Music as the Community Gathers
Words of Welcome & Announcements
The Litany of the Advent Wreath
Today is the first day of the Advent Season. This is a season of waiting, longing, and preparing. It can also be a season of frantic busyness. Perhaps this year, when we can’t be socializing as we did in regular times, we have opportunity to push pause? Perhaps this year, during Advent, we can catch our breath? Perhaps this year we can take time to consider the things that really matter?
Welcome to Advent. Welcome to worship.
This morning we light the Candle of Hope. The frail light of this single candle shines in the growing darkness of the year. This single candle reminds us of God’s Presence with us, and reminds us of our responsibility to let our light shine. This little light reminds us to focus on Hope as an alternative to the despair around us and perhaps within us.
Introit VU#7 “Hope Is a Star”
Hope is a star that shines in the night, leading us on till the morning is bright. When God is a child there’s joy in our song. The last shall be first and the weak shall be strong, and none shall be afraid.
Opening Prayer
Here we are again, Holy One, at the outset of another Advent Season – the beginning of another church year. Yet this year is different than any we’ve known. This year, more than ever, we need the hope offered as we approach your coming to us anew. Bring quietness now to our harried and anxious lives. Help us, as we worship this day, to be aware that we do meet you here embodied in sisters and brothers. By this encounter, by the power of your Spirit, enliven and empower us that when our worship service ends, we might go from this place to love the world in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Opening Hymn VU#2 “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus”
-
Come, thou long expected Jesus, born to set thy people free: from our fears and sins release us, let us find our rest in thee.
-
Israel’s strength and consolation, hope of all the earth thou art, dear desire of every nation, joy of every longing heart.
-
Born thy people to deliver; born a child and yet a king; born to reign in us forever; now thy gracious kingdom bring.
-
By thine own eternal Spirit rule in all our hearts alone; by thine all sufficient merit raise us to thy glorious throne.
Bible Readings: Isaiah 64.1-2,8; I Corinthians 1.3-9
The Words of Isaiah:
O that thou wouldst rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at thy presence – as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil – to make thy name known to thy adversaries, and that the nations might tremble at thy presence.
Yet, Holy One, thou art our Father; we are the clay, and thou art our potter, we all are the work of thy hand.
The Words of St. Paul:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I give thanks to God always for you because of the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in him with all speech and all knowledge – even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed among you – so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ; who will sustain you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the community of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
“Of Pottery. . .No Gift Lacking”
We can hear the pathos, the distress, the longing in the words that we read from the Prophet Isaiah this morning.
“O that you wouldst rend the heavens and come down. . .”
The prophet was speaking to the Holy One on behalf of the Jews who had returned from Exile in Babylon. They had been released by Cyrus of Persia – after he had defeated the Babylonian Empire. They had grown up in Babylon, hearing the stories of their parents, grandparents, great-grandparents about the glory of Jerusalem and of Solomon’s Temple. They were released to return home to Judah – to restore the city and rebuild the temple. I’m mean really, how hard could it be? Maybe a few weekends work should do the trick. They should be able to count on some help from the neighbours, right?
Wrong on all counts.
They arrived back, after several weeks walking through the wilderness. No one had told them that it was 1678 miles of hard going, much of it with only goat paths to follow. Perhaps you recall the words from Handel’s Messiah – which many of us have enjoyed hearing sung by great choirs accompanied by great orchestras especially at this time of year. (Often the Mendelsohn Choir and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra performed in concert at Massey Hall or Roy Thompson Hall.) Quoting from the King James Version of this same Book of Isaiah, Chapter 40, Handel put the text to music:
“Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain.”
Well it wasn’t exactly like that when the folk set out across the trackless wastes to find their way home. And when they got there, they found only piles of rubble that were inhabited by wild animals – and the neighbours who lived close by weren’t happy to welcome them back. In fact, when they did start to rebuild, they had to work with a sword close at hand to defend against the hostile neighbours. So, this third Isaiah cries out to the Holy One to tear open the sky and come down – to make the Divine Presence felt – especially felt by the enemies of the people. In Verse eight the Prophet reminds the Holy One – reminds the LORD God that he is their father – that they are his children. He uses the metaphor of clay in the potter’s hands. Isaiah longs for God to intervene to mould and make his people – and to accomplish with them all that they hoped to have accomplished – a return to the glory of David’s Reign and the glory of Solomon’s Temple. Their daily experience of reality was a long way from that ideal. And so, the lament. We can find ourselves in this reading from the ancient history of Israel. Looking around us on this first Sunday of the Season of Advent – as we have lit the candle of hope – we are filled with longing for the reign of God to overtake us and our world. Oh the need! Political assassination in the Middle East. Civil war in Ethiopia claiming many thousands of lives – many civilian lives in the last 36 hours. An American incumbent “Lame Duck” president who refuses to admit that he has been defeated. A Climate Change emergency that is shown in killer storms and wild fires. And growing numbers of our own people – to say nothing of the hundreds of thousands elsewhere – afflicted by this terrible virulent virus.We echo the words of Isaiah!
“O that thou wouldst rend the heavens and come down. . .”
We are filled with longing for God to intervene to make things right.
So, we pray in the words of Jesus’ prayer:
“Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” O Lord, come to us now and redeem this troubled world.
We are moved also by Isaiah’s concluding words in today’s reading.
“Yet, Holy One, thou art our Father; we are the clay and thou art the potter, we are all the work of thy hand.”
The old gospel song, written by Adelaide Pollard in 1906, comes to mind:
“Have thine own way Lord, have thine own way, thou art the potter, I am the clay, mould me and make me, after thy will, while I am waiting yielded and still.”
Mould us and make us – after thy will. While we are waiting, yielded and still. While we are waiting, yielded and still. And then we have the words of St. Paul to the Church at Corinth. We read this morning part of St. Paul’s salutation to the letter. Writing to a troubled congregation where there are nasty divisions – he begins by telling them that he gives thanks for them always because of God’s grace given to them in Christ Jesus. He goes on to point out to them that they have been enriched in every way – and that they are not lacking in any spiritual gift “in the meantime”. As they wait for the revelation of Jesus – Paul implies that they had better get on with using the gifts they’ve been given. The Apostle reminds them that God is faithful – the God who called them into the community of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. We can find ourselves, also, in these words from St. Paul on this first Sunday of Advent – in this troubled world in which we find ourselves. Although Advent is about waiting – and although we long for God to intervene to make things right in our world We aren’t to sit about waiting passively for that to happen. There is work for us to do. And we are not lacking in any spiritual gift to accomplish the work to which we are called. St. Paul, in his second Letter to this same Church at Corinth, picks up the metaphor from Isaiah 64. He says:
“We have this treasure in earthen vessels.” We are those earthen vessels – those fragile clay pots.
Our Creed proclaims that God is at work in us and others, by the Spirit. God, our Great Potter, is at work to continue to form and reform us so that we can accomplish the ministries to which we are called. Again, our Creed states it plainly:
We are called to be the Church. To love and serve others. To live with respect in creation. To proclaim Jesus. . .
And – “In life, in death, in life beyond death, God is with us. We are not alone.”
This is our basis of our hope on this Advent Sunday.
God, our Great Potter, is faithful. We are called into the Community of Christ’s Body, the Church. We are gifted by the Spirit for the ministry of taking up Jesus’ ministry of compassion here in our village, in our town, in our county, in our world. And even though our Christian Church in the world is divided. Even though we are a fragile cracked earthen vessel – God has work for us to do.
Until that great day when God’s Reign in Christ will be complete and the brokenness and pain and suffering and injustice of our world will be replaced by healing and wholeness and justice and peace – until that day we are equipped to continue to make a difference.
To make a difference for all the world – for the whole earth. Let’s get on with it.
Amen.
Acknowledgement of Gifts, Tithes and Offerings
Prayers of Gratitude & Concern
The Lord’s Prayer
Parting Hymn VU#55 “In the Bleak Mid-Winter”
-
In the bleak mid-winter, frosty wind made moan; earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone. Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow. In the bleak mid-winter, long ago.
-
Our God, heaven cannot hold him, nor earth sustain; heaven and earth shall flee away when he comes to reign; in the bleak mid-winter a stable place sufficed the Lord God almighty, Jesus Christ.
-
Enough for him, whom cherubim worship night and day, a breast full of milk and a manger full of hay. Enough for him, who angels fall down before, the ox and ass and camel which adore.
-
What can I give him, poor as I am? If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb; if I were a wiseman, I would do my part; yet what I can I give him – give my heart.
