(Photo by Johannes Plenio from Pexels)
ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF COUNTRY
Since before Abram left Ur of the Chaldees, the Dharawal people have lived on this land of the Creator. We acknowledge their continuing connection with it, their living on country. We honour their elders past and present and pledge to journey together in their search for justice & reconciliation.
ADVENT LITURGY 2
In the beginning, God said ‘let there be light and there was light’. Christ Jesus came as the light of the world that all may know they are cherished by God. Darkness cannot exist when there is light. So let us light a candle and celebrate Christ’s presence.
Reader One: The prophet Malachi tells us that even when we are in the hottest of fires, there is a presence who can make us better, who can refine and purify. John the Baptist tells us that the road home is always under construction, mountains levelled, and valleys filled in, to make smooth the path that leads us to our true destination, where we can live in peace and unity with all.
Reader Two: We light these candles, the candle of hope and the candle of peace, as a sign of our assurance that though the road is hard, we believe it is worth the journey. It is time to go home.
Light two candles of the Advent wreath.
THE CANDLE SONG https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teZaQUKjx24
Like a candle flame
Flickering small
In our darkness
Uncreated light
Shines through infant eyes
Chorus: God is with us. Alleluia. Come to save us. Alleluia, alleluia
Stars and angels sing
Yet the earth
Sleeps in shadows
Can this tiny spark
Set a world on fire? (Repeat Chorus)
Yet His light will shine
From our lives
Spirit blazing
As we touch the flame
Of His holy fire (Repeat Chorus)
CCLI Song # 30392 Graham Kendrick © 1988 Make Way Music (Admin. by Copy Care Pacific Pty. Ltd.) For use solely with the SongSelect® Terms of Use. All rights reserved. www.ccli.com CCLI Licence # 31951
WELCOME & ANNOUNCEMENTS
BIBLE READINGS
Malachi 3: 1 – 4 (NIV) “I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the Lord Almighty. But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness, and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the Lord, as in days gone by, as in former years.
Luke 3: 1 – 6 (NIV) In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar—when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene— during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet: “A voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him. Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth. And all people will see God’s salvation.’”
In this we hear God’s Word of Life. Praise be to God.
Advent story-telling by a member of the congregation: “What I want for Christmas, and what I need for Christmas”
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
Emmanuel, through your Incarnation you have shown us what it is to live imaginatively, love expansively and act creatively. We confess that sometimes we have waited without thought and so have stifled fruitful possibility. We confess that sometimes we have waited without generosity and so have constricted fruitful connection. We confess that sometimes we have waited without hope and so have limited fruitful action. We confess that sometimes we have simply been too busy or too distracted to wait and so have missed your Spirit nudging moments. And so as we look once more for you, forgive the poverty of our waiting, touch our dreaming, stretch our living and energise our joy that we may be ready for your coming amidst the Inn, stable, hay and shepherds of our day. Amen
HYMN TIS 264 ‘Hark! A herald voice is calling’ Tune TIS 217 (ii) Leanne B
Hark! A herald voice is calling: ‘Christ is near’ it seems to say, ‘cast away the dreams of darkness. Waken, children of the day!’
Wakened by the solemn warning, Let the earth-bound soul arise; Christ, her sun, all sloth dispelling, Shines upon the morning skies.
Lo, the Lamb so long expected, Comes with parson now from heav’n; Let us meet him with repentance, Pray that we may be forgiv’n.
So when love comes forth in judgment, Debts and doubts and wrongs to clear. Faithful may he find his servants, Watching till the dawn appear.
CCLI Song # 7132971 Edward Caswall | Percy Dearmer | William Henry Monk © Words: Public Domain
Music: Public Domain For use with SongSelect® All rights reserved. www.ccli.com CCLI Licence # 31951
MESSAGE ‘Prepare the way of the Lord’
It has been 5 months since we have been able to gather together in person to worship our Lord. Imagine if instead it had been five years, let alone 200 years. The longing would be indescribable!!
The prophet Malachi talks of ‘preparing the way’ as he longs for the time (it’s now 200 years since the 1st Temple was destroyed) when God’s people will again bring gifts in righteousness – gifts with a pure heart from the very centre of their being – such gifts will be acceptable to the Lord not those that do not reflect our deep longing and searching for God. Gifts that count, that reflect our deep love of God.
Then 400 years later, and if Luke’s 15th Year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar is accurate, then between Sept 28 – Aug 29 CE John the baptiser comes out of the wilderness, the place of the Exodus, of formation & renewal, to fulfil the words of prophesy from 2nd Isaiah – ‘prepare the way for the Lord’!
And people came from across Judea and beyond to be baptised, to echo the refiners fire of Malachi, to prepare their hearts for the coming One. Both these passages today share a deep longing, a deep restlessness to be close to God, for God to be a real and transformative part of their daily lives.
PLAY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1SiaCV26aQ
Have you been waiting? Are you restless? Or are you just comfortably sitting in your seats?
When you hear these words does a small part within you, want to do what they did in the video-clip we’ve just watched? Knowing deep down the ‘lack of’ that exists in your life – if only I could be brave enough to acknowledge and to truly invite into my inner life the Lord of all being?
For these young people are running and dancing and jumping for joy!!! Throwing away all that distracts, all that once seemed important. Not worried about what others may think but pure joy as if all their Christmases and birthdays and anniversaries are all rolled into one – as if all whom they have ever loved are present…that sort of joy. This is what Malachi, Isaiah and John had in mind. Do you?
And this ‘preparing the way for the Lord’ is not just for the Lord’s benefit so he can walk on by as if what we do doesn’t really affect us but is rather a preparing of ourselves that the ‘way of the Lord’ might transform our lives and through us all peoples that they too may see God’s salvation’. This call to ‘prepare the way’ is never just about us, at its heart this ‘preparation’ is so all may be included.
One practical aspect of this inclusive invitation is that ‘level the pathways’ will be made; or to rephrase it, to remove the traditional obstacles that the Church or us individually so often subconsciously put in the way so others have access to God. Pathways that include and engage, pathways that delight in who they are and who they can become. Pathways that take an active interest in the lives of people where they live and work. Then invitations to our place may bear more fruit instead of the traditional expectation ‘well they know where we are, after all the sign says all are welcome’ not our problem if they don’t come!’ That is just one way ‘every valley shall be filled in, every mountain & hill made low’.
We did a little of that 3 weeks ago with the public gathering in our church to listen to the 10 Local candidates for Ward D. We invited them and all who came or attended on Zoom to listen and share in the place where our Lord is worshipped and honoured.
And we did that 10 days ago when we held the Funeral Service for Karen. Most who attended had never been to EUC before. One bloke, said afterwards ‘Reverend, if I ever became a member of the church, I’d want you to take my funeral’.
So come let us prepare the way of the Lord, the way of life the Lord comes to bring to us as we draw closer to the Manger of Christ Jesus, now just 20 sleeps away. May you be as excited and as expectant as your grand-children. What gifts will Christ Jesus bring for you this year? Amen
HYMN TIS 271 ‘The advent of our God’ TUNE TIS 573
The advent of our God
With eager prayers we greet
And singing haste upon his road
His coming reign to meet.
The everlasting Son
Was born to make us free
And he a servant’s form put on
To gain our liberty.
Daughter of Sion rise
To meet your lowly King
Nor let your stubborn heart despise
The peace he comes to bring.
As judge on clouds of light
He soon will come again
His scattered people to unite
With them in heaven to reign.
Then evil flee away
Before the rising dawn
Let this old Adam day by day
God’s image still put on.
Praise to the incarnate Son
Who comes to set us free
With Father Spirit ever one
To all eternity.
CCLI Song # 3341737 Charles Coffin | Henry Thomas Putman | John Chandler | Percy Dearmer Public Domain For use solely with the SongSelect® Terms of Use. All rights reserved. www.ccli.com CCLI Licence # 31951
OFFERING
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE Heather Stone
HOLY COMMUNION In this Season of Waiting
In this waiting season – in a time between times when living seems restricted, we gather to remember one who embraced constraint while waiting for birth.
In this waiting season – in a time between times when joy seems curtailed, we gather to remember one who shared a feast while waiting for death.
In this waiting season – in a time between times when action seems suspended. We gather to remember one who harrowed hell while waiting for resurrection. Emmanuel, God with us in the past, as we recount your story.
Teach us that waiting is not dead time but a dreaming time through which new ideas and insights are engendered. Emmanuel, God with us in the present, as we share your supper
Teach us that waiting is not lost time but a liminal time within which new possibilities and patterns take form. Emmanuel, God with us in the future, as we celebrate your Kingdom
Teach us that waiting is not quiescent time but a quickening time from which new life and love emerges. Emmanuel, God with us in all time, as we look for your coming. Teach us to inhabit this waiting time.
INVITATION
This is the table of Emmanuel – a place where bread and wine remind us how to live and love
As those who inhabit God’s time and work to build His Kingdom. A place where we recognise that the one for whom we wait is also the one who is ready and always here with us.
So come, whether you are watching for the dawn, or dreading first light, whether you are waiting with hope, or hiding your face, come with confidence because here it is Emmanuel who watches for our coming, and who waits with love and joy to welcome us in.
It is the story of Emmanuel – who took flesh and form and lived among us to help us re-imagine life.
It is the story of Jesus – waiting to be betrayed, who shared supper with his friends blessing and breaking bread and pouring and sharing wine so that we might re-imagine love.
In is the story of Christ – waiting in the tomb for God’s moment, who threw down the gates of hell and drew the sting of death so that we might re-imagine the world.
BREAD BROKEN, WINE POURED & INVOCATION
SHARING
The table is set; softening sky announces the Bridegroom’s return and bread and wine declare that waiting is not time frozen but time freed and fruitful.
©In this season of waiting Pat Bennett Wild Goose Publishing, Edinburgh. Use with Permission. E book.
DISTRIBUTION Elder – Sue McKinnon
HYMN TIS 152
Joyful, joyful we adore you
God of glory, Lord of love
Hearts unfold like flowers before you
Opening to the sun above.
Melt the clouds of sin and sadness
drive the dark of doubt away
giver of immortal gladness
Fill us with the light of day.
All your works with joy surround you
earth and heav’n reflect your rays
stars and angels sing around you
centre of unbroken praise.
Field and forest, vale and mountain
flowery meadow, flashing sea
singing bird and flowing fountain
call to praise you joyfully.
You are giving and forgiving
ever blessing, ever blest
well-spring of the joy of living
ocean-depth of happy rest.
You our Father, Christ our brother
all are yours who live in love;
teach us how to love each other
lift us to your joy above.
CCLI Song # 25321 Edward Hodges | Henry Van Dyke | Ludwig van Beethoven © Words: Public Domain
Music: Public Domain For use with SongSelect® All rights reserved. www.ccli.com CCLI Licence # 31951
BLESSING & BENEDICTION
May light come into your eyes, may hope spring up in your heart, May peace guide all of your mind, and keep you in God; and keep you in God. (Repeat)
Words and music © M Dyson. Arrangement © Australian Hymn Book Co CCLI Licence # 31951
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