Digital Liturgy 12/27/20
Invitation to Worship
To all who are weary and need rest
To all who mourn and long for comfort
To all those who wander and are looking for a story
To all who feel isolated and miss community
To all who are broken and want healing
To all who feel worthless and wonder if God cares
To all who are oppressed and yearn for justice
To all who fail and desire strength
To all who sin and need a Savior
To all who hunger and thirst for righteousness
And to whomever will come–
This church opens wide her arms and offers welcome
In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ
Call to Worship
Lift up your hearts in prayer
lift up your voices in praise.
Let your eyes rise in expectation
and your hands in exultation,
for the Lord has drawn near
and dwells among us.
Let us worship God!
Songs
A Prayer for the Sunday after Christmas
You can pray this prayer or use it as a starting point for your own time of prayer.
“And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.” Luke 2:20
Heavenly Father, it’s the Sunday after Christmas, and many of us are over-stuffed, under-slept, very-spent. Mostly, however, we’re grateful—thankful Jesus actually came into the world for us.
For those of us for whom Christmas Day went really well, we worship you as the God from whom all blessings flow. For those of us for whom the day was virus-disrupted, kinda-messy, lonely or disappointing, we too worship you.
The day after Jesus was born, a 5-star bed-n-breakfast didn’t open up for the family. And when the shepherds left Jesus’ manger, they were still shepherds. They didn’t get a TV show, write a book, or start a podcast. As followers of Jesus, we’re grateful we don’t have to pretend about anything.
Jesus came into a broken world, full of broken people. Hallelujah, he came to be our Savior, not our concierge—our loving Master, not our personal assistant. May we finish 2020 surrendered to the work of your Spirit, grateful for the riches of the Gospel, loving Jesus and longing for his return.
And, with whomever we’re with the rest of this year, help us remember, “the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself in love” (Gal. 5:6). We pray these things in Jesus’ wonderful name, amen.
Sermon “I Heard The Bells on Christmas Day”
A sermon preached by Pastor Nate Downey. The sermon will premiere at 10:30 AM on December 27 and will be available to stream anytime after that.
Response
In response to God’s goodness and faithfulness, let’s respond through giving and singing.
Give
If you are part of the Town Church family, you can give online or text any dollar amount to 84321 to give. Until the end of December, you can designate a gift specifically to support the Silamo family who are planting a church among the Rendille people in Kenya.
Sing
Benediction
Say this together:
Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling
and to present you blameless before
the presence of his glory with great joy,
to the only God, our Savior,
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority,
before all time and now and forever.
Amen