December 25
The Shepherds and the Angels
Year 1 ( 2022 – 2023 )
Text:
Luke 2:8-20
Summary:
The angels announce Good News to the shepherds. They make haste to visit the Child.
Prayer
Holy Center of this most holy season,
Jesus, child and ruler,
all our stars point to your birth;
all our wanderings come home to you;
all our griefs and delights find a place in the stable
where you choose to transform
poverty and pain and loneliness and rejection.
Your light shines in our lives;
your peace embraces our anger, sorrow, and loss;
your life opens us to new discovery of our most intimate selves
and of our neighbors,
however we may find them —
as poor as shepherds,
as foreign as magi,
as thoughtless as innkeepers,
as helpless as infants.
In your humble birth we discover your everlasting majesty and grace.
We welcome you and offer you our thanks and praise,
in your glorious name.
Amen.
Congregational Song Suggestions
“Angels We Have Heard on High”
GTG 113
“Go, Tell it on the Mountain”
ELW 290, GTG 136, VT 252
“Helpless and Hungry”
(which may be sung with “What Child is This”)
VT 268
“Poor of the Earth”
VT 213
“There’s a Star in the East (Rise Up Shepherd and Follow)”
GTG 135
“While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks”
various
“Will the Angels Sing this Year?”
Thomas Troeger, text
Mark Miller, tune
Available from Unbound at giamusic.com
Beyond the Hymnal
“The Friendly Beasts”
Traditional