Organ Prelude and Personal Meditation
Welcome and Announcements
Our First Thoughts at the New Year: "Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven"
[PsH 475, PH 478, RL 144, TH 76-77]
Our Testimony of Praise
I will exalt you, my God and King! I will praise your name for ever and ever!
I don't care what anybody says, I'm not writing another sermon for church this Sunday. The sad truth is, nobody in my congregation heard a word of the last one.
I've been holding forth from a pulpit for so many years I've lost track of time— I could be 80 or 90 or 150 years old, for all I know. What I do know is that after a worship service like I had Sunday last, I feel most all of Methuselah's 900 years.
I refer to the December, 1992 issue and its article by Robert Busch and Howard Hageman entitled, "Why We Call This Friday Good." When I read the meditations on the seven last words I was disappointed. My disappointment with the meditations was confirmed when I experienced the suggested worship service on Good Friday evening.
Bob De Jonge, a member of Eastern Avenue Christian Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, was intrigued by "On the Way to Bethlehem," a resource in last year's Advent issue (RW25) that adapted the Children and Worship approach to create a Christmas program. With Children and Worship leaders, he adapted that resource into a processional that opened worship each week of Advent.
Why is the Advent wreath part of our Advent liturgies? Having candles and evergreen boughs in church during this time of year is pleasant, certainly But should these things really have a place in our worship service?"
This too-familiar Advent reading can be interpreted as a drama. The drama requires four voices, a band of exiles, and a speaking choir. Voices 1,2,3, and 4 are gathered in a heavenly council high and near the center of the chancel. The band of exiles is visible to one side on the lower level and appears defeated. The speaking choir is opposite the exiles.
Instrumental Prelude (carol arrangements for organ and flute)
Processional: "Once in Royal Davids City" (English)
[PsH 346, PH 49, RL 201, TH 225, UMH 250, WC 161]
Welcome and Prayer
[Leader to improvise words of welcome to the congregation; then to lead in prayer:]
Christians associate these words more readily with Jesus (Luke 4) than with Isaiah. Any sermon preached from Isaiah will surely proclaim Jesus as the anointed one, the Christ. But we should not rush too soon to Luke 4. We should first savor the revolutionary radical, wild announcement of the prophet, even though we will be tempted to tame it with reason and common sense.
One of the most pervasive Christmas folk traditions is the singing of lullabies. The Austrian "Silent Night" the Polish "Infant Holy" and the North American 'Away in a Manger" are some common examples of Christmas carols that often function as lullabies in Christmas season tableaux, church school programs, and carol services.
