Bulletin – Sunday, December 28, 2025 – First Sunday after Christmas

Sunday, December 28, 2025
First Sunday after Christmas

We Gather as People of Faith

Welcome

Lighting the Christ Candle

One:   We light the Christ Candle this morning, for the Light of the World has arrived, banishing darkness and showing us the face of God.
All:      God is with us, your light shines and our hearts of filled with your love.

One:   As these flames burn, we thank God who transforms us to be his light in the world. May God’s grace among us change how we live, now and always. Amen.

Announcements

Call to Worship

One:   Come, praise the eternal God! All you in the heavens, angels above…
All:      Praise God!

One:   Sun, moon, and stars in the sky…
All:      Praise God!

One:   Dolphins and whales, fish in the sea…
All:      Praise God!

One:   Lighting and thunder, snow and rain…
All:      Praise God!

One:   Mountains and hills, desert and prairie…
All:      Praise God!

One:   Fruit trees and cedars, flowers and weeds…
All:      Praise God!

One:   Kings and presidents, prime ministers and judges…
All:      Praise God!

One:   Men and women, young and old…
All:      Praise God!

One:   Let them all praise the name of God!
All:      For God’s name stands alone, above all others; God’s glory shines over earth and heaven.

One:   Let’s worship God together!

Please join in the singing of the hymn – “Joy is Now in Every Place” (Voices United #45)

Joy is now in every place,
Christmas lightens every face;
Now be with us, in your grace,
O hear us, bless us, holy Jesus.

May the star that shone that night,
Making your poor stable bright,
Fill our hearts with love and light,
O hear us, bless us, holy Jesus.

Through the New Year let it stay,
Leading us upon your way,
Making Christmas every day,
O hear us, bless us, holy Jesus.

Now and ever may we find
Your good news to fill our mind:
Peace and love to humankind,
O hear us, bless us, holy Jesus.

Prayer of Approach and Confession

Gracious God, we would like to be among those who saw the coming of the Christ Child, those who dropped all that they were doing and traveled to worship the coming of God’s love into this world. We would like to be those who cared for God in infant vulnerability; who tickled and cuddled and comforted the growing child, that he might know love and safety. 

And yet, merciful God, we must recognize all the times we are more like Herod. Whenever we, in our actions or in our inactions, find our own need for control more compelling than the needs of others for health and safety. Whenever we cling to the security of our privilege, rather than standing up for the rights of the oppressed. Whenever we are complicit in the harming of innocents for the sake of profit, or power, or because we fear to know, and to change, the injustices of this world.

Loving God, we confess our sins against you and one another, and pray that you will fill us with your light, that we may live our lives as true disciples in your name, without counting the cost. In the name of Christ, the one who showed us the way, we pray. Amen.

Words of Assurance

One:   God’s light is present in this world. Present in the Christ child, born to lead us our of darkness. Present in the star, in all that guides us to love.
All:      God’s light is in the world, and the darkness did not overcome it. God’s grace is in the world, and our mis-steps will no overcome it. We are loved, we are forgiven. Alleluia! Amen.

Sung Response – “Joy, Joy, Joy” (Voices United #47 verse 3)

Joy, joy, joy; glad tidings of great joy!
For through God’s holy incarnation Christ is born for our salvation.
Joy, joy, joy; glad tidings of great joy!

We Hear God’s Word

Scripture Reading: Psalm 148

¹ Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord from the heavens; praise him in the heights above. ² Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his heavenly hosts. ³ Praise him, sun and moon; praise him, all you shining stars. ⁴ Praise him, you highest heavens and you waters above the skies. ⁵ Let them praise the name of the Lord, for at his command they were created, ⁶ and he established them for ever and ever—he issued a decree that will never pass away.

⁷ Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures and all ocean depths, ⁸ lightning and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds that do his bidding, ⁹ you mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars, ¹⁰ wild animals and all cattle, small creatures and flying birds, ¹¹ kings of the earth and all nations, you princes and all rulers on earth, ¹² young men and women,  old men and children.

¹³ Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted; his splendor is above the earth and the heavens. ¹⁴ And he has raised up for his people a horn,  the praise of all his faithful servants, of Israel, the people close to his heart. Praise the Lord.

Gospel Reading:     Matthew 2:13-23

¹³ When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”

¹⁴ So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, ¹⁵ where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

¹⁶ When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. ¹⁷ Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:

¹⁸ “A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.”

¹⁹ After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt ²⁰ and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.”

²¹ So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. ²² But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, ²³ and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene.

May God speak to us through these readings of scripture.
Thanks be to God!

Please join in the singing of the hymn – “When Mary and Joseph Sought Shelter”

When Mary and Joseph sought safety and shelter,
Who welcomed them gladly? Who said, “Come and stay”?
Who said, “Come inside here”? Who gave food and water?
Who offered a place to keep cold winds away?
O Lord, we remember, and sometimes we wonder:
You no longer need a small bed filled with hay.
So how can we welcome you, Jesus our Savior?
And how can we show that we love you today?

We look all around us and see the world’s children,
And so we remember they’re precious to you.
As nations have chosen to help or to hurt them,
O Lord, we confess nations do unto you.
The youth in detention, the poor, hungry orphan,
The neighbor, the stranger, the child in the pew:
May we reach in love and give safety and welcome.
By loving God’s children, we welcome you, too.

Sermon: “Reaching the Other Side”

Please join the singing of the hymn – “When Heaven’s Bright with Mystery”

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

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

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

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

We Respond to God’s Word

Invitation to Share

We will now have the presentation of our offerings.

Offering Sung Response – “What Can I Give Him” (Voices United 55 verse 4)

What can I give him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd I would bring a lamb,
If I were a wise man I would do my part;
Yet what I can I give him—give him my heart.

Offering Prayer

Lord of Light and Love, we offer these gifts with hearts transformed by the miracle of your son’s birth. As the shepherds returned with joy and praise, may these offerings spread your joy and love. Use them to bless those in need, to bring hope and peace, and to further your kingdom here on earth. In this season of Advent, may we continue to glorify and praise you in all we do. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.

Prayers of the People

Pause, my children, in this space between Christmas parties, and those of the New Year,
between gift unwrapping and cleaning up, between longing and thanksgiving, between endings and beginnings, between dismay and joy, between Sacred and ordinary…

Pause and remember Whose you are, and Whose you will always be.

Pause and remember in Whose name you pray, and Whose love you seek, and hold, and give away.

Pause and pray that all may see the world with the eyes of wonder of the newborn Christ, with the loving heart of God’s act of self-giving.

Pause and pray that we may all treat one another with the honor and adoration Mary and Joseph, shepherds and wise ones, angels and all the heavenly choir showed to the tiny child.

In the name of Christ, we pray for every person, living now, gone before, or yet to come, in every nation on earth:

Today we pause and pray for those we hold in our hearts and those whose names we bring before you…Marlene, Rob, Barb, Joe, Lyall, Alice, Becky, Val, Greg, Larry, Debbie, Abby, Deanna, Debra, Valerie

In the name of Christ we pray. Amen.

Invitation to the Passing of the Peace

The Prayer that Jesus Taught

One:   Please join me in praying the prayer Jesus taught us to pray:
All:      Our Creator who is like our Mother and our Father, who art in heaven hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil; for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

We Go Into God’s World

Please join in the singing of the hymn – “God Gives Us a Future”

God gives us a future, daring us to go
Into dreams and dangers on a path unknown.
We will face tomorrow in the Spirit’s power,
We will let God change us, for new life starts now.

We must leave behind us sins of yesterday,
For God’s new beginning is a better way.
Fear and doubt and habit must not hold us back:
God gives hope, and insight, and the strength we lack.

Holy Spirit, teach us how to read the signs,
How to meet the challenge of our troubled times.
Love us into action, stir us into prayer,
Till we choose God’s life, and find our future there.”

Commissioning

Go joyfully from this place and into the world, finding the Christ child in the face of every single child of God. Go as glad partners in God’s redeeming, creating work.

Benediction

And the grace and favor of the God of Love will go with you ever more. Amen.

Sung Response – “O Light of Nations, Fill the Earth” (Voices United #84, verse 4)

O Light of nations, fill the earth;
Our faith and hope and love renew.
Come, lead the peoples to your peace,
As stars once led the way to you.