Order, Words, & Voices
11.26.23, Advent 1 – Acknowledge Weariness, Luke 1:1-23 & Psalm 80
Order
Pre Worship Music – Spotify – Advent 2023 Playlist
Call to Worship – Songs Lynn & Team
O Come, O Come Emmanuel
Mighty to Save
Passage Reading & Candle Lighting Martha
(Note for All: at the end of ‘O Holy Night’, Team and Lynn will stay still in position still and silent, do not return to seats, and with heads bowed through prayer so as to not distract as Lynn continues to play as Mitch comes and voices prayers, – after Mitch finishes Lord’s Prayer, Lynn and team will sing O Holy Night Verse and Chorus. Then as Rick comes up for message, team singers will quietly return to seat as Lynn continues to play as Rick begins to preach using the ‘O Holy Night’ lyrics to begin message – Lynn will end music as Rick begins the words of ‘Fall on your knees’
Songs Lynn & Team
Here I Am to Worship
O Holy Night
Prayers for a Weary World & Jesus’ Prayer Mitch
Songs Lynn & Team
O Holy Night
Message Acknowledged Weariness Rick
Music At The Cross (Love Ran Red) Lynn and Team
Community/Benediction/Closing Peace Rick
Post Worship Music – Spotify – Advent 2023 Playlist
Music (slides) Lynn and Team
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
Verse 4
O come Desire of nations bind
All peoples in one heart and mind
Bid envy strife and quarrels cease
Fill the whole world with heaven’s peace
Chorus
Rejoice rejoice Emmanuel
Shall come to thee O Israel
Verse 1
Ev’ryone needs compassion
Love that’s never failing
Let mercy fall on me
Ev’ryone needs forgiveness
The kindness of a Saviour
The hope of nations
Chorus
Saviour He can move the mountains
My God is mighty to save
He is mighty to save
Forever Author of salvation
He rose and conquered the grave
Jesus conquered the grave
Verse 2
So take me as You find me
All my fears and failures
Fill my life again
I give my life to follow
Ev’rything I believe in
Now I surrender
Chorus
Saviour, He can move the mountains
My God is mighty to save
He is mighty to save
Forever Author of salvation
He rose and conquered the grave
Jesus conquered the grave
Bridge
Shine your light and let the whole world see
We’re singing
For the glory of the risen King
Jesus
Shine your light and let the whole world see
We’re singing
For the glory of the risen King
Chorus
Saviour He can move the mountains
My God is mighty to save
He is mighty to save
Forever Author of salvation
He rose and conquered the grave
Jesus conquered the grave
Passage/Candle Lighting (Slides) Martha
In the days of King Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah. His wife Elizabeth was a descendent of Aaron the priest. Elizabeth and Zechariah were both righteous before God, they walked blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord.
Because Elizabeth was barren they had no children and their old age caused them both to naturally assume that she could never have a child.
As Zechariah was serving as a priest before God he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. As he was in the temple burning the incense before God, a whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense.
Unbeknownst to the people outside, an angel of the Lord appeared to Zechariah standing on the right side of the altar of incense. Zechariah was paralyzed in fear.
The angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth.”
“Your son will turn many of the children of Israel back to the Lord their God. He will go before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make the people ready for the Lord.”
Zechariah said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is also very old.” The angel replied to Zechariah, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news.”
“Because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place.”
While this was taking place, the people were outside waiting for Zechariah wondering why he was taking so long in the temple. When Zechariah finally came out, he was unable to speak to them, and the crowd realized that he had seen a vision in the temple.
Zechariah kept making signs to the people and remained mute. And when his time of service at the temple was over, he went to his home to silently be with Elizabeth.
Luke 1:5-23
[Slide] Today, on this first Sunday of Advent, we light the candle of HOPE
Music (Slides) Lynn and Team
Verse 1
Light of the world
You stepped down into darkness
Opened my eyes let me see
Beauty that made
This heart adore You
Hope of a life spent with You
Chorus
So here I am to worship
Here I am to bow down
Here I am to say that You’re my God
And You’re altogether lovely
Altogether worthy
Altogether wonderful to me
Verse 2
King of all days
Oh so highly exalted
Glorious in heaven above
Humbly You came
To the earth You created
All for love’s sake became poor
Chorus
So here I am to worship
Here I am to bow down
Here I am to say that You’re my God
And You’re altogether lovely
Altogether worthy
Altogether wonderful to me
Bridge
And I’ll never know how much it cost
To see my sin upon that cross
And I’ll never know how much it cost
To see my sin upon that cross
Chorus
So here I am to worship
Here I am to bow down
Here I am to say that You’re my God
And You’re altogether lovely
Altogether worthy
Altogether wonderful to me
Verse 1
O holy night the stars are brightly shining
It is the night of the dear Savior’s birth
Long lay the world in sin and error pining
Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn
Chorus 1
Fall on your knees
O hear the angel voices
O night divine
O night when Christ was born
O night O holy night
O night divine
Verse 2
Led by the light of faith serenely beaming
With glowing hearts by His cradle we stand
So led by light of a star sweetly gleaming
Here came the wise men from Orient land
The King of kings lay thus in lowly manger
Chorus 2
He knows our need
To our weakness is no stranger
Behold your King
Before Him lowly bend
Behold your King
Before Him lowly bend
Verse 3
Truly He taught us to love one another
His law is love and His gospel is peace
Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother
And in His name all oppression shall cease
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we
Let all within us praise His holy name
Chorus 3
Christ is the Lord
O praise His name forever
His power and glory
Evermore proclaim
His power and glory
Evermore proclaim
In all our trials born to be our Friend
Prayer (Slides) Mitch
[Slide – Prayer Title slide through prayer until the Lord’s prayer]
Gracious God, You carry us through our days. You know every word on our tongue, every hair on our head. You know the dreams in our hearts, and the weight of our bones.
You also know the weariness we bring with us into the morning and into this space. So with honesty we come before you, both with hearts full of gratitude and with concerns on our lips.
Holy God, we thank you for the gifts of this life that give energy.
For birthday candles and sunrises, for handwritten cards and jobs and for stories that make us laugh until we cry, and for friends that feel like family. For all these gifts, thank you.
We also bring you the things that weigh heavy on our hearts. For the suffering around the world and the suffering that is next door, or even in our homes. For those that we have lost and those that are painfully, yet patiently struggling through recovery. For seasons of transition and grief that won’t let us go—we ask for your attention. We ask for your love and care.
God, thank you for giving us room for both joy and grief, weariness and awe, sometimes at the same time. There is room for faith and doubt, for nothing is too big or too far gone for your love to reach.
With hope in our hearts, we unite our voices once more to pray the words 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.
Music (slides) Lynn and Team
O holy night the stars are brightly shining
It is the night of the dear Savior’s birth
Long lay the world in sin and error pining
Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn
He knows our need
To our weakness he is no stranger
He knows our need
To our weakness is no stranger
Behold your King
Before Him lowly bend
Behold your King
Before Him lowly bend
Fall on your knees
O hear the angel voices
O night divine
O night when Christ was born
O night O holy night
O night divine
Message (Slides) Rick
O holy night the stars are brightly shining
It is the night of the dear Savior’s birth
Long lay the world in sin and error pining
Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn
He knows our need
To our weakness he is no stranger
Truly He taught us to love one another
His law is love and His gospel is peace
Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother
And in His name all oppression shall cease
Fall on your knees
O hear the angel voices
O night divine
O night when Christ was born
O night O holy night
O night divine
A thrill of Hope, a weary world rejoices.
The exact time reference for Psalm 80 and reference to the situation that called for the Psalm to be written is not fully understood, it could have been written near the end of the time of Israel as the Assyrians were attacking the Northern Kingdom of Israel, or it could be the decades while all the Isrealites were slaves in exile. It could be during the time of silence between our OT and NT. It could even be earlier during the reign of David. But whenever, it is a time of weariness, of sensing that God is, and has been silent, a call to God to answer their prayers and to make himself known. Prayers that God would once again be their shepherd. It is the cry of weariness, cries that assume the worst, cries that reveal the hopelessness of a people who are failing to see God. It is the cries of a people who have forgotten the Hope of the promise. A hope that is not abandoned by an angry God but is still lying just under the surface of the soil they stand on.
[Slide] O Shepherd of Israel who leads Israel like a flock; O God enthroned above the Guardian Angels, bend down your ear and listen as I plead. Display your power and radiant glory. Let us see you rouse yourself and use your mighty power to rescue us.
[Slide] Turn us back to you, O God. Look down on us in joy and love, for only then will we be saved.
[Slide] O Jehovah, God of heaven’s armies, how long will you be absent and reject our prayers? You have fed us with sorrow and tears and have made us the scorn of the neighboring nations. They laugh among themselves.
[Slide] Turn us back to you O God of Hosts. Look down on us in joy and love for only then shall we be saved.
[Slide] You brought us from Egypt as though we were a tender vine and drove away the heathen from your land and planted us in their place. You cleared the ground and tilled the soil, and we took root and filled the land.
[Slide] We existed across the entire land from the Mediterranean Sea to the Euphrates River. But now we are without protection.
[Slide] Come back, we beg of you, O God of the armies of heaven, and bless us. Look down from heaven and see our plight and care for us, your vine! Protect what you yourself have planted, this son you have raised for yourself.
[Slide] We are chopped and burned by our enemies. May they perish at your frown. Strengthen us, the son of your choice and we will never forsake you again. Revive us to trust in you.
[Slide] Turn us back to you, O God. Look down on us, your face aglow with joy and love, for only then shall we be saved.
Psalm 80:1-19
[End Screen Share]
[Slide] It is interesting as Mary asks the angel Gabriel, “How will this be since I am a virgin?” Gabriel responds with an explanation of how this process will make the impossible possible. However, when Zechariah asks, “How will I know?” the angel Gabriel responds by making the priest mute until the child is born. The answer to Zechariah reminds us of Moses’ question of “How will I know…” when God answers, “You will know when you look back and see that I have worked.” For Zechariah, he was muted, silenced. His weariness had rendered him unable to speak.
We can be weary in various ways. We can be weary because of our age. We can be weary because of our waiting. We can be weary because we have faced the same routine for years and seemingly seen nothing change. We can be weary because of the loss of a loved one, or the task of being a caregiver 24/7. We can be weary for children who are becoming adults or we can be weary caring for newborns as we accept the role of shaping lives as those children grow up. We can be weary looking at our bank account or the tsunami of doom, lies, and deceit that hits us in political seasons such as this. We can be weary when we don’t see hope and when all we see is failure.
We can be weary when we think God is absent and we can be weary when we know God is present even though his presence seems an unattainable reality. We can be weary for numerous reasons, but must we stay singularly weary? Must weariness be our sole focus that dictates our feelings and emotions? Can we coexist with our weariness and our hope at the same time? Is there a way to experience weariness and still insist on the promised blessed hope that is to come?
[Slide – How Can this be?] Zeachariah asks the angel, “How will I know that this is so? For I am an old man, and my wife is also getting on in years.” When we are weary, we tend to seek clarity instead of insisting on God’s grace to provide for us during the weariness. As a result, Zechariah is kept silent or muted – which is not a punishment but is actually a blessing (we will look at this in a moment). Zechariah is before the people who were wondering about his delay in the temple, they realize that he had seen a vision. What we notice in the text is that the crowd, having witnessed his inability to speak, does not speak on the issue either. Weariness destroys our ability to believe and instead gives us the darkness of hopelessness.
[Slide – Weariness] The weariness of the author of the psalm text speaks of a cry for restoration. Weariness has shaken their hope and the request is for restoration, to let God’s face shine again, and an outcome of salvation. This request is made three times in the Psalm. It is said that if something appears three times in the sacred text, then it must be important. Restoration is important especially amid weariness because there must be a light at the end of the tunnel. There must be a way to combat the weariness of the current times. There must be a glimpse of hope that helps to sustain us during the weary times and grants us the opportunity to rejoice even in the darkness.
Back to the blessing of silence given to Zechariah. The only way for him to grasp joy in the midst of his weariness was to acknowledge the weariness, the pain, the doubt, the sadness. “For I am an old man, and my wife is getting on in years.” Then in the silence he was able to see God work, literally. As the baby grew in Elizabeth’s womb, God’s blessing could not be ignored by Zechariah. With each jolt of pain experienced by Elizabeth, she, along with her silent husband, could not deny God was still present.
Zechariah, would have missed the joy if he had been distracted by his own voice attempting to figure out his own answer to his question, “How will I know”, which ironically was being happening right in front of his eyes.
[Slide – Gibson quote] Writer Andrea Gibson says, “You can’t shut yourself off to grief without also shutting yourself off to joy. You have to think of it like a kink in the hose. You stop the flow of sadness, you stop the flow of happiness at the same time. So I’m crying about twice an hour and then I’m bursting into laughter. It’s feeling it all to be open to this moment and to the aliveness of this moment.”
[Slide – Zechariah] So, how do we rejoice in the midst of our weariness? This was surely a question that Mary and Joseph asked long before the announcement of a child. This was surely the question that Zechariah and Elizabeth had asked for decades in the midst of their grief. This was surely a question that the Father asked as he sent his only son to be born in a stable. This is the question we must ask in acknowledging our own weariness in order that we can, at the same time, be open to seeing the work of God going on just below the surface of the garden.
Mother to Son
BY LANGSTON HUGHES
A poem written about his mother’s to not allowing weariness destroy hope and perseverance.
[Slide – Poem] Well, son, I’ll tell you:
Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
It’s had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor—
Bare.
[Slide – Poem] But all the time
I’se been a-climbin’ on,
And reachin’ landin’s,
And turnin’ corners,
And sometimes goin’ in the dark
Where there ain’t been no light.
[Slide – Poem] So boy, don’t you turn back.
Don’t you set down on the steps
’Cause you finds it’s kinder hard.
Don’t you fall now—
For I’se still goin’, honey,
I’se still climbin’,
And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
[End slides/screen share]
Shall we carry on even as weariness consumes us, shall we look for the joy even when the mundane overwhelms us, can we choose to grab ahold of hope even as we acknowledge the negative that seeks to commandeer our focus and our steps. During this Advent season, may accept the challenge to choose hope even while we intentionally acknowledge the weariness of this of life.
Message Closing Prayer
God, no matter how many times we wear ourselves thin, no matter how many times we lose ourselves to weariness, no matter how many times we ask ourselves, “How can this be?”… your love, O God, keeps showing up for us. God we bathe ourselves in the fact that we are loved by you, we are claimed by you, we are forgiven by you. May those promises be a constant empowerment of our hope in you. Thank you God. Amen.
Music (Slides) Lynn and Team
Verse 1
There’s a place
Where mercy reigns and never dies
There’s a place
Where streams of grace flow deep and wide
Where all the love I’ve ever found
Comes like a flood comes flowing down
Chorus
At the cross at the cross
I surrender my life
I’m in awe of You I’m in awe of You
Where Your love ran red and my sin washed white
I owe all to You I owe all to You (Jesus)
Verse 2
There’s a place
Where sin and shame are powerless
Where my heart
Has peace with God and forgiveness
Where all the love I’ve ever found
Comes like a flood comes flowing down
Chorus
At the cross at the cross
I surrender my life
I’m in awe of You I’m in awe of You
Where Your love ran red and my sin washed white
I owe all to You I owe all to You (Jesus)
Bridge
Here my hope is found
Here on holy ground
Here I bow down here I bow down
Here arms open wide
Here You saved my life
Here I bow down here I bow (down)
Chorus
At the cross at the cross
I surrender my life
I’m in awe of You I’m in awe of You
Where Your love ran red and my sin washed white
I owe all to You I owe all to You (Jesus)
Community (Slides) Rick
- Next Sunday, 2nd day of Advent 12.03.23 @ 10:30am, How does a weary world rejoice? We find joy in connection Luke 1:24-45 (Gabriel visits Mary; Mary goes to Elizabeth) | Isaiah 40:1-11…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.
- Christmas Eve, December 24, 4:40pm/5:00pm, No morning worship that day
Benediction (Slides) Rick
How does a weary world hope? By telling stories of hope, by lighting candles in the night, and by planting seeds in the winter that will bloom in the spring. By praying for children as they grow and our own as we age and become frail, and picking up trash on the sidewalk.
By insisting that small acts can make a difference. We hope by remembering our God who is love, in grasping the empty grave, by holding to Jesus’ challenge to not be afraid, and by living like Jesus in a world that does not always remember how Jesus acted. There are a million ways to practice hope.
So today, as we leave this place, we exit remembering the light of the advent candle of hope – allowing that light to be our charge and our challenge. Remembering that with God’s help, we will be an instrument of hope in our weary world.
Closing Peace (Slides) Rick
Leader: May the Peace 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 into your world.
Order, Words, & Voices 