Lessons & Carols (Complete Service)

And welcome to Lessons and Carols here at New Song.

Friends, it is so good for us to gather in the name of our Lord Jesus and offer our praises and receive the gift of beautiful sacred music and to have our hearts stirred by God's Word and Holy Spirit.

Today we're gathering, as we have the last two years, in the midst of a pandemic, but I'm sure we're all keeping our eyes on the numbers.

There's enough to feel anxious about these days.

And so if you're coming in feeling that and feeling that angst, I hope that today is a ministry to you especially.

You can rest assured that we've uh taken the highest measures of safety precautions that we can.

Our choir has consented to be fully immunized and rapid rapid tested, which uh means they can sing with confidence for their own sakes, and we can receive that as well.

I want to encourage us to keep our masks on and keep physical distance during this service and to sing only uh wearing our masks.

So, friends, let's receive these gifts.

And with fear and dreams water nothing not meant, for with blessing Christ are not to King of the Kings yet, and we're gonna be able to get a lot of people.

Once again, good morning.

Uh like light fire protocol.

If you'd like to reach out, we have a lot of people unless the terrorists were prepared ourselves to celebrate the God and joy the word of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

We pray that you respond to the Lord's life.

All glory, all honor, worship and praise, world without end.

That's right.

Our Father, who are in heaven, I will be my name, my kingdom come, I will be honored as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our day and bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as you forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation, but to grasp you.

Now and at all times.

To you be praise and glory forever.

Your light has shone in our darkened world through the childbearing of Blessed Mary.

Grant that we may who have seen your glory may daily be renewed in your image and prepared like her for the coming of your Son, who is Lord and Savior of all.

Blessed be forever.

Amen.

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.

Those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness on them is like a bigger one.

These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.

When no bush of the field was yet in the land, and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up.

For the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground.

And a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground.

Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.

And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.

The tree of life was in the midst of garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers.

The name of the first is the Pishon.

It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold, and the gold of that land is good.

Bedelium and onyx stone are there.

The name of the second river is the Gihon.

It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush.

And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria, and the fourth river is the Euphrates.

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.

And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die.

Then the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone.

I will make him a helper fit for him.

Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them.

And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.

The man gave names to all livestock and the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field.

But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him.

So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept, he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.

And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.

Then the man said, This at last is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh.

She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man.

Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.

He said to the woman, Did God actually say, You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?

And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruits of the trees in the garden, but God said, You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.

But the serpent said to the woman, You will not surely die, for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.

And she also gave some to her husband who was with her.

And he ate.

Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loinclaws.

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord among the trees of the garden.

But the Lord God called to the man and said, Where are you?

And he said, I heard the sound of you in the garden.

I was afraid, because I was naked and I hid myself.

He said, Who told you that you were naked?

Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?

The man said, The woman who you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.

Then the Lord God said to the woman, What is it that you have done?

The woman said, The serpent deceived me and I ate.

The Lord God said to the serpent, Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field.

On your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring.

He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.

To the woman he said, I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing.

In pain you shall bring forth children.

Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.

And to Adam he said, Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the fruit of which I commanded you, you shall not eat of it.

Cursed is the ground because of you.

In pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life.

Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the plants of the field.

By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken.

For you are dust, and to dust you shall return.

The man called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.

And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skin and clothed them.

Then the Lord said, Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil.

Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever.

Therefore the Lord God sent him out from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken.

He drove out the man, and at the east of the Garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

I'm weary with my foreign.

Here I will sit and rest all I'm weary with my former storm.

Here I will sit and rest all under the shallow high of Jesus Christ be.

It keeps my dying faith.

Which makes my soul in Jesus Christ.

And I will remember everything.

Verse one to eleven.

Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.

Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, and that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins.

A voice cries, In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in a desert a highway for our God.

Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low.

The uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

A voice says, Cry, and I say, What shall I cry?

All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.

The grass withers, the flowers fade when the breath of the Lord blows on it.

Surely the people are grass.

The grass withers with our faith, but the word of our God will stand forever.

Go on up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news, lift up your voice with strength.

O Jerusalem, herald of good news, lift it up, fear not.

Say to the city of Judah, Behold your God.

Behold, the Lord God comes with might, and his armor is for him.

Behold, his reward is with him, and his record recompense before him.

He will fed his flock like a shepherd, he will gather the lambs in his arms, he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.

And he shall stand and shepherd his clock in the strength of the Lord.

And in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.

And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth.

The days are coming.

And he shall reign as a king and heal.

And shall execute justice and righteousness.

In his days Judah will be saved.

The Lord is our righteousness.

I will not ask.

And I will not forget the Lord for the cast.

And he said, Oh is it too little for you to worry me?

Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign.

The word himself can see a sign.

To be all to be mirrored to us, when you come to bring life, to be light, to shine bright soul, we have to do it.

Verses nine and ten.

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion.

Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem.

Behold, your king is coming to you.

Righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall speak peace to the nations.

His rule shall be from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earthly song.

Besides this, we know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep.

For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.

So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.

Let us walk properly as the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immortal immortality, and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy.

But put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires.

The night is far gone.

And the day is near.

Friends, this morning we've heard more than sacred music.

We've certainly not heard less than sacred music, and beautiful sacred music.

But we've heard the story, God's big story, told in scripture, and this is the story to which this beautiful music.

Indeed, all points.

This story begins with God's act of creation.

Scripture tells us more about God than the simple fact that he is the creator.

It discloses to us his heart in creating.

In other words, God saw trees of green.

Red roses, too.

He saw them bloom for me and you, and he said to himself, now you guys are doing theology.

Well done.

See, God's heart was delighted to create, and he is delighted to see the sun rise over his good creation.

And God crowns this beautiful creation with human beings, male and female, invited to delight themselves in God, their creator, and in one another, and in the creation that they are called to cultivate with God.

And so we read it in our first reading.

In all creation, these creatures are unique because they are created in God's own image.

And what is that?

We human beings are created with a capacity to respond to God's immense delight by finding our deepest joy and satisfaction and fulfillment in him and in his fatherly goodness.

This is the relationship into which our first parents were invited.

It's a relationship characterized by trust, a willingness to take a loving and delightful creator at his word and walk together as in the light of day.

And yet, as we see our first parents chose to rebel against their Creator, by their act of disobedience, they chose self-destructive self-interest over trust in God and his word.

And they alienate themselves and their descendants from God, the very source of their life.

They're alienated from one another and the creation that they steward.

Over a once bright creation, the cold, dark night of devastation, sin and death has set.

See, we too recognize that cold, lonely, desperate darkness of perpetual light.

We recognize it in the world we live in, don't we?

When we read the headlines of poverty and war, of famine and disaster, we know brokenness and pain in our own lives, in our families, in our neighborhoods.

And perhaps all I need to say is the word omicron.

And we know for ourselves the fear and the angst that comes with the threat of being swallowed up by this never-ending night.

But for the sake of our first parents and the whole human race, God made a promise to the deceiving serpent, that ancient enemy, God says, I will put enmity between you and the woman.

Between your offspring and her offspring.

He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.

So that's pretty cryptic, isn't it?

What does that mean?

It means that on behalf of humanity, a chosen descendant of this first mother will deal a crushing blow to the serpent and to the power of death, but not without taking a deadly blow himself.

So now God's people live in hope of this promise being fulfilled.

And that through this servant God will someday put the power of death to death and see dawn break over creation, lost in darkness once again.

And so as one generation gives way to another, God sends his prophets.

We've met a few of them today.

Jeremiah and Isaiah and Micah and Zechariah.

He sends his prophets to call out to his people, to speak his word to those lost in the darkness of the night.

And what is it that God says?

Get lost?

Try harder?

Comfort.

Comfort my people.

They shall be my people.

I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more.

See, God's own heart, though broken by humanity's own brokenness, is still committed for his people.

For their renewal, for their redemption, and for their rescue.

He is committed to his promise.

The dawn from on high shall break apart the night again through this promised offspring, who the prophets understand, will be a righteous and humble king.

I will raise up, says the Lord, a righteous man.

He shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness.

The virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us.

And unlike our first parents, he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good.

We who know what it is to wander in the night and see the light again.

His foot will crush the head of darkness and death.

The light of dawn is coming.

And his name is Jesus.

God has given his word to his prophets to speak to his people.

Now in Jesus, his word becomes a man.

God with us who proclaims good news for a people lost in darkness.

God is fulfilling his long-standing promises, renewing a broken creation, restoring image-bearers of God, rescuing exiles lost in the night, and giving hope to his people for a kingdom to come through Jesus.

And puts them to death for our sake.

As a crushing blow.

But not without himself taking the deadly blow.

But death is defeated, but not holding.

And by the power of God, Jesus was raised to new light.

And now death and darkness and the power of life has been undead.

So the darkness later is yet a little wild.

Yet there's a light shining in the darkness.

So friends, we see God's next story.

Now we faith.

A relationship of trust and reliance upon Jesus, we too may walk in the light of this new day.

In the newness of life.

So let's cast off the words of darkness.

And put on the armor of light.

For those who know what it is to be lost, as in the night, God's word in you this morning is now the moment for you to wake from sleep.

So let's pray.

Jesus.

The first portion of the ninth reading is taken from Luke, chapter one, verses twenty six to thirty-eight.

In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin of truth, and to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David.

And the virgin's name was Mary.

And he came to her and said, Greetings, O favored Lord, the Lord is with you.

But she was greatly troubled at the same time.

And tried to discern what sort of greetings are.

And the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have been a favor with God.

And behold, you will conceive in your room and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.

He will be great and will be called a son of the Lord God.

In those days Mary arose and went with haste to the hill country, to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.

And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.

She exclaimed with a loud cry, Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.

And why is this granted to me that the mother of the Lord should come to me?

For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ear, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.

And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.

And Mary said, My soul magnified the Lord, and my spirit have rejoiced in my Savior, for we have regarded unholy mess of being handed.

All generation shall be blessed, for the mighty hath magnified me, and holy name, and we must be done and let the nations.

And as we are sorely hindered by our sins from running the race that is set before us, let your bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and deliver us through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with you and the Holy Spirit be honor and glory now and forever.

Almighty God, who gave us grace to cast away the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.

Now in the time of this mortal life, in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility, that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty, to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life of immortal through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Before we conclude this evening, let me extend to you a heartfelt invitation to our Christmas services this year.

If you're looking for a parish at which to uh worship this Christmas season, we would be delighted to have you join us in worship.

We'll have two services on Christmas Eve, one at 4 p.m.

for children of all ages, that is young children and children at heart.

And we're gonna have uh a small uh well uh we're gonna have sheep and goats, and we're gonna have a reenactment, spontaneous reenactment of the Christmas story together outdoors, and that'll last about a half an hour, so it's gonna be a wonderful time together.

So I invite you to that.

And then later that evening at 7 p.m.

on Christmas Eve, we're going to have a carols and communion service together.

We have an 11 o'clock traditional service on Christmas Day, and we resume our Sunday morning services at 10 o'clock on December 26th.

So please be invited to join us.

Restore us, O Lord God of hosts.

Show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.

Will you not give us life again?

That your people may rejoice in you.

Show us your mercy, O Lord.

And grant us your salvation.

Friends, it's wonderful to worship together.

Thank you for joining us this morning.

Let us bless the Lord.