MORRIS-ROSENFELD ECUMENICAL SHARED MINISTRY
ORDER OF SERVICE FOR SUNDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2024
SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT
Due to copyright limitations, we are unable to print the words to many of the songs. However, our musicians have chosen music to fit the scriptures. We invite you to look up the words in your worship book and ponder them. If you do not have a worship book, ponder the words of one of your favourite hymns and listen for God’s voice. Those who have the internet may find the songs on YouTube.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
The Lord is coming, always coming. When you have ears to hear and eyes to see, you will recognize him at any moment of your life. Life is Advent; life is recognizing the coming of the Lord.
~Henri Nouwen
Before we worship, we reflect…
Luke sets the preaching of John the Baptist clearly in the midst of the political and religious environment of his day. We are told the names of the emperor, governor, and other political rulers of the day. They are the ones who are supposed to care for the welfare of the citizens of their territories. Although John gave his message while he was in the wilderness, it was intended to have its impact in the farms, villages, and cities where the ordinary and the powerful live out their daily lives. John is not satisfied with the way things are, and his words help prepare us for the coming of one who will turn the world upside down. John’s words tell us to examine our own lives and the world around us. We should not be complacent in the face of injustice, but instead seek forgiveness and strive for lives that bear fruit according to God’s vision for the world.
We all have the potential to “over-spiritualize” the Bible and our faith, so that they become disconnected from the real needs of the world around us. This potential can be even greater in the days around Christmas, as we may seek to justify over-spending on gifts, excessive eating and drinking, or simply desire to escape from the difficulties of ordinary life for a time. John provides a warning about ignoring the truth about our sinfulness and the brokenness in the world. But John also repeats the promise that God ultimately will not settle for the way things are in the world, and that God’s salvation will be made known in the one who is to come: Jesus.
LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT & PRAYER
We acknowledge we gather and worship on Treaty 1 Territory, the original lands of Anishinaabeg, Cree, Anishininew, Dakota, and Dene peoples, and on the homeland of the Red River Métis Nation.
Lord God, bring us together as one, reconciled with you and reconciled with each other. You made us in your likeness, you gave us your Son Jesus Christ. He has given us forgiveness from sin. Lord God, bring us together as one, different in culture, but given new life in Jesus Christ, together as your body, your Church, your people. Lord God, bring us together as one, reconciled, healed, forgiven, sharing you with others as you have called us to do. In Jesus Christ, let us be together as one. Amen.
CALL TO WORSHIP
The day of the Lord brings grace and blessing.
We come to this day with hearts prepared for praising.
The day of the Lord brings judgment and pardon.
We come to this day with souls set on praying.
The day of the Lord brings wisdom and light.
We come to this day with minds eager to listen for God’s will.
In our praising, praying, listening, and responding,
we come to worship God.
GATHERING SONG: With One Voice 725 Blessed Be The God of Israel
CENTERING PRAYER
In this Advent of expectation draw us together in unity, that our praise and worship might echo in these walls and also through our lives.
In this Advent of expectation draw us together in mission, that the hope within might be the song we sing, and the melody of our lives.
In this Advent of expectation draw us together in service, that the path we follow might lead us from a stable to a glimpse of eternity.
CANADIAN LUTHERAN WORLD RELIEF – EDUCATION
Poverty, conflict and disasters often disrupt the education and career goals of vulnerable learners worldwide.
In the West Bank, women have far fewer opportunities than men to find employment, and the opportunities that do exist are difficult to access. For women with disabilities, the situation is even more difficult. With your support and funding from Global Affairs Canada, our GRIT program is giving Palestinian women access to technical and vocational training so they can secure their own futures and their financial independence. Now, as violence has disrupted life across the West Bank, dedicated staff and faculty have worked to transition to remote classrooms and provide extra care for students.
In Nicaragua, education remains inadequate, particularly in rural areas, limiting children’s development. Our partners are providing educational supplies, after-school tutoring and school meals to children in marginalized Nicaraguan communities in order to ensure they thrive at school. 9 partner training institutes in East Jerusalem and the West Bank supported 736 women trainees in the West Bank provided with scholarships.
A NEW CREED
We are not alone; we live in God’s world.
We believe in God: who has created and is creating, who has come in Jesus, the Word made flesh,
to reconcile and make new, who works in us and others by the Spirit.
We trust in God.
We are called to be the Church: to celebrate God’s presence, to live with respect in Creation, to love and serve others, to seek justice and resist evil, to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen, our judge and our hope.
In life, in death, in life beyond death, God is with us. We are not alone.
Thanks be to God.
PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION
Lord, you have given us your Word for a light to shine upon our path; grant us so to meditate on that Word, and to follow its teaching, that we may find in it the light that shines more and more until the perfect day; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
READINGS AND PSALM
First Reading: Malachi 3:1-4
God announces a covenant with Israel. A messenger like Malachi (his name means “my messenger”) will prepare the way for the coming of the Lord by purifying and refining God’s people, as silver and gold are refined.
1 See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight—indeed, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. 2 But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?
For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap; 3 he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the Lord in righteousness. 4 Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.
Psalm: Luke 1:68-79
68 Blessed are you, Lord, the God of Israel, you have come to your people and set them free.
69 You have raised up for us a mighty Savior, born of the house of your servant David.
70 Through your holy prophets, you promised of old to save us from our enemies, 71 from the hands of all who hate us,
72 to show mercy to our forebears, and to remember your holy covenant.
73 This was the oath you swore to our father Abraham: 74 to set us free from the hands of our enemies,
free to worship you without fear, 75 holy and righteous before you, all the days of our life.
76 And you, child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare the way,
77 to give God’s people knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins.
78 In the tender compassion of our God the dawn from on high shall break upon us,
79 to shine on those who dwell in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace.
Second Reading: Philippians 1:3-11
The apostle Paul was the pastor of many new churches. He writes in this letter about his joy to be in partnership with the Christians of Philippi. Listen to how tender-hearted Paul, sometimes a stern preacher, is with his friends as he encourages them to grow in love and knowledge.
3 I thank my God every time I remember you, 4 constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, 5 because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now. 6 I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ. 7 It is right for me to think this way about all of you, because you hold me in your heart, for all of you share in God’s grace with me, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. 8 For God is my witness, how I long for all of you with the compassion of Christ Jesus. 9 And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight 10 to help you to determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, 11 having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.
Gospel: Luke 3:1-6
John the Baptist is a herald of Jesus, whose way is prepared by “repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” As we hear the careful record of human leaders, we sense the spectrum of political and religious authority that will be challenged by this coming Lord.
1 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, 2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3 He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, 4 as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah,
“The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
5 Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low,
and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth;
6 and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’ ”
HYMN: Voices United 18 There’s A Voice In The Wilderness
SERMON
Of the four Evangelists, Luke gives the impression that he sees himself as an historian. For this reason, he at several points places his characters in the larger historical framework and narrative of the Roman world. Hence, John is born “in the days of King Herod of Judea” (1:5), and Mary and Joseph set out for Bethlehem because of the census ordered by Emperor Augustus, “when Quirinius was governor of Syria” (2:1-2). While the details of Luke’s history are far from precise, factual accuracy is not his concern. Rather, Luke is making a confession of faith: the events he narrates, though apparently small on the world stage — the birth of a son to a priest and his barren wife, the fortunes of a pregnant young woman and her fiancé — are of global significance.
The same is true of today’s reading where Luke pulls out all the stops and names not just one or two historical figures to anchor his story, as in previous scenes, but rather lists seven leaders both secular and religious. Along side this distinguished company, John is nothing, the son of a small-town priest. As well, he is nowhere, out in the wilderness. But readers of the scriptures will recognize that this is the setting for prophecy, as it is to this John, rather than to the mighty, to whom, as Luke narrates simply, “the word of God came.”
While Luke gives less attention to John’s clothing or diet than Matthew or Mark, he nevertheless also sees him as a representative of the Old Testament prophets. John was of priestly lineage on both sides of his family, is named by the angel Gabriel as having the spirit and power of Elijah, and fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah. Similarly, John, moved by the word of God, plays two characteristically prophetic roles: (1) He calls for repentance and, indeed, proclaims a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, and (2) he also precedes, prepares the way for, and foretells the coming of the Messiah, the one who is the salvation of Israel.
In this way, John serves as the hinge of history, drawing to a close the age of the law and the prophets and initiates the age of redemption when, in the words of John’s spirit-filled father, “by the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us…”.
Luke is deliberate with his words, giving us the historical backdrop of his story and focusing our attention on the particular character of John – who will advance the plot of his narrative. Luke is also deliberate about the name dropping. He does not name Tiberius, Pilate, Herod, Philip, Lysanias, Annas, and Caiaphas merely to set the stage for John’s appearance, but rather to throw in sharp contrast the forces that will oppose him and the one who foretells.
Luke is interested in the impact his gospel story will have not simply on the world as kosmos — the world as it is generally perceived — but also on the world as oikoumene— the world as it is influenced by the political, economic, and religious powers. John is preaching of repentance because it will literally turn people away from the powers that be and turn them to God, which, of course, threatens those invested in the present order.
Perhaps this is why Luke extends the quotation from Isaiah. The advent of the one John anticipates will not only straighten paths, but also fill valleys, bring down mountains, straighten what is crooked, and smooth that which is rough. In this light, it is perhaps not surprising that further on in the story, John’s preaching will ultimately lead to his beheading by one of those just named, while Jesus will still later be crucified by another. Those who are threatened by repentance and forgiveness, after all, will not go without a fight.
In these opening verses Luke lays out the primary dramatic tension that will occupy his remaining chapters. John comes preaching repentance and forgiveness, and the one who follows him, but is greater than him, will do likewise. Both will end up dead, but their deaths — and even more, Christ’s resurrection — will shake the foundations of power these seven represent and upon which they stand. Indeed, by the time Luke writes his gospel, all seven are dead, a fact not lost on the community for whom Luke writes, while those who follow Jesus persist, and even flourish.
In this way, Luke moves beyond locating the story of John and Jesus in world history to actually locating — and reinterpreting — the history of the world in light of the story of John and Jesus. Luke locates and reinterprets the history of the readers of his gospel in light of this story as well. Those drawn into this story, Luke proclaims, though perhaps oppressed by the powerful of the world, have nevertheless been joined to Jesus’ death and resurrection and so will also and eventually triumph. After all, John’s preaching will “give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death and guide our feet into the way of peace”.
Nor does Luke’s bold evangelical reinterpretation of history stop here. Consider again Luke’s extension of the familiar passage from Isaiah: it is, ultimately, “all flesh” that “will see the salvation of God” (3:6). In one stroke Luke reaches across history to claim all of his readers — then and now — who have put their faith in Jesus. For we who sit and listen to this reading about a nobody named John, gripped by the word of God in the nowhere of the wilderness, are likewise suddenly, mysteriously, and oh so powerfully included in the story of repentance, forgiveness, and salvation that begins here but ends only with the close of the age John establishes.
It is advent. Advent means to wait and prepare while waiting. For whom do we wait? We wait for the Messiah. How to we wait? We wait by preparing our hearts and minds to receive the Messiah. And how do we prepare our hearts and minds? We prepare our hearts and minds by acknowledging the ways in which we have become disconnected from God – and change our ways so that we stay connected. We acknowledge the ways in which we harbor resentments and forgive those, whom we perceive, have wronged us. We let it go. The future starts now. So that, on the morn we celebrate the messiah’s birth, we will embrace, and be embraced, by the Christ child, and it will be a glorious moment indeed! Amen.
HYMN OF THE MONTH: Voices United 12 She Walked In The Summer
PRAYERS OF INTERCESSION
As we prepare for Emmanuel, God-with-us, let us pray for all people and places that long for God’s presence.
Refining God, move through your church. Root out practices that harm your people, and kindle a fire for sharing the gospel among bishops, moderators, pastors, deacons, and all the baptized. Lord, in your mercy,
receive our prayer.
Renewing God, transform your creation. Steer us from habits that harm what you have made, and guide us in practices that preserve and restore creatures and habitats. Lord, in your mercy,
receive our prayer.
Ruling God, teach the nations your ways. Strengthen organizations and communities that broker peace and care for refugees, immigrants, and all caught in the center of conflict. Lord, in your mercy,
receive our prayer.
Rescuing God, restore your people who are in any need. Heal all who are suffering. Provide comfort and strength, and nurture sustained wholeness for the future. Lord, in your mercy,
receive our prayer.
Reforming God, fill this congregation with your presence. Enrich our seasonal preparations, and bless the efforts by worship planners, musicians, staff, clergy, and lay leaders as they work in the weeks ahead. Lord, in your mercy,
receive our prayer.
Reassuring God, we remember those who have died and rest in you. Guide us in deep gratitude for their life, and allow us to learn from their faithful witness. Lord, in your mercy,
receive our prayer.
Savior of the nations, come, and receive these prayers and the pleas of our hearts, in the name of Jesus Christ.
Amen.
THE LORD’S PRAYER
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; and forgive us our trespasses, as 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 and ever. Amen.
SENDING SONG: Voices United 20 On Jordan’s Bank
BENEDICTION
God of endings and beginnings, God in the darkness and the light, God, our hope for the journey, ☩ bless and keep you now and forever. Amen.