Service of Worship
Prelude – Midori
Suo Gan – Now the Heavens Start to Whisper
James Biery
Welcome and Opening Prayer
Opening Prayer
Loving God,
be to us as a bulldozer of the spirit.
Clear your road in us;
clear a path through the detritus of possessions and obsessions.
Thrust aside our divided aims and devious games.
Topple the ramparts of pride and the doubts that deride.
Make a highway on which Christ may come
and take possession of the whole territory of our being.
To the glory of your name we pray.
Amen!
Opening Hymn — #196 Come Thou Long Expected Jesus
1. 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
2. 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
Come Thou Long Expected Jesus (Hyfrydol)
Charles Wesley | Rowland Hugh Prichard
Public Domain
Scripture Reading — Matthew 1:18-21 (NRSV)
18 Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. 20 But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
Children’s Time with Ms Becky
Joys and Concerns — Pastoral Prayer
Pastoral Prayer
Your season comes, Lord.
Come once again,
and feed your flock like a shepherd.
Come once again,
and gather up the children, the oppressed,
the sick, the lonely, the humble,
and the rejected of the earth.
Turn our hearts to the least of your children,
for if we lose them,
we become lost.
Reconcile us to you
and to those we have hurt.
At this Advent,
join us together with neighbors, with strangers,
and especially with our own household.
Bring us to your light
in our time of darkness,
through your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Lighting of the Advent Candle
Reader One: Our lists are long, even in this strange mess where we live these days. And we want to do it right, we want to be safe, but we want to be able to enjoy the season. We’ve got work to do to put right what has gone wrong, to heal what is broken, to mend the relationships, and to prepare for the company that will come.
Reader Two: The prophet Isaiah reminded us that there is work to be done. “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” When God comes in, then healing is to be found, but we need to make the way; we need to open the door into our lives.
Reader One: So, we light these candles as a sign of our faith that the God we worship is not far from us and that we can clear the way for that God to come and dwell with us. We light these candles in faith that company is coming.
Reader Two: O Come, O Come Emmanuel.
Offering Introduction
Offering Our Gifts to the Lord
For those who are called and able, gifts and tithes can still be made through online giving, by mailing them in, and by dropping them off to the office through the secure mail slot to the left of the double door entry to the church hallway.
Offertory — Sam
Emmanuel
Andy Gullahorn | Hannah Kerr | Jill Phillips
© 2017 Hannah Kerr Music | Songs of Black River | The Gullahorns Music
Used by Permission. CCLI License # 656051
Doxology
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow;
praise him, all creatures here below;
praise him above, ye heavenly host;
praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.
Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow (Old 100th)
Louis Bourgeois | Thomas Ken
Public Domain
Offertory Prayer
Almighty God, as John the Baptist identified the arrival of the Messiah, this Advent season, that role falls on us. As we bring our tithes and offerings to you, we pray that our giving continues to point to the Christ who comes in love and compassion, with more concern for those who don’t have enough and little concern that those who have so much will get more. May our giving in this season reflect our hope for a new kind of kingdom to reign in our world. We pray this in the name of the Messiah, Jesus our Savior. Amen.
Sermon – Pastor Stacy Dickson
Soap and Water
Closing Hymn — #211 O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
1. O come O come Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear
Refrain
Rejoice rejoice
Emmanuel shall come to thee
O Israel
2. 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
Refrain
3. 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
Refrain
4. 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
Refrain
O Come O Come Emmanuel (Veni Emmanuel)
Henry Sloane Coffin | Laurence Hull Stookey | Thomas Helmore
© Words: 1940, 1943, 1981, 1989 The United Methodist Publishing House
Music: Public Domain
Used by Permission. CCLI License # 656051
Communion and Benediction
A new day is dawning!
Despite what we see and hear in the world around us,
the sunrise is coming.
When it comes, it will break through the darkness of our world—
darkness caused by violence and death and hunger and despair.
And all those who now sit huddled in the shadows
will be able to rise and walk with confidence in the light.
So go from here with courage and hope,
to love and serve the Lord. Amen.
Postlude – Midori
Carol Rhapsody
Richard Purvis