We are joining together for worship this morning at Olivet Presbyterian Church in West Elizabeth at 9:45am.
Worship
Service for January 4, 2026
Prelude
Announcements:
Call to Worship
L: May the Lord give strength to His people!
P: May the Lord grant us peace.
L: May God be gracious and merciful to us.
P: And may God’s face shine upon us.
L: May God continue to bless us. Let us worship God.
Opening Hymn – What Star Is This With Beams So Bright #68/290
Prayer of Confession
Forgiving God, we are guilty
of failing to make our blessings count.
We are ungrateful children who never seem to have enough or to be
satisfied with what we have. We want
more, and yet we have not done everything we can with what we already
have. Worst of all, we have not shared
what we have with others so that they, too, might be as blessed as we are. We confess that we have not always been aware
of our spiritual blessings. Too often we
only ask You for material things and temporal blessings, forgetting that what
we really need is for You to nurture our spirits and souls. Forgive us, and give us another chance, just
as You have given us another year and another day. Heal, restore, and bless us, we pray, for the
sake of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.
(Silent prayers are offered)
AMEN.
Assurance of Pardon
L: Friend, may the grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ free us from all of our sins and may we be made new persons in the power
of the Holy Spirit.
P: This is the Good News made known to us by
the Christmas Angels. Thanks be to God!
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
Almighty God, we gather
as your people, and we gather as those who live in hope. Our lives provide us many opportunities to
speak words of peace and reconciliation, but often we don’t have the courage. Draw us together in our Lord Jesus Christ,
that we may proclaim the good news of hope and salvation to our communities and
world. Make us bold not only to speak
the word, but also to live it.
O Great God of Light,
we give you thanks that all creation is blessed by your faithful and forgiving
love – always overcoming our sins of pride, blindness, and despair. In times of abundance give us grateful
hearts, that we may rejoice in your great kindness. In times of suffering give us eyes to see
your light shining, that we may live in hope and faithful service.
By your Spirit empower
us to reach out to all of your children who are suffering in physical,
emotional, or spiritual pain, injustice, living in poverty, or those without
hope. May we work and pray together in
the light of your grace. Hear our prayer
requests this morning…
And also the desires of
our hearts that we lift up to you today in silence….
O Lord, you are
faithful and true, full of compassion and abounding in steadfast love. We acknowledge your shining star as it guides
our own way to the Christ child and we pray together saying, “Our Father…”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 – What
Star is This With Beams so Bright #68
Blue
Scripture Reading(s):
First Scripture Reading – Isaiah
60:1-6
Second Scripture Reading – Matthew
2:1-12
Sermon – “Christmas Angels and the Magi”
For this Advent and Christmas season
we’ve been reading through the full account of Jesus’ birth through the stories
told by both Luke and Matthew and talking about all the angel encounters in
these two stories. First, we had
Zechariah encountering the archangel Gabriel in the Temple to whom was given
the message that the Messiah would be born and that the sign or proof that God
could do such a thing as bring about the coming of this Messiah, this Savior
was that even Elizabeth, in her old age, would conceive a special child, whose
name would be John, and whose sole mission was to proclaim this Messiah and
turn the people back to God. Then we had
Mary’s visitation by Gabriel at her home, giving her the privilege of birthing
this Messiah into the world and that although she was a virgin, would
miraculously be overshadowed by the Holy Spirit and that she and her betrothed
were to name him Jesus, for he would save his people from their sins. Shortly after this, Joseph, Mary’s betrothed
learns of her pregnancy and vows to quietly divorce her, but before he could do
that, a different angel visited him in his dreams and told him the same story
that Mary had told him and that he was to keep his promise and take Mary as his
wife, raise the child and name him Jesus.
On Christmas Eve, we find shepherds out in the field who were not only
visited by an angel to proclaim this Savior’s birth, but a whole host of angels
glorifying God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to
all.” They then rush to see this newborn
baby and told others about all they had seen, heard, and witnessed that night.
Chapter
2 of Matthew’s gospel opens with “In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was
born in Bethlehem of Judea…” Unlike
Luke’s gospel, Matthew doesn’t tell us how Mary and Jospeh get to Bethlehem. There is no mention of a census. And if you were to read Matthew’s account in
isolation from Luke’s, you might conclude that Mary and Joseph are actually
from Bethlehem, not Nazareth. But Luke
and Matthew both emphasize that Jesus is born in Bethlehem in the time of King
Herod the Great.
To
the east of Israel lay empires who were often in conflict with the Roman Empire
such as the Mesopotamia kingdom, or the Nabataean kingdom, with its capital in
Petra. And then there were Arabian
kingdoms farther east such as Persia and Saba where the wisemen in our story
from Matthew may have come from. These
wise men, as described in our scriptures, have noticed something extraordinary
in the skies. Advanced in studying the
stars and in Mathematics, they were adept astrologers. But not only that, they were very learned
men, who knew about and perhaps had read the ancient texts from Israel, knew
about the prophecies declaring that a king would be born to the family of
David. They had probably been studying
the stars for years, waiting for alignments that would, in their estimation,
foretell the birth of this king. When
they finally identified a powerful set of astronomical events, perhaps a
confluence of planets, or what seemed to be the reappearance of Jupiter in the
night sky, they determined it was time for them to set out and find this new
king. They were not Jews, they were
outside the realm of Jewish culture, which I find extremely significant and
telling that Matthew of all writers would be the one to tell their story. Remember he is writing to a Jewish audience
and now he is bringing in the story of non-Jews or Gentiles into the most
important story in all Judaism. Perhaps
these wisemen are to represent Jesus’ reach to all the nations of the
world. And in them, Matthew is
anticipating those Gentile Christians in his own community who will come to
worship this new king.
In
any case, these magi, are excited at the prospect of finding this king. Upon reaching Jerusalem, they presume that
its leaders would be excited too. The
puppet ruler Herod understandably feels threatened by the news that a new king
has been born. So, he calls together the
chief priests and scribes to find out where the Messiah was to be born. And they come back to him with news that it
is in Bethlehem that this new king would be born, as told by the prophets.
As
I’ve mentioned, Bethlehem is a tiny town – not unlike our own West
Elizabeth. It has no more than maybe
400-500 residents. However, what is
different? It was the time of the census
when all those in the Roman Empire needed to be enrolled. Which means that all the people who had grown
up in Bethlehem needed to return there – all the ancestors and their relatives
that were still living needed to return to their hometown. So, imagine how many people would have poured
into Bethlehem during this year of enrollment.
The numbers would have swollen considerably. Over the course of a year or so, all these
people would have needed to be housed, they needed to be fed, they needed to be
taken care of if they were sick, and perhaps wheels on their carts mended,
horses looked after, sheep temporarily pastured somewhere. Logistically, it might have been a
nightmare. And into that chaos, in a
cold dark barn or cave that served as an animal shelter, a baby boy was born. I wonder how many other babies might have been
born at this time.
Herod
didn’t want to enter into that chaos.
Herod didn’t want to get his hands dirty, walking among the “least of
these.” No, instead, he had a brilliant
plan; let these Wisemen do it. Herod was
a brutal and ruthless ruler. While he
was responsible for numerous building projects in Israel, he also had many of
his citizens killed out of paranoia that they were plotting against him. He murdered his wife along and their two
sons, her brother, her grandfather, and her mother. He would do anything to protect his
power. Though he was actually just a
nominal king, as he ruled solely at the discretion of the Roman Emperor, he was
also not a descendant of David. Reports
of the birth of the Messiah – who, as he knows, is to come from David’s line –
lead him to plot to find and destroy this child.
It
is a bit curious that the priests and scribes who were summoned by Herod,
people who know their scriptures and have been waiting expectantly for the
birth of the Messiah, aren’t transformed by what they have heard. There is no hint from Matthew that they react
with a sense of awe and wonder that would lead any of them to go and pay homage
to this miraculous news. And we don’t
read that they said or did anything to deter Herod’s sinister plan to let the
unsuspecting wise men lead him to the newborn infant. So, apparently, as learned men as they no
doubt were, they failed to either comprehend what was going on or to respond to
it.
Simply
knowing scripture doesn’t necessarily guarantee that we will experience God’s
presence and voice. I think we have to have
open mind, heart, soul, and spirit; coming to the Word of God with fresh eyes,
expectantly hoping for God’s message to reveal itself, open to what God has to
say, laying aside our own agendas. By
the same token, even as the wise men searched for the newborn king, they needed
someone to open their eyes to the scriptures to help them understand their
experience as a holy one. I truly
believe that a communal aspect of reading scripture together and studying it
together, helps us recognize the mysterious, holy moments in our lives and in
the world. It often brings confirmation
of the holy to our experiences.
Now,
after the magi, these knowledgeable and seeking astrologers, or wise men from
the east, find Jesus and have laid their gifts before him, something
interesting happens. They, like Joseph,
have a dream. While Matthew doesn’t
mention the involvement of angels, I can’t help but believe that it is the very
same that enter into their dreams, speaking to them and warning them not to
return to Herod. As we’ve discussed from
the beginning of our Advent journey, angels in the Bible often announce
significant births and offer messages of warning. God only knows what would have happened had
the wise men traveled back to Jerusalem.
So, in order for that plan of Herod’s to be thwarted, I believe God
speaks to these men in their dreams, incorporating them into the new history of
Israel, the story of Christ’s birth.
Like Joseph, they respond obediently.
They’ve learned to listen to dreams, to be interpreters of dreams. Heeding that voice of God, they go home by a
route that bypasses Herod. And in so
doing they follow God’s path for them and God’s purpose for them.
Have
you ever felt God’s Spirit calling you to take a certain direction, perhaps
with prompting from a human messenger, that represented a detour or a different
direction from your intended path? Often
times they come when we are earnestly seeking an answer, when we want God to
send us a sign. Sometimes, we only
recognize them as God sent, when they legitimize our quest, when they only come
to us more like a second opinion that affirms what we already know or
believe. But, what if they come to us
unexpectantly, telling us to go in a different direction? Do we notice them as God’s signs? How often do we wait for another, expecting
God to affirm what we believe? However,
if they are completely unexpected and telling us to go in a different direction,
perhaps those are the very signs that they are holy, from a holy messenger, an
angel, in human form or directly from heaven.
Thanks
be to God. AMEN.
Offertory –
Doxology –
Prayer of Dedication –
God of
the nations, long ago the magi brought gifts to Christ, rich and costly gifts,
each one a unique expression of the giver.
Help us to bring gifts today that will express our love and dedication,
not only gifts of gold, but gifts of talent, time, and energy. We lay these gifts at your feet, trusting
that you will find a use for all that is given in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Holy Communion
Invitation
In coming to the Lord’s Table,
we intentionally take our place in the story. We come not on our own, or only
as this congregation, but with the Body of Christ throughout the world and the
saints in heaven. We come as real
people, loved for all our real or perceived faults. We come as those who are an essential part of
the story, because there is room for everyone in this story. We also come to the Lord’s Table as those
invited. Our welcome does not depend on
how good we are. It does not depend on
whether we feel like we are worthy or not. It is an open invitation to all, as a gift of
great joy for all people.
The Lord Jesus on the night of
his arrest, 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.”
Christ’s body was broken that
we might be made whole. Take and eat.
In the same way he took the
cup also, after supper, saying, “This is the cup of 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, we proclaim the Lord’s death until he
comes again.
Christ’s blood was shed that
we might be healed. Take and drink.
Prayer After Communion
Holy God, from generation to
generation, we are nurtured at Your banquet feast. As we once again tell Your story of
forgiveness and love, we proclaim our adoption into Your family tree of kings,
carpenters, foreigners, disregarded women, and second sons. May our lives testify that there is a place
for everyone in Your story of salvation. Amen.
Closing
Hymn – We Three Kings #66/288
Benediction –
Arise, people
of God, go forth to shine like the Star of Bethlehem for all the world to
see. And as the Magi of old, go forth in
trust and excitement transformed by the angels and the presence of the child of
light. May God’s blessings be upon
you. AMEN.
Postlude
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