27th. December. 2020 Service.

First Sunday after Christmas

Prelude: Land of rest – Jerusalem my happy home
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtGy6EzDS64

Let us Worship God

Hymn: “The peace of the earth be with you”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1dpqgnG1OU

The Collect for today
Almighty God, you have poured upon us the new light of your incarnate Word: Grant that this light, enkindled in our hearts, may shine forth in our lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Hymn: Good Christian men rejoice
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vw5g9kt_ANA

Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord from the heavens!

Praise God in the heights!
Praise God, all you angels!

Praise God, all you heavenly host!
Let us all praise the Lord!

Prayer of Adoration and Confession
God of grace and glory,
we praise you from the heights and from the depths,
in the heavens, on earth and from the seas,
in the courts of power and from the pathways of our lives.

Your splendour shines from a manger,
where the Light of the world was born to pierce the darkness of our life on earth.
In the fragility of flesh, you are revealed to us in a human face.
Today we gather with everyone in every place who has been touched by your salvation and grace and we rejoice in the love that was born for us in Bethlehem.
Together we worship and praise you as Creator, Son and Holy Spirit,
Source of life, Glorious light, Wisdom of the ages.

Source of all hope, you invite us to live in the light and discover the splendour of your glory. We confess we often choose to remain in the darkness instead of in the fulness of your light.
We allow our fears and hurts to damage our minds and dim our faith. Our low expectations of life prevent us from seeing new and real possibilities in many situations. You offer us unconditional love, but we expect others to earn our love. Forgive us. May the new life born in the manger awaken new life in us and allow hope to dawn for us and many in the year ahead.

Assurance of Pardon

Here is the good news of the Gospel: Jesus Christ is our light and our salvation. In him we are recreated in His image. We gladly thank God and are at peace with ourselves and with one another.

Prayer for Understanding

Holy God, in the ancient words of the scriptures, let us hear again the eternal message of peace, salvation and reconciliation. Send us your Spirit to reveal to us your eternal truth in Jesus Christ, your Word made flesh. Amen.

The Lords Prayer (in the words familiar to you)

Hymn: “Unto us a boy is born”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvnceCVScDI

Invitation to the Offering

In the season of Christmas, we celebrate God’s gifts to us in Christ Jesus and express our love for each other in the gifts we exchange. Our gifts today express our love for God and our gratitude for all we have received in love this year.

Prayer of Dedication

Good and gracious God, your love overflows in the goodness we have met even in this challenging year. As one year closes and another begins, help us trust your goodness. Bless the gifts we bring to you so that they may provide others with the hope we know in Christ Jesus and the love you share with the world through him.

The Readings

Isaiah 621:10-62:3

¹⁰I delight greatly in the Lord;
my soul rejoices in my God.
For he has clothed me with garments of salvation
and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness,
as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest,
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
¹¹For as the soil makes the young plant come up
and a garden causes seeds to grow,
so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness
and praise spring up before all nations.

62 For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent,
for Jerusalem’s sake I will not remain quiet,
till her vindication shines out like the dawn,
her salvation like a blazing torch.
²The nations will see your vindication,
and all kings your glory;
you will be called by a new name
that the mouth of the Lord will bestow.
³You will be a crown of splendour in the Lord’s hand,
a royal diadem in the hand of your God. Amen.

Luke 1:22-40

²²When the time came for the purification rites required by the Law of Moses, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord ²³as it is written in the Law of the Lord, ‘Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord’ ²⁴and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: ‘a pair of doves or two young pigeons’.

²⁵Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. ²⁶It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. ²⁷Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, ²⁸Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:

²⁹‘Sovereign Lord, as you have promised,
you may now dismiss your servant in peace.
³⁰For my eyes have seen your salvation,
³¹ which you have prepared in the sight of all nations:
³²a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and the glory of your people Israel.’

³³The child’s father and mother marvelled at what was said about him. ³⁴Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: ‘This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, ³⁵so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.’

³⁶There was also a prophet, Anna, the daughter of Penuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, ³⁷and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshipped night and day, fasting and praying. ³⁸Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.

³⁹When Joseph and Mary had done everything required by the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee to their own town of Nazareth. ⁴⁰And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was on him.

Amen this is the Word of the Lord, to Him be all glory and praise.

Hymn “It came upon the midnight clear”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_U_Dzovu1XA

Sermon

God, now let your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my own eyes have seen your salvation which you have prepared in the presence of all people, a light of revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for the people of Israel.

The scriptures are rather sparse in their depiction of the childhood of Jesus of Nazareth. In its wisdom the early church rejected a number of “gospels” which were in circulation in which the child Jesus was described from an early age as a thaumaturge, a miracle worker. The impression they give is of a precocious and sometimes spiteful child using his power to impress or to subdue his childhood companions.

Instead, we are told of his circumcision, his presentation in the Temple in Jerusalem and his revealing to a couple of elderly prophets.

Nowadays, most parents bring their children to the minister for baptism, not circumcision. Usually, it is not a painful time for the baby. But for the child Jesus, being welcomed into the “church” was somewhat more painful than baptism. It meant the ritual circumcision essential for males if they were to be incorporated in the family of Jews. It was the sign that he was one with all the children of Abraham.

“At the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.” Usually, the naming was concurrent with the circumcision. They named him Joshua, that name which means “God is salvation.”

Later, after the necessary interval (in Levitical law) for a mother’s purification, Mary, Joseph and the Infant, went from Bethlehem to Jerusalem to make offerings to God.

By the curious development of Levitical law (which seemed to have what we would call a “hang up” about the unclearness of women) Mary, having given birth to a male baby, was treated as unclean until forty days passed, unable to take part in public worship or touch any sacred object that had been dedicated to God. She was under a ban.

On the positive side, this law at least made certain that an uncaring husband would not attempt sexual intimacy until the woman was well on the way to recovery from the ordeal of giving birth. I cannot help but wonder whether that was not the original reason behind the law of Moses. Not a ritual matter but genuine concern for women following childbirth. I believe that much of what became ritual regulations had its origin in God’s practical concern for the welfare of persons.

St Luke tells us that the infant Christ was given a portentous welcome at the Temple.

It was not a celebrity event staged by the devoted students of the law, like the Pharisees. Nor was there a greeting committee from the high priests of organised religion.

Priests and Pharisees, as Luke knew, were never going to welcome Jesus into their spheres of influence. They had invested too much of their energies in their way of seeing and doing things, to allow anyone else to intrude. The grounds for the tragedy of the rejection of Jesus were already in place.

The real welcome came from two elderly folk. Neither is a priest nor a Pharisee. Each seems to be more like the Hebrew prophets. Both are genuinely devout, utterly devoted, not to external religion but to God. They are genuine seers.

That word ‘seer’ is the best way to describe a prophet. The ‘see-er’ looks beyond the superficial into the deeper realm of things. The seer looks through the religious and secular noise of society to the real heart of the matter. The seer, like the child in the story of “The king with no clothes,” is not in bondage to what we are supposed to see or say. Seers dare to look with insight and tell it as it really is.

Jesus was greeted at the Temple, first by Simeon. He is very old, a just and truly devout person who looks and longs for the true rehabilitation of Israel, for its redemption. He has been inspired by the Holy Spirit to see and believe that he will not rest his aged bones in the grave until he has seen God’s promised Messiah.

Try to picture that scene. The massive, spectacular Temple on the top of Mount Zion; its great walls and mammoth pillars; the wide stone stairway leading up the slope to the public entrance point. Up this stairway tread two country people carrying their first child. They enter through the great gate and walk into the immense, colonnaded courtyard. Jews from all over the world are moving here and there. Amongst them is old Simeon, waiting there because the Spirit has led him to this place.

Simeon detaches himself from the crowd and comes to Mary and Joseph. To their surprise, with the eagerness one who has at last found the clue to his whole existence, he takes the baby into his arms and words of praise and thanksgiving pour from his lips.

God, now let your servant depart in peace,
            according to your word,
            for my own eyes have seen your salvation
            which you have prepared in the presence of all people,
            a light of revelation to the Gentiles,
            and glory for the people of Israel.

The next scene is on the same stage, the busy court inside the temple walls, but a different seer. It features Anna, at least 84 years old and maybe 91, a very great age in an era when the average life span of a woman was about 36 years. This aged prophetess lived permanently around the temple courts, praying, fasting, and worshipping.

Seeing the young child, Anna can discern the inner truth of the little fellow. She declares to all who are yearning for the liberation of Israel, that this is the one they have been waiting for. This is the one who will change their fortunes, as God had promised.

Do you see how St Luke has brilliantly utilised these stories about the first visit of Christ to the holy Temple, the very place where, in the inner sanctum, God’s Presence was thought to abide? Luke has set up the whole Gospel story that is yet to unfold.

From the very beginning, Jesus, son of Mary, is the promised Messiah, the one who will redeem Israel. He will not be recognised or welcomed by the people with power nor by the scholars of the religious law and the priests who claim to give, or prevent, access to God. Jesus will be recognised, worshipped and followed by simple people who are truly devoted to God. The pure in heart shall see God in Jesus.

This Jesus will be in the tradition of the prophets, inspired by the same Spirit, and bearing a similar disconcerting message. Those who meet this Jesus, recognise him, and believe in him, will be able to die in peace, for their hopes and dreams will be fulfilled.

The good news is for all people. Simeon specifically mentions the non-Jews, the pagan Gentiles, those believed to be benighted outsiders. “A light of revelation to the Gentiles.” This good news includes both male and female. With this Jesus, women will not be second class citizens of the kingdom of God. Anna recognises him just as clearly as Simeon. In Luke’s Gospel, the woman Anna becomes the first ‘preacher,’ the first one to speak to others of Jesus as the redeemer.

St. Luke raised for us these discomforting questions:

Are we numbered among the seers? Among the common people of sincerity, who recognise this Person Jesus? Or are we among those who, like many Priests and Pharisees, have invested so much of ourselves in other affairs (either religious or secular!) that we resent this Jesus? For he is definitely one who will confront and upset our preferred way of seeing and doing things.

And are we among the seers who know that the love of this Jesus includes all people? That there are no outsiders; no one we can despise or treat as unworthy? Are we those who can see the image of God in everyone?

Prayers of Thanksgiving and Intercession

God of love, as we celebrate the birth and life of Jesus, our Saviour, we are filled with gratitude that his salvation has been revealed to us Our thanks overflow in prayers for our world, the world which you love.

We pray for all our children and grandchildren. Guard their minds, protect their bodies, strengthen their characters, and give them joy. Help them look to the future with hope and trust.

We pray for the most elderly among us, those whom Simeon and Anna remind us about. Protect them from the ravages of the pandemic and reassure them of their value to you and to us, especially whenever we cannot meet and embrace them.

We pray for those whose hearts are filled with pain and fear and the many whose lives have been disrupted this Christmas. We pray for those for whom Christmas is linked with loss or grief.
(Keep a time of silence)

Give to everyone a deep awareness of your comforting presence.

We pray for those who do not have enough to eat, and for those who lack adequate shelter in our community and in desperate corners of the world…
For those who eat alone, without the comfort of human contact…
and for those whose hearts and lives have been broken by trauma and loss,
and for those who struggle with the many costs of the pandemic.
(Keep a time of silence)

Give to everyone a deep awareness of your comforting presence.

We pray for family members and friends, those who are with us and those whom we could not meet this year.
(Keep a time of silence)

Remind them of our steadfast love, and to all who are struggling this season, O God, give your gift of peace.

As the year draws to its ending, we surrender to you, O God,
the challenges it has held for us so that they may not remain as burdens.
Remind us of the good things that brought us encouragement in times of isolation.
Thank you for the people who continue to care for us and care about us. Give us all courage and wisdom for the year ahead.

We pray that our leaders may receive from your wisdom and generosity of spirit your guidance for the decisions they must make on our behalf.
Guide researchers working to produce vaccines against COVID-19
and support all those essential workers whose faithfulness in their duties have helped us all to cope during these difficult days.

Give to us all the hope, joy, and peace of Christ as we move into 2021 trusting your grace to guide and keep us.
We offer all our prayers in His Holy Name. Amen.

Hymn: “As with gladness men of old”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sp52sx2_GYs

Benediction

Beloved, we have heard and trusted in
the good news of Jesus Christ.
Go now into the world to do and see still greater things,
to open heaven upon earth
and bear witness to eternal life today;
in the name of the Father,
and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

May God’s blessing surround you each day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_3O_N49GiU

Postlude: “Brightest and best of the sons of the morning”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Q5A4TctOn0

Hymns
Here are some hymn suggestions to check on YouTube if you wish to sing along. Some may not be as familiar as their titles suggest and the ones marked “listen” do not have the lyrics on the screen:

Hymn: “The peace of the earth be with you”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1dpqgnG1OU

Good Christian men rejoice!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4I6x8lccIz8

Hymn: “Unto us a boy is born”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvnceCVScDI

It came upon the midnight clear
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgV3x7aNH7c

Hymn: “As with gladness men of old”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sp52sx2_GYs

Postlude: “Brightest and best of the sons of the morning”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Q5A4TctOn0

For Children

It is the beginning of a New Year. Maybe you have received a brand-new calendar for a fresh start on life. Many people start the new year by making some New Year Resolutions. Making a resolution is like making a promise to ourselves that we are going to do certain things. Usually, it is a promise to do better next year than we did last year. Here’s a list of resolutions that might be good for children to make.

I will watch less TV and get more exercise.
I will help with chores without complaining.
I will be nice to other kids–even my brothers and sisters!
I will put away my toys when I am through playing with them.

Can you think of some more resolutions you could make?

Some people don’t take New Year’s resolutions very seriously. After all, they’re just promises to yourself. We might think that if we don’t follow through, it’s no big deal. But it is a big deal! A promise is a promise and it’s important to keep your promises–even if it’s just a promise to yourself.

Think of something important enough to make a promise about this year. Write a word or quick symbol on a sticky note to say what that promise is.

The Bible talks about an especially important promise God made to His people. Thankfully, God is always faithful in keeping His promises. We learn in the Bible about a man named Simeon. Simeon was an old man who had waited his whole life to see God’s promise come to himself and to God’s people. God had promised to send a Messiah or Saviour to the world, and God promised Simeon that he would not die until he had seen the promised Messiah.

A few days after Jesus was born, Mary and Joseph took Him to the temple to dedicate Him to God. Simeon was in the temple as usual. As soon as Simeon saw baby Jesus, he knew God had kept His promise. Simeon took Jesus in his arms and praised God, saying, “Lord, now let your servant die in peace. As you have promised, I have seen your salvation, which you have prepared for all people.”

Anna was a prophet who was also in the Temple. She was always at the Temple worshiping and praying. When she heard what Simeon was saying, she praised God and told everyone that Jesus was the Saviour that God had promised.

Today, as we begin a new year, let’s remember that just as God is faithful in keeping His promises, we can be faithful in keeping our promises.

Dear God, just as You’re faithful to keep Your promises, help us be faithful in keeping our promises. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Here is a video about Simeon and Anna

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leN-xNrkjbo

And a chorus for you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cyvLhA5VNE

Intimations

It is with regret that the Kirk Sessions have decided to suspend our Sunday Worship in the churches owing to the current Covid related restrictions. We are only permitted to have twenty people including the minister in our worship which means we would have to refuse entry to many people each week. We pray that you will stay safe, that the lockdown will have the desired effect, and that we may be able to meet for worship again in a few weeks’ time. We wish everyone a happy Christmas and a New Year filled with safety and blessing.