Worship Guide
December 10, 2023
Second Sunday of Advent
Creating Disciples of Jesus who Transform the World
ENTRANCE WITH PRAISE
Greetings:
Minister: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you!
People: And also with you!
Lighting the Advent Candle - Peace
Reader 1: In days when God’s people longed for peace, Isaiah declared, “Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins”
Reader 2: We who gather today also seek comfort and peace, yet we are unsatisfied with ideas of peace that tell us to keep quiet and go with the flow. We long for real peace, true peace, just peace.
People: We wait as people who yearn for peace that bears the fruit of community, equity, and flourishing for all.
Reader 1: We light these candles as signs of God’s shocking hope and just peace. May they be beacons calling us to repent and to live the good news of Jesus Christ as we wait and watch and labor for the day when all people can gather together to worship and glorify God. Amen
Reader 2: As we prepare ourselves to welcome the birth of the Prince of Peace, we hear that the festive lights that normally shine bright in Bethlehem will not be lit this year in memory of those killed in the recent violence. To stand alongside our sisters and brothers in Christ, and all who mourn this Christmas, we will leave our second Advent candle unlit during Advent and Christmas.
Special Music: “This Christmas” Meagan
Centering Words:
In the waiting, God calls. May steadfast love and faithfulness rest in our souls. May justice, righteousness, and peace guide our steps and define our community of faith.
*Call to Worship:
Leader: Prepare the path of God.
People: We prepare by waiting with patience.
Leader: Prepare the path of God.
People: We prepare by living with faith and love.
Leader: Prepare the path of God.
People: We prepare by pursuing justice and peace.
Leader: Prepare the path of God.
People: We prepare, we wait, we pray.
Leader: May God bless you with both patience and passion.
People: We wait and pray to create the path of God.
Leader: Let us pray.
ALL: While we are waiting, come to us, O God. Reveal your presence in our time of worship. Guide our steps in our speaking and our doing. Flow through our lives, our church, and our world with your steadfast love, unending faithfulness, righteous justice, and mysterious peace. In patient anticipation we pray. Amen.
Hymn: “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”
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 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.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, O come, great Lord of might,
who to thy tribes on Sinai’s height
in ancient times once gave the law
in cloud and majesty and awe.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, thou Root of Jesse’s tree,
an ensign of thy people be;
before thee rulers silent fall;
all peoples on thy mercy call.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, thou Key of David, come,
and open wide our heavenly home.
The captives from their prison free,
and conquer death's deep misery.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, thou Dayspring, come and cheer
our spirits by thy justice here;
disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
and death’s dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, Desire of nations, bind
all peoples in one heart and mind.
From dust thou brought us forth to life;
deliver us from earthly strife.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
PROCLAMATION OF THE WORD
Words of Assurance
God will feed you with goodness and grace.
God will give you what is good– mercy and forgiveness, love and acceptance, an eternity of justice and peace.
Praises be to our God. Amen
*Old Testament Reading: Isaiah 40:1-11
1 Comfort, O comfort my people,
says your God.
2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and cry to her
that she has served her term,
that her penalty is paid,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand
double for all her sins.
3 A voice cries out:
“In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
4 Every valley shall be lifted up,
and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
and the rough places a plain.
5 Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
and all people shall see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
6 A voice says, “Cry out!”
And I said, “What shall I cry?”
All people are grass,
their constancy is like the flower of the field.
7 The grass withers, the flower fades,
when the breath of the Lord blows upon it;
surely the people are grass.
8 The grass withers, the flower fades;
but the word of our God will stand forever.
9 Get you up to a high mountain,
O Zion, herald of good tidings;
lift up your voice with strength,
O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings,
lift it up, do not fear;
say to the cities of Judah,
“Here is your God!”
10 See, the Lord God comes with might,
and his arm rules for him;
his reward is with him,
and his recompense before him.
11 He will feed his flock like a shepherd;
he will gather the lambs in his arms,
and carry them in his bosom,
and gently lead the mother sheep.
Leader: This is the Word of God for the people of God
People: Thanks be to God.
WORD AND RESPONSE
Time with Young Friends: “Jesus Loves Me”
Children’s Message: “Hear Ye, Hear Ye”
Hymn: “One Holy Night in Bethlehem”
One holy night in Bethlehem
the air was filled with song.
Angelic voices sang on high
and shepherds piped along:
Sing glory, glory, gloria!
God’s love is given birth!
Be not afraid, Sing gloria,
and peace to all the earth!
Their music echoed through the town
into the stable stall,
where Mary sang a lullaby
and rocked her baby small:
Sing glory, glory, gloria!
God’s love is given birth!
Be not afraid! Sing gloria,
and peace to all the earth!
As Joseph touched the lamb’s soft wool,
and fed the donkey hay,
he whistled his own happy tune
and thanked God for this day:
Sing glory, glory, gloria!
God’s love is given birth!
Be not afraid! Sing gloria,
and peace to all the earth!
Be still, and you will hear tonight
these melodies of old.
Then join your voice in harmony
until the tale is told:
Sing glory, glory, gloria!
God’s love is given birth!
Be not afraid! Sing gloria,
and peace to all the earth!
Sermon: “Our Just Peace” Mark 1:1-8
1 The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
2 As it is written in the prophet Isaiah,
“See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way;
3 the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight,’ ”
4 John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 6 Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7 He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. 8 I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
RESPONSE TO THE WORD
Special Music: “Noel” Meagan
Psalter: A Modern Affirmation
Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is the one true church, apostolic and universal, whose holy faith let us now declare:
We believe in God the Father, infinite in wisdom, power, and love, whose mercy is over all his works, and whose will is ever directed to his children's good.
We believe in Jesus Christ, Son of God and Son of man, the gift of the Father's unfailing grace, the ground of our hope, and the promise of our deliverance from sin and death.
We believe in the Holy Spirit as the divine presence in our lives, whereby we are kept in perpetual remembrance of the truth of Christ, and find strength and help in time of need.
We believe that this faith should manifest itself in the service of love as set forth in the example of our blessed Lord, to the end that the kingdom of God may come upon the earth. Amen
Gloria Patri
Glory be to the Father and to the son
and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen. Amen.
Prayers of the People Joys and concerns
Silent Prayer, Pastoral Prayer
SENDING FORTH
Hymn: “Angels from the Realm of Glory”
Angels from the realms of glory,
wing your flight o’er all the earth;
ye who sang creation’s story
now proclaim Messiah’s birth.
Come and worship, come and worship,
worship Christ, the newborn King.
Shepherds, in the field abiding,
watching o’er your flocks by night,
God with us is now residing;
yonder shines the infant light:
Come and worship, come and worship,
worship Christ, the newborn King.
Sages, leave your contemplations,
brighter visions beam afar;
seek the great Desire of nations;
ye have seen His natal star.
Come and worship, come and worship,
worship Christ, the newborn King.
Saints, before the altar bending,
watching long in hope and fear;
suddenly the Lord, descending,
in his temple shall appear.
Come and worship, come and worship,
worship Christ, the newborn King.
Benediction
