Welcome Home

 

Eastern Parkway United Methodist Church

 A warm welcome to each worshipper today. We celebrate you and offer you our friendship and love. We are a congregation of people who seek to grow spiritually, to become more like Christ in His compassion and acceptance of everyone while growing more aware of what it really means to be Christians today.

 

As a Reconciling Congregation, EPUMC affirms the sacred worth of persons of all sexual orientations and gender identities and welcomes them into full participation in the fellowship, membership, ministries, and leadership of the congregation.

 

943 Palmer Avenue, Schenectady, NY 12309 / 518-374-4306 epumc943@gmail.com / www.easternparkwayumc.com

                                    Welcome to Eastern Parkway United Methodist Church

December 24, 2021

Christmas Eve

7:00pm

*You are invited to stand in body or in spirit

 

Prelude                       Resonet in laudibus              John Leavitt, arr.                   

Greeting                                                             Rev. Natalie Bowerman

 

Call to Worship                                                                Mary DeSantis

Posted by Rev Gord on his blog, Worship Offerings, http://worshipofferings.blogspot.ca. Reposted: https://re-worship.blogspot.com/2014/12/call-to-worship-opening-prayer.html.

 

We count it in mere hours now.
Soon the first pains of labour will be felt.
Soon the Light will shine in the darkness,
soon the baby will be born.
Soon God will once again break into our lives,
coming in a way that is expected yet unusual,
challenging our expectations
and calling us to see life differently.

 

*Hymn            O Come, All Ye Faithful (v 1, 2, 3, 6)                   #234

 

Adeste, fideles, laeti triumphantes;

Venite, venite in Bethlehem.

Natum videte Regem angelorum.

Venite adoremus, venite adoremus, venite adoremus Dominum.

 

O come all ye faithful joyful and triumphant

O come ye, come ye to Bethlehem

Come and behold him born the King of angels

O come let us adore him Christ the Lord

 

True God of true God, Light from Light eternal

Lo, he shuns not the virgin’s womb

Son of the Father, begotten not created

O come let us adore him Christ the Lord.

 

Sing choirs of angels sing in exultation

O, Sing all ye citizens of heaven above

Glory to God, all glory in the highest

O come, let us adore him, Christ the Lord

 

Yea, Lord, we greet thee, born this happy morning

Jesus, to thee be all glory given

Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing

O come, let us adore him, Christ the Lord

 

Lighting of the Advent Wreath        Bishop Tony Green and Father Victor DeSantis

Words by Derek Weber

 

Reader One: This night, this night is a night to remember. A night when home broke in on us. A night when we were not forgotten or alone or abandoned. This night. This night is the night when here and there became one, when past and future combined in a breathless present. This is a night when we are home, in ourselves, in this family, in the God who loved us enough to walk beside us.

Reader Two: We gather in the night to proclaim the light. We shrug off despair and embrace hope. We set aside conflict and choose peace. We push away despair by claiming joy. We overcome hate by rising into love. Because this night we know, even in the shadows of our doubts, we know that we are loved. That’s what it means to be home.

Reader One: We light these candles, hoping to become the light, hoping to radiate light by how we live. We light these candles to create a space called home in this place, in our place, in inner places. We light these candles to declare that unto us a Savior is born, who is Christ the Lord. Welcomed home by angels singing and shepherds kneeling. Welcomed home by those like us who have worshiped for thousands of years. Welcomed home again tonight, right here, right now, in us.

Reader Two: It’s time to be home.

 

Anthem     Christmas Sanctus      Lee Dengler        Chancel Choir

 

 

Scripture Reading             Luke 2: 1-20           Deacon Grace Ferris

 

Carol    Ding Dong Merrily on High       Charles Wood and Klaus Foehl, ed      Chancel Choir

  

Message                            Welcome Home    Rev. Natalie Bowerman

 

Merry Christmas, friends.

 

It’s such an abundant joy for us to celebrate the birth of Christ together.

 

Throughout Advent I have been preaching about “home”. What a home is, what it means to be “home”, how a “home” looks and feels, what kind of home Christ makes for us, and what kind of home we make for one another by making our church a home for all. In a special way, this service is a joyous homecoming in itself. This is my second Christmas serving this congregation, but last year we had to switch gears and cancel our Christmas Eve service late in the game because of a surge of local coronavirus cases, and then we had a virtual celebration of the birth of Jesus over YouTube. So in a way, this is my first real Christmas with my church family. I’m home for Christmas, at last. We also celebrate how many view this building as their church home, as our friends from the Saint John of God community join us tonight. We have friends here who have come home from far away. We roll out our home’s welcome mat for visiting family, and friends from the neighborhood who wanted to join us, maybe for the first time. To everyone here: whether this is the very first time your body has touched one of our pews, or whether you come here so often that the pew cushion has permanently molded around you, we welcome you in the name of Jesus, and we’re overjoyed to see your face. You are home.

 

No matter where “home” is when we sojourn out of here, we all find “home” in one place today: the manger. The new baby is home. His radical inclusion is home. The Kin-dom we build in his name is home. The work of Christmas, after we leave this place, will be for us to turn that lofty ambition into a reality. Our work will be to dismantle the walls and stumbling blocks that keep others from finding Jesus right here, among us, until our neighbors see the newborn Christ in the light in our eyes. In sounds complicated, but it’s really simple—if love guides your thoughts, words, and deeds, people will see Jesus in you. Jesus’ odd birth, in a barn in the middle of the night, proves that we can all find him. He’s not guarded by hospital security in a maternity ward, he’s not hiding in a fancy nursery in a rich couple’s mansion, and he’s not up on a mountain somewhere, he’s down on the floor where the animals eat. Literally, if you can have the house manners of a goat, you can receive Christ, and all in his name. We can all find our way home.

 

Since I promised to keep this message much shorter than my 20 minute average running time, I’m going to end on this note: the words from a real church welcome sign. This is the welcome statement of the Monroe Street Church in Toledo, Ohio. Just a typical church somewhere in middle America. I did some internet research on these guys, so I can assure you—they’re not drawing anyone in tonight because they have the prettiest building, or the fanciest organ, or the freshest coffee, or a pastor who’s an incarnation of Wesley, Calvin, and Luther rolled into one. It’s the radical, inclusive, Christ-like love of their community that tethers them together, and that is a shining example to us, like a bright star hanging over a barn in the middle of some ordinary field. This is their welcome to their home.

 

WELCOME TO MONROE STREET CHURCH! (Toledo, Ohio)

 

At Monroe Street Church we extend a special welcome to those who are single, married, divorced, widowed, gay, filthy rich, dirt poor, yo no hablo ingles. We love crying newborns, people who are skinny as a rail, or those who could afford to lose a few pounds. You're welcome here if you are conservative, liberal, progressive or apolitical. We welcome you if you can sing like a rock star or can’t carry a note in a bucket. You’re welcome here if you’re “just browsing,” just woke up, or just got out of jail. We don’t care if you’re in church every Sunday, haven’t been in church since little Joey’s baptism, or if you're traditional or nontraditional.

If you are over 60 but not grown up yet, or are a teenager who is growing up too fast, you have a home here. We welcome soccer moms, football dads, starving artists, tree-huggers, latte-sippers, vegetarians, junk-food eaters. We welcome those who are in recovery or still addicted. We welcome you if you’re having problems or you’re down in the dumps or if you don’t like “organized religion.” We’ve been there too.

If you blew all your offering money at the casino, you’re welcome here. We offer a special welcome to those who think the earth is flat, work too hard, don’t work, can’t spell or came because Grandma is in town and wanted to go to church.

We welcome those who are inked, pierced or both. We’re glad you’re here if you could use a prayer right now, had religion shoved down your throat as a kid, or got lost and wound up here by mistake. We welcome visitors, seekers, doubters, bleeding hearts … and you!

 

Let us all welcome one another in the same revolutionary love, the kind we learn from a baby in a hay trough this night.

 

Amen.

Front Porch Rockers              Waiting                        Pepper Choplin

 

Offertory    O Holy Night. Adolphe Adam. Benjamin Pomerance, solo.      

*Doxology

*Prayer of Dedication                                     Rev. Natalie Bowerman

 

Time of Prayer and Lord’s Prayer                Rev. Natalie Bowerman

Almighty God, our light shining in the darkness: we give you our thanks and praise that the light of your love came into the world in the person of your Son Jesus—God from God, light from light, true God from true God. Through your Son you created everything that is, seen and unseen; through your Son you gave us life; and through your Son you gave eternal life to all who would believe in him. This is good news. Indeed, this is “good news of great joy,” the best news of all.

 

For those of us who have grown so familiar with this news that it begins to sound like old news, stir within our hearts a renewed sense of wonder. Astonish us with the gift of your love. Kindle hearts that have grown cold. Help us to feel within our innermost being these “good tidings of great joy,” that unto us is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.”

 

Humble us, like those shepherds abiding in the field. We have nothing to offer you; we possess nothing that you need; we have no gift to give you that pays you back for the gift that you give us. We are poor beggars standing in need of your mercy, forgiveness, and grace. And yet, you brought your good news to us; you invited us to celebrate your coming; you made a way for us to become your children.

 

Receive now the gift of our gratitude. Enable us to share this news with others through word and deed, that the whole world may experience this good news for themselves and be transformed by it. We pray this in the name of the one whose coming we celebrate and who taught us to pray in this way, saying: Our Father, Mother, Creator God, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who have trespassed against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory forever. Amen.

 

By the Rev. Brent L. White

 

The Gift of Light

 

Hymn                                     Silent Night                                       #239

Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht

Alles schläft, einsam wacht

Nur das traute hoch heilige Paar

„Holder Knabe im lockigen Haar

Schlaf in himmlischer Ruh'

Schlaf in himmlischer Ruh'“

 

Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht

Hirten erst kundgemacht

Durch der Engel Halleluja

Tönt es laut von Fern und Nah

„Christ, der Retter ist da

Christ, der Retter ist da“

 

Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht

Gottes Sohn, o wie lacht

Lieb' aus deinem göttlichen Mund

Da uns schlägt die rettende Stund'

Christ in deiner Geburt

Christ in deiner Geburt

 

Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht

Die der Welt Heil gebracht

Aus des Himmels goldenen Höhen

Uns der Gnade Fülle lässt sehen

Jesus in Menschengestalt

Jesus in Menschengestalt

Silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright

Round yon virgin mother and child. Holy infant, so tender and mild,

Sleep in heavenly peace, sleep in heavenly peace.

 

Silent night, holy night, shepherds quake at the sight;

Glories stream from heaven afar, heavenly hosts sing alleluia!

Christ the Savior is born! Christ the Savior is born!

 

Silent night, holy night, Son of God, love’s pure light;

Radiant beams from thy holy face with the dawn of redeeming grace,

Jesus, Lord, at thy birth, Jesus, Lord, at thy birth.

 

Silent night, holy night, wondrous star, lend thy light;

With the angels let us sing, alleluia to our King;

Christ the Savior is born, Christ the Savior is born!

 

*Hymn                               Joy to the World                                  #246

 

Joy to the World, the Lord is come!

Let earth receive her King;

Let every heart prepare Him room,

And Heaven and nature sing,

And Heaven and nature sing,

And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing.

 

Joy to the World, the Savior reigns!

Let all their songs employ;

While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains

Repeat the sounding joy,

Repeat the sounding joy,

Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy.

 

He rules the world with truth and grace,

And makes the nations prove

The glories of His righteousness,

And wonders of His love,

And wonders of His love,

And wonders, wonders, of His love.

 

Benediction                                                       Rev. Natalie Bowerman

The Rev. Dr. Howard Thurman wrote:

 

When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and the princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flocks,
The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among people,
To make music in the heart.

Postlude     Wie Schön Leuchtet der Morgenstern Philippe Nicolai, 1599; harm. by J.S. Bach   

_____________________________________________

Staff

Natalie Bowerman               Pastor

Betsy Lehmann                     Music Director

Joe White                               Custodian

Cassandra Brown                 Nursery Attendant