Order, Words, & Voices
12.17.23, Advent 4 – Love, Songs of Hope, Luke 1:46-55, 67-80
Order
Pre Worship Music – Spotify – Advent 2023 Playlist
Opening Song (Video)
A Weary World Rejoices Video
Call To Worship/Participatory Reading Rick
Call to Worship – Songs Team
O Come O Come Emmanuel
O Come All Ye Faithful
PassageReading & Candle Lighting (Love candle) Dave
Songs Team
Away in a Manger
Silent Night
Prayers for a Weary World & Jesus’ Prayer Martha
Message Songs of Hope Rick
Music ? Team
Community/Benediction/Closing Peace Rick
Post Worship Music – Spotify – Advent 2023 Playlist
Opening Song
A Weary World Rejoices Video
Call To Worship/Participatory Reading Rick
Leader: How does a weary world rejoice? We sing songs of hope, allowing hope to change us, to strengthen us. We tell the stories of what could be.
Response: We listen for God’s word, we choose to resist the temptation to give up or give in.
Leader: We acknowledge our weariness and gather together to worship, to connect, to allow others to help us carry our burdens, to allow ourselves to help carry their burdens.
Response: We hope, against all odds, we hope.
Leader: We remember Mary’s words of rejoicing in weariness, “My soul magnifies the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, he has looked with favor on my lowly state.
Response: “The Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.”
Leader: Even in Mary’s weariness she continued to recognize that God’s mercy is for all who fear him from generation to generation.
Response: Mary sung of God’s strength and how he scatters the proud.
Leader: Voiced in a time of oppression and misery, Mary proclaimed that ‘God has brought down the powerful and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things.’
Response: Mary sang, ‘God is merciful, and remembers his promises.’
Leader: In the midst of our weariness may we rejoice. In the midst of this day that the Lord has made may we hope.
Reponse: On this day, as we gather, we worship our holy God.
Music (slides) Team
O Come O Come Emmanuel CCLI Song # 31982
Verse 1
O come O come Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear
Chorus
Rejoice rejoice Emmanuel
Shall come to thee O Israel
Verse 2
O come Thou Dayspring come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night
And death’s dark shadows put to flight
Chorus
Rejoice rejoice Emmanuel
Shall come to thee O Israel
Rejoice rejoice Emmanuel
Shall come to thee O Israel
CCLI Song # 31982
O Come All Ye Faithful 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
CCLI Song # 31054
Passage/Candle Lighting (Slides) Dave
John’s father, Zechariah, prophesied: “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed us.”
“God has raised up a mighty savior for us in the house of David, as God promised through the prophets that we would be saved from our enemies and from all who hate us.”
“God has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors and remembered the oath he swore to our ancestor Abraham, that we will serve God without fear, in holiness and righteousness in God’s presence all our days.”
Then, Zechariah turned the prophecy towards his son John, “You, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give his people knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins.”
“Because of the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to shine upon those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
The child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day he appeared publicly to Israel.
Luke 1:67-80
Light 4th candle
Music (Slides) Team
Away In A Manger CCLI Song # 38583
Verse 1
Away in a manger no crib for a bed
The little Lord Jesus laid down His sweet head
The stars in the sky looked down where He lay
The little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay
Verse 2
The cattle are lowing the Baby awakes
But little Lord Jesus no crying He makes
I love Thee Lord Jesus look down from the sky
And stay by my cradle ’til morning is nigh
Verse 3
Be near me Lord Jesus I ask Thee to stay
Close by me forever and love me I pray
Bless all the dear children in Thy tender care
And fit us for heaven to live with Thee there
CCLI Song # 38583
Silent Night CCLI Song # 27862
Verse 1
Silent night holy night
All is calm all is bright
Round yon virgin mother and Child
Holy Infant so tender and mild
Sleep in heavenly peace
Sleep in heavenly peace
Verse 2
Silent night holy night
Shepherds quake at the sight
Glories stream from heaven afar
Heav’nly hosts sing alleluia
Christ the Savior is born
Christ the Savior is born
Verse 3
Silent night holy night
Son of God love’s pure light
Radiant beams from Thy holy face
With the dawn of redeeming grace
Jesus Lord at Thy birth
Jesus Lord at Thy birth
Verse 4
Silent night holy night
Wondrous star lend thy light
With the angels let us sing
Alleluia to our King
Christ the Savior is born
Christ the Savior is born
Prayer (Slides) Martha
[Slide – Prayer Title slide through prayer until the Lord’s prayer]
Please join me in prayer.
God of yesterday, today and tomorrow, you are here, present with us as we pray. You hear our words, you listen to our hearts. Along with all of creation, we acknowledge we are a people who are weary. We are a people that need each other, a people who desperately need you.
We experience Zechariah’s song of the future and Mary’s song of the now. Words of rescue, redemption, and salvation – words of blessing, goodness, and protest. Words of hope, peace, joy, and love.
Holy God, we sing our own songs. Songs of the beauty that stands against the backdrop of landfills and battlefields. Songs of the hope of the empty tomb and the faithfulness or your Son we were yet unfaithful. Songs that come from Awe and Amazement.
May our songs name the moments of our genuine reflection of you as experienced in your Son. May we too call out injustice, lift up the poor and hungry, be a comfort to our sick and aching world.
God, may our lives reflect you.
God, with those in this room, and those online, we pray the words that your son taught us to pray:
[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.
Message Rick
[Slide – Leave slide up until noted]
Stony the road we trod, bitter the chast’ning rod felt in the days when hope unborn had died. …
[Slide] Out from the gloomy past till now we stand at last where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.
[Slide] Lift ev’ry voice and sing till earth and heaven ring with the harmonies of liberty. Let our rejoicing rise high as the list’ning skies, let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
[Slide] Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us. Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us….
(CCLI Song # 7071034)
[End Screen Share]
These words in song were first performed on February 12, 1900 by 500 school children at the Stanton School in Jacksonville, Florida in recognition of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. Words written by their principal, James Weldon Johnson to make a statement against racism and Jim Crow laws. Words meant to confront the rise of the Klan and the lynchings of black men and women. The song became an anthem always reminding the singers to not give into this evil..
How did James Weldon Johnson express his concerns and hope, he along with 500 of his students sang. How does a weary world rejoice? They sing. How do we rejoice when we are weary? We sing.
Songs are powerful. They can be sung with instruments and they can even be sung without instruments where the words carry the total weight of the message. Songs can take us back to a moment in our past, they can cement a moment in our hearts, they can confront us and encourage us. It is possible that words are most powerful when said in song. Just a few notes played at the end of a game over here at the stadium will bring the faithful to sing of their loyalty to their school. In Stillwater, a simple rhythmic musical beat will have arms waving over heads like wheat blowing in the fields. Our Star Spangled Banner reverently reminds of the sacrifice and pain that gave us our freedoms in which we live today.
In 1924 the first radio was installed in a car for $130 which was pretty significant considering that the car itself cost $540. Having that built in radio gave us, a century later, the ability to drive while not forgetting that Taylor Swift is never, never ever, going to go back to her boyfriend and that, in this time of year, that Grandma Got Ran Over By A Reindeer.
As soon as Zechariah’s voice returned his first spoken words were gratitude and blessing said through song. A song of praise for God’s protection and promise, a showering of blessing on his newborn son, a story of hope.
[Slide – Leave slide up until noted]
After Elizabeth proclaimed blessings upon Mary, the response of Mary was in song: “My soul magnifies God; my spirit rejoices in God.” She sang about the God of liberation who pulls the powerful from their thrones and lifts up the lowly. As with Zechariah, Mary’s was also a story of hope in which justice and joy are interwoven.
Mary, Elizabeth, and Zechariah were on a journey that, so far, was similar. They had all begun with weariness, a weariness that was centuries long. These three, along with all of Israelites, were an understandably weary people. In was a generational weariness passed down for over 500 years, or over fifteen generations, their people had ceased to be a people, they had, in the eyes of some, ceased to be human. They were ruled and oppressed by others and other nations. They were continually aware that their destinies were not their own, their property, possessions, place, and even their families, could be taken away at any minute.
The promise from God that had been given to their ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, a promise of a land, a people, and a deliverer, was a very faded fantasy that few dared to imagine and fewer still had let go of any and all expectations. Their God was a seemingly absent God whose caring and compassion was found only in stories of their past. Few remembered God, and fewer still looked for any evidence of God. For generations they lived under a dark cloud. They knew of no reason to rejoice, hope, peace, and joy were all frivolous dreams. Generation after generation had settled into a state of weariness considering hope and peace as an untenable reality.
But Mary, Elizabeth, and Zechariah has been pulled into an alternate reality than that of their ancestors and peers. They had, for nine months, watched for and witnessed God’s work. They were in awe as they saw the hand of God work, they were amazed as the words of the angel Gabriel came to be.
As they increasingly looked for God’s works, they increasingly saw God. Places they had never looked before were the exact places they witnessed God at work. As they watched more fervently they saw with a greater focus. Their eyes and ears, and even their hearts and minds, became more and more open to expect God. So they sang a song.God made the impossible possible, was their anything that God could not, or would not, do – was there anything that God had already done but had not been seen because no one was looking for it..
Mary did not quit singing songs, she kept tiny notes in her heart, notes about the shepherds, the wise men, Simeon and Anna in the temple, notes that became a treasure, a treasure that became a very personal song treasured in her heart and sung silently in her mind. There would come a time when she could no longer see God’s working, singing the treasured songs would become more and more difficult, those moments of awe and amazement would risk being absorbed into an ugly backdrop.
In the days of the birth narrative, singing a story was much like keeping a diary. The song put the moments of amazement as well as those moments of despair, into their hearts and minds. Zechariah’s song became a reminder to those around of this significant moment. For Mary, her song was personal, it was a treasure, which would hold to Mary as she struggled to survive the weariness of her life and sustain her. It would be a song that served as a constant reminder of God’s eternal love and how he had used her in the expression of that love.
[Slide]
How Does a Weary World Rejoice?…We Sing. We sing a song of rejoicing even in the midst of weariness, a song proclaiming the goodness of God, a song that confronts the backdrops that attempt to keep us from seeing the glory. We sing, of our awe and amazement which we have allowed ourselves to see God. We have intentionally worked to see God rather than to have a sole focus on our own frustration, fear, exhaustion, resentment, unhappiness, selfishness, and anger.
[Slide]
How do We rejoice in the midst of weariness?
- [Slide] We choose to admit, to confess our weariness. It is a step that takes courage and humility. It may be huge, or we may think it too small to notice – weariness is real and can impact us in an exhausting manner. Weariness stops us, it blinds us to hope and peace, it destroys our ability to live joyfully which inhibits us from rejoicing.
- [Slide] We choose connections. We connect to others, we connect to God. We let God help us carry our burden, we let others help us carry our burden. We learn to d the same for them.
- [Slide] We choose Joy. Even in the midst of all the elements that cause our weariness, factors that can steal our hope and steal our peace – we recognize the reality of weariness but also we see the good, the happiness, the contentment. We allow weariness and happiness and contentment to coexist. This is joy, making space for both in our lives and an intentionality that the landfills and battlefields of our lives are not going to keep us from seeing God at work.
- [Slide] We choose to sing songs, songs that remind us of the awe and amazing moments seeing the hands and feet of God.
Songwriter Mark Stephen Gersmehl wrote.
[Slide] We are His hands, we are His feet, we are His people, children of the Lord. We share the hope, we share the dream, believers in Jesus, children of the King.
[Slide] His Spirit lives within us flowing like a river, filling us with strength, so that we can reach out for our brother and help one another.
[Slide] Some of us build, some are teachers, some can sing like angels but all of us can love like He loved pure and simple so warm and gentle.”
CCLI Song # 15283
[End Screen Share]
This is rejoicing, this is living in God’s Love – singing the songs for ourselves and for each other, this is our song being for each other. This is our song – loving each other just as God loves us.
Prayer
“God of our weary years, God of our silent tears, thou who hast brought us thus far on the way. Thou who hast by thy might led us into the light, keep us forever in the path we pray. Lest our feet stray from the places Our God where we met thee. Lest our hearts drunk with the wine of the world we forget thee shadowed beneath Thy hand. May we forever stand true to our God, true to our native land.”
Amen.
(Lift Every Voice, CCLI Song # 7071034)
Music (Slides) Team
O Come All Ye Faithful (Adeste Fideles)
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
CCLI Song # 31054
Community (Slides) Rick
- Next Sunday, Christmas Eve 12.24.23 @ 4:40/5:00pm, Christmas Eve, How does a weary world rejoice? We make room Luke 2:1-20 (Nativity story) , candlelight service – Birth narrative. No morning worship next Sunday …Devo books still available today.
- Budget discussion and affirmation today following morning worship
- Weariness and Joy tree
- ‘In-Between’ Bible Study beginning January 10, Wednesdays at noon (Tuesdays during Lent). Evening BS if enough interest expressed. Covering passage in-between Sunday passages.
Benediction (Slides) Rick
As we leave this place may our first step out the door allow us to hear the song of God’s creation. As we notice the withering grass and the fading flowers, may Creation’s song remind us that God’s truth, God’s word, never fades and never withers, but instead, stands forever.
May our ears be open to hear, may our eyes be willing to see. May the backdrop of winter not be permitted to mute the song or distract us from the beauty of truth. Let us welcome the lyrics and allow the words to sink deep into the marrow of our bones. May the amazement stick with us as the songs seeps into our brains.
May we leave here with hopeful hearts, open hearts and minds, and an understanding that we are loved by God.
Closing Peace (Slides) Rick
Leader: May the Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love of the Lord go with you into our weary world.
Response: And also with you.
Leader: Go in the Hope, Peace, Joy and Love of the Lord as you go into your world.
Order, Words, & Voices 