Christmas 2

Welcome to our Online Sunday service for the second Sunday of Christmas. Please click on the items below to follow the service at your own pace.
You may like to have a candle ready to light with our vicar, John Barr. There is audio or video accompaniment to hymns, readings and prayers.
All the hymns were recorded remotely by the Choral Scholars of St Martin-in-the-Fields in their homes, and edited together.

Our opening hymn is 'Joy to the world'

Joy to the world
sung by St Martin’s Voices

1       Joy to the world! The Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
let every heart prepare him room,
and heaven and nature sing,
and heaven and nature sing,
and heaven, and heaven and nature sing.

2       Joy to the earth! The Saviour reigns!
Your sweetest songs employ
while fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains
repeat the sounding joy,
repeat the sounding joy,
repeat, repeat the sounding joy.

3       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.

Isaac Watts (1674-1748)

Reflect on the last week and on your relationships.

- What good things have come from God last week?
- Where have I fallen short?
- What might I do next week?

You may wish to say or pray:
Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

The special prayer for today, 2nd Sunday of Christmas.
Almighty God,
in the birth of your Son
you have poured on us the new light of your incarnate Word,
and shown us the fullness of your love:
help us to walk in his light and dwell in his love
that we may know the fullness of his joy;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen

The Gospel reading for today is John 1.1-18
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to what was his own, and his own people did not recognise him. 12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. 15 (John testified to him and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’”) 16 From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.
This is the Gospel of the Lord
Praise be to you O Christ.

Our next hymn is 'In the bleak midwinter'.

In the bleak mid-winter
sung by St Martin’s Voices

1       In the bleak mid-winter
Frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow,
Snow on snow,
In the bleak mid-winter,
Long ago.

2       Our God, heaven cannot hold him
Nor earth sustain;
heaven and earth shall flee away
When he comes to reign:
In the bleak mid-winter
A stable place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty
Jesus Christ.

3       Angels and archangels
May have gathered there,
Cherubim and seraphim
Thronged the air –
But only his mother
In her maiden bliss
Worshipped the beloved
With a kiss.

4       What can I give him
Poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd
I would bring a lamb;
If I were a wise man
I would do my part;
Yet what I can I give him --
Give my heart.

Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)

Paul will now share some thoughts on the Gospel reading.

We now have our next hymn, 'Silent night'. after which Paul will lead us in our intercessions.

Silent night
sung by St Martin’s Voices

1       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.

2       Silent night, holy night,
shepherds quake at the sight!
Glories stream from heaven afar;
heavenly hosts sing Alleluia:
Christ the Saviour is born,
Christ the Saviour is born.

3       Silent night, holy night,
son of God, love’s pure light,
radiant beams from thy holy face
with the dawn of redeeming grace:
Jesus, Lord, at thy birth,
Jesus, Lord, at thy birth.

John Freeman Young (1887)
based on Joseph Mohr (1818)

Paul will now lead us in our intercessions.

Living word of God
Be spoken in our lives.

Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the Kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

We say together the prayer of General Thanksgiving

Almighty God, Father of all mercies,
we your unworthy servants give you most humble and hearty thanks
for all your goodness and loving kindness.
We bless you for our creation, preservation,
and all the blessings of this life;
but above all for your immeasurable love
in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ,
for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory.
And give us, we pray, such a sense of all your mercies
that our hearts may be unfeignedly thankful,
and that we show forth your praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives,
by giving up ourselves to your service,
and by walking before you in holiness and righteousness all our days;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit,
be all honour and glory, for ever and ever.
Amen.

Before John closes our service, we sing 'Once in royal David's city' .

Once in Royal David’s city
sung by St Martin’s Voices, with soloist Victoria Meteyard

1       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.

2       He came down to earth from heaven
          who is God and Lord of all,
          and his shelter was a stable,
          and his cradle was a stall;
          with the poor and mean and lowly
          lived on earth our Saviour holy.

3       And through all his wondrous childhood
          he would honour and obey,
          love and watch the lowly Maiden,
          in whose gentle arms he lay:
          Christian children all must be
          mild, obedient, good as he.

4       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;
          where like stars his children crowned
          all in white shall wait around.

Cecil Frances Alexander (née Humphreys) (1818-1895)

The organ voluntary is 'The Lord's my shepherd' by Crimmond played on the organ at St Gabriel's church, Brymill, Swansea.