Going through Doors to a Happy New Year!

for Sunday, January 1, 2012
First Sunday after Christmas Year B
New Year’s Day
lectionary focus: Psalm 148:1-14; Psalm 8
inspiration: Doors are BIG on New Year’s Day from Carolyn at Worshiping with Children
props: Gather the children at the main doors to the sanctuary. (Ours are in the back behind the pews.) The doors can be opened or closed, but you may want to have an usher there ready to assist late-comers so they do not become part of your presentation. Have a banner ready to hang across and above the door: Christ’s Hope and Peace and Joy and Love to You! (or the blessing of your choice)

Hey Everybody! Today we are not meeting on the chancel steps; today, we are meeting here in the back of the church at the doors to the sanctuary. Today is New Year’s Day. Happy New Year! I’ve always thought this an odd day. We call it NEW but it doesn’t seem any different than yesterday: the weather is about the same; we look the same…and yet we now get out new calendars and learn to write a new year number.

But New Year’s is like a door. We have just celebrated Christmas and filled our hearts with hope and peace and joy and love. Christ is born! The Light of the World is here! And now it is time — the New Year’s time — for us to go out into the world and carry all of this goodness with us. When we put away the Christmas decorations, we do not put away the blessings of Christ’s birth. So today, let us start the New Year at the door to our church, writing this blessing above the door: Christ’s Hope and Peace and Joy and Love to You! And at your home, you can make a banner for your front door — so that each time you go out and come in, you will remember the new life we have in Christ and carry the blessings of Christmas with you into the world and into the New Year.

Will you pray with me? (This is an echo prayer: the leader says a line and the children repeat it.)

Dear Lord,
Thank you
for the blessings of Christmas.
Help me
to share Your blessings
with everyone
as I go through these doors
into the world
and into the New Year.
Amen

We are not Christians alone. My mission is to share, inspire, and encourage.