Shared during Sunday Worship on December 15, 2024.
God of grace, thank you for this season of waiting. Thank you for the joy of children waiting for the excitement of gift giving. Thank you for the gift of familiar carols, whose joyful music touches waiting hearts. Thank you for widespread family and friends that we cannot wait to see this season. And thank you Lord for the gift of Jesus Christ; the Savior we have been waiting for…
God of peace, create in us hearts devoted to shaping the world in the ways you have called us to. We pray especially for those whom such a world seems only a distant dream – the poor, the imprisoned, the ill, the lonely, and the despised. Open our hearts, Spirit of Life, to the news of angels and the wonder of shepherds that these days may renew us for the days to come….
Loving God - as we approach the day of Christ's birth help us to throw wide the doors of our hearts in preparation. To remember the words of the angels, the prophets, and the teachers of old, and to celebrate all the promises that you made through them. Help us to take firm hold of the meaning of all these things, and to know in the depths of our being, that even now you are seeking to work in us, and through us, to fulfil the promises you have made....
Lord - may this Advent season and the Christmas celebrations ahead be for us, and for those around us, a time of healing, a time of hope, and of love and of joy, may it be a time of true sharing, and of rejoicing in all the earth…
Gracious God, throughout the world, in, and on, and under it, waiting happens, waiting grows and gathers, the earth is expectant waiting for redemption. In eager anticipation we wait for the revelation of the Son of God. Lord be with us, occupy Christmas. Hallelujah. Amen.
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