Online Live Worship – 9:30 a.m. – 1.1.2023 Sunday Christmas 1 – Lessons and Carols
Regular worship services, following CDC guidelines, have returned! And you may still worship online!
Blessings to you and Peace be with you!
Fling Wide the Door – Advent Devotion – Sunday, December 25 – Christmas Day
“Fling Wide the Door” (ELW 259)
God has chosen to engage and work with imperfect and average people to do new things in history. This is what Christmas is all about. Jesus was not born to perfect parents. Nor was he born in a vacuum. The message of his birth came through angelic phenomenon in the sky to the shepherds who then spread the word among their friends and neighbors. In other words, we are involved in God’s incarnate presence on earth. God is out and about, moving among us right this very minute.
God is flinging open the doors of a new future for us. Will we step in? But this new thing is not just for humanity. It is for the trees and birds and fish and seas, too. Christmas is not just for humans. It is the breaking in of God’s new thing for all of creation.
Dear Lord, help us to change the way we live in America. Help us pivot away from the way we burn Earth’s fossil fuels, consume too much, and take up space that we don’t really need. Help us to see that your incarnation in Jesus Christ is not just for us, but for all of your beloved earthly creatures. In your Holy Spirit we pray. Amen
“Fling Wide the Door” (ELW 259)
1
Fling wide the door, unbar the gate; the King of glory comes in state;
the Lord of lords and King of kings, the Savior of the world who brings his great salvation to the earth.
So raise a shout of holy mirth
and praise our God and Lord, Creator, Spirit, Word.
2
He is the rock of our belief,
the heart of mercy’s gentle self.
His kingly crown is holiness;
his scepter is his loveliness;
he brings our sorrows to an end. Now gladly praise our king and friend, and worship him with song
for saving us from wrong.
3
Oh, happy towns and blessed lands that live by their true king’s commands.
And blessed be the hearts he rules, the humble places where he dwells. He is the rightful Son of bliss
who fills our lives and makes us his, creator of the world,
our only strength for good.
4
Come, Lord, our Savior, Jesus Christ; our hearts are open wide in trust.
Oh, show us now your lovely grace, upon our sorrows shine your face, and let your Holy Spirit guide
our journey in your grace so wide.
We praise your holy name,
from age to age the same!
Devotion Reproduced from 2022 Advent Devotional | Luther Seminary | Fling Wide the Door
Contributing Writers
Dawn Alitz ’09 Ph.D.
Director of Coaching and Events
Amy Marga
Professor of Systematic Theology
Jessi LeClear Vachta ’14 M.A.
Director of Enrollment Services
Theological Editor
James L. Boyce ’71 M.Div.
Professor Emeritus of New Testament and Greek
Editorial Coordinator
Bethany Riethmeier
Donor Engagement Coordinator
Luther Seminary
2481 Como Avenue
St. Paul, MN 55108
651-641-3456
luthersem.edu
You can download the God Pause – Advent Devotional 2022—”Fling Wide the Door” in it’s entirety here:
https://sttimothylutheran.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Luther-Seminary-Advent-Devotional-Fling-Wide.pdf
Subscribe directly to God Pause Devotional by clicking on the button below.
Fling Wide the Door – Advent Devotion – Saturday, December 24 – Christmas Eve
Although so much of the Christmas story is focused on the sweet, domestic scene of Jesus with his two parents, there is no singular model of “family,” either in modernity or in the Bible. God has not restricted God’s appearance on earth to a two-parent-one- child nuclear family. Instead, God, in God’s eternal and all-knowing, all-good, divine reasoning has given us many natural signs of the Incarnation through a range of human relationships, and through non-human beings. It was the shepherds who first experienced this. They experienced God’s incarnation through the angels. Whatever you believe—or don’t believe—about angels, God employed these non-human creatures to show the shepherds that God was doing a new thing in history, right then and there. The shepherds deserve credit for their bravery in taking a chance based on what they heard from the angels and for heading towards the manger where the infant Christ lay.
Without them, would we know our savior today?
Dear God, thank you, that in your infinite wisdom, you brought the unlikely crew of shepherds to be some of the first human witnesses of the infant Christ. You remind us that your Word is everywhere among the human and non-human family of your creatures, working in its saving and mysterious ways. In your Holy Spirit we pray. Amen.
Luke 2:1-20 – The Birth of Jesus
2 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2 (This was the first census that took place while[a] Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 And everyone went to their own town to register.
4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.
8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”
15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”
16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.
Devotion Reproduced from 2022 Advent Devotional | Luther Seminary | Fling Wide the Door
Contributing Writers
Dawn Alitz ’09 Ph.D.
Director of Coaching and Events
Amy Marga
Professor of Systematic Theology
Jessi LeClear Vachta ’14 M.A.
Director of Enrollment Services
Theological Editor
James L. Boyce ’71 M.Div.
Professor Emeritus of New Testament and Greek
Editorial Coordinator
Bethany Riethmeier
Donor Engagement Coordinator
Luther Seminary
2481 Como Avenue
St. Paul, MN 55108
651-641-3456
luthersem.edu
You can download the God Pause – Advent Devotional 2022—”Fling Wide the Door” in it’s entirety here:
https://sttimothylutheran.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Luther-Seminary-Advent-Devotional-Fling-Wide.pdf
Subscribe directly to God Pause Devotional by clicking on the button below.
Online Live Worship – 9:30 a.m. – 12.25.2022 Sunday Christmas Day
Regular worship services, following CDC guidelines, have returned! And you may still worship online!
Blessings to you and Peace be with you!
Online Offering Options
Online Live Worship – 7:30 p.m. – 12.24.2022 Saturday Christmas Eve
Regular worship services, following CDC guidelines, have returned! And you may still worship online!
Blessings to you and Peace be with you!
Online Offering Options
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