GATHERING WORDS

Leader:  We gather for worship carrying within the thoughts and feelings that have accumuated over the week.
People:  Some of the things are weighing freshly on our hearts and minds, others are like long term companions that have been around for what seems like forever.
Leader:  God knows each thought and feeling and provides a time and place where we can be free from those that are a burden.
People:  God is the One who whispers through the ages: “Come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you peace.”
Leader:  That is what we need! That is what we have come seeking!
People:  Lighten the load, O God, and keep us from worry in your peace!

OPENING PRAYER

O God of peace, within whom there is wisdom and wellness:
We confess that we often live in the fragmentations of life’s challenges.
We become consumed with the challenges in ways that wrought worry within us.
We worry to the extent that it keeps us from trusting in you and one another.
And, our failings of trust prohibit our faithful stewardship as your servant-disciples.
We take this moment as a time to name our worries and lay them down as if at your feet.

~ A moment of silence ~

[Sung]
Something beautiful, Something good,
All my confusion, God understood,
All I had to offer God, Was brokenness and strife,
But God made something beautiful, Of my life.
(continued as many times as seems to be helpful)

~ A moment of silence ~

O God of all necessary provisions, within whom there is love greater than we can begin to imagine:
We confession that we often live without a seeking or sense of your love among us.
We get busy, we get deterred, we get detoured; and grow stranger to your love.
We awaken to find ourselves adrift, knowing the loss and unsure where to find our way again.
We take this moment as a time to name the distractions and lay them down as if at your feet.

[Sung]
Precious God, take my hand
Lead me on, let me stand
I’m tired, I’m weak, I’m lone
Through the storm, through the night
Lead me on to the light
Take my hand precious God, lead me home.
(continued as many times as seems to be helpful)

~ A moment of silence ~

O God of this moment, within whom there is eternity yet focused redemption and reconciliaton:
We confess that our lives are often lived in the past, or in some dream for the future.
We have difficulty accepting the current happenings as times of grace and opportunity.
We know the pain and struggle that might be part of our present life.
We prefer to escape from it, than learn in it.
We opt for fleeting comfort rather than a faith that is growing and deeping, dynamically alive within us.

~ A moment of silence ~

[Sung]
One day at a time, sweet Savior, that’s all I’m asking of you.
Teach me today, to do all the things that I have to do.
Yesterdays gone, sweet Jesus, and tomorrow may never be mine.
God, for my sake, teach me to take, one day at a time.
(continued as many times as seems to be helpful)

~ A moment of silence ~

O God grant unto us—
what we truly need
what serves your purpose
and what will be most helpful for the common good;
for we seek to your providential care and your call to be your witnesses in a troubled world.
We take this moment to be filled with your blessing and to be renewed for our ministry.

~ A moment of silence ~

[Sung]
Seek ye first the Kingdom of God
And God’s righteousness
And all these things shall be added unto you
Allelu, Alleluia!
(continued as many times as seems to be helpful)

~ A moment of silence ~

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name … Amen.

After scouring the Internet for sermon and worship helps, here are some links and excerpts from some of the best resources I found. Click on the links to read more. Also, check out the following sites for further materials for your use:

The Text This Week

SAMUEL

Dylan’s Lectionary Blog

Sermons and Liturgies – Richard J. Fairchild

Laughing Bird Liturgical Resources

Resources: Based on the Revised Common Lectionary

Preaching and Worship Resources for Epiphany

SCRIPTURES

Isaiah 60:1-6 or for Episcopalians: Isaiah 60:1-6; Isaiah 6:9
Psalm 72
Ephesians 3:1-12
Matthew 2:1-12

or

The Revised Common Lectionary

The Book of Common Prayer Lectionary

Vanderbilt Divinity Library

Roman Catholic Lectionary Readings

IMAGES

John Hall Thorpe’s The Wise Men here.

Wise men on Camels (Silhouette, Black and White)

Wise men coloring page, another coloring page

“Wise Men Guided by the Star” by Gustav Dore (Black and White)

Botticelli’s “The Adoration of the Magi” here

Hieronymus Bosch’s “The Adoration of the Magi” here

Bruegel’s “Adoration of the Magi” here

Quinten Metsys or Massys “Adoration of the Magi” here

Adoration of the Magi from Fine Art Screensavers

Adoration of the Magi by Rubens

Szymon Czechowicz’s “Adoration of the Magi” here

MUSIC

“The Wise Men Saw A Light Afar” Words: Rev. Richard R. Chope, Music: Henry John Gauntlett (Free sheet music available by clicking the link)

The Wise Men saw a light afar
Shine out on Christmas morning,
And taught by faith they hail’d the star
Of Christ on Christmas morning.
Then journey’d they, those Princes three,
On Christmas in the morning,
To David’s town his Lord to see,
The Babe in Glory’s morning!

Whom did ye see, ye shepherds, say,
On Christmas in the morning?
Whose voice heard ye, this peaceful Day
Sweet singing in the morning?
We heard their carols in the sky,
On Christmas in the morning;
And saw the Angel Host on High
In robes of light this morning!

And Whom see ye, good Christians all
On Christmas in the morning?
Whose voice hear we, this Festival,
In tones of love and warning?
We hear the Church, our Mother dear,
On Christmas in the morning;
And see Her Spouse for faith sees clear,
The Incarnate Word, this morning.

Then lift ye up your hearts aright,
This Eucharistic morning!
Come, come, where Altars beam with light,
And choirs sing sweet, this morning:
Glory to God, To God our King,
On Christmas in the morning!
Peace, Peace, let all good people sing,
Goodwill to men/all, this morning!

If you prefer a different tune than the one provided at the site linked to above (87.87 D Iambic is hard to come by however), you could sing selected verses to the tune: St. Columba (The King of Love My Shepherd Is – No. 138 in the United Methodist Hymnal), which is just 87.87 Iambic. If you decide to do this, however, know that each verse above becomes two verses, which may require some trimming. I would suggest using only the following verses in this case:

The Wise Men saw a light afar
Shine out on Christmas morning,
And taught by faith they hail’d the star
Of Christ on Christmas morning.

Then journey’d they, those Princes three,
On Christmas in the morning,
To David’s town his Lord to see,
The Babe in Glory’s morning!

And Whom see ye, good Christians all
On Christmas in the morning?
Whose voice hear we, this Festival,
In tones of love and warning?

We hear the Church, our Mother dear,
On Christmas in the morning;
And see Her Spouse for faith sees clear,
The Incarnate Word, this morning.

Then lift ye up your hearts aright,
This Eucharistic morning!
Peace, Peace, let all good people sing,
Goodwill to men/all, this morning!

Wexford Carol (with two additional verses by Will Humes)

Good people all, this Christmas time,
Consider well and bear in mind
What our good God for us has done,
In sending His belovèd Son.
With Mary holy we should pray
To God with love this Christmas Day;
In Bethlehem upon the morn
There was a blest Messiah born.

The night before that happy tide
The noble virgin and her guide
Were long time seeking up and down
To find a lodging in the town.
But mark how all things came to pass:
From every door repelled, alas!
As long foretold, their refuge all
Was but a humble oxen stall.

Near Bethlehem did shepherds keep
Their flocks of lambs and feeding sheep;
To whom God’s angels did appear
Which put the shepherds in great fear.
“Prepare and go”, the angels said,
“To Bethlehem, be not afraid;
For there you’ll find, this happy morn,
A princely Babe, sweet Jesus born.”

With thankful heart and joyful mind,
The shepherds went the babe to find,
And as God’s angel has foretold,
They did our Savior Christ behold.
Within a manger He was laid,
And by His side the virgin maid
Attending to the Lord of Life,
Who came on earth to end all strife.

—–

My additional verses:

Then magi journeyed from the east
and laid their gifts at the babe’s feet.
A star had shone bright in the sky,
and so they followed and drew nigh
to Bethl’em town and to the place
where they beheld our Savior’s face
Gold, frankincense and myrrh they gave
to the young king who came to save.

So now we offer to our Lord,
our lauds and praise forevermore.
And with one voice we do all raise
our hymn of thankfulness and praise.
For this small child would give his life
as the one perfect sacrifice.
Now death has died, and we are free;
His love has bought our victory

WORSHIP RESOURCES

Call to Worship – Based on scriptures for Epiphany – by Will Humes

Into the darkness of our world,
into the darkness of our lives,
a light has shined,
the glory of God has come,
and we are called to shine and show everyone
that the night is over and morning has dawned upon us.

People will see the light within us,
the light of the Lord,
and they will be drawn to it,
people will come from all around just to see the reflection of God in our lives.

And all who come will be welcome,
all who come will find open hearts and hands,
and together we will all praise the Lord of light and life.

Offertory Prayer for Epiphany – Will Humes

As the Magi of old brought gifts to lay at the feet of the Christ child,
so we bring our gifts to his church today.
Accept, O God, the offerings we make.
Use them to proclaim to all the good news that you have come to us in Jesus,
and help us, as your children and as disciples of your Son,
to shine forth into our world of darkness,
so that all may see your light in us and find for themselves to path to life,
and it abundant.
This we pray in the name of the one whose birth the angels proclaimed. Amen.

Call to Worship (From Seekers Church, Epiphany 2007 – A New Dawn . . . click link for more worship resources)

Leader: The New Dawn will arise upon you.
People: You shall see and be radiant.
Leader: The New Dawn will arise upon you.
People: The Holy One will bless the people with peace.
Leader: The New Dawn will arise upon you.
People: The joy of the Lord is my strength.
Leader: The New Dawn will arise upon you.
All: God is here among us.
Let us rejoice and be glad in God’s presence.

Benediction (From Seekers Church, Epiphany 2005 – The Gift of Our Imperfect Lives . . . click link for more worship resources)

Leader: Arise, shine; for your light has come,
and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
As you follow Christ into the ordinary structures of your life,
“Do all you can with what you have
in the time you have
in the place you are.”
You are a gift from God to this troubled world.
Unison: Amen.

Benediction based the words of Nkosi Johnson, who lived with AIDS all 12 years of his life. NPR Radio interview with Jim Wooten, author of “We Are All Alike,” December 2, 2004

SERMON PREPARATION

Off By Nine Miles (Isaiah 60:1-7; Matthew 2:1-12) by Walter Brueggemann

The narrative of Epiphany is the story of these two human communities: Jerusalem, with its great pretensions, and Bethlehem, with its modest promises. We can choose a “return to normalcy” in a triumphalist mode, a life of self-sufficiency that contains within it its own seeds of destruction. Or we can choose an alternative that comes in innocence and a hope that confounds our usual pretensions. We can receive life given in vulnerability. It is amazing — the true accent of epiphany — that the wise men do not resist this alternative but go on to the village. Rather than hesitate or resist, they reorganize their wealth and learning, and reorient themselves and their lives around a baby with no credentials.

Bethlehem is nine miles south of Jerusalem. The wise men had a long intellectual history of erudition and along-term practice of mastery. But they had missed their goal by nine miles. It is mind-boggling to think how the story might have gone had Herod’s interpreters not remembered Micah 2.

Our task is to let the vulnerability of Micah 2 disrupt the self-congratulation of Isaiah 60. Most of us are looking in the wrong place. We are off by nine miles. We are now invited to travel those hard, demanding miles away from self-sufficiency.

The Divine Mystery – Ephesians 3:1-12 (A Bible Study)

From the Article “Halo effect (Isaiah 60:1-6; Psalm 72:1-7, 10-14; Ephesians 3:1-12; Matthew 2:1-12)” by James Alison in The Christian Century

We are taught by the Magi to value the One who lies in the manger. He acquires worth and splendor through their eyes. That is part of what the feast gives us: models for our desire, for our adoration. With each gift we are offered a way to shift the weight of our heart in an unaccustomed direction. When the Magi offer him gold, which indicates a king, we are invited to lessen the tribute we offer to the power structures to which we belong and on which we depend; when they offer him frankincense, which indicates a priest, we are invited to tiptoe out from under the delusions of our sacred canopies, to be drawn into the jagged-edged sacrifice of presence that this Priest will carry out; and when they offer him myrrh, which indicates a prophet’s death, the Magi invite our hearts to lighten as death loses its hold over our drives and desires.

Illustration Idea from “This Week in Preaching” The Center for Excellence in Preaching

From Debra Blue’s book Sensual Orthodoxy, p. 17 (Cathedral Hill Press, 2004): “I’ve been thinking maybe someone should start a small group of guerilla activists whose task it would be to plant shocking figures in manger scenes. They could work both inside private homes as well as in the most visible places. Suburban housewives will shriek to find Batman figures on the roof of the manger on their mantle. Churches will be horrified to find Barbies and plastic dinosaurs on their altars. But people will pay attention. They will look twice. They may even stop their car. They have even get out when they see a garden troll or a pink flamingo or a big plastic Homer Simpson leaning over the baby Jesus on the Cathedral lawn. I actually wonder if I’m not the first to come up with that idea. It might have been some guerilla group that first placed the wise men in the manger scenes.”

From Kingly Presence (Is. 60:1-6; Ps. 72:1-7; 10-14; Eph. 3:1-12; Math. 2:1-12) by Herbert O’Driscoll from The Christian Century by way of Religion Online

Because we know almost nothing about the wise men, our imaginations take wing. If we were brought up in the Christian faith, these characters have ridden across our minds and hearts ever since we were taken to our first Sunday school pageant. Even the most sophisticated children secretly envy those who have been selected to play the wise men. Parents will ransack attics for pieces of fabric — the more brilliant and exotic the better — and someone in the family will create a costume that will be linked to no particular age or time or culture but will somehow speak of far-off places, distant shores, desert sands and starry skies — all at the same time. . . .

They have always fascinated us, these travelers who must have loomed in the entrance to the cave before an astonished — and probably alarmed — Mary and Joseph. All the language we use about them tends to reach for a larger-than-life quality. One of the church’s hymns claims that to rival their gifts we would have to bring to this “brightest and best of the sons of the morning, odors of Edom, gems of the mountain, pearls of the ocean.” When Isaiah speaks of such visitors, he speaks in the most extravagant terms. “Kings!” Isaiah proclaims. icings come to the brightness of your dawn.” And because the traditional three camels no seem enough to do justice to the celebration, we turn to Isaiah’s evocation of “a multitude of camels . . . the young camels of Midian and Ephah.” Then, “all those from Sheba” are invited too.

FULL SERMONS

“The Power of Encouragement” Ephesians 3:1-12, preached at The United Church by the Rev. Don Childers (PDF file)

The letter affirms something that still is revolutionary in our day. The letter affirms that through Paul and others, God has broken the artificial religious barriers that had been erected by others. The Gentiles—the outsiders—have now been taken into God’s plan and have received the grace of God.

Once again when I read this I become very nervous about similar barriers we erect today either against people who we feel should not be in church or against people of other religious faiths. We forget that God has a habit of ignoring the boundaries and doing what God wills when God wills. This is a theme picked up by Matthew in the story of the Magi. What a slap in the face the Magi were to all those who believed that they had the inside track on faith and values

So Paul writes, “The mystery is that people who have never heard of God and those who have heard of him all their lives (what I’ve been calling outsiders and insiders) stand on the same ground before God. They get the same offer, same help, and same promises in Christ Jesus. The Message is accessible and welcoming to everyone, across the board.”

The Epiphany by Rev. Ed Searcy, preached at University Hill United Church

It is right that we worship in the “Chapel of the Epiphany”. And when we are asked the obvious question “Tell me, what does the name of the Chapel of the Epiphany mean?” we will need an answer. Paul is ready with one. Paul says “This is the reason that I Paul am a prisoner for Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles”. The Epiphany is the reason that Paul is a prisoner for the sake of a people who are not his people. The Greek leaves open the question of just what kind of prisoner Paul has become. It may be saying that Paul is a prisoner in shackles for – on behalf of – Christ Jesus. Or it may be saying that he is a prisoner of Jesus Christ. He may be saying that he has no choice but to spend the rest of his life living for the sake of people who are not his people. The first thing to say when someone asks what it means that this Chapel is named for “The Epiphany” is to say that this space – and the congregation that worships here – is a prisoner of Jesus Christ. It is – we are – set aside for the purpose of announcing “The Epiphany” on behalf of people who are not our people. In other words the church exists for the benefit of people who are not church people. In Paul’s words: “The Epiphany is the reason that University Hill Congregation is a prisoner for Christ Jesus for the sake of all non-church people.”

Then Paul says it is a mystery. He says it four times in twelve verses. He says that the “mystery was made known to me”. He calls it “the mystery of Christ”. He says that “in former generations this mystery was not made known to humankind”. He has a ministry of making “everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God”. Sometimes preachers fall back on the word “mystery” as an easy way out. Sometimes we like to use the word “mystery” cheaply, as a kind of theological trump card to avoid hard discussions and difficult answers. At other times we preachers do everything we can to avoid the awesome mystery that lies at the heart of the gospel. Sometimes we desperately try to explain everything, to resolve every mystery, to answer every question including the virgin birth and the miracles and, yes, even the resurrection. I don’t remember much about Rudolf Otto from my theological schooling other than his famous two word description of the universal experience of the holy. He calls it the “Mysterium Tremendum”. Tremendous mystery. Paul understands that the ways of God are a tremendous mystery. Paul does not imagine that you can look at nature or watch a sunset and grasp the mystery. Paul knows that our lives are an unpredictable and inexplicable mixture of wonder and ache, of beauty and hurt, of deep love and great pain. But Paul is witness to a more incredible mystery. He is the messenger of the greatest Mysterium Tremendum imaginable. The hidden purposes of God have been made manifest in Jesus Christ. It is an overwhelming epiphany, a shocking revelation, a sudden drawing back of the curtain to show the mystery of what God is really up to in the midst of so much confusing news.

The Church: Completing God’s Project Ephesians by Rev. JoAnne Juett, First Baptist Church

Finally, God’s project is characterized by grace. Paul writes: “of the gospel I have become a servant according to the gift of God’s grace that was given to me by the working of his power” (Eph. 3:7). The greatness of his task and the sublimity of the trust must have humbled Paul. His divinely given ministry he calls the gift of the grace of God. He marveled that God would choose him and make him a messenger of so deep a mystery. That such a persecutor and blasphemer as Paul was entrusted with so lofty a mission is a clear demonstration of divine grace.

It is to the Ephesians from his jail cell that Paul wrote his words expressing his humble servanthood to the One who revealed Christ to him and revealed his mission in this world. It is also to the Ephesians that Paul imparted his wisdom that Christ ‘is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one…He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it” (Eph. 2:14-16).

God’s plan is a move from revelation to revolution by the grace of God. It is a knowledge that leads to faith that leads to transformation. It is a journey, a process that never is an end unto itself, but always a path to union with Christ. We know we are doing God’s will and working on God’s project when we are an active part of a revolution of grace.

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