Worship Notes for Wednesday after Advent III, 2014

Tuesday after the Third Sunday in Advent

December 16, 2014

The Lord be with you

We will have our third mid-week Advent service this Wednesday, December 17. This will be our final Advent service as the fourth Wednesday in Advent this year also happens to be Christmas Eve. So, while we will have a worship service December 24, it will be our Christmas Eve Candlelight service.

We will use the service of Evening Prayer (page 243) for our liturgy. Our lessons for the evening will be Psalm 18:1-6 (antiphon verse 35), Ephesians 2:4-10 and we will conclude our reading of the Christmas story with Matthew 2:2-15. The text for the message will be Mathew 2:11. The homily will be titled, “The Meaning of Christmas is Giving.”

Our opening hymn will be “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” (LSB 357). Our homily hymn will be “Hark the Glad Sound” (LSB 349). Our closing hymn will be “The Angel Gabriel from Heaven Came” (LSB 356).

The video is of the Lutheran Warbler singing our homily hymn, “Hark the Glad Sound.”

Our Wednesday evening begins as usual with dinner at 6:15 pm. We will then worship together, beginning at 7:00. Typically that ends the evening for everyone except the choir. However this Wednesday will be different as we will be GREENING the church. Everyone will be invited to stay and make the church building ready for the Christmas holiday. Following the decorating, the choir will rehearse.

Below are the readings for Wednesday.

Psalm 18:1-6, 35

¹           I love you, O Lord, my strength.

²           The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,

                        my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge,

                        my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

³           I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised,

                        and I am saved from my enemies.

⁴           The cords of death encompassed me;

                        the torrents of destruction assailed me;

⁵           the cords of Sheol entangled me;

                        the snares of death confronted me.

⁶           In my distress I called upon the Lord;

                        to my God I cried for help.

            From his temple he heard my voice,

                        and my cry to him reached his ears.

³⁵          You have given me the shield of your salvation,

                        and your right hand supported me,

                        and your gentleness made me great.

Matthew 2:1-15

^2:1         Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, ²saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” ³When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; ⁴and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. ⁵They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet:

⁶           “‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,

                        are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;

            for from you shall come a ruler

                        who will shepherd my people Israel.’”

⁷           Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared. ⁸And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may come and worship him.” ⁹After listening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. ¹⁰When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. ¹¹And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. ¹²And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.

¹³          Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” ¹⁴And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt ¹⁵and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

Ephesians 2:4-10

⁴           But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, ⁵even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—⁶and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ⁷so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. ⁸For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, ⁹not a result of works, so that no one may boast. ¹⁰For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Blessings in Christ,

Pastor Rickert