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Dec 24, 2022

Christmas Eve, 2022: The Astrology of Waiting

Christmas Eve, 2022: The Astrology of Waiting

Speaker: Patrick Lafferty

Series: 2022 Advent: Waiting is the Hardest Part

We invite your family to join us for our Christmas Eve service at 4:30pm on Saturday, December 24. We look forward to celebrating the Incarnation with our GMR family & friends! Children welcome, no childcare available.

Readings & Scriptures:

“PRELUDE”: “Refugee,” Malcolm Guite

We think of him as safe beneath the steeple,

Or cosy in a crib beside the font,

But he is with a million displaced people

On the long road of weariness and want.

For even as we sing our final carol

His family is up and on that road,

Fleeing the wrath of someone else’s quarrel,

Glancing behind and shouldering their load.

Whilst Herod rages still from his dark tower

Christ clings to Mary, fingers tightly curled,

The lambs are slaughtered by the men of power,

And death squads spread their curse across the world.

But every Herod dies, and comes alone

To stand before the Lamb upon the throne.

ADVENT READING/LIGHTING OF THE CHRIST CANDLE: Isaiah 9:2-7
Leader: The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness,
on them has light shone.
3 You have multiplied the nation;
you have increased its joy;
they rejoice before you
as with joy at the harvest,
as they are glad when they divide the spoil.
4 For the yoke of his burden,
and the staff for his shoulder,
the rod of his oppressor,
you have broken as on the day of Midian.
5 For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult
and every garment rolled in blood
will be burned as fuel for the fire.

ALL: 6 For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 Of the increase of his government and of peace
there will be no end,
on the throne of David and over his kingdom,
to establish it and to uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
from this time forth and forevermore.

Scripture Reading #2 - John 1:1-5, 9-14
Leader: “Listen now to how the apostle John speaks about the coming of Jesus in John chapter 1...In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it...9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

ALL: 14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Scripture Reading #3 - Luke 2:1-7
Leader: In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 And all went to be registered, each to his own town. 4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, 5 to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.

ALL: 6 And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

MEDITATION TEXT: Matthew 2:2–12
Matt. 2:1 Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, 2 saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” 3 When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; 4 and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. 5 They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet:

Matt. 2:6 “‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for from you shall come a ruler
who will shepherd my people Israel.’”

Matt. 2:7 Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared. 8 And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may come and worship him.” 9 After listening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. 11 And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. 12 And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.

BENEDICTION: John 1:5
LEADER: The light shines in the darkness,
ALL: and the darkness has not overcome it.

RELATED SCRIPTURES:

  • Numbers 22-24
  • Psalm 8
  • Psalm 72:11
  • Psalm 87
  • Isaiah 60:3
  • Hosea 2:23
  • John 1:45-46
  • John 10:1-18
  • Romans 9:16
  • Ephesians 2:12-13
  • 2 Peter 1:19

QUOTES:

  • . . .in the West the night sky was still dim and pale. There, peeping among the cloud-wrack . . .high up in the mountains, Sam saw a bright star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach. His song in the Tower had been defiance rather than hope; for then he was thinking of himself. Now, for a moment, his own fate, and even his master’s, ceased to trouble him. He crawled back into the brambles and laid himself by Frodo’s side, and putting away all fear he cast himself into a deep untroubled sleep. J.R.R. Tolkien
  • We cannot take a step toward the heavens. God crosses the universe and comes to us. Simone Weil
  • When we try to explain [the Incarnation] we lose it. . . .I do not understand the Incarnation. I rejoice in it. . . . It is not that in believing the story of Jesus we skip reason but that sometimes we have to go beyond it, take leaps with our imaginations, push our brains further than the normally used parts of them are used to going. . . .[H]e shouted the magnificence of the universe into being, and yet, as Jesus, he left this fiery home and came to our little blue planet as an ordinary mortal. Madeleine L’Engle

 

  • It was the scientists, with their questions, their awed rapture at the glory of the created universe, who helped to convert me. Madeleine L’Engle
  • O, my bright evening Star, my Companion, show me the way, show me the way. Madeleine L’Engle

 

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