Order, Words, & Voices
12.03.23, Advent 2 – Connection, Luke 1:24-45 & Psalm 80
Order
Pre Worship Music – Spotify – Advent 2023 Playlist
Call to Worship – Songs Sharon & Team
O Come All Ye Faithful
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
Passage Reading & Candle Lighting Isaiah
Songs Sharon & Team
What Child Is This?
Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus
Prayers for a Weary World & Jesus’ Prayer Mitch
Lord’s Supper Rick
A Weary World Rejoices Video
[Start video as Rick picks up the first element, bread, of the Lord’s Supper]
Message Find Joy in Connection Rick
Music Let There Be Peace on Earth Sharon and Team
Community/Benediction/Closing Peace Rick
Post Worship Music – Spotify – Advent 2023 Playlist
Music (slides) Sharon and Team
O Come All Ye Faithful (Adeste Fideles)
CCLI Song # 31054
Verse 1
O come all ye faithful
Joyful and triumphant
O come ye O come ye to Bethlehem
Come and behold Him
Born the King of angels
Chorus
O come let us adore Him
O come let us adore Him
O come let us adore Him
Christ the Lord
Verse 2
Sing choirs of angels
Sing in exultation
O sing all ye bright
Hosts of heav’n above
Glory to God all
Glory in the highest
Chorus
O come let us adore Him
O come let us adore Him
O come let us adore Him
Christ the Lord
Verse 3
Yea Lord we greet Thee
Born this happy morning
Jesus to Thee be all glory giv’n
Word of the Father
Now in flesh appearing
Chorus
O come let us adore Him
O come let us adore Him
O come let us adore Him
Christ the Lord
Hark The Herald Angels Sing (Mendelssohn)
CCLI Song # 27738
Verse 1
Hark the herald angels sing
Glory to the newborn King
Peace on earth and mercy mild
God and sinners reconciled
Joyful all ye nations rise
Join the triumph of the skies
With th’angelic hosts proclaim
Christ is born in Bethlehem
Hark the herald angels sing
Glory to the newborn King
Verse 2
Christ by highest heav’n adored
Christ the everlasting Lord
Late in time behold Him come
Offspring of the Virgin’s womb
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see
Hail th’incarnate Deity
Pleased as man with men to dwell
Jesus our Emmanuel
Hark the herald angels sing
Glory to the newborn King
Verse 3
Hail the heav’n-born Prince of Peace
Hail the Sun of Righteousness
Light and life to all He brings
Ris’n with healing in His wings
Mild He lays His glory by
Born that man no more may die
Born to raise the sons of earth
Born to give them second birth
Hark the herald angels sing
Glory to the newborn King
Verse 4
Come Desire of nations come
Fix in us Thy humble home
Rise the woman’s conqu’ring seed
Bruise in us the serpent’s head
Adam’s likeness now efface
Stamp Thine image in its place
Second Adam from above
Reinstate us in Thy love
Hark the herald angels sing
Glory to the newborn King
Passage/Candle Lighting (Slides) Cricklins
[Slide] After those days Zecharia’s wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she remained in seclusion. She said, “This is what the Lord has done for me in this time, when he looked favorably on me and took away the disgrace I have endured among my people.”
[Slide] In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.
[Slide] The angel came to Mary and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” Mary was perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.
[Slide] The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus.”
[Slide] “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
[Slide] Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?”
[Slide] The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God.”
[Slide] “Right now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.”
[Slide] Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.
[Slide] Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town where Zechariah and Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb.
[Slide] And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. Why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me?”
[Slide] “For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”
Luke 1:24-45
[Slide] Today, on this second Sunday of Advent, we light the candle of PEACE
Music (Slides) Sharon and Team
What Child Is This (Greensleeves)
CCLI Song # 30983
Verse 1
What Child is this who laid to rest
On Mary’s lap is sleeping
Whom angels greet with anthems sweet
While shepherds watch are keeping
This this is Christ the King
Whom shepherds guard and angels sing
Haste haste to bring Him laud
The Babe the Son of Mary
Verse 2
Why lies He in such mean estate
Where ox and ass are feeding
Good Christian fear for sinners here
The silent Word is pleading
Nails spear shall pierce Him through
The cross be borne for me for you
Hail hail the Word made flesh
The Babe the Son of Mary
Verse 3
So bring Him incense gold and myrrh
Come peasant king to own Him
The King of kings salvation brings
Let loving hearts enthrone Him
Raise raise the song on high
The Virgin sings her lullaby
Joy joy for Christ is born
The Babe the Son of Mary
‘Tis So Sweet To Trust In Jesus (Trust In Jesus)
CCLI Song # 22609
Verse 1
‘Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus
Just to take Him at His word
Just to rest upon His promise
Just to know thus saith the Lord
Chorus
Jesus Jesus how I trust Him
How I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er
Jesus Jesus precious Jesus
O for grace to trust Him more
Verse 2
O how sweet to trust in Jesus
Just to trust His cleansing blood
Just in simple faith to plunge me
‘Neath the healing cleansing flood
Chorus
Jesus Jesus how I trust Him
How I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er
Jesus Jesus precious Jesus
O for grace to trust Him more
Verse 3
Yes ’tis sweet to trust in Jesus
Just from sin and self to cease
Just from Jesus simply taking
Life and rest and joy and peace
Chorus
Jesus Jesus how I trust Him
How I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er
Jesus Jesus precious Jesus
O for grace to trust Him more
Verse 4
I’m so glad I learned to trust Thee
Precious Jesus Savior Friend
And I know that Thou art with me
Wilt be with me to the end
Chorus
Jesus Jesus how I trust Him
How I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er
Jesus Jesus precious Jesus
O for grace to trust Him more
Prayer (Slides) Mitch
[Slide – Prayer Title slide through prayer until the Lord’s prayer]
Loving God, the source of our joy, we turn our hearts toward you. As we pray, we first ask that you bend down and whisper in our ears. We pray for a weary world even as we, ourselves, may also be weary. We acknowledge our weariness before you. We acknowledge that we permit our weariness to create callouses on our hearts – we ask that you would soften them. We ask that you will weave yourself into our weariness, and our joy, releasing both to coexist in our lives. We pray the same plea for those suffering around our world as well as those living next door to us. And as you do this, like flowers toward the sun, we will turn ourselves toward you, eager to hear your voice so true that we cannot help but ask ourselves, “How can this be?”
God, with those in this room, and those online, together we unite our voices in hope, praying the words your son taught us to pray, saying together:
[Slides] 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. Forgive us our trespasses, while 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. Amen.
Lord’s Supper Rick and Video
Zechariah lost his voice, Elizabeth escaped the judgment of other to isolating herself, Mary presumed the worst – they were all alone even when a world was all around them. A world with voices, community, and relationships, was outside, these three were alone and quiet, speaking only to an angel. Sinking into a pit of weariness, a weight that had only recently become much more to bear, needing a rescue but unaware the their rescue would take place in the presence of each other.
[Pass out elements, and partake, as video plays.]
Message (Slides) Rick
Ben Shive & Elizabeth Holcomb write…
After the silence of waiting so long we hear a baby’s first cry. Into our midnight a heavenly song whispers that hope is alive. Oh joy to the world on this holy night, sing with the angels that fill up the sky. Heaven broke through and now hope is alive. He is right here among us, our God is with us tonight and hope is alive.
In an old stable beneath the bright stars a young mother is holding her son. Oh the beauty of feeling the beat of God’s heart that tells us that we’re not alone. Our Emmanuel has come.
Into our aching, into our breaking, into our longing to be made whole, God’s arms are reaching, His love is holding us close. Into our suffering, into our weeping, into this need we have to be known, God’s arms are reaching, His love is holding us close.
Oh joy to the world on this holy night, sing with the angels that fill up the sky. Heaven broke through and now hope is alive. He is right here among us, our God is with us tonight and hope is alive.
This advent season we are asking the question, ‘How does a weary world rejoice? Rejoice…Joy…
Joy, the impetus of rejoicing, is a conundrum, especially in reference to the biblical birth narrative. ‘Joy to the world!’ Joy is sometimes a tough thing to define when the circumstances seldom match up to most any definition we give to the concept of joy and rejoicing. Actually, the Christmas story itself is not really conducive to our preferred definitions of joy.
Social Scientist Brene Brown defines joy in an interesting way. “Joy is a brief state of intense happiness.” Brown believes that joy stems from a feeling, or a sense, of deep connection and appreciation, and that it has a spiritual aspect—a sense of experiencing something greater or more powerful than ourselves. “Joy can occur in response to a person, an environment, or an experience—for example, seeing someone you love, standing by a beautiful waterfall.”
[Slide – leave screen share, latest slide, up until noted to stop share]]
I think I mostly agree with Brown’s definition, but, to make it more identifiable to our lives, as well as to the lives of the characters in the Nativity narrative, I would make one change…Instead of ‘seeing someone you love in front of a beautiful waterfall’ I would alter it to ‘seeing someone you love in front of a landfill, or a battlefield.’ A moment of joy but with the backdrop of the reality of your own reality. A moment in which we have the choice to attempt to force our focus on just one of the two things, or, an acceptance of both, together. Joy is not one or the other. Joy enables us to take it all in together.
[Slide]
Joy is the ability to coexist with happiness and weariness.
So, we face the choice to allow the two to coexist or we choose to take an unhealthy path attempting to retreat into a state of isolation, of denial. Like a monk attempting to withdraw into a monastery, or a religious institution maneuvering to control the politics, opinions, and behaviors of their external community. The best visual is a race horse that has side blinders on to keep him from looking at anything other than the lines of the race track. An attempt to force humans to wear blinders usually ends with paranoia and shameful secrets becoming the foundational core of our existence.
The Christ centered alternative is to acknowledge that weariness and joy do, in fact, coexist and that our attempts to deny this truth leave us sequestered in a fortress which we soon realize has become a prison.
[Slide] Last Sunday we lit the first candle, the candle of Hope. Lasting and persevering hope is only possible when our focus of our hope is not always standing in front of a waterfall but, instead, sometimes in front of the landfill. The savior in a manger, surrounded by smelly animals while an oppressive emperor and paranoid King stand at the stable threshold constantly threatening to break down the very fragile door. Hope was the small baby. Hope was evident to a young couple who fully recognized the paradox of their situation – weariness and rejoicing.
[Slide] Today, our candle is peace. Peace enlarges the irony of Joy. Peace is not really possible without hope – peace requires something beneath the surface, an inner core recognition of the reality of the backdrop, while still focusing on the unseen, ungraspable, and unnoticed hope that is standing in front of the reality.
For much of our world, at this very moment in our modern history, the background is a battleground crashing down on homes, destroying lives, with guns, bullets, and bombs.
Peace. Or to the hillside shepherds who lived lives of a mundane existence under the oppressive hand of the Roman politicians, the angels pronounced “Peace on Earth.”
[Slide] Peace and Hope are the two intertwined elements of joy that allow us to hold to the promise that just beneath the surface, under the soil on which we stand, waiting to emerge before our eyes is the evidence of our hope and peace.
[Slide] A loved one standing in front of a huge smelly landfill with armed soldiers running over it in our direction tugging to steal our joy.
[Slide] Our devotional reading this week reminded us that we are not sure about Mary’s journey, we just know it was a quick decision probably to replace her own isolation for connection with loved ones. We don’t know if Mary traveled alone, but even if she did, her mental and emotional state made it a journey of isolation. Imagination tells us what she was probably asking herself, “Does God know how young I am?” Her weariness surely led to questions asking how her how her family would respond, how would her community would respond, and sadly, questions of how the religious leaders would respond.
There was probably another, even bigger question Mary may have been asking. The Luke passage is the only passage that details the visit to Elizabeth, while the Matthew passage is the only passage that details the messenger to Joseph. So, it is more than probable that Mary left without any assurance that Joseph was not going to reject her. His response could provide comfort or it could destroy her life – this had to create a heavy and concerning backdrop.
While we don’t hear her questions – we do witness her resolve expressed in her travel to her relative Elizabeth’s house. Two pregnant women meeting and sharing their experiences with one another. Two pregnant women, who are related but surely different from one another. One is young and one is old. One is married and one is maybe engaged. One is carrying the Son of God and one is carrying the one who prepares the way for the Son of God. They were both separate when they got news of God’s plans for their lives. It is when they are connected that they experience their shared weariness and joy. It is when they come out of their isolation that weariness and joy becomes a powerful connection that makes joy a bit more visible.(borrowed from Rev. Cecelia D. Armstrong)
[Slide] Connection. Community.
When Mary arrives as Elizabeth’s house, Elizabeth has been alone for five months, probably due to the same reasons Zechariah was silenced. Elizabeth probably had questions, she whe needed to fully witness God’s presence as evidenced in his work without the distraction of the gawkers and those who had judged her and her husband for decades. Elizabeth and Mary probably had at least one shared question, “Does the Lord know how old I am?”
[Stop Screen Share]
When we are weary, we can find it hard to identify joy. When we are weary, we might find it difficult to share space with others because our weariness has seemingly stolen our joy. We naturally question if it is even possible to be joy-filled by yourself? Sure, there are things we can do that bring joy, but what external joy is possible without others to acknowledge it and affirm it? Could it be that internal joy can only be actualized in external connections? Shared joy, connections, community, empowers a weary world to rejoice.
In connection and community our joy expands and is sharable. When we are unable to rejoice, we can carry each other’s joy which is what Elizabeth and Mary do for each other. Perhaps Mary’s arrival is the moment that changes everything for Elizabeth, in that moment, Elizabeth’s child leaps in her womb and she is filled with the Spirit. She can’t help but to rejoice. Her joy is contagious and wraps around Mary like a hug, regardless of the backdrop. Through holy connections we often hear God speak tender words of comfort; words that open the floodgate of not just hope but also a sustainable peace.
Joy is rooted in connection – connection expands beyond our weariness. We usually emphasize how Elizabeth provides sanctuary for Mary, however Mary’s arrival seemingly pulls Elizabeth out of her seclusion, allowing her to experience the joy, the hope, the peace that is right in front of her. In this moment, Elizabeth recognizes the presence of the Spirit which makes space for her weariness and joy. Mary and Elizabeth enable each other to focus on the loved one and not just to see the landfill. There is a mutuality in their joy- they are both holding joy for each other, and in that connection, joy expands and grows.
What are you, what are we, doing with your weariness? How are you, how are we, seeing weariness and joy?
Prayer
God of our joy and God of our weariness, we bring our worn-down hearts to you. Hearts full of grief, hearts carrying fear, hearts that may be tender to the touch. We bring our weariness to you O God because we know that you are present with us in the valleys. You were born into moments of weariness like us, our tears of weariness are not unfamiliar to you. As we prepare to return to the backdrops of our lives, we ask that you continue to walk with us, to stay by our side through the valley, and as we climb our way out. We are grateful for your presence and your closeness. We know that we cannot move forward in weariness and joy without you. With honesty and gratitude, we release to you, O God, the weariness and joys of our hearts. We give them all to you.
Amen.
Music (Slides) Sharon and Team
Let There Be Peace On Earth
CCLI Song # 93690
Verse 1
Let there be peace on earth
And let it begin with me
Let there be peace on earth
The peace that was meant to be
With God as our Father
Brothers all are we
Let me walk with my brother
In perfect harmony
Verse 2
Let peace begin with me
Let this be the moment now
With ev’ry step I take
Let this be my solemn vow
To take each moment
And live each moment
In peace eternally
Let there be peace on earth
And let it begin with me
Community (Slides) Rick
- Next Sunday, 3rd day of Advent 12.10.23 @ 10:30am, ‘How does a weary world rejoice? We allow ourselves to be amazed.’ Luke 1:57-66 (The birth of John) & Psalm126, candle – Joy …Devo books still available today, Insert with Calendar for devotionals and other resources. If you worship with us online and would like a digital copy of our devotional book send Rick an email or request.
- 2024 Budgets available today. Budget discussion and affirmation on Sunday, December 17 following morning worship
- Christmas Eve, December 24, 4:40pm/5:00pm, No morning worship that day
- Weariness and Joy tree
Benediction (Slides) Rick
How does a weary world find joy, how does a weary world experience peace? What do we do when those days come, when the waters of fear rise, when isolation steals our joy, and corrupts our peace?
We allow God to comfort us. We let God comfort us like a shepherd with his flock. We avail ourselves to allow God to gather us into his arms and carry us to safer ground where we might experience hope, joy, and peace in the ways God has in store for us.
Until that promised day, like Mary and Elizabeth, we do our best to keep finding one another. Like Mary and Elizabeth, we will do our best to open the door to one another, to God, and to the joy and peace that connection brings.
We leave this place remembering the light of the advent candles of hope and peace – allowing God’s light to be our charge and our challenge. Remembering that with God’s help, we will be an instrument of peace and joy in our weary world.
Closing Peace (Slides) Rick
Leader: May the Peace, Joy, and Hope of the Lord go with you into our weary world.
Response: And also with you.
Leader: Go in the Peace and Hope of the Lord as you go into your world.
Order, Words, & Voices 