Worship at Home
Worship for the Week Beginning 26th December 2021
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Sunday 26th December
Rev Francis M’Itiiri has prepared this week’s message
This short act of worship is for use from home. Please use this service whenever you like during the week.
Pause to settle yourself in God’s presence, knowing that other people are sharing in worship with you.
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© ROOTS for Churches Ltd www.rootsontheweb.com. Reproduced with permission.
Gathering of Gods people
My eyes fail, looking for your promise. I say, “When will you comfort me? To all perfection I see a limit, but your commands are boundless.
Psalm 119:82-83,96
Prayers of Confession
God our Father, we come to you in sorrow for our sins and turning away from you, ignoring your will for our lives.
Father, forgive and save us:
We are ashamed for letting ourselves be drawn away by temptations found in our world, behaving just as we wish without thinking of others.
Father, forgive and save us:
Blessed is the Lord
for he has heard the voice of our prayer
therefore, shall our hearts dance for joy
and in our song, we will praise our God.
StF 781: Sing along in adoration to God
Take, oh take me as I am;
summon out what I shall be;
set your seal upon my heart
and live in me.
Bible Readings
18 But Samuel was ministering before the Lord – a boy wearing a linen ephod. 19 Each year his mother made him a little robe and took it to him when she went up with her husband to offer the annual sacrifice. 20 Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, saying, ‘May the Lord give you children by this woman to take the place of the one she prayed for and gave to the Lord.’ Then they would go home.
15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16 Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. 17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
The boy Jesus at the temple
41 Every year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the Festival of the Passover. 42 When he was twelve years old, they went up to the festival, according to the custom. 43 After the festival was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. 44 Thinking he was in their company, they travelled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. 45 When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. 46 After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. 47 Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. 48 When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, ‘Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.’
49 ‘Why were you searching for me?’ he asked. ‘Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?’ 50 But they did not understand what he was saying to them.
51 Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. 52 And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.
Holy Bible, New International Version® Anglicized, NIV® Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
STF 293: All Heaven declares
All heaven declares
The glory of the risen Lord;
Who can compare with
The beauty of the Lord?
For ever he will be
The Lamb upon the throne;
I gladly bow the knee,
And worship Him alone.
I will proclaim
The glory of the risen Lord
Who once was slain
To reconcile us to God.
For ever he will be
The Lamb upon the throne;
I gladly bow the knee,
And worship Him alone.
Reflecting on the Text
1 Samuel 2:18-20,26 is the reference for the opening chapters of Luke’s Gospel 2:41-52 bringing out the significance of Jesus’ birth and that of Samuel. I Samuel begins with the story of the birth and consecration of Samuel. Hannah had been barren, and she understood that her son was a gift from God in response to her prayer. It was a permanent loan she had borrowed from God. Its genre is identified as a song of thanksgiving. It celebrates God’s role in the reversal of the fortunes of his people–from barrenness to fertility, from poor to rich, from lowliness to being given a place of honour, from death to life. She speaks of the reversal both in her own life and that of the people to whom she belonged, and so it moves from the singular to the plural.
It is noted in verse 21 that “Samuel grew up in the presence of the Lord.” This theme of growing is continued in verse 26: ‘’and the boy Samuel grew “in stature and in favour with the Lord and with the people.” Samuel’s maturity is witnessed at two levels: stature in the human community of which he was a part and growth in his relationship with God. Similar language is used of Jesus in Luke 2:52 (cf. 2:40). Jesus experiences growth at two levels as well. He increases in human wisdom (he is not gifted with all knowledge from the beginning) and his relationship with God advances in its maturity. As Luke 2: 41-52 narrates on the search for Jesus, Luke leading to their astonishment on arrival in the temple, just as Samuel grew in the presence of God. Jesus was in the temple confronting teachers of the law with hidden sacred theogical questions. Who would imagine looking for your ‘lost’ son, daughter, or a person who has been under your foster care, for less say three days, how could you have reacted?
Consider the Words of Mary and Joseph and response of Jesus to the Parents!! Why did it take them three days to figure out where Jesus was? Perhaps Jesus hadn’t shown any signs of theological curiosity and so his parents couldn’t imagine him hanging out in the temple.
Maybe Mary and Joseph simply failed to see that their baby was growing up. Is your Jesus growing beyond your leaders’ expectations?
Was Mary ready to “lend” her Jesus to God. Perhaps she just wanted to keep her firstborn close to her. The good news for us during this Christmas, like Mary and Joseph, our search has ended. Jesus shows us the way to God. The scary part, perhaps, is that our search doesn’t end where we expect.
Two more decades Jesus is in an out-of-the way place, far removed from the centres of religion and politics, in the company of ordinary people, just like us. What great lesson can we draw out from this? One great lesson with a larger picture, is that you cannot grow well without being in the community of faith, Jesus required to be out where people are to engage his faith. How have you been lately engaging your faith beyond the walls?
Here Jesus continues to grow “in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favour.” The good news is that this description of Jesus is the description of every child of God, no matter what our age. We all will grow as we respond to God’s love. In Christ we can expect nothing else.
Prayers of intercessions: Taking time to pray for yourself and others.
Heavenly Father, thank You for Hannah and the lovely lessons we can learn from the painful episode she underwent in her life – so that her trust in you could be ignited and her faith in God could be strengthened. Teach us not to be become careless on how we treat those in trouble. Merciful God, we bring prayers for those afflicted, widows, orphans, and strangers. Gracious God we bring in today’s prayers,for parents with all the missing children, either trafficked into modern slavery, or other forms of child labour, comfort and bring peace to these families. help those that are anxious, help many of the refugees fleeing from conflict and war-torn countries that they would adjust to new way of live away from home.
Lord we pray, help us to be to be reliable and trustworthy in our service to those we encounter in need, empower our voices to raise up in challenging prevailing injustices and speak your words that bring healing and encouragement to the hurting and those in distress. God your holy word reminds us,
‘’ you raise up the poor from the dust, and lifts up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory: for the pillars of the earth are the theirs !’’, Thank you for hearing our prayers, which we bring in and through Christ, our friend, brother and redeemer.
Amen.
The Lord's Prayer
Please use the version that you prefer
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 trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever.
Amen.
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be your name,
Your kingdom come,
Your will be done,
On earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
As we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us from the time of trial
And deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power
and the glory are yours
Now and for ever.
Amen.
StF 190: Angels, from the Realms of Glory
(contemporary version by Regent square)
Angels from the realms of glory,
wing your flight o’er all the earth;
ye who sang creation’s story,
now proclaim Messiah’s birth.
Come and worship,
Christ the new-born King,
come and worship,
worship Christ, the new-born King.
Shepherds in the field abiding,
watching o’er your flocks by night:
God with us is now residing.
yonder shines the infant Light.
Refrain
Sages, leave your contemplations;
brighter visions beam afar;
seek the great Desire of nations;
ye have seen his natal star.
Refrain
Saints, before the altar bending,
watching long in hope and fear,
suddenly the Lord, descending,
in his temple shall appear.
Refrain
Though an infant now we view him,
he shall fill his Father’s throne,
gather all the nations to him.
every knee shall then bow down.
Refrain
Blessings
Let us bless the Lord.
For Blessing, honour and glory belong only to you Lord, both here and everywhere, now and for ever
Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.
In the name of Christ.
Amen.
Service prepared by Rev Francis M’Itiiri
Webpage: Paul Deakin
