Worship Service at Church of the Dawntreader Thursday December 20, 2012 10:00 a.m. SLT
Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.
    Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc.™
    Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.
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"New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989,
Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America.
Used by permission. All rights reserved." Designated by the initials, (NRSV).

Invocation:
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God, and the Communion of the Holy Spirit be with us all. Amen
Confession and Absolution
We come before you, our Loving Father, Mother God, confessing most of all our need of you.
We confess that we have not always acknowledged just how much we depend on you.
We confess that we have not always loved you with all our heart, soul and mind.
We have not always loved our neighbors as ourselves.
We ask that you will forgive us and grant us your strength to conform more fully to your loving will for us.
We pray in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Amen.
In obedience to the command of our Lord Jesus Christ, it is my privilege to declare to you and to myself, the entire
forgiveness of all our sins.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen
Prayer of the Day
Let us pray.
Stir up your power, Lord Christ, and come. With your abundant grace and might, free us from the sin that binds us,
that we may receive you in joy and serve you always, for you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen

First Lesson: Micah 5: 2 - 5a (NRSV)
2 But you, O Bethlehem of Eph'rathah,
who are one of the little clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me
one who is to rule in Israel,
whose origin is from of old,
from ancient days.
3 Therefore he shall give them up until the time
when she who is in labor has brought forth;
then the rest of his kindred shall return
to the people of Israel.
4 And he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the LORD,
in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God.
And they shall live secure, for now he shall be great
to the ends of the earth;
5 and he shall be the one of peace.
Here ends the First Lesson

Psalm 80 (NRSV)  
1 Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel,
you who lead Joseph like a flock!
You who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth
2 before E'phraim and Benjamin and Manas'seh.
Stir up your might,
and come to save us!
14 Turn again, O God of hosts;
look down from heaven, and see;
have regard for this vine,
15 the stock that your right hand planted.
17 But let your hand be upon the one at your right hand,
the one whom you made strong for yourself.
18 Then we will never turn back from you;
give us life, and we will call on your name.
19 Restore us, O LORD God of hosts;
let your face shine, that we may be saved.
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.

Second Lesson: Hebrews 10: 5 - 10 (NRSV)
5 Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said,
"Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired,
but a body you have prepared for me;
6 in burnt offerings and sin offerings
you have taken no pleasure.
7 Then I said, 'See, God, I have come to do your will, O God'
(in the scroll of the book it is written of me)."
8 When he said above, "You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings"
(these are offered according to the law),
9 then he added, "See, I have come to do your will." He abolishes the first in order to establish the second.
10 And it is by God's will that we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Here ends the Second Lesson.

Gospel Lesson: Luke 1: 39 - 55 (NRSV)
39 In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country,
40 where she entered the house of Zechari'ah and greeted Elizabeth.
41 When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit
42 and exclaimed with a loud cry, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
43 And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me?
44 For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy.
45 And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord."
46 And Mary said,
"My soul magnifies the Lord,
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48 for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
50 His mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
51 He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
52 He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
53 he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
54 He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
55 according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants forever."
Here end the Readings from Holy Scripture.

 - Sermon -

Today's Gospel lesson tells the story of the Visitation.
Following the Annunciation of her pregnancy with the Savior,
Mary, the Mother of our Lord, travelled from her home in Nazareth to the area of Jerusalem
to visit with her kinswoman, Elizabeth, who was also pregnant.
Both pregnancies were special blessings from God.
Elizabeth was carrying John the Baptist,
even though she had been unable to conceive a child until John was conceived.
Mary was a virgin, and she had conceived her Son by the direct act of creation by the Holy Spirit in her womb.
An intensely powerful spiritual moment took place when the two miraculously pregnant, closely related women met face to face.
Mary entered the home of Zechariah the priest and his wife Elizabeth, and she greeted Elizabeth.
As soon as Mary's greeting was heard,
the baby, John the Baptist, leaped for joy in his mother's womb.
Every woman who has carried a child in her womb, and many of the men who have loved them, know the feeling well.
There is nothing quite like it.
It is an awe inspiring reality to recognize the presence of a yet unseen and unborn human being in our midst.
They can kick and turn and make their presence known in a number of different ways.
So the meeting of Elizabeth and Mary in the Visitation
was also the first meeting in this world
between St. John the Baptist and our Lord Jesus Christ.
John began his ministry in that moment.
By leaping for joy in his mother's womb,
for the first of many times,
he proclaimed the presence of the Christ, the Savior of the world.
To me, the most powerful witness of this entire story of the Visitation
is the way it is so very ordinary.
We all have shared moments with people we love
in which we experience a moment of transcendence.
We all have seen something wonderful and miraculous in the ordinary events of life
when they are shared with someone who deeply and truly understands what they mean to us.
Mary and Elizabeth truly shared such a moment
because they each had been touched by the grace of God
in becoming pregnant.
Each woman in her own way
was carrying a miracle in her body.
Yet right there is the witness of this story
and of the whole priceless and precious story of Christmas.
For you see, every parent knows in her or his heart
that the conception and birth of her or his own child is a miracle of the grace of God.
We see the hand of God in the story of Christ
so that we may recognize His loving hand
in our own lives.
we may not often think of it this way,
but the Holy Spirit is at work in our hearts
creating faith in our hearts
in new and ever deeper and more meaningful ways.
We hear and speak words of faith,
and we are encouraged.
The very words of faith which we speak,
our most powerful prayers and creeds,
come from the most ordinary of circumstances.
The meeting of these two women who had been touched by God,
sharing the certain knowledge that they were carrying special children,
led to some of the most powerful poetry of Christian faith.
St. Luke records some of the most beautiful words in all of the Bible.
Poetry and inspired proclamations are common in the verses of Luke's Gospel.
In fact, I would go so far as to say, and I am not alone in this concept,
that the words of the Gospel of Luke in their original Greek language
are the most beautiful words ever written by a human being.
Out of the whole New Testament,
Luke's two volume work of the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles,
those two books of the New Testament,
comprise 22 percent of the whole.
Luke wrote more than a fifth of the New Testament all by himself,
and the words he recorded are among the most familiar in Christian worship.
In the words of Mary and Elizabeth we find beautiful examples
from our Gospel lesson.
As soon as Mary spoke to Elizabeth
and Elizabeth felt the baby in her womb leap for joy,
she spoke the words of the Hail Mary, Ave Maria,
for the first time.
She said to Mary,
"Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb."
Then she referred back to the Annunciation,
where the Angel Gabriel told Mary that she was to give birth to the Son of God.
Elizabeth said,
"Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord."
There she echoed Mary's own response of faith,
"Behold the handmaiden of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word."
The angel's greeting,
"Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you!"
is combined with the greeting of Elizabeth to comprise the Hail Mary.
These words may not be in common use among Protestants,
but I have come up with my own version that I use often in my own prayers and devotions.
I've shared it before, and I'm sure I will do so again,
you are welcome to take it or leave it as you may wish.
It is based upon the biblical words and it concludes with the Eastern Orthodox version of the greeting of the Mother of God:
Hail Mary, full of grace; the Lord is with you.
Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb,
For you have borne the Savior of our souls.
Amen.

Prayer of the People
Please type your spontaneous petitions in chat.
Each prepared petition is intended to remind us of the things we need to pray about,
so a brief pause will be provided for us to pray our own petitions,
either sharing them in the chat window
or praying them in our own hearts.

Loving God, we pray for each other, for those who depend upon us for prayer, and for all people according to their needs.
We ask that your healing power may prevail in our lives.
We pray that those in positions of public trust may be worthy of that trust as they act as stewards of power and wealth
for the benefit of all.
We pray that conflicts may be resolved in the context of relationships,
so that violence of thought word and deed may be diminished all through our world.
We ask your blessing for all who bear witness to the Gospel, so that relationships with you may be deepened for all people.
All these things, and whatever else you see that we need, we ask that you will grant for the sake of your Son,
our Lord Jesus Christ, in Whose name we pray.
Amen.
Our Lord's Prayer
Our Father Who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy 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 sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the Kingdom, and the power and the glory, forever and ever,
Amen.
Benediction
May the Lord bless us and keep us.
May the Lord make His face to shine upon us and be gracious to us.
May the Lord lift up His countenance upon us, and give us peace.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,
Amen +