Christmas Eve

Overview

We tried some new things at Calvary with Mt. Zion for Christmas Eve.  You can read below about some of the things we did, and see pictures.  Although the morning service did not have a sermon, the evening service included a sermon that made the same point as the morning service.  You can listen to it here. Also, we used Cards for Worship so that even first time visitors could be part of making worship happen.   The kids were led through a telling of the Christmas story where they acted out different parts.  It was a no-rehearsal, pop-up Christmas Play.  It worked out great.  Also, for our message time, the kid's did an activity you can read about below.  I've included some of the worship parts that were written just for this service, too.  

Call to Worship

WELCOME/SHARING THE PEACE
 
  The presiding minister and the congregation greet each other in the peace of the risen Christ.
 
P                   The peace of Christ be with you always. 
C                  And also with you.
 
The people may greet one another with a sign of Christ’s peace and may say:
Peace be with you or similar words. Please ask before offering handshakes or hugs.
 
P   Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world!
C   He is One who comes to bring us life.
P   At this hour of creative birth, we gather to celebrate the great joy of our salvation.
C   With the heavenly host we sing, "Glory to God in the highest heaven."
P   In Christ, God's Word is made flesh and lives among us.
C   With the shepherds, we will tell of the wonders we have seen and heard.
​

Prayer of the Day

THE PRAYER OF THE DAY
P           Dear  Jesus,
C             Thank you for coming into the world today as a little baby.  As we think about what presents we can bring you, help us to know how to share your presents with others. In your name, we pray, and we play, AMEN. 
​

Message Time

​If Christ came to give us the gift of
 Love, New Life, And Saving Us,
What gifts could we possibly give him?
 
The Bible teaches that by taking care of one another, we take care of Jesus.  Each group is invited to take and wrap two boxes. 
Inside both boxes, put a slip of paper. 
They should say the same thing inside both boxes. 
Write down something that you’ll give to Jesus, and therefore to someone else.  You can offer to check the mail, shovel the yard, listen on the phone, take someone for coffee, learn more about a justice issue, give a gift of a wanted hug . . . there are so many things. 
 
Place one gift in front of the manager, and take the other box home to give to someone else.  This is how we share the joy of Jesus coming into our lives.  

Eucharistic Prayer

Pastor Jess, along with her friend Jess Davis wrote our Eucharistic Prayer for Disrupt Worship.  You can see it along with the things others wrote here.  If you'd like Jess Davis to help you create things, or to be a paid sensitivity reader for you, you can contact her by sending her a message on facebook.  

​Advent/Christmas/Epiphany Eucharistic Prayer 2017 by Jess Harren and Jess Davis
 
Oh Creator, from the beginning of time you have been with us.
You save us again and again, from ourselves.  From our hatred of others.  From our judgements that we know more than you.
You created us as whole beings, minds, bodies, souls, all together, all connected.
You bring us prophets to point the way, to call us in, to call us toward love and life.
And yet, we turn away.  It is too hard to see.
In the creative darkness, in the beginning of time, the depth of Mary’s womb, you knit together a real human body that comes from another body.  A connected body.  You were a baby.  We hear your cries to eat, to sleep, to be held, to be changed.
In the incarnation, in becoming human, you know what it is to bleed.
To hurt.  To cry out for justice from a body that was tortured.
You know the pain of speaking up against the things that separate. The pain of oppression. Of those who think they get to define who counts as human.
And yet, you gave yourself to us. You gave your own body and blood to heal us, to bring us closer to ourselves, and one another.  To heal the broken connections, within, without, and between our whole beings.  In this meal, you connect your body to ours.  As the story about you is told:
On the night in which he was betrayed, our Lord Jesus took bread, broke it, and gave it to his disciples to eat saying, “Take and eat.  This is my body. Do this for the remembrance of me.”
After supper, he took the cup, gave thanks, and gave it for all to drink saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, shed for all people, and for the forgiveness of sin.  Do this for the reembrace of me.”
Through your human and divine body, you bring us salvation.  You also shared your Spirit with us.
Oh Holy Spirit,
Thank you for promising to infuse this wine and bread with the spirit of Jesus.  Saturate the wine and the and the insides of the bread with your spirit.  Use it to unite us to Jesus’ body, and the bodies of all those around us.  Unite everyone who eats of this meal, until, at last we know the joy of connection with all that is around us.  Amen.  

Blessing and Dismissal

BLESSING
​May God bless you with presence, May Jesus bless you with saving love, and May the Holy Spirit inspire you to share those with others.  
C         Amen.

DISMISSAL
P: Glory to God in the highest!
C: Peace to God’s people on earth!
P: Go in peace. Share the gift of Jesus.
C: Thanks be to God.