Sunday Worship 28 December 2025 | St. Andrew's United Reformed Church

Today’s service is led by the Revd Walt Johnson

Welcome

Hello, and welcome to our Service of the Word on Sunday 28 December 2025. My name is Walt Johnson. I serve as a non-stipendiary Minister of Word and Sacraments in the Bolton and Salford Missional Partnership in the North-Western Synod of the URC.

In the church’s calendar, 28 December is Holy Innocents’. The day when we reflect on Herod’s brutal order to have killed the children under two in Bethlehem. It is a part of the Christmas Story that does not find its way into the Nativity plays. I am writing this service in mid-October: a new fragile peace between Israel and Gaza has been declared after two years of war. So many parents mourning the loss of their children, from babies to adults. Bereavement comes to us all. At the moment, I am also preparing for a funeral of a woman in her mid-sixties. Her frail and elderly parents – now in their nineties – never expected that they would have to arrange their own daughter’s funeral. We have just celebrated Christmas, and for some of you joining with us today, it will have been the first Christmas without a certain loved one. Today, amid the on-going Christmas festivities, we also pause and hold before God our pain of loss.

We come together now as God’s people to worship our Lord, Jesus Christ, Who was born as one of us: in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Call to Worship

Listen to these words of new life, as found in: the prophet Isaiah (9:6): “For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” And in the Gospel of Luke (2:10-11): “The angel said… ‘Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the Messiah, the Lord.”

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Light shines in the darkness…and the darkness will never overcome it! Our eyes see our salvation, which God has prepared in the presence of all peoples. The Light shines in the darkness…and the darkness will never overcome it!

Hymn Unto Us a Boy Is Born
Latin, 14th Century, translated by Percy Dearmer (1867-1936) Public Domain. Sung by Maddy Prior with the Carnival Band

Unto us a boy is born!
The King of all creation.
Came He to a world forlorn,
The Lord of ev’ry nation.

Cradled in a stall was He
with sleepy cows and asses;
but the very beasts could see
that He the world surpasses.

Herod then with fear was filled:
“A prince,” he said, “in Jewry!”
All the little boys he killed
At Bethl’hem in his fury.

Now may Mary’s son, who came
so long ago to love us,
lead us all with hearts aflame
unto the joys above us.

Omega and Alpha He!
Let the organ thunder,
While the choir with peals of glee
doth rend the air asunder.

Prayer of Approach

Loving God,
we thank You that You sent Your son, Jesus, to be born as one of us.
As a frail and tiny baby, born in humble surroundings,
He grew and lived our common life.
We thank You that in His life He met with people just like us.
We thank You for His obedience, even to His death on the Cross.
We thank You that through His resurrection
and His glorious Ascension, He opened for us the gate of Glory.
We thank You for the Gift of the Holy Spirit
who speaks through Your holy Word,
that we might be more and like Him.
We offer You our service today,
as we lift our voices in song,
as we open our hearts and minds to Your Word,
as we reflect on its meaning for us today.
We come to You as we are:
with all we have and all who we are,
with our strength and with our frailty,
with our joys and with our sorrows.
Thanks be to You, our Creator God. Amen.

Prayer of Confession

Jesus says to us: “Love the Lord Your God, with all Your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.” Jesus also says to us: “Love your neighbour as yourself”. We take a moment to reflect on those times when we have not loved God, when we have not loved others, and when we have even not loved ourselves…

Silence

To the bidding, “Lord, have mercy”, please respond with “Christ, have mercy.”

Loving God, we confess that, in our own lives, we do not always do what is right or turn away from what is wrong. Lord, have mercy…Christ, have mercy.

We confess that we live in a world in which many are hungry – even for bread, many are sad or hurt, and there is much that is unfair and unjust. Lord, have mercy…Christ, have mercy.

We ask Your forgiveness, we recognise Your mercy, and accept Your grace, we ask for courage to make a new beginning. Lord, have mercy…Christ, have mercy.

Assurance of Pardon

Listen for the assurance of pardon, as spoken through the prophet Isaiah: “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” Amen.

The Lord’s Prayer

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.
And 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.

Hymn Peace Child
Shirley Erena Murray © Hope Publishing Company, 1992 OneLicence. Sung by the Thomastown Folk Choir, Ireland.

Peace child, in the sleep of the night,
in the dark before light You come, You come
in the silence of stars, in the violence of wars —
Saviour, your name.

Peace child, to the road and the storm,
to the gun and the bomb You come, You come,
through the hate and the hurt, through the hunger and dirt —
bearing a dream.

Peace child, to our dark and our sleep,
to the conflict we reap, now come, now come,
be your dream born alive, held in hope, wrapped in love:
God’s true Shalom.

Prayer of Illumination

Lord Jesus, You who are the Word made flesh: You say to us: “What has come into being in Him was life, and the life was the light of all people.”
Lord Jesus, You say to us: “Because of the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to shine upon those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” Amen.

Talk Part 1

Christmas Day was just four days ago, and among the celebrations with gifts, food and the company of our loved ones, we may have taken some time to reflect on the Christmas story, the version in our heads which stems from a mixing the accounts contained in two Gospels – Matthew and Luke. Many of us, as young children, may have taken part in nativity plays, where the Christmas story, drawn from both Gospels plays itself out on the stage, usually finishing with a beautiful scene of the Holy Family, the Angel Gabriel, the Shepherds and the Wise Men and their three gifts.
In church, we try to get it right and remember the Wise Men two weeks after Christmas, at Epiphany; however, between Christmas and Epiphany, we remember an event which the Church calls “Holy Innocents”, which according to Matthew’s Gospel should come after Epiphany! Nevertheless, today we are reflecting on a very dark episode in the Christmas story, one which many will overlook, and certainly not seen in school Nativity plays. A poem entitled “Holy Innocents” by Christina Rosetti…

Poem Holy Innocents by Christina Rosetti, 1 July 1853

Sleep, little baby, sleep;
The holy Angels love thee,
And guard thy bed, and keep
A blessed watch above thee.
No spirit can come near
Nor evil beast to harm thee:
Sleep, Sweet, devoid of fear
Where nothing need alarm thee.
The Love which doth not sleep,
The eternal Arms surround thee:
The Shepherd of the sheep
In perfect love hath found thee.
Sleep through the holy night,
Christ-kept from snare and sorrow,
Until thou wake to light
And love and warmth to-morrow.

Talk Part 2

The Birth Narrative in St Luke’s Gospel with the Angel Gabriel, the visit to Elizabeth, the census, the journey to Bethlehem, the stable and the shepherds is largely positive and much of this narrative is written with Mary, Jesus’ mother, very much in the centre.

Compare this with the Birth Narrative in Matthew’s Gospel, which is much shorter and more from Joseph’s perspective: the assurance he received in a dream to marry Mary, despite the pregnancy, the further two dreams in which Joseph takes the Holy Family into and return from exile. Added into this is the experience of the Wise Men, who themselves are warned in dream. The account in Matthew seems much darker. Also, Matthew points out to his readers that certain things in his narration are the fulfilment of prophecy from many centuries before Jesus’ birth.

In our experience of Nativity plays, King Herod is the baddie. Herod the Great was not a Jew. He was from Idumea, south of Judea. His reign over his kingdom was brought about at the same time as the Roman conquest of Judea in 37 BCE. Secular historians of the time describe Herod as a king who never felt secure: he had a secret-police of sorts; he had many close to him killed: one wife, his mother, his brothers and several sons. He was a harsh king who imposed very heavy taxes on his people to rebuild the Temple. We know that he was highly suspicious of the Wise Men when they came to him first, before going on to Bethlehem.

And so we set the scene: a king, Herod, who was paranoid and very afraid of potential rivals; and, the Holy Family, Jesus, whose birth was foretold by prophets. Into this mix comes this terrible event, in which innocent children under 2 years old are slaughtered.

Reading St Matthew 2:13-18

Now after [the magi] had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfil what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, “Out of Egypt I have called my son.” When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the magi, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the magi. Then what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: “A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.”

Talk Part 3

We do not know how long the Holy Family stayed in Bethlehem, nor how long after the birth did the Magi visit Herod and then come to Bethlehem. Clearly, the 2 years have some significance. The Gospel is silent on the number of children who were killed; however, given the smaller population in the ancient world, and that Bethlehem was known to be a village, we are probably talking about tens of children; nevertheless, the act was indeed no less brutal.

God’s hand through Joseph’s dream was at work, and the Holy Family fled as refugees into Egypt, and we are told towards the end of the Gospel reading that only after Herod’s death – which historians tells us was in 4 BCE – did the Holy Family return home to Nazareth. There are parallels between the story of Moses in the book of Exodus and today’s reading from Matthew’s Gospel. Today, we are reflecting on the massacre of these children.

In verse 18, we read: “A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.” Ramah is another name for that area of Judea. Rachel was Jacob’s second and most beloved wife and is said to be buried near Bethlehem. Her name represents the mothers of the massacred children.

We cannot imagine what it must have been like for those mothers, those parents and those families, into whose lives this massacre came and changed them forever. What must they have felt? They had done nothing wrong. Their children certainly had done nothing wrong, yet they were slaughtered by a brutal, paranoid, tyrannical king.

We have a saying: not to rub salt into the wound, meaning to make the pain worse. But let us contextualise those words from verse 18 which were first written by the prophet Jeremiah some 600 years previously.

How must those mothers and families have felt when they heard that the massacre of their children had been foretold? What thoughts and feelings must they have had? Why had God seemingly singled out their children in their town in their time to fulfil the prophecy? Indeed, the words of Jeremiah are true: “She refused to be consoled.”

Hymn Before the World Began
John L Bell (born 1949) and Graham Maule (1958-2019) © 1987 WGRG, c/o Iona Community, 21 Carlton Court, Glasgow, G5 9JP, One Licence No. # A-734713. Sung by unknown singers at St David’s Anglican Church, Edmonton, Canada.

Before the world began, one Word was there;
grounded in God he was, rooted in care;
by him all things were made, in him was love displayed;
through him God spoke, and said, ‘I am for you’.

Life found in him its source, death found its end;
light found in him its course, darkness its friend.
for neither death nor doubt nor darkness can put out
the glow of God, the shout, ‘I am for you’.

The Word was in the world which from him came;
unrecognised he was, unknown by name;
one with all humankind, with the unloved aligned,
convincing sight and mind, ‘I am for you’.

All who received the Word by God were blessed;
sisters and brothers they of earth’s fond guest.
So did the Word of Grace proclaim in time and space
and with a human face, ‘I am for you’.

Reading Isaiah 63: 7-9

I will recount the gracious deeds of the Lord, the praiseworthy acts of the Lord, because of all that the Lord has done for us and the great favour to the house of Israel that he has shown them according to his mercy, according to the abundance of his steadfast love. For he said, “Surely they are my people, children who will not act deceitfully,” and he became their saviour in all their distress. It was no messenger or angel but his presence that saved them; in his love and pity it was he who redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.

Talk Part 4

Sometimes, those who chose the Lectionary readings have selected complementary readings. Today is not one of those days: our reading from Isaiah juxtaposes the joy of salvation alongside Jeremiah’s lament.

“I will recount the gracious deeds of the LORD…”

“Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him…”

“The great favour to the house of Israel that [the LORD] has shown them…”

“[Herod] sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem…”

“[The LORD] became their saviour in all their distress…”

“Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.”

Putting these readings side-by-side unsettles us. When deep emotions caused in the face of trauma of others are evoked, that force is a powerful one and stirs our deep feelings and the difficult, awkward unanswered – perhaps, even, unanswerable – questions come to the surface.
What was God playing at, when, as it seems, he marked those Bethlehem children for death in a prophecy made 600 years previously?

Why did God save his own Son, Jesus, and yet bring agony to many families, for what seems all the for the sake of making a theological point?
Whether we like to admit it or not, we all have sense against injustice within us, and from time to time, that sense against injustice is brought to the fore, either through the seemingly inexplicable happenings of circumstance, or the plain horror of what could only be describe as “evil”.
Herod’s massacre – whether or not we accept Jeremiah’s prophecy – was an evil act, born out of the paranoia, fear and malevolence of a man who abused his power as a king.

Returning to our Gospel reading: the pain of the mothers whose children were slaughtered. We may never experience that level of evil, but we will still experience a level of injustice within us which rails against God in despair and complete failure to understand why these things have happened to us.

And then, there are the things in our lives, which are not born of evil or malevolence, but nevertheless cause us the same level of pain and despair: a loved one struck down with a certain disease… Why him? Why her? They are such a good and loving person and yet there are so many wicked people out there in good health! And inexplicable loss… of a job, of a friendship or relationship, or of property… And then there’s the pain of emptiness and despair, for those who strive and yet never seem to find… the couple longing to conceive and have children, those looking for asylum, looking for a relationship, looking for work… why is it that it seems so easy for others, yet impossible for me?

You might not feel so comfortable right now, but yet we can take a step back from the personal and ask wider questions which evoke the same feelings within us… Why is there suffering in the world? Why is there evil in the world? Why doesn’t God ‘do something’? These questions are simply too big.

And here is the great mystery: our God, the Creator, became the created. And that miracle happened at Christmas. Our Creator God became human in the baby Jesus. And just like we are angered by injustice, so was Jesus: He spoke out against the hypocritical authorities; He wept bitterly when his friend Lazarus died. Each of the four Gospels is filled with stories of how Jesus drew alongside individuals in their place and time of need.

I would like to think that as Jesus walked around Judea during his ministry, that he would have returned to Bethlehem, and he would have met the mothers whose children were massacred by Herod, and that by drawing alongside them for a time, that they experienced some comfort.

You may have had the experience yourself, as I have, of being with someone in pain, and all that is required is to be alongside them: words are unnecessary. This in itself is an act of being Christ-like. This is what Jesus did, and as His followers, we are called to be like Him: we are now His hands to do His work, His feet to go where He would have us go, His voice to speak His words to a world in pain.

And so, in the depth of pain, either our own or that of another, remember that Jesus understands: He became human; from the manger at Christmas to the Cross of Easter, He is one of us; He is in it with us. Jesus is in it with us. Let us reflect on that most profound mystery for a moment.
Jesus is in it with us… He is in it with us. Amen.

Hymn Who Can Sound the Depths of Sorrow?
Graham Kendrick, © 1988 Make Way Music OneLicence # A-734713 Sung by the Frodsham Methodist Church Cloud Choir and used with their kind permission.

Who can sound the depths of sorrow
in the Father heart of God,
for the children we’ve rejected,
for the lives so deeply scarred?
And each light that we’ve extinguished
has brought darkness to our land:
upon our nation, upon our nation have mercy Lord!

Who can stand before Your anger;
who can face Your piercing eyes?
For You love the weak and helpless,
and You hear the victims’ cries.
Yes, You are a God of justice,
and Your judgement surely comes:
upon our nation, upon our nation have mercy Lord!

Who will stand against the violence?
Who will comfort those who mourn?
In an age of cruel rejection,
who will build for love a home?
Come and shake us into action,
come and melt our hearts of stone:
upon Your people, upon Your people, have mercy Lord!

Who can sound the depths of mercy
in the Father heart of God,
for there is a Man of Sorrows,
who for sinners shed his blood!
He can heal the wounds of nations,
He can wash the guilty clean,
because of Jesus, have mercy, Lord.

Affirmation of Faith

We believe in God.
Despite God’s silence and secrets, we believe that God lives.
Despite evil and suffering, we believe that God made the world,
so that all would be happy in life.
Despite the limitations of our reason,
and the revolts of our hearts, we believe in God.

We believe in Jesus Christ.
Despite the centuries which separate us,
from the time when He came to earth, we believe in Jesus’ word.
Despite our incomprehension and our doubt,
we believe in His resurrection.
Despite His weakness and poverty, we believe in His reign.

We believe in the Holy Spirit.
Despite appearances, we believe the Spirit guides the Church.
Despite death, we believe in eternal life.
Despite ignorance and disbelief,
we believe that the Kingdom of God is promised to all.
Thanks be to God. Amen.

Prayers of Concern

O God of justice and righteousness,
we pray for Your broken world.
For those where Christmas has not been a time of joy.
For those affected by war and violence.
O God of peace, we give thanks for our freedom
and for those who work for peace and those who keep us safe.