Uber when he wasn’t spending 10-12 hours a day, seven days a week, campaigning. He maxed out his credit cards and lived on fast food sandwiches. And, wonder of wonders, he won — the first person of his generation (GenX) to be elected to federal office.
Energized and excited to be ready when his term begins in January, he headed to Washington, DC to find an apartment to live in. Only, he couldn’t.
Oh, there were plenty of apartments if you could afford them, which, for the most part, Maxwell couldn’t. And when he finally found one on the subway line that was almost affordable he was turned down. His run for congress had pretty much emptied his bank accounts and destroyed his credit rating. He tried several other apartments that he thought he could afford. No luck.
Once he was sworn into office his $175,000 per year salary would kick in and he should have no trouble finding some place to live. Until then, however, he was either sleeping in his car or on the couch of a friend.
For now, Maxwell is homeless in Washington. But his housing problem will get solved, eventually. Others are not so lucky.
According to the Chamber of Commerce, there are about 500,000 homeless people in the United States right now. That is, they are “lacking a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence” according to the US government’s definition.
They represent every race, gender, age, and demographic throughout the country, with a complex tapestry of reasons for their current situation. Two current trends, however, are largely responsible for the rise in homelessness over the past 20-25 years: a growing shortage of affordable rental housing and a simultaneous increase in poverty.
Before the repeal of Title 42 on December 21, nearly 2,500 migrants were crossing the border into El Paso, TX, every day. Nationwide, border security stops about 7,000 undocumented immigrants per day. The vast majority of these immigrants are coming to the United States, “the greatest country in the world,” in hopes of escaping violent persecution and/or crushing poverty. They arrive at the border homeless and with only the belongings they can carry.
According to Amnesty International, there are 26 million homeless refugees in the world, half of which are children.
In 2019, more than two-thirds of all refugees came from just five countries: Syria, Venezuela, Afghanistan, South Sudan and Myanmar. Syria has been the main country of origin for refugees since 2014 and at the end of 2019, there were 6.6 million Syrian refugees hosted by 126 countries worldwide.
In 2019, only one-half of one percent of the world’s refugees were resettled. That year, just over 1 million refugees were resettled, compared to 3.9 million refugees who returned to their country. 85% of refugees are currently being held in developing countries. Wealthy countries tend to spend their resources not to help refugees but finding ways to keep refugees away.
In the Sermon
Each year, we struggle to find something new, something fresh to say about the Christmas story as we prepare a yuletide sermon. But the fact is, there is nothing fresh and new to be said and there need not be. The old story still speaks to us as it has every year since the first Christmas.
Applications abound. Ties to our own time run through the story like threads through a tapestry.
A despot decides on a whim, as despots always and everywhere do, to count how many people live under his rule so he can assess how much tax revenue he can expect to bring in the coming year. They mean nothing to him except a source of income. Have you ever had a boss like that?
To facilitate the counting, the head of every household must return to their hometown to be counted. They go, not out of loyalty or a love for their emperor, nor out of any sense of duty or patriotism. They go because they’re afraid not to. Have you ever been in that kind of predicament?
The trip is inconvenient. It is difficult. It is uncomfortable. Especially when you are traveling with a pregnant teenager who didn’t have to go but insisted that she must. And now her fiancé must tell her that he forgot to make hotel reservations. He didn’t think he’d need them, see. He figured he’d be traveling with a bunch of his buddies, cousins, uncles, co-workers, and they would no doubt meet up with other guys making the same journey. He’d just sleep with them on the ground around the campfire at the edge of town. Swapping stories, passing a bottle around. A band of brothers. But no, here he was, trying to find someplace to stay with his pregnant fiancé. Did you ever have to make a trip that turned out to be nightmare comedy of errors?
She just had to go, too. What if the baby came while he was away, she said. She was scared and wanted him to be there with her at that important time. And he wanted to be present when the child was born but, well, it wasn’t how he planned this trip.
She wasn’t going to be happy about the “reservations thing.” He knew it was his fault but he also knew that she would over react and there’d be a scene.
And now, the last straw. The guy who owned the inn laughed in his face when he asked if there was a room. Laughed at him. Made him feel like a fool. “Shoulda made a reservation,” he said. “There’s nothing here for you.”
Like that scene in Pretty Woman, the movie.
Richard Gere, the millionaire, drops Julia Roberts, the call girl, off at a Rodeo Drive boutique to buy some fancy, expensive clothes. Says he’ll meet her there in a little while. She goes into the store and looks around but the snooty sales women who work there take one look at her working clothes and begin moving her toward the door. “We have nothing here for you,” they say. “We have nothing here for you.”
Just like that innkeeper. We have no rooms here for you.
Only different because Joseph was a working stiff, just like everyone else staying in that inn that night. He wasn’t a call girl dressed in, well, inappropriate clothing.
Still, the rejection stung. Being made to feel foolish, forgetful, less than what he should be. And, in front of his fiancé. Boy that stung.
With a little cajoling and a few groans from Mary (not for nothing those two acting classes she took at the YWCA) the old innkeeper allows them to stay in the stable for half the price of a room. From the looks of the place, swept up and tidied, he was expecting just such an eventuality.
Joseph settles Mary into the big pile of straw and makes sure she’s comfortable. Then he sighs as he sinks into the warmth beside her. He places his hand on her belly and feels the movement of the child, the heartbeat, strong and sure.
How much longer? He wonders. How much longer will we have to live according to the whims of an emperor a thousand miles away who cares not a whit for his subjects? Is this all there is to life? Is this all God has planned for us?
Little did he know, the child who would be born that night, would be the one to usher in a new kingdom, an alternative to the emperor’s kingdom, a kingdom of life, love, and peace.
A kingdom of joy.
SECOND THOUGHTS
Pondering Matters
by Chris Keating
Luke 2:1-14 (15-20)
Let’s take a cue from Mary this Christmas. Instead of counting the bills or fretting over menus, take a moment to join her in pondering what has just happened. It’s a spiritually rich moment, packed with sweetness and poignancy, which may help us remember that pondering is much more than trying to recall where Santa put the extra batteries.
That may be especially important on a year when Christmas is on Sunday, barely twelve hours after we had packed the room tight with carolers and candles. Most Christmas mornings offer little room for reflecting on the meaning of the moment. Celebrating Christmas on Sunday only makes that worse. Lacking time to fully appreciate Santa’s deliveries, we will push ourselves and our kids to leave behind the wrappings to head for church. It doesn’t help much that our kids will likely be the only children who come Christmas morning.
This is why pondering matters.
With Mary, we need to find some sort of foothold in the careening chaos of Christmas. She stops to breathe and to think, imagining how the child that has been born will make a difference. Luke has given us a couple of clues: we understand that the incarnation reaffirms God’s desire to work with the powerless and poor. We know that Mary sees the connections between the shimmering glory of God and the utter foolishness of the emperor.
Luke’s narrative has moved us this far, following the stages of Mary’s pregnancy to her delivery. The star shines high above the city, guiding shepherds and others to the place where Jesus has been born. God has entered the world not through the doors of a palace, but the side doors of a barn. That alone is sufficient fodder for pondering.
But we make pondering ponderous. To ponder means to think carefully about something. Meanwhile, “ponderous” means clumsy or “oppressively or unpleasantly dull.” (That’s how my children often described sermons.) Luke invites us to join Mary as an act of holy remembrance. Clutching Jesus, she cradles the multivalent memories of his birth.
It’s a scene permanently etched into our imaginations. Yet it is also one we easily pack up and put away until next November. This Christmas morning, Luke invites us to become participants in the nativity once more. Notice the makeshift birthing room, the crowded city streets, the grimy and somewhat confused shepherds whose clothes reek of sheep dung and earthiness but whose smiles reflect the glory of God.
Ponder how God is going about the task of scattering the proud in the thoughts of their hearts, and how we may join God in lifting up the lowly and filling the hungry with good things.
This week, we might ponder the continuing impact of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School ten years ago. The six- and seven-year-olds who died that day would now be getting drivers licenses and making college plans. The principal might be nearing retirement, and the younger staff holding the hands of their own children. Though the crime scenes of that day have been long demolished and replaced with a new school, the memories of that massacre remain. Newtown, Connecticut, has been called a “cradle of grief,” but also a place of “untold love and quiet resilience.” We ponder not only the lives lost that day, but the lives lost in at least 189 school shootings since.
The memories of the lives lost in those shootings, and the hundreds of others who have died from gun violence, should send us back to the treasures within Mary’s heart. She understood that with God nothing is impossible; we shrug our shoulders in resignation and move on to the next news cycle.
Ponder what it means when old Simeon blesses Mary and Joseph, but warns that a sword will pierce their heart as well. That is a reminder, like the lies and conspiracy theories that have pierced the hearts of the Sandy Hook families, that parenting carries both joy and grief. Think of the children and youth who have absorbed our collective anxieties and mental anguish, creating an unprecedented mental health crisis. Nearly one in ten youth experience severe depression in the United States. Millions of youth are experiencing serious mental health challenges.
It is, indeed, a crushing load. But while our human forms are bent low, we also know that Mary’s heart contains glimmers of God’s glory. Mary ponders the presence of God’s glory confronting painful longing. In the words of Edmund Sears’ carol, “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear:”
Look now! for glad and golden hours come swiftly on the wing. O rest beside the weary road, and hear the angels sing!
Think of how this birth story intersects our own journeys, suffusing our struggles and pain with treasures of grace and truth. Ponder the ways God continues to show up in this world, full of grace and truth. Take a breath and ponder anew what Christmas means. Share these stories of grace, confident that God is at work.
Ponder what it means for us to be like the shepherds — witnesses to the boldness of God in flesh appearing. Where the world wants to flatten experiences of delight and mystery into easily digestible chunks, the shepherds give us reason to explore the mystery of it all.
We confuse this work of recollection, often assuming pondering is the same as ponderous. But, as mother Mary teaches, pondering is likely the most significant gift we can receive.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Mary Austin:
Luke 2:1-14 (15-20)
Jesus is Not Alone
At the time of his birth, Jesus and his family are displaced from their home, and shortly they become refugees from Herod. We can find their faces in this Christmas’ refugees. This Christmas, the United Nations says that 27.1 million people around the globe are refugees, half of them under the age of 18. An additional 53 million people are “internally displaced.” Adding in asylum seekers, a total of 89 million people around the globe are without a homeland right now.
The largest host countries are nations without abundant resources, with Turkey and Uganda as the leaders. The US accepted only 11,411 refugees in 2021, and only 25,465 refugees settled here in 2022. The war in Ukraine lands in our news feeds daily, and yet bigger crises loom in Sudan, Somalia, Syria, Myanmar, and Democratic Republic of Congo. At the top of the watch list is Afghanistan, where poverty is nearly universal, and even basic health care is at risk.
The largest source of refugees is “near-constant conflict” in these nations. Come, Prince of Peace, to the people whose plight you know so well.
* * *
Luke 2:1-14 (15-20)
Modern Day Shepherds
If God were coming to announce good news of great joy to our world, who would get the message? What’s the current equivalent of the lowly, smelly shepherd? Trash collectors? Night shift staffers? Uber drivers? A young man wanting to be a shepherd posed this question, and commenters advised that the current version might be:
* * *
Luke 2:1-14 (15-20)
Shepherds get on Twitter
In this Christmas story, the shepherds are anonymous recipients of the good news from the angels. We never know who they are, only that God’s announcement comes to the people on the margins. In our time, at least one shepherd has a Twitter presence, where he shares what life with the sheep is really like. James Rebanks, who tends sheep in Northern England, says that the work is still grueling. “The weather is rotten, more or less, from October to May. So by lambing season — a three-week period, usually after Easter, when the ewes give birth, and there are triumphs and miscarriages, adoptions and accidents, gamboling and suckling — the flock, the shepherd, and the land itself are already worn out.”
Being a shepherd is not the peaceful, if lonely, work that we imagine. Rebanks has around five hundred sheep to look after, and when they’re lambing, his days are full. There’s barely time to sleep. “You are trying to keep things alive,” Rebanks said. “You make a mistake and something dies. And then — if you get through i t— in a week or ten days’ time, the grass comes, the sun shines, and there is a feeling of absolute sheer exhaustion that turns to elation.”
Rebanks started on Twitter to convey what his life is like, and to ease the isolation of his work. On Twitter, he is the Herdwick Shepherd. “A little more than a hundred and nine thousand people, most of them trapped in office environments or riding public transportation, follow his account for gorgeous, wide-skied pictures of his flock, and for his evocations of the English countryside.”
Being a shepherd, even with modern tools, is still isolated, lonely, grueling work.
* * *
Isaiah 9:2-7
Made for Joy
The coming of the Messiah returns humankind to something essential about ourselves. Part of the gift of the messiah is joy, as the prophet proclaims, “You have multiplied the nation, you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest.”
Echoing Isaiah, Margaret Renkl says simply, “we are creatures built for joy.” She adds, “At the very saddest funerals, we can hear a funny story about our lost beloved, and God help us, we laugh. We can stagger out of an appointment where a person in a white coat has given us the news we think we cannot bear to hear, and still we smile at the baby in the checkout line clapping her chubby hands at the balloons by the cash register or kicking her feet in joy at a stranger’s smile.
This is who we are. The very best of who we are. Turn your face up to the sky. Listen. The world is shivering into possibility. The world is reminding us that this is what the world does best. New life. Rebirth. The greenness that rises out of ashes.
Turn your face up to the sky. Listen. The world is shivering into possibility. The world is reminding us that this is what the world does best. New life. Rebirth. The greenness that rises out of ashes.
Turn your face up to the sky. Listen. The world is shivering into possibility. The world is reminding us that this is what the world does best. New life. Rebirth. The greenness that rises out of ashes.”
Jesus is coming, bringing joy into the sorrows of 2022, and into all the sorrows of all of humankind.
* * * * * *
From team member Tom Willadsen:
Luke 2:(1-7) 8-20
A study in contrasts
The lectionary brackets the first seven verses, which helped me notice a contrast in this reading. The first seven verses have a dry, just the facts, Ma’am feel to them. The story soars when God’s Air Force appears to the shepherds. The words are so familiar (I believe that the King James Version of Luke 2:1-20 is the second-most remembered passage of scripture, after only Psalm 23 because this is what Linus recites at the end of the Charlie Brown Christmas special) that we do not perceive their power. A single angel scares the shepherds half to death. That angel is joined by “a multitude of the heavenly host;” “host” means army. Luke basically blows the special effects budget right here in chapter 2.
One thing Linus get wrong is that Jesus was in swaddling cloths, not swaddling clothes. It’s subtle, but Jesus was wrapped in strips of cloth, not the first-century equivalent of a onesie.
* * *
Psalm 97
We worship the correct God
There’s a thread of schadenfreude running through this psalm. The king whose reign is proclaimed, whose foundation is righteousness and justice, puts to shame those who worship idols and other gods. Zion and the towns of Judah are, however, glad because they serve the correct God, the most high God, the one exalted over all the others. This God loves those who hate evil. We must be good because we hate the very same things that God hates. Hooray for us. Light dawns on us becuase we’re upright.
* * *
Psalm 98
Sing a new song? Just try it, pastor!
In the New Revised Standard Version “new song” appears nine times. Twice in Revelation, once in Isaiah and six times in the Psalms. While there is a certain freshness conveyed in singing a new song, there are also drawbacks for those picking hymns for Protestants. While the worship wars pitting contemporary and traditional music have been mostly settled, it is the rare congregation that wants to sing an unfamiliar song at Christmas. Or before Christmas. Some of my colleagues have been hammered this year because they have not selected enough Christmas songs during the season of Advent. A prominent member of the first church I served ran the town’s department store. He needed a little Christmas starting November 1, liturgical integrity be damned! Given the slim attendance you can expect when Christmas falls on a Sunday — will there even be a choir? I advise reading Psalm 98 responsively and singing the warhorses.
* * *
Hebrews 1:1-4, John 1:1-14
Continuity and novelty
Both of these passages look back to before the dawn of creation to now, a stunning new beginning, in harmony with — even completing — God’s plan for creation. God’s presence was felt clear back in Genesis, whose tone is echoed by John, when God’s Spirit hovered over the watery chaos. God’s presence was manifest in the prophets, but that was only prologue. Christ coming into the world is a dramatic in-breaking of God’s less tangible presence. This is new! Time to sing a new song — or at least recite a psalm in praise of new songs!
* * * * * *
WORSHIP
by George Reed
Call to Worship
One: O sing to God a new song; sing to God, all the earth.
All: Sing to God and tell of God’s salvation from day to day.
One: Ascribe to God glory and come into God’s courts.
All: Worship God in holy splendor and let all the earth tremble.
One: Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice for God is coming.
All: Let even the trees of the forest sing for joy at God’s nearness.
OR
One: Glory to God in the highest heavens and on earth.
All: God comes to grant peace to all the creation.
One: The Christ has come to lead us into God’s realm.
All: The Light from on high has dawned on our darkness.
One: The Spirit of God spreads throughout the land.
All: Joy and peace are the gifts God brings to us this day!
Hymns and Songs
Angels from the Realms of Glory
UMH: 220
H82: 93
PH: 22
AAHH: 207
NNBH: 85
NCH: 126
CH: 149
LBW: 50
ELW: 275
W&P: 189
AMEC: 119
Infant Holy, Infant Lowly
UMH: 229
PH: 37
CH: 163
LBW: 44
ELW: 276
W&P: 221
O Come, All Ye Faithful
UMH: 234
H82: 83
PH: 41/42
AAHH: 199
NNBH: 93
NCH: 135
CH: 148
LBW: 46
ELW: 283
W&P: 182
AMEC: 106
STLT 253
While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks
UMH: 236
H82: 94/95
PH: 58/59
NNBH: 92
W&P: 228
AMEC: 110
Angels We Have Heard on High
UMH: 238
H82: 96
PH: 23
AAHH: 206
NNBH: 89
NCH: 125
CH: 155
LBW: 71
ELW: 289
W&P: 188
AMEC: 118
STLT 231
Hark the Herald Angels Sing
UMH: 240
H82: 87
PH: 31/32
AAHH: 217
NNBH: 81
NCH: 144
CH: 150
LBW: 60
ELW: 270
W&P: 185
AMEC: 115
The First Noel
UMH: 245
H82: 109
PH: 56
NNBH: 87
NCH: 139
CH: 151
LBW: 56
ELW: 300
W&P: 229
AMEC: 111
Joy to the World
UMH: 246
H82: 100
PH: 40
AAHH: 197
NNBH: 94
NCH: 132
CH: 143
LBW: 39
ELW: 267
W&P: 179
AMEC: 120
STLT: 245
Once in Royal David’s City
UMH: 250
H82: 102
PH: 49
NCH: 145
CH: 165
ELW: 269
W&P: 183
STLT: 228
O Little Town of Bethlehem
UMH: 230
H82: 78/79
PH: 43/44
AAHH: 204
NNBH: 90
NCH: 133
CH: 144
LBW: 41
ELW: 279
W&P: 180
AMEC: 109
STLT: 246/247
All Hail King Jesus
CCB: 29
Renew: 35
His Name Is Wonderful
CCB: 32
Renew: 30
Music Resources Key
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELW: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day/Collect
O God who comes to us in unexpected ways:
Grant us the grace to be aware of your entrance
and to ponder these things in our hearts;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
Praised and glorious are you, O God, because you come to us in many unexpected ways. Help us to look for you and to take the time to ponder in our hearts your gracious coming. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
One: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially our failure to be aware of how you come to be with us.
All: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have failed to discern the many ways you have come into our lives. We are so busy with the passing ways of this world that we miss the ways you bring the eternal to us. You are faithful to your creation and your presence is always with us but we are not always present to your coming. Help us to pause and ponder the ways in which you come to save us day by day. Amen.
One: God does come to us so that we may have life and have it abundantly. Receive God’s gift of the divine presence in the midst of our daily lives. Then reflect that presence in your encounters with others.
Prayers of the People
Glory to you, O God, in the highest heaven and here on your earth. We praise you for the many ways you come to share your life and your love with us.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have failed to discern the many ways you have come into our lives. We are so busy with the passing ways of this world that we miss the ways you bring the eternal to us. You are faithful to your creation and your presence is always with us but we are not always present to your coming. Help us to pause and ponder the ways in which you come to save us day by day.
We give you thanks for the wonder of the birth of Jesus and your constant presence in our lives. We thank you for Mary and Joseph and their faithfulness and trust in you in bewildering conditions. We thank you for the song of the angels and the shepherds who responded to your good news.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for all those whom Jesus came to save. We pray that we may be faithful disciples who continue to share the good news of Emmanuel, of your presence with us. We pray for those who are struggling and find it difficult to believe that there is good news of a great joy for all people.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ who taught us to pray together saying:
Our Father....Amen.
(Or if the Our Father is not used at this point in the service.)
All this we ask in the name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
* * * * * *
CHILDREN'S SERMON
The Magical Moment
by Katy Stenta
Luke 2:1-14 (15-20)
This is the moment that we have all been waiting for — this is the moment of Christmas! Did you know that we actually celebrate Christmas when Jesus arrives, so when we read that line, “She gave birth to her firstborn, a son...” that’s the magical moment that is Christmas. It’s pretty exciting isn’t it?!
Why do you think the angels went and announced Jesus’s birth to shepherds?
(Answers you might supply: They were nearby. Jesus is a shepherd. Jesus came for ordinary working people.)
I am so glad that you are here to celebrate Christmas with us. You know what the angels said when Jesus was born?
Glory to God and Peace on Earth.
You want to say that? (Do “repeat after me” if that helps.) Let’s say it…
Let’s pray:
Dear God,
Thank you for allowing us to celebrate Christ’s birth with you.
Help us to celebrate
with Glory to God
and Peace on Earth
Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, December 25, 2022 issue.
Copyright 2022 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
- No Room? No Way! by Dean Feldmeyer — No room for the night is a problem. No home, forever, is a crisis.
- Second Thoughts: Pondering Matters by Chris Keating. Luke invites us into acts of holy remembering.
- Sermon illustrations by Mary Austin, Tom Willadsen.
- Worship resources by George Reed.
- Children's sermon: The Magical Moment by Katy Stenta.
No Room? No Way!Dean Feldmeyer
Luke 2:1-7
We were supposed to leave on vacation the next morning but we were too excited to sleep so we loaded the car and took off, getting a head start on our 14-hour trip from Columbus, Ohio to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. We drove until we were tired and then stop and get a hotel room for the night, completing the trip the next day.
Three hours later. 9:00 pm. We arrive in Charleston, West Virginia. No rooms available in any hotels. “Sorry. Summer, ya know. Vacation season. Ya shoulda made a reservation."
Midnight. Wytheville, Virginia. Same thing. No vacancies. “Sorry. Summer, ya know. Vacation season. Ya shoulda made a reservation.”
3:00 am. Winston-Salem, North Carolina. “Sorry. Summer, ya know. Vaca…” Yeah, yeah, I know. I shoulda made a reservation.
We gave up on the search, fortified ourselves with Red Bull, coffee and chocolate and drove the rest of the way. Completed the trip. 9:00 am. Myrtle Beach, at last. Our hotel: “Oh, sorry, Mr. Feldmeyer. Your room won’t be ready until after 4:00 pm. It says that right there on your rental agreement. See?”
So, we got some breakfast. Went to a long movie and slept sitting up in the theater until we could get into our room. And we did, eventually, get into our room, after only a brief detour to a movie theater, our later day equivalent of a stable, I guess.
Poor Joseph and Mary. There were no movie theaters in those days. They had to settle for a smelly old stable.
In the Scriptures
“O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie.”
Christmas card images of Bethlehem are always about the same. In the foreground: Joseph standing next to Mary who is sitting sidesaddle on a donkey. It’s dark or nearly so and they have paused atop a small hill to look down upon the quiet, picturesque little town. Here and there a candle burns in a window. A big, whopping star shines above the whole scene.
Of course, the artist has taken some poetic license with what was probably historical reality. We know, for instance, that people, especially couples with a pregnant young girl, didn’t travel alone in that part of the world in those days. And they didn’t travel at night. They traveled in groups, the bigger the better, and they traveled only in the daytime for safety’s sake.
And, while Bethlehem might have been a sleepy little village most of the time (scholars and historians put the population at somewhere between 300 and 400 souls), this was a special occasion. Caesar had ordered a special census, a counting of all of the people in his empire and, to facilitate the counting, Quirinius, the governor of Syria who was in charge of the census in this area, ordered all men and/or heads of households to go to their hometowns to be counted.
So, Joseph took Mary and they set off from Nazareth to Bethlehem (about a 4-day journey on foot) where Joseph’s people were from. No doubt they were met with a little town crammed with people in what amounted to a giant family reunion. The only inn in town, we know, was full. Joseph would have tried to track down some distant relatives to ask for shelter for the night but, apparently, he struck out there, too. Nothing open, no beds available.
I imagine some entrepreneurial souls setting up tents on their front lawns and renting cots to those in need of a resting place but those were all taken as well. Finally, Joseph gives up, returns to the inn to see if there were any cancelations (there weren’t) and the innkeeper offers to let him stay in the stable which he had swept out for just such a need. Only half the price of a room in the inn, too.
Joseph takes it and you know the rest of the story. Poor Joseph and Mary. No room in the inn. They have to settle for a smelly old stable.
In the News
Having no place out of the elements in which to stay is not a plight limited to our Lord and his parents for one brief time in their lives. It is all around us, today. And those who suffer from that plight come from all walks of life.
25-year-old Maxwell Frost heard that running for public office was a service to the community, win or lose, because it gave people choices. It brought issues to the forefront. It made elections count for something. So, this past November, he ran — and he ran big time. He had no intention of losing.
No school board or county commission for Maxwell. He ran for congressional representative from the 100th district in Florida. He quit his job and worked driving for Uber when he wasn’t spending 10-12 hours a day, seven days a week, campaigning. He maxed out his credit cards and lived on fast food sandwiches. And, wonder of wonders, he won — the first person of his generation (GenX) to be elected to federal office.
Energized and excited to be ready when his term begins in January, he headed to Washington, DC to find an apartment to live in. Only, he couldn’t.
Oh, there were plenty of apartments if you could afford them, which, for the most part, Maxwell couldn’t. And when he finally found one on the subway line that was almost affordable he was turned down. His run for congress had pretty much emptied his bank accounts and destroyed his credit rating. He tried several other apartments that he thought he could afford. No luck.
Once he was sworn into office his $175,000 per year salary would kick in and he should have no trouble finding some place to live. Until then, however, he was either sleeping in his car or on the couch of a friend.
For now, Maxwell is homeless in Washington. But his housing problem will get solved, eventually. Others are not so lucky.
According to the Chamber of Commerce, there are about 500,000 homeless people in the United States right now. That is, they are “lacking a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence” according to the US government’s definition.
They represent every race, gender, age, and demographic throughout the country, with a complex tapestry of reasons for their current situation. Two current trends, however, are largely responsible for the rise in homelessness over the past 20-25 years: a growing shortage of affordable rental housing and a simultaneous increase in poverty.
Before the repeal of Title 42 on December 21, nearly 2,500 migrants were crossing the border into El Paso, TX, every day. Nationwide, border security stops about 7,000 undocumented immigrants per day. The vast majority of these immigrants are coming to the United States, “the greatest country in the world,” in hopes of escaping violent persecution and/or crushing poverty. They arrive at the border homeless and with only the belongings they can carry.
According to Amnesty International, there are 26 million homeless refugees in the world, half of which are children.
In 2019, more than two-thirds of all refugees came from just five countries: Syria, Venezuela, Afghanistan, South Sudan and Myanmar. Syria has been the main country of origin for refugees since 2014 and at the end of 2019, there were 6.6 million Syrian refugees hosted by 126 countries worldwide.
In 2019, only one-half of one percent of the world’s refugees were resettled. That year, just over 1 million refugees were resettled, compared to 3.9 million refugees who returned to their country. 85% of refugees are currently being held in developing countries. Wealthy countries tend to spend their resources not to help refugees but finding ways to keep refugees away.
In the Sermon
Each year, we struggle to find something new, something fresh to say about the Christmas story as we prepare a yuletide sermon. But the fact is, there is nothing fresh and new to be said and there need not be. The old story still speaks to us as it has every year since the first Christmas.
Applications abound. Ties to our own time run through the story like threads through a tapestry.
A despot decides on a whim, as despots always and everywhere do, to count how many people live under his rule so he can assess how much tax revenue he can expect to bring in the coming year. They mean nothing to him except a source of income. Have you ever had a boss like that?
To facilitate the counting, the head of every household must return to their hometown to be counted. They go, not out of loyalty or a love for their emperor, nor out of any sense of duty or patriotism. They go because they’re afraid not to. Have you ever been in that kind of predicament?
The trip is inconvenient. It is difficult. It is uncomfortable. Especially when you are traveling with a pregnant teenager who didn’t have to go but insisted that she must. And now her fiancé must tell her that he forgot to make hotel reservations. He didn’t think he’d need them, see. He figured he’d be traveling with a bunch of his buddies, cousins, uncles, co-workers, and they would no doubt meet up with other guys making the same journey. He’d just sleep with them on the ground around the campfire at the edge of town. Swapping stories, passing a bottle around. A band of brothers. But no, here he was, trying to find someplace to stay with his pregnant fiancé. Did you ever have to make a trip that turned out to be nightmare comedy of errors?
She just had to go, too. What if the baby came while he was away, she said. She was scared and wanted him to be there with her at that important time. And he wanted to be present when the child was born but, well, it wasn’t how he planned this trip.
She wasn’t going to be happy about the “reservations thing.” He knew it was his fault but he also knew that she would over react and there’d be a scene.
And now, the last straw. The guy who owned the inn laughed in his face when he asked if there was a room. Laughed at him. Made him feel like a fool. “Shoulda made a reservation,” he said. “There’s nothing here for you.”
Like that scene in Pretty Woman, the movie.
Richard Gere, the millionaire, drops Julia Roberts, the call girl, off at a Rodeo Drive boutique to buy some fancy, expensive clothes. Says he’ll meet her there in a little while. She goes into the store and looks around but the snooty sales women who work there take one look at her working clothes and begin moving her toward the door. “We have nothing here for you,” they say. “We have nothing here for you.”
Just like that innkeeper. We have no rooms here for you.
Only different because Joseph was a working stiff, just like everyone else staying in that inn that night. He wasn’t a call girl dressed in, well, inappropriate clothing.
Still, the rejection stung. Being made to feel foolish, forgetful, less than what he should be. And, in front of his fiancé. Boy that stung.
With a little cajoling and a few groans from Mary (not for nothing those two acting classes she took at the YWCA) the old innkeeper allows them to stay in the stable for half the price of a room. From the looks of the place, swept up and tidied, he was expecting just such an eventuality.
Joseph settles Mary into the big pile of straw and makes sure she’s comfortable. Then he sighs as he sinks into the warmth beside her. He places his hand on her belly and feels the movement of the child, the heartbeat, strong and sure.
How much longer? He wonders. How much longer will we have to live according to the whims of an emperor a thousand miles away who cares not a whit for his subjects? Is this all there is to life? Is this all God has planned for us?
Little did he know, the child who would be born that night, would be the one to usher in a new kingdom, an alternative to the emperor’s kingdom, a kingdom of life, love, and peace.
A kingdom of joy.
SECOND THOUGHTSPondering Matters
by Chris Keating
Luke 2:1-14 (15-20)
Let’s take a cue from Mary this Christmas. Instead of counting the bills or fretting over menus, take a moment to join her in pondering what has just happened. It’s a spiritually rich moment, packed with sweetness and poignancy, which may help us remember that pondering is much more than trying to recall where Santa put the extra batteries.
That may be especially important on a year when Christmas is on Sunday, barely twelve hours after we had packed the room tight with carolers and candles. Most Christmas mornings offer little room for reflecting on the meaning of the moment. Celebrating Christmas on Sunday only makes that worse. Lacking time to fully appreciate Santa’s deliveries, we will push ourselves and our kids to leave behind the wrappings to head for church. It doesn’t help much that our kids will likely be the only children who come Christmas morning.
This is why pondering matters.
With Mary, we need to find some sort of foothold in the careening chaos of Christmas. She stops to breathe and to think, imagining how the child that has been born will make a difference. Luke has given us a couple of clues: we understand that the incarnation reaffirms God’s desire to work with the powerless and poor. We know that Mary sees the connections between the shimmering glory of God and the utter foolishness of the emperor.
Luke’s narrative has moved us this far, following the stages of Mary’s pregnancy to her delivery. The star shines high above the city, guiding shepherds and others to the place where Jesus has been born. God has entered the world not through the doors of a palace, but the side doors of a barn. That alone is sufficient fodder for pondering.
But we make pondering ponderous. To ponder means to think carefully about something. Meanwhile, “ponderous” means clumsy or “oppressively or unpleasantly dull.” (That’s how my children often described sermons.) Luke invites us to join Mary as an act of holy remembrance. Clutching Jesus, she cradles the multivalent memories of his birth.
It’s a scene permanently etched into our imaginations. Yet it is also one we easily pack up and put away until next November. This Christmas morning, Luke invites us to become participants in the nativity once more. Notice the makeshift birthing room, the crowded city streets, the grimy and somewhat confused shepherds whose clothes reek of sheep dung and earthiness but whose smiles reflect the glory of God.
Ponder how God is going about the task of scattering the proud in the thoughts of their hearts, and how we may join God in lifting up the lowly and filling the hungry with good things.
This week, we might ponder the continuing impact of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School ten years ago. The six- and seven-year-olds who died that day would now be getting drivers licenses and making college plans. The principal might be nearing retirement, and the younger staff holding the hands of their own children. Though the crime scenes of that day have been long demolished and replaced with a new school, the memories of that massacre remain. Newtown, Connecticut, has been called a “cradle of grief,” but also a place of “untold love and quiet resilience.” We ponder not only the lives lost that day, but the lives lost in at least 189 school shootings since.
The memories of the lives lost in those shootings, and the hundreds of others who have died from gun violence, should send us back to the treasures within Mary’s heart. She understood that with God nothing is impossible; we shrug our shoulders in resignation and move on to the next news cycle.
Ponder what it means when old Simeon blesses Mary and Joseph, but warns that a sword will pierce their heart as well. That is a reminder, like the lies and conspiracy theories that have pierced the hearts of the Sandy Hook families, that parenting carries both joy and grief. Think of the children and youth who have absorbed our collective anxieties and mental anguish, creating an unprecedented mental health crisis. Nearly one in ten youth experience severe depression in the United States. Millions of youth are experiencing serious mental health challenges.
It is, indeed, a crushing load. But while our human forms are bent low, we also know that Mary’s heart contains glimmers of God’s glory. Mary ponders the presence of God’s glory confronting painful longing. In the words of Edmund Sears’ carol, “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear:”
Look now! for glad and golden hours come swiftly on the wing. O rest beside the weary road, and hear the angels sing!
Think of how this birth story intersects our own journeys, suffusing our struggles and pain with treasures of grace and truth. Ponder the ways God continues to show up in this world, full of grace and truth. Take a breath and ponder anew what Christmas means. Share these stories of grace, confident that God is at work.
Ponder what it means for us to be like the shepherds — witnesses to the boldness of God in flesh appearing. Where the world wants to flatten experiences of delight and mystery into easily digestible chunks, the shepherds give us reason to explore the mystery of it all.
We confuse this work of recollection, often assuming pondering is the same as ponderous. But, as mother Mary teaches, pondering is likely the most significant gift we can receive.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Mary Austin:Luke 2:1-14 (15-20)
Jesus is Not Alone
At the time of his birth, Jesus and his family are displaced from their home, and shortly they become refugees from Herod. We can find their faces in this Christmas’ refugees. This Christmas, the United Nations says that 27.1 million people around the globe are refugees, half of them under the age of 18. An additional 53 million people are “internally displaced.” Adding in asylum seekers, a total of 89 million people around the globe are without a homeland right now.
The largest host countries are nations without abundant resources, with Turkey and Uganda as the leaders. The US accepted only 11,411 refugees in 2021, and only 25,465 refugees settled here in 2022. The war in Ukraine lands in our news feeds daily, and yet bigger crises loom in Sudan, Somalia, Syria, Myanmar, and Democratic Republic of Congo. At the top of the watch list is Afghanistan, where poverty is nearly universal, and even basic health care is at risk.
The largest source of refugees is “near-constant conflict” in these nations. Come, Prince of Peace, to the people whose plight you know so well.
* * *
Luke 2:1-14 (15-20)
Modern Day Shepherds
If God were coming to announce good news of great joy to our world, who would get the message? What’s the current equivalent of the lowly, smelly shepherd? Trash collectors? Night shift staffers? Uber drivers? A young man wanting to be a shepherd posed this question, and commenters advised that the current version might be:
- A caretaker in an elderly home or for kindergarten children should be a close match. I am not comparing humans to sheep/goat here. Instead, I am looking at the role of shepherd who takes care of and guides a group who is incapable of doing it themselves.
- Anything with physical labor.
- Being a nanny.
- Taking care of people’s pets.
* * *
Luke 2:1-14 (15-20)
Shepherds get on Twitter
In this Christmas story, the shepherds are anonymous recipients of the good news from the angels. We never know who they are, only that God’s announcement comes to the people on the margins. In our time, at least one shepherd has a Twitter presence, where he shares what life with the sheep is really like. James Rebanks, who tends sheep in Northern England, says that the work is still grueling. “The weather is rotten, more or less, from October to May. So by lambing season — a three-week period, usually after Easter, when the ewes give birth, and there are triumphs and miscarriages, adoptions and accidents, gamboling and suckling — the flock, the shepherd, and the land itself are already worn out.”
Being a shepherd is not the peaceful, if lonely, work that we imagine. Rebanks has around five hundred sheep to look after, and when they’re lambing, his days are full. There’s barely time to sleep. “You are trying to keep things alive,” Rebanks said. “You make a mistake and something dies. And then — if you get through i t— in a week or ten days’ time, the grass comes, the sun shines, and there is a feeling of absolute sheer exhaustion that turns to elation.”
Rebanks started on Twitter to convey what his life is like, and to ease the isolation of his work. On Twitter, he is the Herdwick Shepherd. “A little more than a hundred and nine thousand people, most of them trapped in office environments or riding public transportation, follow his account for gorgeous, wide-skied pictures of his flock, and for his evocations of the English countryside.”
Being a shepherd, even with modern tools, is still isolated, lonely, grueling work.
* * *
Isaiah 9:2-7
Made for Joy
The coming of the Messiah returns humankind to something essential about ourselves. Part of the gift of the messiah is joy, as the prophet proclaims, “You have multiplied the nation, you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest.”
Echoing Isaiah, Margaret Renkl says simply, “we are creatures built for joy.” She adds, “At the very saddest funerals, we can hear a funny story about our lost beloved, and God help us, we laugh. We can stagger out of an appointment where a person in a white coat has given us the news we think we cannot bear to hear, and still we smile at the baby in the checkout line clapping her chubby hands at the balloons by the cash register or kicking her feet in joy at a stranger’s smile.
This is who we are. The very best of who we are. Turn your face up to the sky. Listen. The world is shivering into possibility. The world is reminding us that this is what the world does best. New life. Rebirth. The greenness that rises out of ashes.
Turn your face up to the sky. Listen. The world is shivering into possibility. The world is reminding us that this is what the world does best. New life. Rebirth. The greenness that rises out of ashes.
Turn your face up to the sky. Listen. The world is shivering into possibility. The world is reminding us that this is what the world does best. New life. Rebirth. The greenness that rises out of ashes.”
Jesus is coming, bringing joy into the sorrows of 2022, and into all the sorrows of all of humankind.
* * * * * *
From team member Tom Willadsen:Luke 2:(1-7) 8-20
A study in contrasts
The lectionary brackets the first seven verses, which helped me notice a contrast in this reading. The first seven verses have a dry, just the facts, Ma’am feel to them. The story soars when God’s Air Force appears to the shepherds. The words are so familiar (I believe that the King James Version of Luke 2:1-20 is the second-most remembered passage of scripture, after only Psalm 23 because this is what Linus recites at the end of the Charlie Brown Christmas special) that we do not perceive their power. A single angel scares the shepherds half to death. That angel is joined by “a multitude of the heavenly host;” “host” means army. Luke basically blows the special effects budget right here in chapter 2.
One thing Linus get wrong is that Jesus was in swaddling cloths, not swaddling clothes. It’s subtle, but Jesus was wrapped in strips of cloth, not the first-century equivalent of a onesie.
* * *
Psalm 97
We worship the correct God
There’s a thread of schadenfreude running through this psalm. The king whose reign is proclaimed, whose foundation is righteousness and justice, puts to shame those who worship idols and other gods. Zion and the towns of Judah are, however, glad because they serve the correct God, the most high God, the one exalted over all the others. This God loves those who hate evil. We must be good because we hate the very same things that God hates. Hooray for us. Light dawns on us becuase we’re upright.
* * *
Psalm 98
Sing a new song? Just try it, pastor!
In the New Revised Standard Version “new song” appears nine times. Twice in Revelation, once in Isaiah and six times in the Psalms. While there is a certain freshness conveyed in singing a new song, there are also drawbacks for those picking hymns for Protestants. While the worship wars pitting contemporary and traditional music have been mostly settled, it is the rare congregation that wants to sing an unfamiliar song at Christmas. Or before Christmas. Some of my colleagues have been hammered this year because they have not selected enough Christmas songs during the season of Advent. A prominent member of the first church I served ran the town’s department store. He needed a little Christmas starting November 1, liturgical integrity be damned! Given the slim attendance you can expect when Christmas falls on a Sunday — will there even be a choir? I advise reading Psalm 98 responsively and singing the warhorses.
* * *
Hebrews 1:1-4, John 1:1-14
Continuity and novelty
Both of these passages look back to before the dawn of creation to now, a stunning new beginning, in harmony with — even completing — God’s plan for creation. God’s presence was felt clear back in Genesis, whose tone is echoed by John, when God’s Spirit hovered over the watery chaos. God’s presence was manifest in the prophets, but that was only prologue. Christ coming into the world is a dramatic in-breaking of God’s less tangible presence. This is new! Time to sing a new song — or at least recite a psalm in praise of new songs!
* * * * * *
WORSHIPby George Reed
Call to Worship
One: O sing to God a new song; sing to God, all the earth.
All: Sing to God and tell of God’s salvation from day to day.
One: Ascribe to God glory and come into God’s courts.
All: Worship God in holy splendor and let all the earth tremble.
One: Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice for God is coming.
All: Let even the trees of the forest sing for joy at God’s nearness.
OR
One: Glory to God in the highest heavens and on earth.
All: God comes to grant peace to all the creation.
One: The Christ has come to lead us into God’s realm.
All: The Light from on high has dawned on our darkness.
One: The Spirit of God spreads throughout the land.
All: Joy and peace are the gifts God brings to us this day!
Hymns and Songs
Angels from the Realms of Glory
UMH: 220
H82: 93
PH: 22
AAHH: 207
NNBH: 85
NCH: 126
CH: 149
LBW: 50
ELW: 275
W&P: 189
AMEC: 119
Infant Holy, Infant Lowly
UMH: 229
PH: 37
CH: 163
LBW: 44
ELW: 276
W&P: 221
O Come, All Ye Faithful
UMH: 234
H82: 83
PH: 41/42
AAHH: 199
NNBH: 93
NCH: 135
CH: 148
LBW: 46
ELW: 283
W&P: 182
AMEC: 106
STLT 253
While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks
UMH: 236
H82: 94/95
PH: 58/59
NNBH: 92
W&P: 228
AMEC: 110
Angels We Have Heard on High
UMH: 238
H82: 96
PH: 23
AAHH: 206
NNBH: 89
NCH: 125
CH: 155
LBW: 71
ELW: 289
W&P: 188
AMEC: 118
STLT 231
Hark the Herald Angels Sing
UMH: 240
H82: 87
PH: 31/32
AAHH: 217
NNBH: 81
NCH: 144
CH: 150
LBW: 60
ELW: 270
W&P: 185
AMEC: 115
The First Noel
UMH: 245
H82: 109
PH: 56
NNBH: 87
NCH: 139
CH: 151
LBW: 56
ELW: 300
W&P: 229
AMEC: 111
Joy to the World
UMH: 246
H82: 100
PH: 40
AAHH: 197
NNBH: 94
NCH: 132
CH: 143
LBW: 39
ELW: 267
W&P: 179
AMEC: 120
STLT: 245
Once in Royal David’s City
UMH: 250
H82: 102
PH: 49
NCH: 145
CH: 165
ELW: 269
W&P: 183
STLT: 228
O Little Town of Bethlehem
UMH: 230
H82: 78/79
PH: 43/44
AAHH: 204
NNBH: 90
NCH: 133
CH: 144
LBW: 41
ELW: 279
W&P: 180
AMEC: 109
STLT: 246/247
All Hail King Jesus
CCB: 29
Renew: 35
His Name Is Wonderful
CCB: 32
Renew: 30
Music Resources Key
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELW: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day/Collect
O God who comes to us in unexpected ways:
Grant us the grace to be aware of your entrance
and to ponder these things in our hearts;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
Praised and glorious are you, O God, because you come to us in many unexpected ways. Help us to look for you and to take the time to ponder in our hearts your gracious coming. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
One: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially our failure to be aware of how you come to be with us.
All: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have failed to discern the many ways you have come into our lives. We are so busy with the passing ways of this world that we miss the ways you bring the eternal to us. You are faithful to your creation and your presence is always with us but we are not always present to your coming. Help us to pause and ponder the ways in which you come to save us day by day. Amen.
One: God does come to us so that we may have life and have it abundantly. Receive God’s gift of the divine presence in the midst of our daily lives. Then reflect that presence in your encounters with others.
Prayers of the People
Glory to you, O God, in the highest heaven and here on your earth. We praise you for the many ways you come to share your life and your love with us.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have failed to discern the many ways you have come into our lives. We are so busy with the passing ways of this world that we miss the ways you bring the eternal to us. You are faithful to your creation and your presence is always with us but we are not always present to your coming. Help us to pause and ponder the ways in which you come to save us day by day.
We give you thanks for the wonder of the birth of Jesus and your constant presence in our lives. We thank you for Mary and Joseph and their faithfulness and trust in you in bewildering conditions. We thank you for the song of the angels and the shepherds who responded to your good news.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for all those whom Jesus came to save. We pray that we may be faithful disciples who continue to share the good news of Emmanuel, of your presence with us. We pray for those who are struggling and find it difficult to believe that there is good news of a great joy for all people.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ who taught us to pray together saying:
Our Father....Amen.
(Or if the Our Father is not used at this point in the service.)
All this we ask in the name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
* * * * * *
CHILDREN'S SERMONThe Magical Moment
by Katy Stenta
Luke 2:1-14 (15-20)
This is the moment that we have all been waiting for — this is the moment of Christmas! Did you know that we actually celebrate Christmas when Jesus arrives, so when we read that line, “She gave birth to her firstborn, a son...” that’s the magical moment that is Christmas. It’s pretty exciting isn’t it?!
Why do you think the angels went and announced Jesus’s birth to shepherds?
(Answers you might supply: They were nearby. Jesus is a shepherd. Jesus came for ordinary working people.)
I am so glad that you are here to celebrate Christmas with us. You know what the angels said when Jesus was born?
Glory to God and Peace on Earth.
You want to say that? (Do “repeat after me” if that helps.) Let’s say it…
Let’s pray:
Dear God,
Thank you for allowing us to celebrate Christ’s birth with you.
Help us to celebrate
with Glory to God
and Peace on Earth
Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, December 25, 2022 issue.
Copyright 2022 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
