People's Prayers: Prayers of the People: Carry the Lamp ~ 1st Sunday After Christmas Day '24 WLWC* Yr C

For Sunday, December 29, 2024, WLC* Year C, Readings: 1 Kings 8:12-13, 27-30,41-43;

Ps 68:15-17, 19-20,24-27, 31-35; Revelation 22:10, 22-27; Luke 2:41-51

Incline toward the prayer of your slave and his supplication, HOLY ONE OF OLD my God, heeding the cry and the prayer…Hear the supplication…hear in your dwelling place in the heavens; hear and forgive. [1 Kings 8:28, 30]

Our God is the God of Salvation; The SOURCE OF LIFE IS God, to whom belongs escape from death. [Psalm 68:20]

And the city has no use of sun or moon to shine in it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb…And its gates will not be shut by day and there will be no night there. [Revelation 21:23, 25]

Now the parents of Jesus went yearly to Jerusalem for the festival. And when he was twelve years old they went up as customary for the festival…when the festival was completed, they returned while the boy Jesus stayed in Jerusalem, and his parents did not know it…they returned to Jerusalem to search for him…after three days passed they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. [Luke 2:41-43, 45-47]

We fast forward briefly in this reading from Luke’s Gospel in Dr. Gafney’s text, interrupting our more usual recounting of chronology of the early days of Jesus to which we will return quickly. Here we suddenly find him at 12 years old, listening to the teachers in the Temple and amazing those teachers with his questions, his understanding and his answers. Perhaps it’s just the kind of abrupt change we need while we are still in the thrall of Christmas. We are, of course, on the cusp of the end of one year and beginning of another. The music, the lights, and the now unwrapped presents are all still claiming our senses though slightly on the wane as thoughts begin about the cleaning up phase. We’re not quite out of the holiday mood even if all the necessities in daily life are creeping in. As with the ending of the annual festival in Jerusalem, Jesus returns home with his parents and was subject to them, remember those days of yours ~ back to cleaning up your room and going back to school. Yet there is still a nano-second of time, enough to breathe deeply and inhale the air still holding some excitement for the sacred and Holy Infant's birth. We are also working to keep hope alive regardless of our expectations for the New Year.

As we fill our lungs the Creator-given oxygen disperses throughout our own life’s blood energizing every cell and tissue. On our exhale, we can thoughtfully, consciously, and intentionally send our doubts and fears of uncertain faith and the everyday concerns into the heavens. We inhale deeply again to refresh our souls’ sights to set our course for a new start, a new birth in ourselves, an awakening, a fresh awareness of the presence Christ within us and in everyone around us ~ every single one, even, and especially, those with whom we disagree mildly or strenuously.

For many of us this is also a special emotional moment to breathe in the memories of and deeply held hope for the journey of those no longer with us in this life. Our faith gives us comfort for their continuing new life in a joy-filled eternity where our mutual love lives forever.

Yet, while we try to keep the glow of spiritual and earth-bound celebrations lingering a bit longer, we are to remember the sacred obligation given to us by Jesus to help others struggling with their ongoing day-to-night-to-day life issues of serious illness, severe poverty, homelessness, and/or hopelessness. In this particular season of beauty and fun and exhilaration, it is all too easy to look away from and even blame those in poor and often desperate conditions. Perhaps you have given donations of much needed money, food, and/or clothing to worthy organizations. And now is the time, as the New Year approaches, to mark your calendar to search for ways to continue to give, in any way possible, beyond that once a year thought, even adding time occasionally or regularly to volunteer to help at food banks or a church food closet, clothing distributors, shelters, or perhaps pre-paying for meals at a trusted local restaurant.

Let us spend these last moments of Christmas, the Season, to continue to be amazed at the breadth and depth of the short, extraordinary, exceptional, and unparalleled life of Jesus, our Redeemer Christ, whose story continues to be celebrated well over 2,000 years later. And more important than a date on a calendar, let us move forward into all the Seasons of Christ’s life by listening, learning, and asking questions to broaden our commitment as the Christians we are meant to be. It is time to re-dedicate ourselves to living out his teachings, to carry the Lamp of God’s Light to brighten the path of this life for ourselves and for others in all ways, large and small. Let us choose to be subject to God in Christ with the Holy Spirit.

LET US, GOD’S PEOPLE, PRAY

Leader: ~ O HOLY ONE OF OLD, our God, the glory in our lives is Your light and the lamp that carries it is Christ our Lamb. As we are reminded again to breathe in this glorious Light that dwells always within us, forgive us, we pray, for all our faults, minor and more grievous. Renew us with the continuing desire and intent to enter your always open gates to listen, to learn, and to bring honor to Jesus in every conscious moment of our earthly time.

O GOD, The SOURCE OF LIFE

RESPONSE: Hear our prayer, hear and forgive

~ O HOLY ONE OF OLD, our God, may we not rest or keep silent in seeking Your justice, mercy, and and peace among all nations, all local communities, and among all leaders everywhere. Cause the changes we seek in others to spring up in ourselves in our daily thoughts and actions. We pray especially for: add your own petitions