Here is the candle liturgy that we will be using in our brief Christmas morning service in Belfast South Methodist... Come and join us if you are in the vicinity at 9.30am this morning.
But wherever you are may you know the blessing of the King of Kings.
Belfast
as it is in heaven. AMEN
CHRISTMAS CANDLE LITURGY
VOICE 1: The Lord himself will give you a sign:
VOICE 2: A virgin girl will become pregnant and
will give birth to a son;
VOICE 1: She will call him Immanuel, meaning “God
with us.”
VOICE 2: The people walking in darkness have seen a
great light;
VOICE 1: on those living in the land of death’s deep
dark shadow a
light has dawned.
VOICE 2: You have broadened the bounds of the nation
and magnified their joy;
VOICE 1: they rejoice before you as the starving
rejoice at the harvest,
VOICE 2: or as the oppressed rejoice when dividing
the plunder from their defeated oppressors.
VOICE 1: You have shattered the shackles that bind
them,
VOICE 2: You have removed the yoke that lay across
their shoulders,
VOICE 1: And broken the rod that raised welts on
their backs .
VOICE 2: Every soldier’s boot used in battle, every
shirt soaked in innocent blood will be burned,
VOICE 1: They will all be fuel for the fire.
VOICE 2: For a child has been born to us
VOICE 1: The gift of a son for us
VOICE 2: Good government will be the yoke on his
shoulders.
VOICE 1: And he will be called Wonderful Counsellor,
Almighty God, Eternal
Father, Prince of Peace.
VOICE 2: His rule and reign will grow and grow and
the peace he brings will be boundless.
VOICE 1: He will reign on David's throne and over
the kingdom promised to him,
VOICE 2: establishing firm foundations and building
it up promoting
justice and right relationships
from
that time on and eternally.
VOICE 1: The zeal of the Almighty ETERNAL I AM will
achieve all this.
From
Isaiah 7:14 & 9:2-7
VOICE 2: We lit the
Advent candles in anticipation of the coming of the Kingdom of God
a kingdom of peace and
justice, joy and hope.
But now we light the
Christ candle at the centre of it all
To mark the coming of the
King.
The Promise of God has
become flesh and blood
And moved into this
neighbourhood.
ADVENT SONG
Shout,
for the Lord has come;
songs be in every mouth;
Sing in your northern home,
from east and west and south.
In Jesus all can find their rest
And all creation shall be blessed!
PRAYER
We give thanks for the coming of your
kingdom
In the Christ-child born of Mary,
Humbly taking on flesh and blood and
moving into the neighbourhood.
We humbly admit that in the past we have resisted
following the example of Christ
we have restricted his coming to a story of long ago and far away,
and have turned a blind eye to the
details of the story -
of Christ coming through
an unmarried teenage mother,
being born to a homeless couple, forced to
seek asylum in a foreign land.
We pray that you would forgive us
And give us a fresh
perspective on your word and world.
Open our eyes to Christ’s coming all
around us
Open our ears to your story
And our hearts to your
glory and grace
for we ask it in the name of your son
Jesus Christ
Immanuel – God with us. AMEN
CLOSING
EXHORTATION & BENEDICTION
Go out into the neighbourhood
to
put flesh and blood on the truth of Christ’s coming.
His kingdom has come, may his will be done
in south
Shalom
Comments