Do you like the gift?
Here are worship materials for the 2nd Sunday after Christmas.
Call to Worship Ephesians 1:3-14 Adapted
One: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ—
All: who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places;
One: who has chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love;
All: who has destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved;
One: who has given us redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us;
All: who has, with all wisdom and insight, made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth;
One: who has, in Christ, made us to obtain an inheritance,
having been destined according to the purpose of him
who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will—
All: so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ,
might live for the praise of his glory.
One: This is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory, and in whom are greeting is true:
“The peace of the Lord be with you.
All: And also with you.
Prayer of Invocation (in unison)
Lord of love, truth, and grace: bless our gathering today that by it we might become children of your spirit, become as we are.
This we are ever called to do: to become as we are.
Help us to abound with your presence and be made full of your joy, which is itself fullness and fruition.
We pray this though we are also amidst this world of sin. We pray confessing that we even have sinned against you, in thought, word, and deed; in what we have done and in what we’ve left undone.
And yet you, who are grace, abides ever ready to redeem and renew. We rely on this of you, your forgiveness, your grace. Meet our reliance with your faithfulness. Meet our need with your generosity, your generative way that creates and sustains all things through all time, reconciles us to one another and to you.
All this we pray that we might be cultivated in Christ, each of us a planting and fruiting of your garden, which you work to the end of your glory and our perfection and peace. Amen.