Sermon Tone Analysis

Welcome

Welcome!

We’re so glad that you are here tonight.

Whether you be here in our sanctuary, out in our parking lot, or perhaps you’re listening online.

Welcome.

This is a special time of year.

Christmas.

It’s shrouded in wonder - the wonder of children and their eyes popping out with excitement as they see the gifts begin to build under the tree.

The wonder and mystery of a baby to be born some 2000 years ago that would change the world.

The wonder of that child having grown and ministered among people of the time and then to be put to death - not for anything he’d done - but for everything the people before had done and all that the people after would ever do.

Jesus died not just for the sins of the past, but for the sins of the present and the future.

Jesus came as the visible personhood of God demonstrating God’s love for all creation And, Jesus will return again.

Tonight is all about the wonder of being between those two glorious moments.

The glory of his birth and the glory of his return.

As we worship tonight, I hope that you have one of our candles at the ready, or if you are listening online or in your car, perhaps you will want to think of a light you can light as a symbol of the Christ’s light entering the world.

We will do that as part of the end of our service.

For those of you in your cars:

As we go, and you need heat, please feel free to turn your car on.

You will likely want to turn it on sometime in the service simply to keep the battery charged.

We don’t want any dead batteries at the end of our service.

We invite you to sing along in your vehicle, or you can just listen and think about the meaning of the words as our worship team sings.

We will be having a special message for our children, and we will be receiving an offering tonight.

We’ll share more about those later.

So with that, let us quiet our hearts as we wait expectantly for what God will share with us tonight through the Holy Bible and these beautiful hymns written through the centuries.

[SILENCE]

Opening Sentences:

Sing to the Lord a new song

Sing to the Lord all the earth!

Sing to the Lord and bless God’s name;

tell the good news of salvation from day to day.

Opening Hymn

O Come, All Ye Faithful #249

Prayers of Intercession

Beloved in Christ, it is our duty and delight to prepare ourselves to hear again the message of the angels, and to go in heart and mind to Bethlehem, and see this thing which has come to pass, and the babe lying in a manger.

Therefore let us hear again from the holy scriptures the tale of the loving purposes of God from the first days of our sin until the glorious redemption brought us by this holy child;

and let us make this house of prayer glad with our carols of praise.

But first, because this of all things would rejoice Jesus’ heart, let us pray to him for the needs of the whole world, and all his people; for peace upon the earth he came to save; for love and unity within the one Church he did build; for goodwill among all peoples.

And particularly at this time, let us remember the poor, the cold, the hungry, the oppressed; the sick and them that mourn; the lonely and the unloved; the aged and the little children; and all who do not know the Lord Jesus, or do not love him, or who by sin have grieved his heart of love.

Lastly, let us remember all those who rejoice with us, but upon another shore and in a greater light, that multitude which no one can number, whose hope was in the Word made flesh, and with whom, in this Lord Jesus, we forevermore are one.

These prayers and praises let us humbly offer up to the throne of heaven, in the words that Christ himself has taught us: Our Father . . .

Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be your 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 debts as we forgive our debtors; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the Kindom, and the Power, and the Glory, Forever.

AMEN.

Lessons of the Carols

SERVICE of the the LESSONS OF THE CAROLS

This service of nine lessons and carols originates from a 1918 Christmas Eve service at King’s College Chapel, at the University of Cambridge, in England.

Each lesson will contain Scripture and a Carol.

We hope you enjoy tonight’s service and encourage you sing along.

1. Adam and Eve disobey God

READER: