Worship Service Dec 31
Sunday After Christmas
Worship is the highest activity of a person whose sole and ultimate aim is God’s glory.
ORDER OF WORSHIP
Gathering and Prelude
Call to Worship
Response to the Call: Good Christian Friends Rejoice 224
Welcome, Greeting, Service Overview
Prayer of Illumination
Lighting the Christ Candle:
Carol of Praise: Angels We Have Heard on High 238
Responsive Reading: Psalm 148 861
Apostles Creed: 881
Gloria Patri: 71
Offering Dedication and Offertory
Doxology – hymnal #95
Life of the Church
Centering Song
Pastor Prayer
Scripture: Luke 2:22-40
Sermon: What Happens After Christmas
Hymn: It Came Upon A Midnight Clear 218 1,3,4
Holy Communion for the New Year:
Commissioning and Benediction
Holy Communion for the New Year
Leader: God is with us! We are not alone! Lift up your hearts.
People: We lift them up to God
Leader: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
People: It is right to give our thanks and praise.
Leader: Holy Mystery and most loving Lord, you are beyond complete knowledge, above perfect description. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; Source of Life, Living Word, and Bond of Love, you are creative and self-giving, generously moving. In all the near and distant corners of the universe.nothing exists that does not find its source in you. Even when we turn away from you, you are with us; your presence never fails us, your gifts of hope and new life transform us.
People: We praise you for Jesus Christ,eternal as your love, our bond to one another. We rejoice with all your people of every time and place, and with angels and archangels, to proclaim the glory of your name:
All: Holy, holy, holy are you. Holy, holy, blessed are you.
Leader: It is Jesus, God incarnate, the Risen Christ, who joins us together as a community of broken but hopeful believers: loving what he loved, living what he taught, and striving to be his faithful servants in our time and place. In this meal we remember Jesus, his promises, and the price he paid for who he was, what he said, and what he did.
On the night before Jesus died, he took a loaf of bread, gave thanks, broke it, and said, “Take and eat; whenever you do this, remember me.” After supper, Jesus took the cup, and poured, saying, “This is the new covenant, remember me.” We do remember. We remember his life of love, his friendship, his teaching, his dying, and his rising to life again. In sharing this meal, we live out the mystery of our faith:
All: Christ has died, Christ will arise, Christ will come to us again
Leader: Holy Mystery, God the Spirit, we call on you to transform these familiar things, as you continually transform the world around us. Bless this bread and this cup, the wheat and the grape, the farmer and the harvest, the seed and the sower. So that in the sharing of these simple elements in community, we may taste and see your goodness, so that we might catch a glimpse of what it is to be in communion with you and with one another.
All: Through Christ, in Christ, and with Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory is yours, God most holy, now and forever.
Leader: The body of Christ, the bread of life. The lifeblood of Christ, the cup of blessing. The gifts of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God!
The table of the United Methodist Church is open to all who are earnestly seeking Christ. You are invited to come.
Communion is Served
All: Thank you, O Christ, for this feast of life. We are fed by your love; we are strengthened by your life. We are sent forth into this world to live into the visions God has laid on our hearts. We are now commissioned to: feed as we have been fed, forgive as we have been forgiven, love as we have been loved.Thanks be to God. Amen.
Benediction: Beloved, just as the shepherds heard the angels’ news and rushed to find the Christ child, go now glorifying and praising God, declaring the good news: our wondrous Light has come! Thanks be to God. Amen.
Life of the Church
ABCCM FOOD DONATIONS: Donation Basket at Front Door. We dedicate our gifts on Communion Sundays.
Medical Lending Closet Flyers are available to distribute to friends and places that will post them.
The daily prayer chain goes out after 8pm. Send requests to prayer@alexanderchapel.org. Prayer shawls are also available. Questions? Contact Pastor Marjory.
Christmas Worship:
Jan 7 – Epiphany Sunday
Christmas Missions:
– We collected socks for men and women at ABCCMs Veterans Quarters and Transformation Village
– The Missions Fund provided gift cards for the women at Transformation Village and candy for the NC Veterans Home
– We donated to the Society of Saint Andrew that feeds the hungry
– Your individual gifts!
Winter Weather: If conditions are unsafe for an in person worship service, we will hold a virtual service using the Livestream information above.
