THE SECOND SUNDAY IN CHRISTMASTIDE
January 2, 2022

A Liturgy For Meditation and Contemplation
Use As Much Or As Little As You Choose

In Preparation for Worship
We gather to your good pleasure, to hear your holy word of truth, to praise you for your glorious grace, freely bestowed upon us in Christ Jesus. Seal us with your Holy Spirit, mark us for your service, as you have ordained it, O blessed God.
—Slemmons, Timothy Matthew. The Joyful Feast: Liturgical Elements for Reformed Worship, Year C

Call To Worship

Sing aloud with gladness:

God is gathering the people!
From the farthest parts of the earth we come:
All who struggle; all who labor with new life!
Those who are weeping, God will console;
Those who get lost find a clear path home.
Let us worship the God who gathers us!

Prayer Of Invocation

Come to us, O God, In our time together. You are the source of every spiritual blessing. You have chosen us in Christ. You have adopted us into your family. You have redeemed and forgiven us, According to the riches of your grace. And, as we are here by your mercy and grace, Make us conscious anew of your blessings. But, above all, O God, Make us conscious of you, the Blesser, The giver of every good and perfect gift,

And the giver of your only Son, Jesus, Through whom we pray it all. Amen.

—Drescher, John. Invocations and Benedictions for the Revised Common Lectionary

Trisagion
Holy God, Holy and Mighty, Holy Immortal One:

You are Emmanuel—God with us!

Holy God, Holy and Mighty, Holy Immortal One:

You are the Babe in the manger—flesh and blood!

Holy God, Holy and Mighty, Holy Immortal One:

You are as one of us—God in human presence!

Prayer For the Day
Light of life, you came in flesh,
born into human pain and joy,
and gave us power to be your children.
Grant us faith, O Christ, to see your presence among us,
so that all of creation may sing new songs of gladness
and walk in the way of peace. Amen.
—https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu

Prayer For Illumination
Heavenly God, Holy Wisdom came to dwell with us in Jesus, filling our world with Her light and life. May She also dwell within your word this day, that we may have intimate knowledge of your love for us, through the One who is close to your heart, Jesus Christ your Child. Amen.

—Feasting on the Word Worship Companion: Liturgies for Year C, Volume 1

First Reading
Jeremiah 31:7-14
For thus says God Most High: Sing aloud with gladness for Jacob, and raise shouts for the chief of the nations; proclaim, give praise, and say, “Save, O God, your people, the remnant of Israel.” See, I am going to bring the remnant from the land of the north, and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth, among them the blind and the lame, those with child and those in labor, together; a great company, they shall return here. With weeping they shall come, and with consolations I will lead them back, I will let them walk by brooks of water, in a straight path in which they shall not stumble; for I have become like a parent to Israel, and Ephraim is like my firstborn.
Hear the word of God, O nations, and declare it in the coastlands far away; say, “The God who scattered Israel will gather the remnant, and will keep them as a shepherd a flock.” For God has ransomed and redeemed Jacob. The remnant shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion, and they shall be radiant over the goodness of God, over the grain, the wine, and the oil, and over the young of the flock and the herd; their life shall become like a watered garden, and they shall never languish again. Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old shall be merry. I will turn their mourning into joy, I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow. I will give the priests their fill of fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my bounty, says God Most High.

Psalmody
Psalm 147
Praise God, O Jerusalem! Praise your God, O Zion!
For God strengthens the bars of your gates; God blesses your children within you.
God grants peace within your borders; God fills you with the finest of wheat.
God sends out a command to the earth; God's word runs swiftly.
God gives snow like wool; God scatters frost like ashes.
God hurls down hail like crumbs—who can stand before such cold?
God sends out the word, and melts them; God makes the wind blow, and the waters flow.
God declares the word to Jacob, God's statutes and ordinances to Israel.
God has not dealt thus with any other nation; they do not know God's ordinances. Praise God!

Second Reading
Ephesians 1:3-14
Blessed be the God and Mother and Father of our the Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in love. God destined us for adoption as children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of God's will, to the praise of God's glorious grace freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. For in the Beloved we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of grace lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight God has made known to us the mystery of the divine will, according to the good pleasure set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things, things in heaven and things on earth unto God's self. In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of God who accomplishes all things according to God's counsel and will, so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of God's glory. In God you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in Christ Jesus, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory.

Third Reading
John 1. 10-18
The WORD was in the world, and the world came into being through the WORD; yet the world did not know the WORD. The WORD came to what was the WORD'S own, and the WORD's own people did not accept the WORD. But to all who received the WORD, who believed in the WORD's name, the WORD gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of humankind, but of God. And the WORD became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen the glory of the WORD, the glory as of a mother or father's only child, full of grace and truth . . . No one has ever seen God. It is God's only Begotten One who is close to God's heart, who has made God known.

Call to Confession
Our cries to God for help are heard by God as praise. Our weeping and lamentation to the Lord meet with God’s comfort and consolation. What better way to declare God’s worth to a sinful world than to show, in confession, that we trust in God for mercy, even as we hold God’s justice in reverence and awe? Let us bow to our Holy and Sovereign God and confess our sin.
—Slemmons, Timothy Matthew. Lightning from the East: Liturgical Elements for Reformed Worship

Prayer of Confession
Eternal Word, we confess we largely fail to comprehend you. Light of the world, we admit we have willfully hidden from you. God in the flesh, we concede we have neglected to receive you, as we should, in those whose needs are great. Forgive our innumerable sins, O God, and be gracious to us. Impart your wisdom to our dull, foolish minds; pierce the darkness in our hearts with your penetrating light and quicken us with love for the Beloved One, Jesus Christ, for neighbors, for strangers, and for everything that breathes in your good creation!
—Slemmons, Timothy Matthew. Lightning from the East: Liturgical Elements for Reformed Worship

Declaration of Forgiveness
In Christ we have redemption, the forgiveness of our trespasses, through Jesus' offering on the cross. Though all the powers of sin and evil are too strong for us, Christ our Strength has rescued us with godly power and righteous obedience. Let the young rejoice and sing! Let the aged celebrate and be glad! In Christ Jesus, our saving Redeemer, we are forgiven, renewed, and restored!
—Slemmons, Timothy Matthew. Lightning from the East: Liturgical Elements for Reformed Worship

Prayer of Intercession
God’s light breaks through the darkness to fill our lives with grace and truth. This is the good news of Christmas; that Christ came to show us how to walk the path of wisdom enlightened by your love.

Let us pray for the church and the world saying,

Light of the world, shine in our lives.
Eternal Source, we pray for Christ’s church throughout the world. May we, like John the Baptist, point others to the Light in all we do in service of your love.