Christmas Eve: God's Dream of Love
Lisa Frenz 1995
God’s Dream of Love
Note: A special candelabra or arrangement of seven unlighted candles should be set up at the front of the church. It would be best if these candles were at chest or waist height. The readings will need to be pre-set on a lectern or music stand so the readers have their hands free. Each reader will come to the front, pick up and light a processional candle from the altar candles. Holding this candle, they will stand behind seven unlighted candles and read their lesson. When they have finished they will light one of the seven candles, and return the processional candle to the altar. As many as six lay readers may be used. The Pastor or the Assistant may light the seventh candle.
Prelude
Stand
P: Peace be upon you.
C: And also on you.
P: Know that the Lord is your God.
C: And great is our God. Amen.
P: As God has given peace to us, let us share that peace with each other.
(The sharing of the Peace)
Hymn: Joy to the World (Antioch)
Joy to the world, the Lord is come! Let earth receive its king;
Let ev’ry heart prepare him room and heav’n and nature sing,
and heav’n and nature sing,
and heav’n and heav’n and nature sing.
No more let sin and sorrow grow nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found,
far as the curse is found, far as, far as the curse is found.
He rules the world with truth
and grace and makes the nations prove
the glories of his righteousness and wonders of his love,
and wonders of his love, and wonders, wonders, of his love.
P: The worlds were yet unborn,
C: The stars did not yet shine,
P: When the Dream began.
C: God’s Dream of Love,
P: God’s Vision of Hope,
C: Was and Is and Will be.
P: When the Dream began,
C: Light entered in,
P: And Salvation was born.
C: Alleluia!
Hymn: Of the Father’s Love Begotten (Divinum Mysterium)
Of the Father’s Love begotten ere the worlds began to be,
He is Alpha and Omega, He the source, the ending he,
Of the things that are, that have been,
and that future years shall see, evermore and evermore.
Oh, that birth forever blessed, when the virgin, full of grace,
by the Holy Ghost conceiving, bore the Savior of our race,
and the babe, the world’s redeemer,
first revealed his sacred face, evermore and evermore.
This is he whom seers in old time chanted of with one accord,
whom the voices of the prophets promised in their faithful word;
Now he shines, the long-expected;
Let creation praise its Lord evermore and evermore.
Sit
Reading 1: Isaiah 9:2-5
The First Candle is lighted.
Anthem:
P: This dream of expectancy,
C: This design of tenderness
P: Is God’s vision for us.
C: The dream is of love.
P: The design is of salvation,
C: And we have seen it.
P: For before all worlds,
C: And proceeding from all time,
P: Is God’s dream for us.
C: Alleluia.
Hymn: The Hills Are Bare at Bethlehem (Prospect)
The hills are bare at Bethlehem,
no future for the world they show;
Yet here new life begins to grow,
from earth’s old dust a greenwood stem.
The stars are cold at Bethlehem,
no warmth for those beneath the sky;
Yet here the radiant angels fly,
and joy burns new, a fi’ry gem.
The heart is tired at Bethlehem,
no human dream unbroken stands;
Yet here God comes to mortal hands,
and hope renewed cries out: “Amen!”
Reading 2: Isaiah 9:6-7
The second candle is lighted.
Hymn: Peace Came to Earth (Schneider)
Peace came to earth at last that chosen night
when angels clove the sky with song and light
and God embodied love and sheathed his might —
Who could but gasp: Immanuel!
Who could but sing: Immanuel!
And who could be the same for having held
the infant in their arms, and later felt
the wounded hands and side, all doubts dispelled —
Who could but sigh: Immanuel!
Who could but shout: Immanuel!
P: God’s dream is a Word,
C: The Word which brings joy
P: Is and was and will be.
C: This Word brought Light,
P: A Splendor beyond imagining
C: Which is God with us.
P: This Word is ours,
C: Our source of Life,
P: Which God gives to us all.
Reading 3 John 1:1-5
The third candle is lighted.
Hymn: From Heaven Above (Vom Himmel Hoch)
From heav’n above to earth I come
to bring good news to ev’ryone!
Glad tidings of great joy I bring
to all the world, and gladly sing:
To you this night is born a child
of Mary, chosen virgin mild;
This newborn child of lowly birth
shall be the joy of all the earth.
This is the Christ, God’s Son most high,
who hears your sad and bitter cry;
He will himself your Savior be
and from all sin will set you free.
Reading 4 Luke 2:1-7
The fourth candle is lighted.
Hymn: O Little Town of Bethlehem (tune: St. Louis)
O Little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie!
Above they deep and dreamless sleep the silent stars go by;
Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light.
The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.
For Christ is born of Mary, and gathered all above
while mortals sleep, the angels keep
their watch of wond’ring love.
O morning stars, together proclaim the holy birth,
and praises sing to God the king, and peace to all the earth!
Reading 5: Luke 2:8-14
The fifth candle is lighted
Hymn: Angels We Have Heard on High (Gloria)
Angels we have heard on high, sweetly singing o’er the plains,
And the mountains in reply, echoing their joyous strains.
Refrain
Gloria in excelsis Deo; Gloria in excelsis Deo.
Shepherds, why this jubilee? Why your joyous strains prolong?
What the gladsome tidings be which inspire your heav’nly song?
Refrain
Come to Bethlehem and see him whose birth the angels sing;
Come, adore on bended knee Christ the Lord, the newborn king.
Refrain
Reading 6 Luke 2:15-20
The sixth candle is lighted.
Stand
Hymn: Go Tell It on the Mountain (Go Tell It)
Refrain
Go tell it on the mountain, over the hills and ev’rywhere;
Go tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is born!
While shepherds kept their watching o’er silent flocks by night,
Behold, throughout the heavens there shone a holy light.
Refrain
The shepherds feared and trembled when, lo, above the earth
Rang out the angel chorus that hailed our Savior’s birth.
Refrain
Down in a lonely manger the humble Christ was born;
And God sent us salvation that blessed Christmas morn.
Refrain
P: When the Dream begins,
C: Light enters in,
P: And Salvation is born.
C: God’s Dream of Love,
P: God’s Vision of Hope,
C: Creates new life.
P: Worlds are spinning,
C: And stars are shining
P: At God’s dawning!
C: Alleluia! Alleluia!
P: Christ the Savior is born!
C: Alleluia! Amen!
The seventh candle is lighted.
Anthem:
Sit
Homily
Stand
Hymn: Oh, Come, All Ye Faithful (Adeste Fideles)
Oh, come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant!
Oh, come ye, oh, come ye to Bethlehem;
Come and behold him born the king of angels:
Refrain
Oh, come, let us adore him,
Oh, come, let us adore him,
Oh, come, let us adore him, Christ the Lord!
The highest, most holy, Light of light eternal,
Born of a virgin, a mortal he comes;
Son of the Father now in flesh appearing!
Refrain
Sing, choirs of angels, sing in exultation,
Sing, all ye citizens of heaven above!
Glory to God in the highest:
Refrain
Prayers
The Lord’s Prayer
Sit
Offering & Solo
Stand
P: Peace be upon you.
C: And also on you.
P: Know that the Lord is your God.
C: And great is our God. Amen.
P: Praise the name of the Lord!
C: Give thanks to the God who saves us! Amen!
(From: Titus 2:11-14)
P: The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all,
C: training us to renounce impiety and worldly passions,
P: and in the present age to live lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly,
C: while we wait for the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ
P: He it is who gave himself for us
C: that he might redeem us from all iniquity
P: and purify for himself a people of his own
C: who are zealous for good deeds.
Hymn: Once in Royal David’s City (Irby)
Once in royal David’s city stood a lowly cattle shed,
where a mother laid her baby in a manger for his bed:
Mary was that mother mild, Jesus Christ, her little child.
Not in that poor lowly stable, with the oxen standing by,
we shall see him; but in heaven, set at God’s right hand on high;
there his children gather ‘round,
bright like stars, with glory crowned.
The Institution of Communion (Psalm 96)
P: Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to the Lord and bless his name; proclaim the good news of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations and his wonders among all peoples.
C: Alleluia! Alleluia! Praise God above!
P: Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness; let the whole earth tremble before him. Tell it out among the nations: “The Lord is king! He has made the world so firm that it cannot be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity.
C: Alleluia! Alleluia! Praise the Holy Spirit!
P: Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; let the sea thunder and all that is in it; let the field be joyful and all that is therein. Then shall all the trees of the wood shout for joy before the Lord when he comes, when he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with his truth.
C: Alleluia! Alleluia! Praise Christ the Lord!
P: For in the night in which he was betrayed, our Lord Jesus took bread, and gave thanks; broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying: Take and eat; this is my body, given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.
Again, after supper, he took the cup, gave thanks, and gave it for all to drink, saying: This cup is the new covenant in my blood, shed for you and for all people for the forgiveness of sin. Do this in remembrance of me.
Remembering Christ, his death, resurrection, and ascension, we await his coming in glory.
C: Amen.
Sit
The Distribution of Communion
Hymn at the Distribution:
Lo, How a Rose Is Growing (Es Ist Ein Ros)
Lo, how a rose is growing, a bloom of finest grace;
The prophets had foretold it: a branch of Jesse’s race
would bear one perfect flow’r
here in the cold of winter and darkest midnight hour.
The rose of which I’m singing, Isaiah had foretold.
He came to us through Mary who sheltered him from cold.
Through God’s eternal will
this child to us was given at midnight calm and still.
This flow’r, so small and tender, with fragrance fills the air,
His brightness ends the darkness that kept the earth in fear.
True God and yet true man,
he came to save his people from earth’s dark night of sin.
O Savior, child of Mary, who felt all human woe;
O Savior, king of glory, who triumphed o’er our foe:
Bring us at length , we pray,
to the bright courts of heaven and into endless day.
Dismissal from Communion
P: May the body and blood of the risen and saving Lord Jesus the Christ, bless and keep you forever in God’s grace.
C: Amen.
P: The Dream continues,,
C: Christ enters in,
P: And Salvation is born.
C: God’s Dream of Love,
P: God’s Vision of Hope,
C: Seeks all people.
P: The worlds spin on,
C: The stars shine in glory.
P: It is the generation of the Dream!
C: Alleluia! Alleluia! Christ the Savior is born!
P: Blessed are we who can see the wonder and mystery of Emmanuel, God’s Dream for us!
C: Alleluia! Amen!
(Individual candles are lighted as the hymn is introduced.)
Hymn: Silent Night, Holy Night! (Stille Nacht)
Silent night, holy night! All is calm, all is bright
round yon virgin mother and child.
Holy Infant, so tender and mild,
sleep in heavenly peace, sleep in heavenly peace.
Silent night, holy night! Shepherds quake at the sight;
Glories stream from heaven afar, Heavenly host sing, Alleluia!
Christ, the Savior, is born! Christ, the Savior, is born!
Silent night, holy night! Son of God, love’s pure light
Radiant beams from your holy face,
with the dawn of redeeming grace,
Jesus, Lord, at your birth, Jesus, Lord, at your birth.
P: Go in peace! Serve the God of Light and hope!
C: Thanks be to God. Amen!
Postlude