You can watch the bible readings and sermon here, or scroll down to read the rest of the Sunday prayers and content, and watch this video at the point it occurs during worship.
Welcome
Let us practice being ready
It doesn’t matter whether or not you can have faith;
whether or not you are cynical or despairing, hope-filled or hope-less:
what matters to God is simply that you are here.
We are in the time of Advent, in preparation for Christmas.
Advent reminds us that if God is to be born again
in the most ordinary parts of our world and our lives
that we need prepare for it.
We need to make the space in our lives where love might be born.
Welcome to this tiny corner of a harsh and dark world.
Together, let us practice being ready in the faith that Christ will come. Cheryl Lawrie
Acknowledgement of Country
The first nations peoples are still waiting, waiting for a voice, waiting for justice and recognition, as we recognise the land on which we meet has never been ceded. We acknowledge elders, past and present.
Lighting the Advent candle
THE ADVENT WREATH
Our advent candle wreath this year is deliberately not perfect. It is
not symmetrical or straight or coordinating. The colours don’t match,
and the candles are not new. Why? Each Advent we think about the 4
messages of Hope, Joy, Peace and Love. But as we look at our lives, our
community and the World, a perfect wreath or perfect candles seems out
of place and insincere. So this year we have a crooked, mismatched,
imperfect Advent candle wreath representing the reality of our world and
the reality of our lives that we bring to Christ this Christmas.
The winds are scented with every growing thing; the jacaranda blossoms, clothes fit for royalty. All Come, companion Jesus, walk with us.
Let us prepare a manger in our hearts for the birth of the sacred. Light second candle This second candle reminds us of peace. A second candle is lit.
ALL We gather in peace, as people of God to welcome the Christ Child.
We give thanks that throughout this season of peace there are many whose voices yet sing its songs…
Let our will for justice, as strong as the Mountain Ash, prepare the way and welcome Christ
Let our thirst for hope, like the dry, parched earth, prepare the way and welcome Christ
Let our dream for peace, as bright as the sky, prepare the way and welcome Christ AMEN
Call to Worship
Now is the time, let us pause.
As we wait, may we hear the voice of God.
Now is the time, let us watch.
In our homes, at our work, even while waiting in line
–may we see the face of Christ.
Now is the moment, let us prepare our hearts.
In our words, in our hearts, in all we say and do
–may God’s extravagant love shine through.
© Nancy Gowler Johnson, First Christian Church of Puyallup, WA, USA
HYMN – On Jordan’s bank the Baptist’s cry
Confession
Let us pause to grieve something that we have heard or seen in the news this week, plenty of reminders of failed duty, and unjust systems, tragedies, the earth groaning and oceans warming, and nations that suffer as a result of another nation’s government
Lamentations 3 v 19-26
I remember my affliction and my wandering,
the bitterness and the gall.
20 I well remember them,
and my soul is downcast within me.
21 Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope:
22 Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
23 They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him.”
25 The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him,
to the one who seeks him;
26 it is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord.
Readings
Gracious God, as we turn to your Word for us, may the Spirit of God rest upon us. Help us to be steadfast in our hearing, in our speaking, in our believing, and in our living. Amen.
Malachi 3 1-4
Luke 1 68-79
Luke 3 1-6
HYMN – Benedictus
Feeling ready, feeling prepared
Sermon – John McK
Announcements
Inc Christmas reflection 7.30pm star coffee
Offertory
Lord, in this time of spend, spend, spend, we remember that all the gifts we have, we have to steward. Wisely and generously. We give thanks for our plenty, and offer these gifts to be used to further the coming of your Kingdom here on earth.
Intro to prayers of the people
Advent waiting goes both ways
Life involves a lot of waiting, both ways. Waiting in the check-out. Waiting in the doctor’s office. Waiting for the traffic light to change. Waiting for test results. Waiting for nine months for birth. Parents waiting for children to grow up and act more mature. Teachers waiting for students to finally grasp a concept. Waiting for those we love to be touched and transformed by that love.
At this time of year, we‘re especially reminded of it. Christmas involves a season of waiting. We hear talk about waiting for a saviour to come and free us from whatever is holding us back. Waiting for God to intervene and take our lives in a different direction. Waiting for dawn to arrive and end the long and lonely night we often feel in the pit of our soul. When will the waiting end?
Unfortunately, religious practices can degenerate into nothing more than waiting. We wait for God to respond to a prayer and make things go the way we want. We wait for God to right a wrong. Wait for God to set things straight. Wait for God to change the world. Change our lives. Please!
But wait! What if we‘ve got it backward? To revisit that waiting-goes-both-ways thing: Instead of us waiting on God, what if God is waiting on us?
John Dominic Crossan poses that question in one of his books. He notes something that’s obvious: Jesus could be very impatient. He wasn’t one to just sit back and wait for things to change. As Crossan sums it up: “You have been waiting for God, while God has been waiting for you. You want God’s intervention, while God wants your collaboration. God‘s kingdom is here, but only insofar as you accept it, enter it, live it, and thereby establish it.”
Prayers of the People
Lord’s prayer (the Nazarene Transliteration of the Lord’s Prayer in Aramaic, found on the Diocese of Portsmouth and Winchester website)
Oh Thou, from whom the breath of life comes, who fills all realms of sound,
light and vibration.
May Your light be experienced in my utmost holiest.
Your Heavenly Domain approaches.
Let Your will come true – in the universe just as on earth.
Give us wisdom for our daily need, detach the
fetters of faults that bind us, like we let go the guilt of others.
Let us not be lost in superficial things, but
let us be freed from that what keeps us from our true purpose.
From You comes the all-working will, the lively strength to act, the song that
beautifies all and renews itself from age to age.
Sealed in trust, faith and truth, I confirm with my entire being.
HYMN – Hark a herald voice is calling
1. Hark! a thrilling voice is calling:
“Christ is nigh!” it seems to say,
“Cast away the dreams of darkness,
O ye children of the day!”
2. Wakened by the solemn warning,
Let the Earth-bound soul arise;
Christ, the Sun, all ill dispelling,
Shines upon the morning skies.
3. Lo! the Lamb, so long-expected,
Comes with pardon down from Heav’n;
Let us haste, with tears of sorrow,
One and all to be forgiv’n.
4. So when next he comes with glory
Debts and doubts and wrongs to clear,
faithful may He find his servants
watching till the dawn appear.
5. Honour, glory, might, and blessing
To the Father and the Son,
With the everlasting Spirit,
While eternal ages run.
Dismissal Iona
You keep us waiting…
You, the God of all time
want us to wait for the right time in which to discover who we are,
where we must go,
who will be with us,
and what we must do.
So, thank you for the waiting time
You keep us looking…
You, the God of all space,
want us to look in the right and wrong places
for signs of hope,
for people who are hopeless,
for visions of a better world
which will appear among the disappointments of the world we know
So thank you for the looking time
You keep us loving ….
You, the God whose name is love,
want us to be like you –
to love the loveless on the unloved and the unlovely;
to love without jealousy or design or threat;
and most difficult of all, to love ourselves.
So thank you for the loving time
And in all this, you keep us …
through hard questions with no easy answers,
through failing where we hoped to succeed and making an impact,
when we thought we were useless,
through the patience and encouragement and love of others,
and through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, you keep us.
So thank you for the keeping time and for now and forever Amen
And may the blessing of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us all, evermore. Amen.
Recent Comments