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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 3
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 Zephaniah tells us to rejoice at the thought of going home. The prophet tells us to imagine being set free, being unburdened, being released to live, to fully live in the grace and wonder of life itself, surrounded by those who love us like no one else. And then to live like that was our truth even now, even here. It is joy to go home.
Reader Two: John the Baptist reminds us, however, that it takes choices to live in this joy. It doesn’t just happen; we choose to make life a joy by how we love others, by how we serve and give and care for others, by how we do the job we do and how we impact the world around us. We build joy as we build a home in this world and the next.
Reader One: We light these candles, the candle of hope, and of peace, and of joy, as a sign that we are on our way home, and we walk with a skip in our step because we can see the destination, and it is pure joy. It is time to go home. Light three candles in 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
Zephaniah 3: 14 – 20 Sing, Daughter Zion; shout aloud, Israel! Be glad and rejoice with all your heart,
Daughter Jerusalem! The Lord has taken away your punishment, he has turned back your enemy.
The Lord, the King of Israel, is with you; never again will you fear any harm. On that day they will say to Jerusalem, “Do not fear, Zion; do not let your hands hang limp. The Lord your God is with you,
the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.” “I will remove from you all who mourn over the loss of your appointed festivals, which is a burden and reproach for you. At that time I will deal with all who oppressed you. I will rescue the lame; I will gather the exiles. I will give them praise and honour in every land where they have suffered shame. At that time I will gather you; at that time I will bring you home. I will give you honour and praise among all the peoples of the earth when I restore your fortunes before your very eyes,” says the Lord.
Luke 3: 7 – 18 John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The axe is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” “What should we do then? the crowd asked. John answered, “Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.” Even tax collectors came to be baptised. “Teacher,” they asked, “what should we do?” “Don’t collect any more than you are required to,” he told them. Then some soldiers asked him, “And what should we do?” He replied, “Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely—be content with your pay.” The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Messiah. John answered them all, “I baptize you with water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” And with many other words John exhorted the people and proclaimed the good news to them. In this we hear God’s Word. May it bear fruit in our lives. Amen
Advent story-telling by a member of the congregation: “What I want for Christmas, and what I need for Christmas”
A TIME OF THANKSGIVING & CONFESSION
Christmas. Dear God, it is timely that as we approach this Season that we give thanks for the lives of all prophets, teachers, healers and revolutionaries, living and dead, acclaimed or obscure, who like Jesus have rebelled and suffered for the cause of love and joy. We also celebrate that part within ourselves which has rebelled, or wants and needs to and suffered for the cause of love and joy.
Lord also help us to change. On hearing your word, on hearing about your Son. To change ourselves. To change our world. To know the great need for it. To deal with the pain of it. To feel the joy of it.
These prayers and these our lives and this our world we bring that the fruit of our labours may be as it was in John the Baptist’s day, worthy of repentance. In Christ Jesus’ strength and love, we pray. Amen
Based on two prayers in ‘A Common Prayer’ by Leunig.
HYMN: Come down O Love divine, from Together In Song 398, vs 1, 2 & 4
Come down O Love divine
Seek now this soul of mine
And visit it with your own ardour glowing
O Comforter draw near
Within my heart appear
And kindle it your holy flame bestowing
There let it freely burn
Till earthly passions turn
To dust and ashes in its heat consuming
And let your glorious light
Shine ever on my sight
And make my pathway clear by your illuming
And so the yearning strong
With which the soul will long
Shall far surpass the power of human telling
For none can guess its grace
Till we become the place
In which the Holy Spirit makes his dwelling.
CCLI Song # 3260959 Bianco da Siena | Richard Frederick Littledale © The Jubilate Group. Hope Publishing Co) For use solely with the SongSelect® Terms of Use. All rights reserved. www.ccli.com CCLI Licence # 31951
MESSAGE A new life lived in Christ’s warm embrace
If you have ever had the misfortune of having been caught speeding then you’ll know that those demerit points stay on your licence for exactly 3 years and 4 months. Why 40 months? I don’t know! But at least there is a definite end to those particular demerits, the slate is wiped clean.
The prophet Zephaniah writing after the fall of Jerusalem in 587BCE comes with his own version of the accumulation of God’s peoples own demerit points. Zephaniah’s view is also echoed in Isaiah 40 and in many post-exilic psalms. That these sentiments occur relatively frequently over some 200+ years might suggest God’s people took time to embrace this new insight. It’s a bit like the prodigal son in the pigsty, some never leave it but forever stay there overwhelmed by grief or guilt or fear.
But back to Zephaniah. Let us hear again his good news. ‘The Lord has taken away your punishment’. ‘The Lord is with you’. ‘He will take great delight in you’. ‘I will give you honour and praise.’ Wow!
God’s people and their descendants have been in exile for some 60 years. Every day reminds them of God’s punishment and displeasure. How long they ask? How long? We know that several thousand, but not all, did return to Jerusalem over the following decades. Read the Book of Ezra for more info.
And Zephaniah then concludes with these wonderful words ‘I (the LORD) will bring you home.’ This is God’s doing not Cyrus’ change in foreign policy. How do you respond to this passage?
(Recount) Story of the South Australia Electricity Trust in 1980, regarding the town of Leigh Creek South.
Is this passage just an historical glimpse into a long ago past or are these words ‘living words’, that can bring life and new beginnings even now. After all isn’t that why they are part of the Scriptures?
Does our Lord say to you ‘your punishment is over. I am with you, I delight in you, I honour you!’? The Hebrew for ‘you’ in this passage is personal & intimate, of God’s hesed love residing within us. Do you hear a word of release in this for you?
For we all live at times with failure and deep regret or as I look at the activities within our parliaments of self-obsessed preservation vs the common-weal or wealth. This unhealthy self-preoccupation can weigh us down and our Nation for it is like Matthew 11’s comment:
‘come to me all who are weary and heavily burdened’. On this day those who are also weary and heavily burdened are those who have no voice but yours and mine, those who depend on others to help them seek their own release from captivity whether it be physical, emotional or spiritual.
May you hear these words of renewal and new life afresh today perhaps for the first time.
In the more familiar passage from Luke Ch 3 we hear that all manner of people came out to see John. Never assume you know who will come or respond and within whom a deep longing is found within!
This group included tax collectors and soldiers and for those curious ones who saw themselves as religious (i.e. in no need of baptism) John says, in the context of our day ‘and don’t think that saying ‘Jesus is Lord’ will save you.
This phrase echoes Matt 7:20-21 where Jesus says ‘many will call me Lord but only by their fruit shall I know them’. And this is not just some theological debate there is a sense of urgency in John’s challenge “and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”
I believe that in our day if there is no practical expression of John’s edict:
anyone with two shirts…
anyone who has food…
don’t collect more than you are required…
don’t exhort money and don’t accuse falsely.
If these practical expressions or fruit of the worth and value of humanity aren’t evident in daily life then the church in those places where ‘fruit bearing’ is scarce will die and new expressions, ‘worthy of repentance’, will replace it. I believe we are already seeing that especially when for some the church has become just another club to belong to – it has forgotten her Lord’s primary purpose & calling.
And then John, just when he has everyone’s attention, points away from himself to the One to come! That requires a special understanding of who and whose you are. Greater challenges will face the people in the form of unquenchable fire – more accountability!
And this is the bit I love the most, ‘and with many other words John exhorted the people and proclaimed the good news to them! All this is good news? All this radical change that is required?
Yes! Yes! Yes! For God is Christ Jesus who made us in his image knows our deep longings, knows what we truly long for, knows what we are capable of as individuals, as a church and as a nation and knows what can bring out the very best in us. All he asks is that we take hold of his hand, trust him and follow him, in community, guided by the Holy Spirit. When we lose our pre-occupation with self then all is possible.
Curiosity brought the crowds out to see John; curiosity brought the shepherds to a manger; and curiosity brought Moses to a burning bush. So come and look and hear this good news, come and be embraced and held and never let go of by Christ Jesus. It will change other people’s lives and your own.
Praise be to God for the Good News of Jesus Christ as we journey together towards Bethlehem. Amen
HYMN ‘Wild and lone the prophet’s voice’
Wild and lone the prophet’s voice
echoes through the desert still,
calling us to make a choice,
bidding us to do God’s will:
“Turn from sin and be baptized;
cleanse your heart and mind and soul.
Quitting all the sins you prized,
yield your life to God’s control.
“Bear the fruit repentance sows:
lives of justice, truth, and love.
Trust no other claim than those;
set your heart on things above.
Soon the Lord will come in power,
burning clean the threshing floor:
then will flames the chaff devour;
wheat alone shall fill God’s store.”
With such preaching, stark and bold,
John proclaimed salvation near,
and his timeless warnings hold
words of hope to all who hear.
So we dare to journey on,
led by faith through ways untrod,
till we come at last like John
to behold the Lamb of God.
CCLI Song # 2287122 Carl P. Daw Jr. | Joseph Parry © Words: 1989 Hope Publishing Company. Music: Public Domain. For use solely with the SongSelect® All rights reserved. www.ccli.com CCLI Licence # 31951
OFFERING
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
HYMN, from Together in Song 265
O come O come Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear
Rejoice, rejoice Emmanuel
Shall come to thee O Israel
O come Thou Dayspring come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night
And death’s dark shadows put to flight
O come Thou Wisdom from on high
And order all things far and nigh
To us the path of knowledge show
And cause us in her ways to go
O come Desire of nations bind
All peoples in one heart and mind
Bid envy strife and quarrels cease
Fill the whole world with heaven’s peace
CCLI Song # 31982 John Mason Neale | Thomas Helmore © Words: Public Domain. Music: Public Domain For use solely with the SongSelect® Terms of Use. All rights reserved. www.ccli.com CCLI Licence # 31951
BLESSING & BENEDICTION
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