Second Sunday after Christmas
John 1:1-18 (A,B,C)
Receive Grace upon Grace
Additional Scriptures
Jeremiah 31:7-14; Psalm 147:12-20; Ephesians 1:3-14; Moroni 10:29
Preparation
For the Call to Worship, coordinate with the presider from December 29 to collect the Psalm phrases people wrote. If they weren’t compiled, prepare to do that, editing them by combining similar phrases. Arrange for printed copies of the completed work to be inserted in the worship bulletins, arranged as a congregational responsive reading, or project the words on a screen. Categorize participants in any of these ways: high/low voices; birthdays in January-June/birthdays in July-December, or any other creative way that includes young and old.
You will need the Advent wreath with four candles lit and the center (Christ) candle unlit.
We Gather for Worship
Prelude
Carols of the Season Choose at least two.
“O Little Town of Bethlehem” CCS 434
“Lovely Child, Holy Child” CCS 428
“Silvery Star, Precious Star” CCS 419
“In The Bleak Midwinter” CCS 422
“Star-Child” CCS 420
Welcome
Call to Worship
Use the original Psalm created in last week’s service.
OR Ephesians 1:3, 7-8a, 13-14
Hymn of Praise
“Je louerai l’Éternel/Praise, I Will Praise You, Lord Sing twice. CCS 115
Encourage participants to sing in languages other than their own.
OR “Creator God We Sing/Cantemos al Creador” CCS 114
Encourage participants to sing in a language other than their own.
OR “All Creation Sings God’s Music” CCS 110
Invocation
Instrumental Response
We Celebrate our Joys and Share Our Concerns
Joys and Concerns
Prayer of Intercession
We Listen to Learn and Prepare for the Sacrament
A Reading of Scriptures
Reader 1: John 1:1-5 Light the Christ candle in the Advent wreath
as the scripture is read.
Reader 2: John 1:14-18
Reader 3:
…Come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and if you will deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is God’s grace sufficient for you, that by God’s grace you may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God you are perfect in Christ, you cannot deny the power of God.
—Moroni 10:29, adapted
Communion Message
Based on the texts above.
Hymn of Preparation
“Who Is This Jesus” CCS 38
OR “Coming Together for Wine and for Bread” CCS 516
OR “Here at Thy Table, Lord” CCS 517
OR “Joy and Wonder, Love and Longing” CCS 534
OR “We Meet as Friends at Table” CCS 532
Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper
New Year Reflection
The first time we share in this holy sacrament each year can be a spiritual moment of reflection, repentance, and renewal. I invite you to close your eyes, if you are comfortable doing so, and spend one minute in silence, remembering what you promised when you were baptized, and what was promised to you through confirmation of the Holy Spirit.
Ring a chime or bell or strike a wood block or other sound source to draw people back to the group.
Prayer of Confession
Communion Scripture
Choose one of these scriptures to read.
1 Corinthians 11:23-26, Matthew 26:17-30, Mark 14:12–26, or Luke 22:7-39
Invitation to Communion
All are welcome at Christ’s table. The Lord’s Supper, or Communion, is a sacrament in which we remember the life, death, resurrection, and continuing presence of Jesus Christ. In Community of Christ, we also experience Communion as an opportunity to renew our baptismal covenant and to be formed as disciples who live Christ’s mission. Others might have different or added understandings within their faith traditions. We invite all who participate in the Lord’s Supper to do so in the love and peace of Jesus Christ.
Blessing and Serving of the Bread and Wine
Log in to Our Ministry Tools and search for Guidelines Lord’s Supper. If you have not used this library of resources, go to CofChrist.org/our-ministry-tools.
We Desire to Be Peacemakers and Responsible Stewards
Prayer for Peace
Light the peace candle.
Invite participants to turn to CCS 165, “How Deep the Silence of the Soul,” and read it silently.
Statement
Today we have heard about God’s grace extended to each of us, we have experienced God’s grace in the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, and we have remembered that we have only to turn toward God to be surrounded by God’s embrace and peace.
But if we hug those things to ourselves without helping others experience these, we are denying others the opportunity to also be enfolded in God’s embrace and feel the peace that brings.
Peace Prayer
Gracious God,
We have been praying for peace for a long time, and now we ask that you help each of us sense what we can actively do to help your peace be a reality for ourselves and others. Help us extend our desire to love you as you have instructed and to also love our neighbors, known and unknown, friend or foe, so that your reign of peace on the earth will come to pass. Amen.
Disciples’ Generous Response
Hold up a new yearly calendar and as you talk, slowly flip through the unmarked pages.
Statement
Today is the first Sunday of this year as a gathered community. The year before us is like a brand-new calendar. We will fill it with dates for worship services, special events, meetings, classes, and outreach ministries in our communities.
This is also an opportune time to think about what we can do to financially support our efforts by continuing or even increasing our monetary offerings. As you consider your response to the call to be generous disciples, thinking just now of your monetary giving, reevaluate why you give, how often you do so, and how it may bless local and worldwide ministries.
As we open our hearts to courageously and generously share by placing money in the offering plates or through eTithing, we join the movement of God’s compassion in the world. On this Sunday as we share in the sacraments, our offerings are dedicated to Abolishing Poverty and Ending Needless Suffering. This is how God’s generous compassion grows more visible in tangible ways.
If you have participants joining the worship online, remind them that they can give through www.CofChrist.org/give or through eTithing at www.eTithing.org (consider displaying these URLs).
Blessing and Receiving of Oblation, Local and Worldwide Mission Tithes
We Receive God’s Grace for the New Year
Hymn for the New Year
“By Gracious Powers” CCS 268
OR “Year by Year” CCS 345
OR “This Is a Day of New Beginnings” CCS 495
OR “God of Wonder, God of Thunder” CCS 18
Closing Prayer
Instrumental Response
Postlude
SERMON AND CLASS HELPS
Year C—Letters
Second Sunday after Christmas
John 1:1-18 (A,B,C)
Exploring the Scripture
Today is the second Sunday of Christmas. For many, Christmas has been put away. The decorations are down, and the Nativity scene carefully wrapped and safely tucked into storage to wait for next year. Is that the only thing about Christmas that has been tucked away? Or, is hope still tangible? Is joy expected? Is the call for peace still heard? Can love find an outward expression to a stranger?
John calls us to look past the birth of Jesus, to see what Jesus’ birth means for us. Jesus is the word and the word is God. The word gave light and life. Biblical text is understood through the life, teachings, and acts of Jesus who embodies God in the world (vv. 9–18). The word and relationships are outlined in today’s text: the word and God (vv. 1–2), the word and creation (vv. 3–5), the word and John the Baptist (vv. 6–7), the word and the world (vv. 9–13), the word and community (vv. 14–18).* John establishes the divinity and humanness of Jesus and sets before us the invitation for our rebirth—to become children of God.
“But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he 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 man, but of God” (vv. 12–13). This is the essence of the message: Jesus came that we might become the children of God. We are no longer bound by circumstances that surround us. We are no longer defined by societal norms. We, all of us, are children of God.
Jesus came and was born, lived, died and was raised again to remind us, to show us, that God loves us without reservation, without condition. How do we accept the powerful message of Christmas into our lives? Maybe we need to unpack the manger and keep it out all year to remind us God sent the Son so we might become children of God.
Central Ideas
- The message and invitation of Christmas does not end in December.
- Jesus’ birth and life created the path for us to become children of God.
- God loves all humans unconditionally.
Questions for the Speaker
- When did the life of Jesus come alive in your life?
- When did you realize God’s love was for you and for all humanity?
- What are the things in our lives we need to pack up and put away so we can live into our lives as disciples and as children of God?
- How will your congregation keep the joy and hope of Christmas lively and vibrant in the coming days?
*Note: Based on R. Alan Culpepper, “Second Sunday after Christmas Day Exegetical Perspective” in Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary, Year A, vol. 1, David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, eds. (Westminster John Knox Press, 2010), 189 and Karyn Wiseman, Commentary on Gospel, WorkingPreacher.org (accessed February 24, 2015).
SACRED SPACE: A RESOURCE FOR SMALL-GROUP MINISTRY
Year C—Letters
Second Sunday after Christmas
Ephesians 1:3–14 NRSVue
Communion
Gathering
Welcome
The Christmas season lasts twelve days, from Christmas Day to Epiphany on January 6. During this time, we celebrate the joy, love, hope, and peace of Jesus Christ.
Prayer for Peace
Ring a bell or chime three times slowly.
Light the peace candle.
God of understanding, as our season of celebration ends, may we carry Christ’s peace into the world.
Peace in our families.
Peace between neighbors.
Peace in towns and villages.
Peace between tribes and clans.
Peace in our conversations.
Peace between those who disagree.
Peace in our politics.
Peace between nations.
We pray for peace in our choices, words, and actions that we may live Christ’s peace. Amen.
Spiritual Practice
Hymn Meditation
Read the following aloud:
Reflecting on hymns can bring insight into our life in community with each other and the Divine. The following meditation is an opportunity to read through a hymn instead of singing it. As we read, we will focus on the words and meaning of the song. Together, we will read it aloud one time. Then we will read it through once silently. At the end we will share what stood out to us as the message for us today. How is the Spirit stirring within us to respond to this message?
The hymn meditation for today is Community of Christ Sings 437, “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming.”
Sharing Around the Table
Ephesians 1:3–14 NRSVue
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, 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.
In the letter to the Ephesians we hear of conflicts and confusion about who belongs to Christ.
Jesus was born a Jew. It would have been normal for Jewish Christians to expect that a Gentile following this rabbi would mean converting to Judaism.
There long had been Gentile onlookers interested in Judaism, its stories, and prophetic witness. They were allowed to take part from a distance. They were limited to second-class status within the community. Jewish Christians expected this same division. Instead, Paul taught that Gentiles could be adopted into God’s special family and receive the same inheritance as the Jews without becoming Jewish and experiencing circumcision.
It’s not anything that makes sense according to the social norms and hierarchies of the time. All these years later, we easily might lose sight of the extent that this idea upended the social norms. Admitting Gentiles was so controversial that it nearly destroyed the early church. Ultimately the church decided Gentiles did not need to become Jews to become Christians. Gentiles could become children of God, not through circumcision, but because God wanted the world to work that way.
Questions
- In Christ we tear down social divisions. Where do you see the need for equality, inclusivity, and acceptance of all?
- When have you experienced hierarchy in a way that excluded or diminished you?
-
What would it look like to live as a radically inclusive community?
Sending
Generosity Statement
Faithful disciples respond to an increasing awareness of the abundant generosity of God by sharing according to the desires of their hearts; not by commandment or constraint.
—Doctrine and Covenants 163:9
The offering basket is available if you would like to support ongoing, small-group ministries as part of your generous response. You also may give at CofChrist.org/give.
The offering prayer for Advent is adapted from A Disciple’s Generous Response.
God of love and light, in this season of joy, love, hope, and peace, may the peace of your Son Jesus be made real in the world. May our hearts, minds, hands, and resources be useful in the cause of bringing your light where there is darkness and your love where there is despair, anger, fear, and suffering. May our offerings be used toward your purposes we pray. Amen.
Invitation to Next Meeting
Closing Hymn
Community of Christ Sings 437, “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming”
Closing Prayer
Optional Additions Depending on Group
- Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper
- Thoughts for Children
Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper
For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
—1 Corinthians 11:23–26 NRSVue
Communion Statement
All are welcome at Christ’s table. The Lord’s Supper, or Communion, is a sacrament in which we remember the life, death, resurrection, and continuing presence of Jesus Christ. In Community of Christ, we also experience Communion as an opportunity to renew our baptismal covenant and to be formed as disciples who live Christ’s mission. Others may have different or added understandings within their faith traditions. We invite all who participate in the Lord’s Supper to do so in the love and peace of Jesus Christ.
We share in Communion as an expression of blessing, healing, peace, and community.
In preparation let’s sing from Community of Christ Sings (choose from below options):
- 516, “Coming Together for Wine and for Bread”
- 521, “Let Us Break Bread Together”
- 523, “As We Gather at Your Table”
- 526, “Is There One Who Feels Unworthy?”
- 528, “Eat This Bread”
- 532, “We Meet as Friends at Table”
Thoughts for Children
Materials:
- a bouquet of flowers, real or artificial
Say: In today’s scripture we learn that we all are part of God’s family. God has “adopted” us. Another way to say it might be, God includes us in God’s community.
Show children a bouquet of flowers.
Say: Flowers are given to bring joy when we celebrate important occasions. Being “adopted” by God is a special occasion for each of us.
Give every child several flowers and ask them to share flowers with each group member as a way to celebrate our adoption into God’s community.
Say: As you take your flower with you today, remember that we celebrate God’s welcome to all people.
Adapted from Scripture-based Focus Moments.