(All our songs this morning are from Singing the Faith (StF) numbers will be given where available)
Welcome to Bradford North’s Written Service for Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, prepared by the ministerial team, Christine Crabtree, Phil Drake, Merry Evans and Nick Blundell, printed and sent by Clair Schofield, who all wish you a very happy Christmas.
Click on the blue links to follow them for Bible readings and associated links.
Song StF 216/HP 118 See him lying on a bed of straw, draughty stable with an open door
Opening Prayers
We see you, God,
lying in the manger
kicking your legs in the hay.
Joy of the world,
come and fill our hearts today.
God who comes in Jesus,
We celebrate your birth today.
We see you, God,
your dazzling brightness
tempered by the soft skin of a baby.
Light of the world,
shine gently in our dark places.
God who comes in Jesus,
We celebrate your birth today.
We see you, God,
now wrapped in your mother’s arms
and returning her gaze.
Love of the world,
draw us closer to yourself.
God who comes in Jesus,
We celebrate your birth today.
We see you, God,
sharing your space with all who come:
young and old, rich and poor.
Hope of the world,
re-make us in your image.
God who comes in Jesus,~
We celebrate your birth today.
We see you, God,
in the faces of all who gather around your cradle
and all who celebrate Christmas today.
May the love we share
bring us closer to each other
and nearer to you;
and may we realise that
there is room in the stable
for all who come.
God who comes in Jesus,
We celebrate your birth today.
Amen.
Christine Crabtree
Reading – Luke 2:1-7, 8-20 NIV
Reflection
There is great familiarity in these words of scripture: And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.Luke 2:7
This year, the Methodist Connexion is encouraging us to look again at the life of our churches and how they might become more open, inclusive and welcoming places. In doing so we are invited to turn that experience of ‘no room’ which was experienced by Mary and Joseph into a gospel message of welcome: ‘There is room for you!’ Jesus’ birth changed everything and made room for us in God’s Kingdom. As the people of the church, we need to make sure that we are saying the same to others.
In my Advent letter to churches, I focussed on the work of providing ‘Warm Spaces’ as a practical example of how churches are learning new ways to make room for others. The current cost of living crisis impacts on us all, but it is felt much more by some than others. In the Warm Spaces initiative public places (not just churches but public buildings such as libraries) are being made available so that those facing a particular hardship do not have to worry quite so much about the cost of heating their homes. It is an expression of our Christian service that we should act in this way, and in doing so we express something of the love of Jesu who came that all may share in a fullness of life.
In looking again at the Christmas story as recorded in Luke’s gospel, my attention is drawn to a later verse which describes Mary’s reaction to the visit from the shepherds and the news they brought: ‘But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart’ (Luke 2.19). In this verse we hear about how Mary made room for the Good News in her own life. To me, to ‘treasure’ and to ‘ponder’ are both words that speak of ‘making room’.
Think of an item that you treasure – do you have a special place that you keep it in? When we hear that Mary treasured the words she heard, we are being told that she found a special place in her heart in which to store them – this news was valuable to her, and she wanted to store it in a safe place. In a similar way, to ponder is about giving ourselves time to weigh up the significance of something that has happened or been said. Sometimes, the act of pondering can hold negative connotations – being ponderous might be considered as an excuse for delaying action. But at its best, to ponder is to give depth to our experience, and a chance to assess its significance: contemplation and reflection are just as important in the Christian life as action.
The reward of such treasuring and pondering is clear: that even as we make room for others, we come to a deeper awareness of the God who has already made room for us.
To think about
- Take an item that you treasure – if it is safely shut away in a drawer of a cupboard, take it out so that you can see or hold it. Ask yourself: Where might I find treasure in the gospel story this Christmas?
- Breaking off from any activities that may be keeping you busy this Christmas, take time to ponder the question: Where is the Good News in what I am seeing and hearing at the present time?
- Consider Dora Greenwell’s words in the hymn, ‘And art Thou come with us to dwell’:
Thou bringest all again; with thee
Is light, is space, is breadth and room
For each thing fair, beloved, and free,
To have its hour of life and bloom. (Hymns and Psalms 415)
What insight do these words give you into the Warm Spaces initiative? Pray for the work of churches and other places which are offering a Warm Space this winter.
Phil Drake
Song – StF 204/HP 107 In the bleak midwinter frosty wind made moan
Reflection
These days if anyone wants to find something out, they usually have to go to a website. Many of you reading this will probably have grown up before the internet and websites came into being. To find things out you’d probably ask someone, or read a book or go the library. I still like asking people, or reading things on paper. As someone who uses computers most days, I still find it a bit difficult to find things out ‘online’. I still have to REMIND myself to do it. I still have to remind myself that I can find things out ‘at a click of a button’. But in fact, it usually takes me a LOT of clicks and a LOT of grumbling because there is just SO MUCH information it is difficult sometimes to fine tune my search to find what I really want. To be honest, I sometimes give up.
‘Christmas’ doesn’t have a website. I googled ‘Christmas’ (searched online) to see what would come up. I found myself in a shopping website! Then I tried ‘What Christians believe about Christmas’ and wondered what website would be at the top of the list. Maybe the Methodist Church website? (It wasn’t). Maybe Wikipedia? (An encyclopaedia). It was ninth. Top of the list was the BBC Schools website with clear and inviting layout with simple points easy to understand. But it didn’t invite me to experience God’s love. I found it quite matter of fact. I didn’t find it heart-warming.
Our circuit has a website. This is our ‘public face’. Thanks go to those for keeping it up to date. I took another look at it recently. The photographs and information are very clear and laid out in an attractive way. There is a simple list for those wanting to find who we are, where our churches are and what we are up to. I thought to myself people looking at this website for specific information are likely to find it fairly easily. When I watched some of the recorded worship services, I could sense that those leading the worship had a real and living faith. Anyone with a church background could identify with them, with the worship, with God. However, I wondered if anyone without a church background would sense that. Getting that heartfelt experience over ‘online’ is very difficult to achieve. Our website is there to encourage people to come and meet us. It is an indirect invitation to people to come and experience God’s love – by meeting us in person. It is in US as human beings that people are most likely to find God. The website is chiefly there as a signpost- “Come. Meet us. Give church (give us) a try”.
When God invited people to find out about His love, he didn’t set up a website – he did something real. Two thousand years ago God came to us as one human being –Jesus, born in a stable, God living with us. The picture elsewhere on this sheet, of Mary and Joseph gazing on new-born Jesus, shows a deep and human connection, their connection with Jesus which over time revealed to them a deep understanding of God’s love. Today God comes to us not as one human being born in a stable, but as many human beings, Christians who happen to go to church (when they can). Jesus, born in our spirits, born in our hearts can be sensed by others, and God’s love revealed in our friendship, worship, loving acts and words of witness. God came and lived in the world through Jesus, and today God comes to our world by living through us. It’s a different kind of Christmas story. But it is just as real. To be God’s love in the world today we simply have to open up our spirits and receive his gift –Jesus. Once we have done this God’s spirit grows inside of us, changing us bit by bit. Information or a photo, or even a worship service on a website doesn’t convey this – meeting people in the flesh, that might!
What is the Christmas story of God’s love in the world? It’s us! Whomever you meet this Christmas, may they sense God, born in you! May God bless you, and through you bless all whom you meet. Amen!
Merry Evans
Song – StF 227/HP 123 Brightest and best of the sons of the morning
Prayers
Thou didst leave thy throne and thy kingly crown, when thou camest to earth for me;
but in Bethlehem’s home was there found no room for thy holy nativity;
Oh, come to my heart, Lord Jesus! There is room in my heart for thee. (Emily Elizabeth Steele Elliott).
We pray for all those whose daily experience is of finding no room left for them.
No room because of the colour of skin, the size of bank balance, the lack of educational opportunity, the absence of healthcare, the effects of ingrained injustice, the decisions of the powerful.
As we pray for those excluded, we acknowledge the part we have played in their exclusion, and ask that God might open our hearts to their plight and our hands to their need. And where we are amongst the excluded, may we know the One for whom there was no room, and find our hope in him.
Oh, come to my heart, Lord Jesus! There is room in my heart for thee.
We pray for all those whose ability to live well is crowded out by the responsibilities they carry and the burdens they bear; by fears about health, their own and their loved ones; by stresses around providing food and heat and safety for their family; by pressures brought about in working environments too stretched by lack of resource and ever increasing workload.
As we pray for those whose wellbeing is crowded out by tiredness and dis-ease, we ask for guidance as to how we can help, and blessing on all those we bring to mind, including, perhaps, ourselves.
Oh, come to my heart, Lord Jesus! There is room in my heart for thee.
We pray for those already experiencing the impact of the climate emergency in the loss of land, of place, of livelihood. Those for whom climate change already means there is no room for them to live their lives in the way they would have hoped. And as we pray for those already without room, we pray for those for whom there will soon be no room if the earth continues to warm and sea levels continue to rise.
As we pray we acknowledge our responsibility, both for the problem and the solution. We ask that God might open our minds to the possibilities of changed behaviour, and guide us into a place where all can find room to share and flourish in peace.
Oh, come to my heart, Lord Jesus! There is room in my heart for thee.
We pray for ourselves and one another at the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023. We ask that we might take the best of learning from the old year, and move with confidence towards the new, knowing that in Christ there is room for all. May God help us to open ourselves to our neighbours, to show and tell that there is indeed room for all.
Oh, come to my heart, Lord Jesus! There is room in my heart for thee. Amen.
We share the Lord’s Prayer.
Song – StF 210/HP 105 Love came down at Christmas, love all lovely, love divine
Closing Prayer
God in whose love there is room for all, may our hearts and homes be open to your grace, and so may our generosity be grace-full and flowing, as yours is to us. May our tone of voice and style of life be hospitable and full of welcome. May we cherish all your gifts by sharing them without reserve, and find cause for thankfulness in all circumstance.
And may our delight in the Creator, our liberation in the Saviour, and our inspiration in the Spirit, be a blessing to us and to all, this Christmas, and throughout the New Year. Amen.
Nick Blundell
(CCL number 257371 – ministers@bradfordnorth.org.uk – 01274 508390)
