LoginHome » Ministers' resources » Worship Resources » Preaching Kits » Year C Luke » Kit 1 » Christmas Dawn
Preaching Notes for Nov. 30 to Jan 4
Advent to Christmas 2
December 25 (Christmas Dawn)
Lectionary
Luke 2: 8 - 20
Shepherds and angels -the duet of heaven and earth.
First visitors to the stable
Maryıs treasure
The shepherds return
Psalm 97
The Lord is King
The celebratory Poem
Rejoice and give thanks
Isaiah 62: 6 - 12
The new security -Godıs promise
Open the city
Titus 3: 4 - 7
The salvation agent
the mercy of God
the spirit of grace
Heirs of hope and life eternal
Call to worship
As the clouds of night roll back and the beauty of the new day
dawns so the shadows of past sadness are folded and put away in the bright
light of this day.
Let us shout with joy - for the birth of our saviour is remembered today.
Let us sing with glee for the past is washed away.
Let us celebrate with laughter and feasting the nativity of Jesus our Lord.
Prayer
Drawn by the light of love the shepherds gathered about the manger.
Remembering that dawn we too come to offer our praise, O God. In the wonder of the memory we offer our songs, our prayers, our silence, our thoughts.
Receive us as of old , O God.
Surrounded by the host of witnesses who have shared this celebration
with us we touch again the realities that are beyond our measure. Your
grace, O God, unlimited for us and all humankind. Flood our lives with your
grace, that we may act with compassion and mercy to declare your love.
Walk with us, O God.
With all creation we acknowledge the majesty of your benefit to us. Rich
beyond measure in your acceptance, we join with the host of faithful, past
and present to offer our praise and thanksgiving. Wonderful is your gift to us, O God.
Amen
Prayer for others
With light hearts and cheerful minds we turn, like the shepherds
of old to go back to the world, hear our prayer for the world about us, Lord.
We pray for Christians everywhere as they wake to celebrate with joy.
Give them open hearts and willing hands to make the meaning of the day real.
We pray for those who do not share or understand our joy, show us how to
live the story of your love so that all may rejoice.
We pray for those whose present crisis presses so hard there is no time
or room for celebration, no energy or spirit to sing;
Show us how to care gently that their healing may begin,
We remember those who are close to our hearts but separated from us by
distance and circumstance and those whose isolation denies them the
fulfilment of being with others.
We pray for those in distant outposts of service whose dedication to
their tasks denies them the familiar tastes and smells of Christmas.
We pray for those whose lives have been shattered by violence , whose
expectations have been confounded by disaster and those for whom the sad
reminders of the past they have lost rob the day of joy.
Compassionate God, show us how to love them for you.
We pray for those who have gathered with us: travellers, families,
friends, let the good intentions of our hearts become the gentle actions of our hands and the words of your grace become the measure of our conversation.
Hear our prayers and lead us, Lord. Amen
Suggested Hymns
Angels from the realms of glory
While shepherds watched
Joy to the world
Once in Royal Davidıs city
Sermon Notes
The angelic choirs are the poetic summit of creation. The finest expression of holy honouring and the shepherds are the unimportant, the expendable commoners. The angelic beings were the most perfect messengers of God - assumed to come from the very presence of the highest heaven. The shepherds were the rough clad guardians of the sheep. Smelly, rough handed, common, often the youngest members of the families better equipped to defend the flock from roving wolves than join in the chorus of the angelic music.
Here in the presence of the infant they have equal significance. They are the men who, sleeping rough on the hard ground of the hillside are the first receivers of the nativity declaration. Men who watched the stars move the hours of night and found their worth in the simplest comforts of the outdoors. Not academics in silent libraries or dedicated monks in a hard bed cell but ordinary men such as in our day might whistle up a dog, shear a sheep, lamb a ewe, and rejoice in a spring with plenty of warm rain.
But all that does not mean that these men were dumb or stupid. Guardians of the family flock and fortune they had time to talk quietly and retell the ancient traditions of 'God with us '. To ponder the significance of what is important - families, peace, good grass, fresh water, shade from the sun. Men with time to think and memories tuned with practice. To them comes the call, the message the mission. NOT evangelists but men with a truth to share. The shepherds leave Bethlehem with a new task. Our task.