Sermon Tone Analysis

WELCOME Rob

Bulletin

Love Offering

Sunday Service

*MUSIC

GATHERING WORDS Rob

L: Welcome to this most magical night when angels and shepherds mingle and the birth of a baby changes the world.

P: We come to celebrate with joy and wonder.

Celebrate the light that shines all around us.

P: We will sing and praise our most wondrous God.

Let us kneel before the Christ child, who makes God’s promises come true.

LIGHTING OF THE CHRIST CANDLE BARRERA FAMILY

Reader 1:

We light the first Advent Candle: the candle of watching and waiting for we have searched and waited for our Savior to come to us.

Reader 2:

We light the second Advent Candle: the candle of preparation as we have prepared our hearts to receive the Savior.

Reader 3:

We light the third Advent Candle: the candle of beholding and believing because we have seen the mighty power and love of God in our lives.

Reader 4:

We light the fourth Advent Candle: the candle of rejoicing because we have been blessed with the good news of God’s love for all God’s people!

Liturgist:

Now the time is near!

The One who will save us, brings God’s light into our world.

We light this Christ Candle in celebration of God’s most precious gift to us - our Savior Jesus Christ.

AMEN.

*MUSIC

THE HOLY SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM

INTRODUCTION OF THE SERVICE AND PRESENTATION OF CANDIDATE

Emmalyn Cricket McCall

RENUNCIATION OF SIN AND PROFESSION OF FAITH

The pastor addresses parents or other sponsors:

On behalf of the whole Church, I ask you:

Do you reject all that is evil, repent of your sin, and accept the freedom and power God gives you to resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves?

I do.

Do you confess Jesus Christ as your Savior, put your whole trust in his grace, and promise to serve him as your Lord, in union with the Church which Christ has opened to people of all ages, nations, and races?

I do.

Will you nurture these Cricket in Christ’s holy Church, that by your teaching and example she may be guided to accept God’s grace for herself, to profess her faith openly,

and to lead a Christian life?

I will.

The pastor addresses the congregation, and the congregation responds:

Do you, as Christ’s body, the Church, reaffirm both your rejection of sin and your commitment to Christ?

We do.

Will you nurture one another in the Christian faith and life, include Cricket now before you in your care, and surround her with a community of love and forgiveness?

We will.

THANKSGIVING OVER THE WATER

Eternal Father, your mighty acts of salvation have been made known through water—from the moving of your Spirit upon the waters of creation, to the deliverance of your people through the flood and through the Red Sea.

In the fullness of time you sent Jesus, nurtured in the water of a womb, baptized by John, and anointed by your Spirit.

He called his disciples to share in the baptism of his death and resurrection and to make disciples of all nations.

Pour out your Holy Spirit, to bless this gift of water and those who receive it, to wash away their sin and clothe them in righteousness throughout their lives that, dying and being raised with Christ, they may share in his final victory; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

BAPTISM WITH LAYING ON OF HANDS

Cricket, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Immediately after the administration of the water, the pastor places hands on the candidate’s head and invokes the work of the Holy Spirit.

Other persons, including baptized members of the candidate’s family, may join the pastor in this action.

During the laying on of hands, the pastor says:

The Holy Spirit work within you, that being born through water and the Spirit, you may be a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ.

Amen.

COMMENDATION AND WELCOME

The pastor addresses the congregation:

Members of the household of God, I commend Cricket to your love and care.

Do all in your power to increase her faith, confirm her hope, and perfect her in love

The congregation responds:

We give thanks for all that God has already given you and we welcome you in Christian love.

As members together with you in the body of Christ and in this congregation of The United Methodist Church, we renew our covenant faithfully to participate in the ministries of the Church by our prayers, our presence, our gifts, our service, and our witness, that in everything

God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.

The pastor addresses those baptized and their parents and sponsors:

The God of all grace, who has called us to eternal glory in Christ, establish you and strengthen you by the power of the Holy Spirit, that you may live in grace and peace.

PASTORAL PRAYER Liturgist

LORD’S PRAYER Liturgist

LOVE OFFERING FOR AGAPE MINISTRY

Scripture

PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION

Introduction

Well, the moment we have all been waiting for has arrived.

Jesus is born and tonight you heard the story from Luke.

I am sure you recall that Mark and John do not have birth stories, we only find the birth stories in Matthew and Luke.

There are similarities and differences between the two accounts.

We tend to blend the two stories together .

However, when we do that it makes it all about the story and not about what God is doing.

Like our manger scenes at home it is all about the story not understanding of God and how God operates in God’s creation.

So tonight at least for the next few minutes lets put Matthew up here and not homogenize Luke with Matthew.

Let’s examine what Luke says about this in Luke’s context.

Background

For the past 4 Sunday's we have been talking about how this whole incarnation thing, that is God coming into the world in Jesus of Nazareth, or Jesus son of Joseph, being scandalous and messy.

Elizabeth conceiving at a very old age and giving birth to John the Baptist.

We talked about Elizabeth’s disgrace in being barren for so long.

Mary a young betrothed girl between 12 and 14 years old becomes pregnant and unwed!

Mary and Elizabeth meet and Mary sings or prays, in the face of what would have been ridicule, a song of thankfulness, God overcoming the powerful and arrogant and raising up the poor and lowly.

Finally, last week Chris talked about the birth of John the Baptist where his father Zechariah sings of God making good on his promises and that his son John will be the prophet to prepare the way.

John would later be beheaded in a scandal.

So tonight here we are: God’s plan for the salvation of creation comes to the point where God empties God’s self to come into the world.

We’ll get back to that idea in a moment.

Exegesis

We make Christmas seem so sweet and innocent with the way we have merged legend with facts and blended the birth stories in Matthew and Luke.

There was no donkey that Mary rode on, they wouldn’t have been able to afford one.

The word for Inn literally means guest room.

More than likely they were staying with relatives who claimed their guest room was full.

Maybe it was that they didn’t want an unwed pregnant woman spending the night with them.

So they let Mary and Joseph stay with the animals.