**Please note this service is based on the format of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church of Canada. Unless otherwise indicated, all prayers come from
Evangelical Lutheran Worship (ELW). Hymns and other prayers have been sourced
to give appropriate credit.
**NRSV translation used for the readings, unless otherwise stated.
Introduction to the Day
Forerunners and messengers advance the advent of our God. While John the
baptizer’s
voice in the wilderness may be the principal focus of the day, Malachi’s
prophecy could
as easily herald the coming Christ as forerunner of the LORD of hosts.
Finally all the
baptized are called to participate in the sharing of the gospel. In so
doing we prepare
the way for the coming of Jesus and assist all people in capturing a
vision of the
“salvation of God.”
Lighting of the Advent Wreath
Let us pray.
We praise you, O God, for this circle of light that marks our days of
preparation for Christ’s advent. As we light the candles on this wreath, kindle
within us the fire of your Spirit, that we may be light shining in the
darkness.
Enlighten us with your grace, that we may welcome others as you have
welcomed us.
Grant this through Christ our Lord, whose coming is certain and whose
day draws near.
Amen.
Light two candles
Candle Lighting Carol: Light One Candle to Watch for Messiah
(ELW #240)
Confession and Forgiveness
Blessed be the holy Trinity, ☩ one God,
who alone does wonders, who lifts up the lowly,
who fills the hungry with good things.
Amen.
Let us confess our sin, trusting in the tender mercy of our God.
God for whom we wait,
in the presence of one another, we confess our sin before you.
We fail in believing that your good news is for us.
We falter in our call to tend your creation.
We find our sense of self in material wealth.
We fear those different from ourselves.
We forget that we are your children and turn away from your love.
Forgive us, Blessed One, and assure us again of your saving grace.
Amen.
God, in Christ Jesus, has looked with favor upon you! Through the power of
the Holy Spirit, ☩ your sins are forgiven. You are
children of the Most High, inheritors of the eternal promise, and recipients of
divine mercy. God strengthens you anew to follow the way of peace.
Amen.
Gathering Carol – People, Look East
(ELW #248)
Prayer of the Day
The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
Let us pray.
Stir up our hearts, Lord God, to prepare the way of your only Son. By
his coming give
to all the people of the world knowledge of your salvation; through
Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy
Spirit, one God, now and
forever.
Amen.
Readings
A reading from the Book of Malachi 3:1-4
See, I am sending my messenger to
prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his
temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight – indeed, he is
coming, says the Lord of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming, and
who can stand when he appears?
For he is like a refiner’s fire and
like fullers’ soap; he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will
purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they
present offerings to the Lord in righteousness. Then the offering of Judah and
Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former
years.
The word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Canticle 19: Luke 1:68-79 (Song of Zechariah)
“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
for
he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them.
He has raised up a
mighty savior for us
in the house of his servant David,
as he spoke through the mouth of his holy
prophets from of old,
that
we would be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us.
Thus he has shown the
mercy promised to our ancestors,
and has remembered his holy covenant,
the oath that he swore to our ancestor
Abraham,
to
grant us that we, being rescued from the hands of our enemies,
might serve him
without fear, in holiness and righteousness
before him all our days.
And you, child, will be called the prophet of
the Most High;
for you will go before the Lord to prepare
his ways,
to give knowledge of
salvation to his people
by the forgiveness of their sins.
By the tender mercy of our God,
the
dawn from on high will break upon us,
to give light to
those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
A reading from the Letter from Paul to the Philippians 1:3-11
I thank my God every time I remember
you, constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you,
because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now. I am
confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it
to completion by the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to think this way
about all of you, because you hold me in your heart, for all of you share in
God’s grace with me, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and
confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I long for all of you
with the compassion of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer, that your love may
overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine
what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless,
having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ
for the glory and praise of God.
The word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Gospel Acclamation – He Came Down (ELW #253)
The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Luke 3:1-6
Glory to you, O Lord.
In the fifteenth year of the reign of
Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was
ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and
Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler 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 region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of
repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the
words of the prophet Isaiah,
“The voice of one crying out in the
wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.
Every valley shall be filled,
and every mountain and hill shall be made low,
and the crooked shall be made straight,
and the rough ways made smooth;
and all flesh shall see the salvation
of God.’”
The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, O
Christ.
Sermon
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord. Amen.
Luke
3:1-6 sets the stage for John the Baptist’s prophetic call by introducing an
A-list of Earthly Powers: an emperor, a governor, three tetrarchs, and two high
priests.
Together
they represent rulers of the known world, the regional lands, and the
religious, political, and economic complex that stands at the heart of
Jerusalem. Collectively they hold all the authority and might that wealth,
military prowess, or ancestry can command.
Indeed,
the world to which God sends the Messiah is a world held captive to earthly
forms of domination and influence, represented in Luke’s Gospel by men like
Tiberius, Pilate, Herod, Philip, Lysanias, Annas, and Caiaphas.
But,
for Luke, the word of God does not come to any of those influential men of
power, nor to the political territories over which they have command. It comes
instead to a lone man out in the wilderness: John, son of Zechariah.
John
hails from priestly ancestry on both sides of the family.
His
father, Zechariah, is a priest whose rotation of duties includes service in the
Jerusalem Temple.
Elizabeth,
his mother, descends from the line of priests originating with Aaron.
If
John were following the family business, he would be engaged in work associated
with the Temple, the holy place in Jerusalem where God is said to dwell.
However,
filled with the Holy Spirit before his birth, John was born to be a prophet.
Instead
of serving near the Israelites’ holiest place on earth, he is out in the
wilderness, the region around the Jordan, at the liminal edge of the Promised
Land.
Part
of the purpose of John’s prophetic calling is to prepare the way of the Lord
for the people of Israel.
The
quotation from Isaiah 40 that concludes the Gospel passage today, sharpens the
focus on preparation.
That
quotation ends with: “All flesh shall see the salvation of God.”
What
does it mean to “see” salvation?
An
interesting choice of the senses, isn’t it?
While
we tend to locate our language around salvation as concept, Isaiah, John the
Baptist, and Jesus recast the meaning of salvation as an experience of the
senses.
Salvation,
therefore, is not a religious concept best relegated to life after death, a
confession of creed so as somehow to categorize faith, or an idea that proves
to guarantee our future.
It
seems that salvation can be seen – and that is a kind of Advent that can
make a difference.
I
think this is something we all need to experience, that Advent can actually be
seen. Tasted. Smelled. Felt. Heard.
The
doing of Advent is not the same as experiencing it. This can be an invitation
to enter into the Advent we really all want. An Advent that invites the deepest
of feelings amidst the restlessness of the forwardness of time.
An
Advent that is not just about all the doing but also about all of the needed
being. It might very well be a choice to exist in such a way that insists on or
even assumes straight paths, valleys filled, and rough ways smoothed.
Preparing
the way of the Lord does not have to be that which requires an endless “to do”
list.
I
don’t know about you, but this is really hard for me. My lists are long right
now.
Cleaning
lists. Sorting lists. Christmas lists. Visitation lists. Work task lists.
All
that I need to accomplish between now and December 25 leaves little room for an
awareness of how I am experiencing these days of expectation.
I
find myself always looking to the next task, the next item on my list to cross
off, the next whatever. It has always been challenging to be in the moment, to
feel what is now and let now just be.
Choosing
being over doing continues to be that which demands a daily decision. And most
certainly, the consciousness of seeing salvation continues to evade me.
So
I think this may very well be the necessity of Advent. Being. Because being is
inherent to incarnation.
It’s
almost as if Advent is the necessary time to prepare us for the being of God.
Because
God incarnate is not a concept but a commitment to the human experience in all
of its fullness – every day, every minute, every second.
Advent
should not be something to hurry along.
Our
endless attempts to accomplish tasks seem only to be that which seeks to secure
that time might move forward, and why do we want that?
What
is our hurry?
That
might be what is at stake. Our hurriedness. Our lack of patience. Our desire to
move along that which should take more time than we think.
Going
to the next step has to take time.
But,
as Advent helps us see, the time is worth it.
Advent
suggests that God wants us to wait.
God
seems to expect expectation.
God
seems to know that the immediacy of desire is not the same as experiencing the
fullness of life in the moment.
Having
experienced the trauma of a global pandemic for nearly two years, many people
long for certainty about the road ahead.
Some
hope for a new life, others ache to return to the way things were, and still
others have little energy to look beyond the struggles of the current day.
Very
little is certain about the post-pandemic world, except for the promise
represented by John’s proclamation in the wilderness: God enters this
time and this space in this period of history, so that “all flesh
shall see the salvation of God”.
Our
gospel reading reminds us that even in the depths of our fear and uncertainty,
God is there lighting a path forward, drawing us close.
Live
in the moment that anticipates such a promise.
Be
in the moment that believes such promise is possible.
That is the true Being of
Advent.
Amen.
Carol of the Day – Come Now, O Prince
of Peace (ELW #247)
Creed
Let us confess the faith of our baptism, as we
say the Nicene Creed:
We
believe in one God,
the
Father, the Almighty,
maker
of heaven and earth,
of
all that is, seen and unseen.
We
believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the
only Son of God,
eternally
begotten of the Father,
God
from God, Light from Light,
true
God from true God,
begotten,
not made,
of
one Being with the Father;
through
him all things were made.
For
us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven,
was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the
virgin Mary
and became truly human.
For our sake he was crucified under
Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the
Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the
living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
We
believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who
proceeds from the Father and the Son,
who
with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified,
who
has spoken through the prophets.
We
believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church.
We
acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We
look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.
Prayers of Intercession
In this season of watching and waiting, let us pray for all people and
places that yearn
for God’s presence.
Silence
You send messengers into the world to proclaim the day of your coming.
Make our bishops, pastors, deacons, and lay preachers confident in their
preaching, that their words and our lives witness to your grace.
Hear us, O God.
Your mercy is great.
Send your Spirit to all living creatures that are endangered. Provide
them with shelter and care, and bring us into right relationship with the earth
that you create and call good.
Hear us, O God.
Your mercy is great.
Send leaders to our nations, cities, schools, and businesses to work on
behalf of those who have lost parents, spouses, and loved ones; immigrants; the
imprisoned; those living in poverty; and all who are oppressed. Make them bold
in their commitments to justice and reconciliation.
Hear us, O God.
Your mercy is great.
Send your servants to care for those who suffer. Use our ministries and
our lives to reach out with compassion to those who are hungry, oppressed,
lonely, or ill. Grant them healing and wholeness.
Hear us, O God.
Your mercy is great.
Send prophets to speak difficult truths, even when they are poorly
received. Embolden
those who ask hard questions and challenge accepted ways. Instill in
youth and elders alike a passion for pointing to Jesus in all things.
Hear us, O God.
Your mercy is great.
Please take time to offer your own intercessions or pray in silence.
We remember your saints, both those publicly celebrated and those more
humbly remembered. Confident that your work will be completed, we live in faith
until the day of your coming.
Hear us, O God.
Your mercy is great.
God of new life, you come among us in the places we least expect.
Receive these
prayers and those of our hearts, in the name of Jesus.
Amen.
Peace
The peace of Christ be with you always.
And also with you.
Offering Prayer
Let us pray.
God of our waiting and watching, we offer the
gifts of our hearts and our lives to the service of all your people. Prepare
the way before us as we meet you in this simple meal, through Christ Jesus, our
pathway and our peace.
Amen.
This service was created for live worship. For those
worshiping on your own, you may either read the Eucharistic prayer, or skip
ahead to the Lord's Prayer.
Eucharist
The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
Lift up your hearts.
We lift them to the
Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give
our thanks and praise.
It is indeed right, our duty and our joy,
that we should at all times and in all places
give thanks and praise to you, almighty and
merciful God,
through our Savior Jesus Christ;
who on this day overcame death and the grave,
and by his glorious resurrection opened to us
the way of everlasting life.
And so, with all the choirs of angels,
with the church on earth and the hosts of
heaven,
we praise your name and join their unending
hymn:
Holy,
holy, holy Lord,
God
of power and might,
heaven
and earth are full of your glory.
Hosanna
in the highest.
Blessed
are they who come in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna
in the highest.
Holy God, the Beginning and the End,
our Salvation
and our Hope,
we praise you
for creating a world of order and beauty.
When we brought on chaos, cruelty and despair,
you sent the
prophets to proclaim your justice and mercy.
At this end of the ages
your Son
Jesus came to bring us your love
and to heal
all the suffering world.
In the night in which he was betrayed,
our Lord
Jesus took bread, and gave thanks;
broke it, and
gave it to his disciples, saying:
Take and eat;
this is my body, given for you.
Do this for the remembrance of me.
Again, after supper, he took the cup, gave
thanks,
and gave it
for all to drink, saying:
This cup is
the new covenant in my blood,
shed for you
and for all people for the forgiveness of sin.
Do this for the remembrance of me.
Remembering, therefore,
his life,
death, and resurrection,
we await his
coming again
in
righteousness and peace.
Send your Spirit on us
and on this
bread and wine we share:
strengthen
our faith,
increase our
hope,
and bring to
birth the justice and joy of your Son.
Through him all glory and honor is yours,
Almighty
Father, with the Holy Spirit,
in your holy
Church,
both now and
forever.
Amen.
Lord’s Prayer
Gathered into one by the Holy Spirit, let us
pray as Jesus taught us.
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,
and the power, and
the glory,
forever and ever.
Amen.
Invitation
Come to Christ’s banquet.
Feast on God’s gift of grace.
Table Blessing
The body and blood of our Lord
Jesus Christ strengthen you
and keep you in his grace.
Amen.
Prayer After Communion
Let us pray.
Most High God, you have come among us at this table. By the Spirit’s
power, form us to be bearers of your word, sharing gifts of mercy and grace
with all, through Christ Jesus, our host and our guest.
Amen.
Blessing
The God of hope fill us with all joy and peace in believing, so that we
may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit, through Christ Jesus for
whom we wait.
Amen.
Sending Carol – Prepare the Royal
Highway (ELW #264)
Dismissal
Go in peace. Christ is near.
Thanks be to God.
No comments:
Post a Comment