Our newest Advent series invites joy to take up more space in our lives. How does a weary world rejoice? follows the opening stories in Luke 1-3; in them, we find rhythms for rejoicing, even in the midst of difficult circumstances.

In order to stay in Luke’s narrative, we have omitted the story of the Magi and traditional celebrations of Epiphany from this series. Instead, we conclude the series with Baptism of the Lord Sunday (and our bundle includes full liturgy for this day). In this way, the series follows the birth stories of Jesus and John the Baptist, and culminates with John baptizing Jesus in the Jordan river. However, if you plan to celebrate Epiphany instead of Baptism of the Lord Sunday, here are some prayers you can use or adapt for your worship. If you’re interested in passing out star words as part of your worship, check this blog post for star words liturgy.

Invocation

God of the weary traveler,
our feet are dusty from the roads we’ve traveled
this past week,
this past year,
every day of our lives.

We’ve followed your star here, looking for a glimmer of hope.
And now, after a long journey, we set our baggage down.
We have arrived.
We’re here, and we’re on holy ground.

You may not show up where we expect you,
but we trust that you are here nevertheless.
Be known to us
in the hope of the star,
the peace of a baby snuggled in the manger,
the joy of arrival,
and Love that could not stay away.

We are here. You are here.
And we are so very grateful.
Amen.

Prayers of the People

God of heaven and earth,
God who twinkles among the stars
yet was born in a manger,
you are here among us.
You are God with us, Emmanuel.

You know the intricacies of human life,
the weariness and the joy,
the laughter and the heartbreak,
tired bodies and little wins and anxiety for what is to come.

You knew the grief of losing a loved one.
You knew the feeling of not having a bed to call your own.
You knew the pain of betrayal and sore feet and being misunderstood.
And so with confidence that nothing is too big, too small, too complicated for you to hold,
we ask for your hand on those in our community who are hurting.
[You might insert particular prayers of intercession for your community here.]

Yet within the weariness of human life, you also knew joy.
You knew the companionship of close friends
and the joy of dancing at a wedding while the wine was flowing.
You knew laughter and deep love and how a field of flowers can take your breath away.
We know that you are present in all the joys of our lives,
and you are celebrating with us this morning.
[You might insert particular prayers of celebration for your community here.]

You hold it all, God, so we lay it at your feet.
We lay it before you so we can return home lighter,
rejoicing at the wonders we have encountered in this place.

With gratitude and joy we pray, amen.

Offertory Prayer

Holy God,
We bring our gifts before you this morning.
We have no gold, no frankincense, no myrrh—
but what we have we give to you.

Like foreign dignitaries paying homage to a king,
we place these offerings before you to benefit your kingdom
because we know your reign is not contained to the heavens.
You broke into our weary world
and there is still so much joy to bring.

Use our gifts of money to meet the needs of our community
both inside and beyond these walls.
May the gold we bring make a tangible difference
in the lives of your people.

Bless our gifts of worship.
May our offerings of incense transform our hearts
and stoke righteous fire within us,
spurring us to action.

Multiply our gifts of care for one another
as we anoint the sick,
sit with the lonely,
and listen to voices that are silenced.

Incarnate God,
you broke into our weary world
and there is still so much joy to bring.

May it be so, amen.

CREDIT INFO:

You are welcome to use or adapt these prayers, with credit. When using these prayers for worship, please use the following credit line: “Prayer by Rev. Anna Strickland | A Sanctified Art LLC | sanctifiedart.org.” If you adapt the prayers, please include the following credit line: “Adapted from a prayer by Rev. Anna Strickland | A Sanctified Art LLC | sanctifiedart.org.” Refer to our licensing guidelines for more information: sanctifiedart.org/licensing-terms.

Art for Epiphany

We have a number of images in our licensing library related to Epiphany. License any images below for use in worship.

Rev. Anna Strickland (she/her/hers) looks for the Divine in the everyday like treasure in clay jars and first encountered God in the integration of her spiritual self and artistic self. She is a former teacher and college minister, a proud Texas Longhorn and graduate of Iliff School of Theology, a Baptist to the core ministering in ecumenical spaces, and a lover of chaos anchored by the belief that the Spirit is most active in the spaces between us.