Bulletin – Sunday, December 3, 2023 – 1st Sunday in Advent / Communion
Sunday, December 3, 2023
1st Sunday in Advent / Communion
Approach
Welcome
Call to Worship
One: Grace and peace to you in the name of Jesus Christ.
All: We gather, glad to be in the presence of one another.
One: I invite you to breathe deeply, to clear your mind and body of the tension and distractions they are carrying, and to centre yourself in God. Gathered in expectant hope,
All: let us worship.
Hymn – “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus” (VU #2) (verses 1, 3, 4)
Come, thou long-expected Jesus, born to set thy people free:
From our fears and sins release us, let us find our rest in thee.
Born thy people to deliver, born a child and yet a king;
Born to reign in us forever; now thy gracious kingdom bring.
By thine own eternal Spirit rule in all our hearts alone;
By thine all-sufficient merit raise us to thy glorious throne.
Lighting the Advent Candles
One: Today is the first Sunday in the season of Advent. Advent means “coming,” and in this season we prepare the coming of Christ. Today we light the first candle, the candle of hope. Our habit of hope and hoping finds sustenance and meaning in God’s promise of fullness of life.
The first candle is lit.
All: Here we are together, not alone. On this first Sunday in Advent, we will dream and imagine a different future, a rising-up and life-flourishing one. We are witnesses to hope. The warm glow of the Divine lightens our hearts.
Response – “We Light This Candle”
We light this candle for hope.
Await the new life within.
May our hearts now live each day,
So hope can find a way,
So hope can find a way.
A Prayer to Begin
All: O that you would tear open the heavens and come quickly down, God.
One: For we confess that we need you. Your creation needs you. Despairing hearts need you. Power brokers and arms traders and drug dealers need you. Victims of violence and terror need you. Frightened, insecure parents need you.
All: O that you would tear open the heavens and come quickly down, God.
One: Tainted by cynicism, we need you. Bombarded by advertising and overwhelmed by news feeds, we need YOU.
All: O that you would tear open the heavens and come quickly down, God.
One: Feeling impotent and confused by the complex problems around us, we need YOU.
All: O that you would tear open the heavens and come quickly down, God.
One: And yet, you are here, aren’t you, God? It is we who are missing. Helps us in this time of worship, and in all the moments of our days and nights, to discover Emmanuel – God with Us – to celebrate your presence, turn to you for wisdom, and to live in your love and mercy, grace and peace. For the sake of your precious creation and each one of your creatures and children, we pray in the name of the Christ. Amen.
Response – “I am Walking a Path of Hope” (MV #221)
I am walking a path of hope,
I am walking a path of hope,
I am walking a path of hope,
Lead me home,
Lead me home.
The Word
Scripture Reading: Isaiah 64:1-9
1 O that you would tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence—2 as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil—to make your name known to your adversaries, so that the nations might tremble at your presence! 3 When you did awesome deeds that we did not expect, you came down; the mountains quaked at your presence. 4 From ages past no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who works for those who wait for him. 5 You meet those who gladly do right, those who remember you in your ways. But you were angry, and we sinned; because you hid yourself we transgressed. 6 We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. 7 There is no one who calls on your name or attempts to take hold of you, for you have hidden your face from us and have delivered us into the hand of our iniquity. 8 Yet, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. 9 Do not be exceedingly angry, O Lord, and do not remember iniquity forever. Now consider, we are all your people.
Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 1:3-9
3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 4 I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, 5 for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind—6 just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you—7 so that you are not lacking in any gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. 8 He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the partnership of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church.
Thanks be to God!
Reflection – “Tear Open the Heavens!!”
Anthem – “Be Born in Us”
In a world of darkness where light has lost its way,
And our hearts grow colder with each passing day;
Beneath the pain and sorrow, hope is waiting to be born
Through a tiny Babe whose life will change this world forevermore.
Be born in us, O Holy Child, and let the light of Your love shine within our lives.
Be born in us, O Prince of Peace, let the hope You bring this world be born in me.
To a world that’s longing for a Child and King,
For the joy and comfort only heaven’s love can bring,
We must be the beacon, we must show the world the way
To the tiny Baby whose life can change each heart that humbly prays.
Be born in us, O Holy Child, and let the light of Your love shine within our lives.
Be born in us, O Prince of Peace, let the hope You bring this world be born in me.
Born for us, to deliver,
To reign in us forever
Unto us You will be given.
Come to us, that You may be
Be born in us, O Holy Child, and let the light of Your love shine within our lives.
Be born in us, O Prince of Peace, let the hope You bring this world be born in me.
The Response
Offering
Offering Response – “May the Spirit of the Christ Child”
May the Spirit of the Christ Child show us how in love to live
For the joy and peace of Christmas is for us to share and give.
May the story of God’s coming, God with us – Emmanuel,
Fill the world with light of Christmas as in awe we do God’s will.
The Sacrament of Holy Communion
Invitation to the Table
Exchanging the Peace of Christ
One: The peace of Christ be with you.
All: And also with you.
One: God be with you.
All: And also with you.
One: Lift up your hearts.
All: We lift them up to God.
One: Let us give thanks.
All: It is right to give our thanks and praise.
Response – “A Christmas Lord’s Prayer”
Our Father in heaven, all praise to your name.
Your kingdom in heaven, on earth be the same.
By mortals and angels, come, Lord reign alone;
O hear us and bless us, from heaven’s high throne.
The bread that we yearn for provide us each day;
As we forgive others, our sins take away;
In times of temptation, to lead us be near;
From evil deliver your children most dear.
For yours is the kingdom, o’er all things you reign,
And yours is the power, all things you maintain.
To you be the glory, resounding again
From all of creation, forever. Amen.
Prayers of the People
One: Maker and Mender of the Universe
All: Let your holy light shine.
Prayers over the Bread and Cup
Response – “God Bless to Us Our Bread” (MV #193)
God bless to us our bread,
And give bread to all those who are hungry,
And hunger for justice to those who are fed;
God bless to us our bread.
Sharing the Bread and Cup
Prayer of Thanks after Communion.
Hymn – “Once in Royal David’s City (VU #62)
Once in Royal David’s city stood a lowly cattle shed,
Where a mother laid her baby in a manger for his bed.
Mary was that mother mild, Jesus Christ her little child.
He came down to earth from heaven who, with God, is over all,
And his shelter was a stable, and his cradle was a stall.
There among the poor and lowly lived on earth our Saviour holy.
For he is our lifelong pattern, daily, when on earth he grew,
He was tempted, scorned, rejected, tears and smiles like us he knew.
Thus he feels for all our sadness, and he shares in all our gladness.
And our eyes at last shall see him, through his own redeeming love;
For the child who seemed so helpless is our Lord in heaven above;
And he leads his children on to the place where he is gone.
Benediction
Response – “Saviour, Dwell with Us that We”
Saviour, dwell with us that we may go forth, your light to be.
Send us out, good News to sing; hope, peace, joy and love to bring.
God incarnate, with us dwell. Come, O come, Emmanuel.
Come, Lord Jesus, don’t delay; shine your hope through us this day.
Saviour dwell with us that we may go forth, your light to be.
