Worship
Service for December 31, 2023
Prelude
Announcements:
Call to Worship
L: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
P: And also with you.
L: In many and various ways God spoke of old
to our ancestors through the prophets.
P: But in these days God has spoken to us by
a Son, whom He appointed to be the heir of all things, through whom He also
created the world.
L: Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous, and
give thanks to His holy name; for to us has come a Savior, Christ the newborn
King.
Opening Hymn – While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks #59/272
Prayer of Confession
Merciful God, in Christ you
make all things new. We confess our sins
before You and are truly sorry for all our shortcomings and offences. Transform the poverty of our nature by the
riches of Your grace, and in the renewal of our lives make known Your heavenly
glory; through Jesus Christ our Redeemer. (Silent prayers are offered) AMEN.
Assurance of Pardon
L: Dear friends in Christ, may the grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ free us from all our sins and may we be made new persons
in the power of the Holy Spirit.
P: Thanks be to God for the gift of Christ,
our newborn King. AMEN!
Gloria Patri
Affirmation of Faith/Apostles’
Creed
I believe in God the Father
Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth; And in Jesus Christ His only Son our Lord;
who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under
Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; He descended into hell; the
third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on
the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence He shall come to judge
the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Ghost,
the holy catholic Church; the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins; the
resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. AMEN
Pastoral Prayer and Lord’s
Prayer
In this holy season of
Christmas, Loving God, we are gathered by your Spirit, remembering the gift of
the Christ child on that first Christmas morning, and remembering the ways in
which his life serves as a pattern for the renewed humanity You would bestow
upon us all.
Give us thankful hearts, particularly in this season, as we
meditate on the great mystery of Your divine incarnation – God-with-us. Enable us to frame our lives daily in the way
of learners, for though we trust you in confidence and hope, we have much to
learn about the way of faithful following.
Lord, hear our prayers for all who are in need; the poor,
the oppressed, the sick, victims of abuse and prejudice. Strengthen and encourage them by Your Spirit
and through us – our ministries with them and on their behalf. Help us not be haughty in arrogance, but
humble of heart.
Lord, we also pray that the Spirit of hope is renewed and
rekindled in the hearts of those who feel hopeless, with no answers for the
ways of this world. Deepen and
strengthen that hope so that it fills the New Year ahead.
We have shared our concerns and our joys with one another,
and now we share them with You; we lift up to You….
We also have burdens on our heart that are tremendously
heavy, weighing on our spirits and minds.
Hear these prayers also, as we pray to You in silence.
Lord, we offer up these
prayers in Your Son’s name, who taught us to pray together saying……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. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our
debtors. And lead us not into
temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. AMEN.
Hymn – Hark!
The Herald Angels Sing #31/277
Scripture Reading(s):
First Scripture Reading – Isaiah
61:10-62:3
Second Scripture Reading – Luke
2:22-40
Sermon – “Habits of the Heart”
It is New Year’s
Eve Day and most people on New Year’s make New Year’s Resolutions. A poll was done about the top four
resolutions that the American Public will list.
But before I tell you what others are going to list, what are your New
Year’s resolutions? Pause
Six years ago, in
2017, the calendar fell on the same dates as it did this year and at the end of
that year, I asked you the same question. For some of us six years is a pretty long time
ago, for others it might seem like it was just the other day, for probably a majority
of us, it’s a mix of things that seem like a long time ago and like yesterday
all at the same time.
If you were
sitting in these pews six years ago, do you remember what your New Year’s Resolutions
were? Probably not. So, let’s just think about this past year. Do you remember what they were for this year? Pause Ok. So, what about for 2024? What will they be?
Pause.
You can include
things that you’ve been wanting to achieve or work on for years, but just
haven’t had the motivation or the inclination to do them or you could write the
same things that you tried to do last year, but didn’t quite manage to
achieve.
Keep thinking
about it as I tell you the results from a national poll. In 2017, the top four were personal finances,
stop smoking, lose weight, and fourth was to get more exercise. Going into 2024, the top four are: Getting
more exercise rose from 4th place to 1st place, improve mental
health nearly tied physical health, improve finances came in third, and lose
weight fell to fourth. Now, how did your
answers compare with the rest of the American public? Are they similar? Did yours include other priorities?
Now, believe me,
I think health and exercise are important and should be appreciated, but the
top four answers from the National Poll included nothing about family or
God. Did any of yours? If our resolutions reflect our concerns and
where we want to improve ourselves to have a sense of contentment, these preferences
by the national poll do not reflect very high goals. How high are your goals? What about the goals that relate to pursuing
God or knowing God better? What about
the goals of helping and serving others in order to achieve better
self-worth? Why do resolutions for the
most part deal with external matters? Is
the soul, your spirit, so unimportant?
If exercise is valuable for physical well-being, should we starve our
inner being? If contentment is based on
externals that slowly wither away, will we not set ourselves up for
disappointment if we focus on such goals?
In the Gospel of Luke in the verses we read this morning about Simeon;
he suggests a better way. To know God is
best. That means that we can transcend
circumstances, because to know him means to “have learned, in whatever state I
am, to be content” (Phil. 4:11) Simeon
can be content even as he faces death, knowing that he has been carrying out
the Lord’s call. His goal is knowing
God, with whom he will have a relationship forever. Contentment means knowing the source of life
who can help us see who we really are, to see ourselves as God sees us.
As we approach
this new year, as we come to understand God’s special relationship with us, as
we come to grasp more fully who we are as an individual and as a common body,
we become more aware of where our heart leads us. If your new year’s resolutions are leading
you to a better financial future, a larger portfolio, a stronger sense of
accomplishment in your profession or to work on your body and make it a temple
than that’s where your heart will be.
The habits of your life, will reflect that attitude of your heart. I don’t want us to lose sight of our heart;
of our purpose for living and being and growing and caring.
In our new year’s
resolutions, I don’t want us to be so focused on our external lives, that we
forget about our internal selves, our souls, our spirits. In the pursuit of becoming better people, we
should let our heart rule in connection with our heads, so that our life is in
balance. I think our new year’s
resolutions should be well-rounded to reflect who we want to be. They should include something about our
relationship with God, they should include something about our family or
personal relationships, they should include something about service to others,
and then they should include something about ourselves. As a servant people, as a people trying to
follow the way of Christ, in a real sense we become little incarnations of
Jesus. In our opportunities to serve
others, people are given a chance to see the Messiah in us. That the joy in us, that the hope in us, that
the faith in us, that the spirit within us gives others an opportunity to see
Jesus reflected in us. Because now, at
this moment in time, we minister in Jesus’ place and on his behalf, because he
is no longer here. Your walk with God
and faithful service to him are what define everything else about life and more
importantly, it also defines your own heart.
Such service can take on various forms, such as a special task or
project, a beacon of light at your school or workplace, as an elder or deacon,
as a Sunday school teacher, or a choir member.
It can take on such service as helping at our fellowship times, calling
a member of the congregation that hasn’t been here in a while or has been ill,
ministering to your troubled neighbors, praying for those in need, our own
members, even strangers whom you’ve heard need that extra touch from God.
Ann Lamont, in
her book, Traveling Mercies, relates a story told by one of her pastors. Her pastor’s friend got lost one day when she
was about seven years old and she was near panic. However, a police officer found her and drove
her around town until they came to her church, the only landmark the girl could
identity. When she saw the church she
asked to be let out of the police car because, as she said, “This is my church,
and I can always find my way home from here.”
Ann Lamont continued with her own story, “And that is why I have stayed
so close to mine – because no matter how bad I am feeling, how lost or lonely
or frightened, when I see the faces of the people of my church, and hear their
tawny voices, I can always find my way home.”
For most, if not all of you, I hope that this is home for you, too like
for Ann Lamont. That this place and
these people are home for you. That no
matter what happens in your life, you can find your way home and return here to
find your heart and your center. To know
that you are surrounded by good, caring people who love you no matter what.
In Luke’s Gospel
story, Simeon exemplifies how one can define life in terms of faithfully
following God and serving him with joy and surrender. When his duty is done, he is ready to be with
the Lord. And even Anna pictures the
constancy of faith, revealing that even late in life God can use one in
ministry. Here are two people near the
end of life, still serving God full steam ahead. Contentment is not a matter of age or energy
level, neither is it a function of accumulation. It is defined by an openness to serve God and
to share God with others. Such a perspective
calls for serious reflection. It reminds
me of the saints of this church who have passed on over the years, who devoted
themselves to the ministry and life of this congregation. It reminds me of today’s servants who will
one day join the ranks of those same saints because of their devotion to this
community. It is a reminder of the
disciples we are making each day as we pass on the story to them, their
children and their children’s children.
The story of
Jesus involves people of all ages and walks of life. It is never too late to be administered to by
God, nor is it too late to minister for God.
You are never too young nor too old, too poor nor too rich to have a
place in the kingdom beside Jesus. The
testimony of all these witnesses adds to the collage of heavenly and earthly
voices that have spoken up for Jesus through the centuries.
It is important
to note again, how God uses a wide range of people and a vast array of social
backgrounds to testify to his son, Jesus: people in a rural setting and people
in the city, male and female, a young betrothed couple and a pair of senior
citizen saints – all share in the joy of his coming. Jesus comes for all humanity to unite all
humanity.
Finding
contentment doing God’s will is a goal that can be reached as we all creatively
reflect on how we can best minister for him and how the habits of our hearts,
perhaps the last parting gifts as they were for Simeon and Anna, will reflect
the spirit of our souls.
Offertory –
Doxology –
Prayer of Dedication –
Holy
God, we bring You these gifts in response to the amazing gift of Your own
beloved Son, Jesus Christ; our teacher, our model, and our Savior. Let these gifts extend His life and ministry
in our world today. Thanks be to you, O
God. Amen.
Closing
Hymn – Once in Royal David’s City #49/286
Benediction –
We go where
our habits lead us, let us therefore be led by our hearts this day and always,
bringing peace to those around us. Go
and serve the Lord. AMEN.
Postlude
