When God Shows Up

 Eastern Parkway United Methodist Church

 A warm welcome to each worshiper 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.easternparkway.org

Order of Worship

December 24, 2023

Christmas Eve

7:00pm

*You are invited to rise in body or spirit.

 

Prelude

Greeting

Lighting of the Advent Wreath:

Reader 1: To a people longing for hope and yearning for deliverance, the prophet Isaiah declared,

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness on them light has shined…For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:2, 6)

Reader 2: Tonight, we come seeking hope, peace, joy, and love, and we find these things in a child. God made flesh as a baby in a manger. A baby who is both the beginning and the end of our salvation, who dwells with us even now, our Emmanuel, God with us.

Congregation: We live as people in the in-between who celebrate the arrival of the Light that shines in lost and broken places as we wait for the day when we will live in the fullness of God’s kin-dom.

Reader 1: We light these candles as signs of our shocking hope, our just peace, our fierce joy, the love that transforms us, and Jesus Christ, our wondrous Light. May the Light burning in our hearts guide us, comfort us, protect us, and tend us in all seasons and circumstances, reminding us that day and night, in the light and in the darkness, God is with us. Our salvation has come! Amen.

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

             

Opening Prayer:

O wondrous God of the stars,

we come tonight with breathless wonder

to see the babe who will change our lives.

We hear the names “Wonderful Counselor,”

“Mighty God,” “Prince of Peace,”

and we are in awe.

You have touched the earth this night

with your unconditional love.

Touch us—

touch our hearts and minds and souls.

May we never tire of this story.

May we never take it for granted.

Make this night magical again. Amen.                       Joanne Carlson Brown

 

Scripture Reading Luke 2:1-7

The Birth of Jesus

2 In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 All went to their own towns to be registered. 4 Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. 5 He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no place in the guest room.[a]

Anthem                     What Her Heart Remembered             Mother Grace

Scripture Reading Luke 2: 8-14

The Shepherds and the Angels

8 Now in that same region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for see, I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: 11 to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah,[a] the Lord. 12 This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host,[b] praising God and saying,

14 

“Glory to God in the highest heaven,
    and on earth peace among those whom he favors!”[c]

Hymn Angels We Have Heard on High #238

Scripture Reading Luke 2:15-20

15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the child lying in the manger. 17 When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them, 19 and Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just as it had been told them.

Sermon When God Shows Up

Confession: Christmas isn’t my favorite holiday. It doesn’t even make my top 10. My favorite holiday is Easter, and after that Valentine’s Day, and then Thanksgiving. I’m pretty sure I even rate Labor Day above Christmas.

Now, before y’all get super concerned about me, or where we’re going with this, no, I’m not the Grinch. I don’t have a heart three sizes too small, nor do I desire to shut out the “noise-noise-noise” of Whoville. And if you’re visiting here for the very first time, please don’t go run for the door, you didn’t pick the wrong church. 

The reason why this day, and the season leading up to it, aren’t my favorite, is because I’m just a normal person, and I’ll bet a lot of what’s true for me this time of year is true for you, too. Especially if you have kids.

Maybe it’s because I didn’t know better then, but it seems like we handled this holiday season differently when I was a kid. I remember my mom volunteering to make a plate of sugar cookies for exactly one school holiday party. Fast forward to 2023, and I’ve been getting two dozen emails a day from my kids’ schools. Google docs are being emailed back and forth to enlist help for parties throughout the month of December. And the week before Christmas the the grade schools have spirit week, so in addition to my full time church job, and my new, second full time job of reading school emails and hiding from PTA moms who ask me to volunteer for things, I now have to pull together outfits for my kids to wear on Snowman Day, Elf Day, Ugly Christmas Sweater Day and Christmas Tree Day (you read that right, they’re supposed to go to school looking like a tree). Even on pajama day, the day that should be the easy one, the kids are strongly discouraged from showing up in what they slept in the night before, so I need to wash and fold “school pajamas.” 

Even without that craziness, this is a season of “more”, and, eventually, just plain old “too much”. More gifts, more money for gifts. More lights. More glitter. More twinkling. More magic. Shoot, the neighbor’s house looks way prettier than mine, I gotta go get more outdoor lights! More parties, more sugar, more cookies (but you’ll pay for that around that waistline in January) more Christmas movies and concerts and singing and smiles and festivity and more and more and more. Every year, at some point, I feel like I have to be Will Ferrel’s character from Elf to keep up.

How did it get like this? And is this really what the angels had in mind when they proclaimed “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth, peace”?

No shade on any of y’all’s parties or decorations, but I would argue, no, this isn’t what the angels had in mind beside a barn in the middle of the night 2,000 years ago. They weren’t looking for “more” of anything. They were looking for less. They could have brought their message of Good News to a King, or an Emperor, or to the richest person they knew, or to the most joyful. They could have brought that news to a merchant who was about to travel the world, or to someone literate, who could copy down everything they said.

They didn’t want any of that.

Instead they found shepherds. They were paid employees working the graveyard shift. They were away from their families to protect someone else’s sheep from wolves and looters for the First Century equivalent of minimum wage. 

It can be hard for us to imagine what shepherds were in modern terms, but they were not Wall Street bankers, or neurosurgeons, or politicians, or celebrities. They were janitors. They were taxi drivers. They were the people working the drive through at Taco Bell at 2am.

And it was to them, in their late night hourly wage slog, that voices of God showed up.

And the message was simple: don’t be afraid. Good things are coming for you. A baby was just born. The world will know peace.

The Good News of Christmas comes in less. It shows up in a seven pound bundle to a woman who gave birth outside and swaddled her baby in rags because no one threw her a shower. It shows up in the shepherds who visit her because she doesn’t have local family or friends. It shows up in the calm, peaceful moments, after the chorus of angels, and before Jesus gets colic and keeps Mary up all night with cluster feeds.

This is how God shows up. We can feel free to enjoy the beauty of Christmas parades and light displays and that one neighbor who actually managed to put plastic reindeer on the roof of their house. But that’s all for us. God doesn’t show up there. God shows up in the moments and people we overlook. If we don’t close our emails and quit one-upping our neighbors with our Christmas decorations, we’ll miss those moments entirely.

I had a moment just like that the other day. A simple moment where God showed up. Three days before Christmas, I had the misfortune of needing to buy something at Target. Target three days before Christmas is anarchy. Supply boxes everywhere as store associates scramble to restock because frantic people are coming in droves to clear the shelves. The same people who have drank in this culture’s toxic message of “more.” I was walking up to the front door with my four year old, when an older lady with a cart full of groceries and household goods stopped me on her way out of the store and said, “Ma’am, there’s no carts in there.” I shrugged, we were only looking to pick up one small thing, so we’d make do without one. “That’s no good for you, you have a child,” this woman continued. And then she took all of her bags out of her cart, and said, “here, take mine, you’ll need it.” And she walked to her car holding all of her bags because moms get stuff done. It was a little thing. I don’t know her name, and she disappeared into the crowd. But she showed kindness and selflessness when she didn’t have to. She got by with a little less in a season of excess. God showed up through her.

Where have you seen God show up? Where have you seen these subtle moments of sharing, generosity, and kindness? When have you engaged with someone you wouldn’t have paid much attention to before? When did you make a heartfelt connection rather than holing up in your house, surrounded by tangled Christmas lights and school emails?

God shows up in the unforced rhythms of grace. You don’t need to have a front lawn display flashy enough to shame your neighbors. You don’t need to bake 400 cookies. You don’t have to bankrupt yourself with present buying. You don’t need to show up with a bottle of fine wine and an ugly Christmas sweater to every party. You don’t need to dress your kids up for Grinch Day at school. Not if those things don’t bring you joy. You don’t have to break yourself to make this the twinkliest, shiniest, most festive Christmas ever. The gift that Jesus bestows upon us is one we have to put the other stuff down in order to pick up: you’re already enough. You can be at peace. You can approach the manger as a shepherd, as a fry cook, as an Uber driver, or as a burnt out mom. This night can just be December 24th to you, and that’s ok, because God shows up every day, and you’re already special enough to receive the Holy.

Amen.

Offering

Offertory

*Doxology See projection Tune at #229

*Prayer of dedication           

Pastoral Prayer and Lord’s Prayer

God of our Salvation,
we come to you on this wondrous night to gather in praise,
to lift up your name with friend, family, and stranger.
In the beginning, your creative work began with a word,
and tonight, your creation continues with the Word made flesh.
On this holiest of nights, we join the everlasting chorus saying:
    Glory to God on highest!  Great is your name in all the earth!

Like Mary, we ponder these things in our hearts,
and wonder how you could love us so much
as to actually become one of us, one with us.
We remember these stories this evening
that remind us of your steadfast love,
that affirm that you have never, and will never, give up on your children.
    Thank you for your steadfast presence in our lives!

And yet, even on this night on which we celebrate the fulfillment of love,
we recognize that there are many who are still waiting for fulfillment:
the fulfillment of adequate food and shelter…
the fulfillment of peace and the end of violence…
the fulfillment of reprieve from the fierce grip of grief…
the fulfillment of a restoration of a broken relationship…
the fulfillment of a renewing of heart, mind, or body…
the fulfillment of healing from a chronic illness…
the fulfillment of an end to substance abuse…
Giving God,
  give us the courage to do your work in the world
and to share the peace coming to us in the manger this evening.

We pray this night especially for those who have traveled to be here…
for those who have lost loved ones in the past year…
for those who struggle with mental illness…
for those who fight alcoholism’s onslaught…
for those who will be traveling in the coming days and weeks…
for those who work on Christmas:
especially medical workers, police, and emergency personnel…
for those who cannot make it home for Christmas…
hear us we pray, O God,
    Restore us and make your face to shine that we might be saved.

In all that we do and in all that we are,
send your Spirit to send us forward with the majesty of this night
and to share the grace we find with everyone we encounter.
This we pray in the name of your Son, who taught us to pray saying:

    Our Father, 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 debts as we forgive our debtors;
and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,
for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever.  Amen.

Submitted by Rev. Stephen M. Fearing, Shelter Island Presbyterian Church, NY

The Gift of Light

Hymn Silent Night #239

                                             David Orr, Guitar

Blessing

When the song of the angels is stilled, when the star in the sky is gone,

when the kings and 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 the people, to make music in the heart.

*Hymn Joy to the World #246, vv. 1,2, 4

Postlude

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Staff

Natalie Bowerman Pastor

Betsy Lehmann Music Director

Joe White Custodian

Cassandra Brown Nursery Attendant