Worship
for the Lord’s Day
Second
Sunday of Advent
December
6, 2020
Announcements:
·
Our churches have suspended in-person worship until the first of the year,
which makes this Christmas, like Easter, a very different experience for most
of us. We do so sadly, but want to
ensure that all of our members and friends that normally join us for worship
stay safe and that our gathering does not in any way contribute to one single
person getting sick.
·
If
you are a member/friend of the congregations you’ve already
received a packet to begin the Advent Season. I will post an adapted version online each
day at this site, like I had been doing with the daily meditations for most of
this year.
· This Sunday marks the Second Sunday of Advent, if you have an Advent
Wreath, you can light your own candle during the service or enjoy the lighting
of our virtual one by clicking on the link below during the Lighting of the
Advent Wreath.
Let’s begin our worship
service together:
Prelude
Call to Worship
(if
you are worshipping with others in your house, feel free to have one person
read the regular text and all others read the highlighted text)
Longing for peace, our world
is troubled. Longing for hope, many
despair. Your word alone has power to
save us. Make us your living voice.
Christ be our
light!
Shine in our hearts. Shine through the darkness.
Christ, be our
light!
Shine in Your Church
gathered and scattered today.
The Light shines in the
darkness,
But the darkness has
not overcome it.
During Advent our weary
souls seek God’s daily strength.
The
Lord gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.
We grow weary when fear
overshadows faith.
The Lord gives strength
to the weary and increases the power of the weak.
We grow weary when
destructive actions erupt in the world around us.
The Lord gives strength
to the weary and increases the power of the weak.
For all of us feeling
weary this Advent season:
Grant that we might
have the peace of Christ as we wait, the love of Christ as we act, and the
grace of Christ as we speak.
Today we light two candles.
The first candle illuminates patience in the areas of our lives where
God has called us to wait. The second
candle extends the promise of strength to all who feel weary and weak in the
shadows of this world. As we continue
our Advent journey, may our hope be kindled as the light grows brighter.
Lighting the Advent
Wreath
Hymn: Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus
Prayer of Confession
God of mercy and compassion,
scripture says that if we draw near to You, You will draw near to us. In a shadowy world where human weakness and
weariness reside, we confess that we rely on our own weaknesses believing them to
be strengths. We ask for You to draw
near and dispel the darkness around us.
May the light of this season illuminate our hope, strength, and
steadfast endurance as we await the coming Savior. We pray this in the name of Christ, our
Lord. (Silent
prayers are offered) AMEN.
Words of Assurance
In God’s love and mercy, we are given each new day for
the healing of the world. In the name of
Christ, you are forgiven. AMEN
Affirmation of Faith –
The Apostles’ Creed
I believe in God the
Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ His only Son
our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost; born of the Virgin Mary;
suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; He descended
into hell; the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven
and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence He shall
come to judge the quick and the dead. I
believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy catholic church; the communion of saints;
the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life
everlasting. Amen.
Pastoral Prayer:
Directing God, who has offered us a way through the darkness
to Your light, be with us this day as we rush headlong into this holiday
season. Remind us again of the wonders
that You have in store for us. We are
getting wrapped up in ribbon, tape, and paper to the point where we can no
longer move. We are prisoners of our own
best intentions, reflected in our gifts. Break through the clutter and the darkness of
our souls. Shine Your light on our path.
Calm our spirits, lift our hearts to You.
As we have lifted so many names and
situations to You for Your healing and comforting love, we also bring our
lives, ourselves for Your care and mercy. Help us remember that You always care for us. You have sent us Your very best, not in a
greeting card, but in the person of Jesus, Your beloved Son, that we might come
out of our darkness and into the light of Your Kingdom. Heal and protect us, gracious Lord. Shine Your light again in our lives that we
may see the true spirit of this season is in loving and taking time to listen
and care for ourselves and for others.
Be
with our families, friends, and neighbors who suffer from illness, sorrow,
alienation, marginalization, abuse and fear.
Bring healing and peace to their lives and their souls. Also Lord, be with our families, friends, and
neighbors who are experiencing great joy and happiness. May their spirits rejoice in all these good
moments and in Your great gifts. We offer
this prayer, along with our silent requests today.
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 debts as we forgive our
debtors. And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. For Thine is
the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. AMEN.
Hymn O Little Town of Bethlehem
Scripture Readings – Today’s Sermon Video
includes the following Scripture Readings.
So, if you’d prefer to listen to it, scroll down and click on the
highlighted Sermon Title.
Old Testament: Isaiah 40:1-11
Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. 2Speak
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.
3A voice cries out: “In the
wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our
God. 4Every 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. 5Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and
all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” 6A voice
says, “Cry out!” And I said, “What shall I cry?” All people are grass, their
constancy is like the flower of the field. 7The
grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely
the people are grass. 8The
grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever.
9Get 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!” 10See, the Lord God comes
with might, and his arm rules for him; his reward is with him, and his
recompense before him. 11He 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.
New Testament: Mark 1:1-8
The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ,
the Son of God.
2As it
is written in the prophet Isaiah,
“See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way;
3the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight,’”
4John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness,
proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5And 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. 6Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a
leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7He 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. 8I have
baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
Sermon
– Oops, I might have said that it was the
Third Sunday of Advent when I recorded this.
I think I was successful in editing it out, but in case I didn’t, ignore
that. It is the Second Sunday of Advent.
Prepare the Way of the Lord
(based on Isaiah 40:1-11 and Mark
1:1-8)
His name was John. People knew him locally as the Baptist or the
Baptizer. Some would say that he was a
religious eccentric. Others less kind
would dismiss him as being simply a flake.
He definitely did not seem to be the type of personality to usher in the
news of the Messiah’s coming. He just somehow doesn’t seem to fit in with
angels, and shepherds and wise men and all the other characters that we
traditionally associate with the Christmas story. Yet, here is John, God’s unlikely servant,
chosen to herald the spectacular events that would soon follow.
From the very beginning everything
about John was pretty unique. His mother
Elizabeth was Mary’s cousin. Elizabeth conceived six
months before Mary did. But Mary
happened to be a very young girl. Most
scholars put her probable age at about thirteen. Which in those days, was not terribly
unusual.
Elizabeth, on the other hand, was a woman who
was much older. She had never given
birth to any child. John was her first
and last. You would think of her more in
the category of grandmother (perhaps even great-grandmother) than mother. Yet, she and her aging priest of a husband
were the unlikely candidates for this prophetic child.
And then there was John
himself. Being the same age as Jesus
they probably grew up together, played together as children, yet as they
reached adulthood they grew more and more apart and were different in many
ways. When John began his ministry he
lived in the desert solitude of Judea, a
rugged desert wilderness. He fed on honey
and wild locust and dressed in garments of camel hair. The next time you’re at the zoo, try and get
a feel of what camel’s hair is like.
It’s not soft and furry like a llama; something that you want to just
cuddle up in. Camel’s hair is rough and
scratchy. While living in the desert,
John constantly brooded over the scriptures, especially the prophetic ministry
of Elijah, after whom he modeled his own ministry.
John was not a respecter of persons
or rank. He had an intimidating
personality. For that reason, the upper-class
folk rejected both he and his message. I
can’t even begin to imagine what kind of embarrassment he must have been to his
aged parents. Their only son, the town
joke. Perhaps they had died long before
he became such a recluse and oddity, nobody really knows.
And yet, John gathered a respectable
following. He attracted many hearers
among the lower class, many of whom received baptism by his hands. John even drew a group of disciples around
him, which is significant for two reasons.
First, some of these disciples later became disciples of Jesus. Second, a number of people began to think of
John himself as being the long expected Messiah. And for that very reason the gospel account
written by a different John, felt obliged to specifically point out “There was
a man sent from God whose name was John.
He came for testimony to bear witness to the light that all might
believe through him. He was not the
light, but he came to bear witness to the light.”
With John the Baptist being the
character that he was - a question arises; what drew people to him and his
message? Why would anyone follow such a
strange man? I think that perhaps his
very oddness compelled people to listen to him and perhaps his strange ways
convinced some people to follow him.
Many thought he was Elijah the prophet who had returned. But there was
more to John than simply a bizarre strange life. John understood that God was about to do
something that would shake the foundations of the earth and he needed to prepare
the way for that event.
John the Baptist prepared the way
for the Messiah by living a godly life.
In an age of corruption, John the Baptist, although completely odd and
totally out of touch with contemporary fashions and lifestyle, appeared as a clean
breath of fresh air – long needed by people of his day. In his passionate embrace of goodness he
spoke out fearlessly against every form of corruption. When the religious leaders from Jerusalem turned up at his
congregational gatherings, his speeches in the wilderness, he didn’t express
delight in seeing them. Instead he
rebuked them and shouted accusations against them, “O generation of vipers who
has warned you to flee from the wrath to come!”
John’s devotion to God and his ministry was uncompromising and
complete. And the impact of his
godliness prepared the way for Jesus.
The philosopher David Hume used to
visit Haddingdon Parish Church
every year when he was there on vacation.
On one occasion a man in his party referred to it when they met after
the service. Laughingly he said, “Of
course you don’t believe all that stuff which the old man was saying do
you?” And David Hume replied, “Perhaps
not.” “Then why go?” Hume answered, “Because he believes it.” And then added in an undertone “And I wish to
God I did.”
The world has no answer to the godly
life. Some years ago a newspaper
reporter was conducting an in depth study of a Roman Catholic order of Nuns
working in Paris. The hardened reporter was convinced that the
good works, the loving philanthropy, the apparent tenderness of these women was
just a cover for obtaining financial support for their institution. He was certain, that underneath the loving
exterior lived a group of women as cold and uncaring as the rest of
society. He asked if he might accompany
one of the Nuns during a typical day.
She took him down some of the most dilapidated streets he had ever
seen. In the basement of one house was a
man who was terminally ill. The
newspaper reporter was accustomed to grim conditions but these made even him
wince. The dirt and smell were
overpowering. Rodents as large as alley
cats scurried away as they approached.
The sick man who was lying on a bundle of rags was indescribably
dirty. He was trembling. His condition was the product of poverty,
disease, alcohol and drugs. The Nun
rolled up her sleeves picked up a bowl filled it with water from a tap and
began to wash him. Suddenly the sick man
jerked up. “Sister”, he whimpered, “I’m afraid.” The reporter said “I stared in unbelief as I
saw this refined, cultured woman take that filthy wreck of a man and hold him
in her arms like a baby. Suddenly the
hovel became heaven because love was there.”
He was overwhelmed by the goodness, which he saw.
The world has no answer to the Godly
life. The only appropriate answer is to
try and find the secret of it, imitate it, and hope others will come to know it
themselves. That’s how John
prepared. He lived a godly life. Let me ask you a question, is God preparing
the way this Advent through the influence of your life?
John the Baptist prepared the way by
challenging people’s sins. There is a
growing void in knowing the difference between what is right and what is
wrong. One of the towering marks of our time
is the absence of guilt. The absence of
guilt in today’s society makes it very difficult to talk about sin and the need
for repentance. For if there is no
feeling of guilt (which is the emotion connected to the action of doing
something wrong), then the need for repentance is greatly minimized, if not
altogether eliminated.
For many the word repentance is a
word that belongs to another time. Many see it as something that we do only if
we get caught. But repentance is far
more than simply blurting out “I’m Sorry” when we get caught cheating on our
wives or stealing from the store. Nor is
repentance merely turning over a new leaf and trying to straighten up our
act. Instead, repentance means to turn
around and go in another direction. What
John the Baptist wanted his audience to hear was: turn your life toward this
one called the Messiah. When looked at
this way, repentance isn’t really a negative, it’s a positive new way of
looking at the world. It breaks the
chains of oppression and death that hold us back. It means you have stopped doing what’s wrong
and now you’re going to what’s right.
And it means one more thing. True repentance means a willingness to
confront sin. John the Baptist
challenged sin wherever he met it. Even
the King was not exempt from this. King
Herod had seduced his brother’s wife and taken her to live with him. Although the people were outraged their
religious leaders were silent. They had
to tread very carefully (or so they thought); Herod could be violent and brutal
if provoked. But this wild preacher man
from the wilderness didn’t give it a second thought. He had eyes only on God. With outspoken courage he denounced the king
and because of this he was arrested and eventually put to death.
There is a parallel story here told
of one of Verdi’s operas. Verdi was
young but he already had a great following.
He was praised up and down for his beautifully astounding works. But this particular work had been produced in
a hurry. He knew that it was not his
best, but he had no choice (or so he thought).
It was performed for the first time in Florence and at the end the enthusiastic yet
undiscriminating audience went into quite unwarranted raptures and cheered the
composer. But Verdi paid little heed to
their applause. He had eyes on one man’s
reaction. He looked to the box where
this one man sat. The adoration of the
crowd would not compensate for the lack of this man’s approval. The man was Rossini and he was not smiling. And Rossini’s approval was the only approval
Verdi sought, at the time and he knew that he had disappointed him.
The world can give us rave reviews,
we can be applauded for being wonderful people, but what does God say about
your life?
Much is wrong with our society. We can all make a list; broken relationships,
an increase in violence and dishonesty, lack of honesty and integrity in public
life. Like John, who will call us back
to God in repentance? Who will have eyes
only for the Lord not seeking the approval of the crowds? It won’t be a popular task.
This Advent we salute the forerunner
who prepared the way by challenging people’s sins. He was not after the popular vote. He had eyes only for God. Are we ready to share his work and
mission? This Advent we can prepare the
way of the Lord by pointing only to Christ.
Amen
Hymn It Came Upon a Midnight Clear
Benediction
Dear friends, on you, the light of Hope has
shined. Keep that light in your hearts
and spirits. Remember that even the
smallest beam of light can illumine a pathway. Let your light shine before others that they
may know the love of God. Go in peace
and let God’s peace flow through you. AMEN.
Postlude
