Notes on the Notes – December 7, 2025

Advent 2

This week’s music:

“We Light This Candle” (TLUS #55)

“We light this candle for Peace.
Await the new life within.
May our hearts now live each day,
So Peace can find a way,
So Peace can find a way.”

Our Advent candle-lighting song was written by Pat Mayberry (2016) and arranged by David Kai (2016). It appears in the new United Church song book, “Then Let Us Sing.”   

“Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus” (VU #2)

“Come, thou long-expected Jesus, born to set they 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 for ever; 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.”

Charles Wesley published this hymn in 1744. He intended it as a Christmas hymn, but its theme of awaiting the arrival of the long-expected redeemer makes it suitable for Advent as well. Like so many of Wesley’s texts, “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus” alludes to one or more Scripture passages in virtually every phrase. The double nature of Advent is reflected in this text, in which we remember Christ’s first coming even while praying for his return. The first verse recalls Advent prophecies in the Old Testament; the third verse speaks of Christ’s birth and kingdom, and the final stanza is a prayer for Christ’s rule in our hearts.

Hear the hymn at:  https://youtu.be/huHEA3n1Lu8

“Come, Come Emmanuel” (MV #11)

“Come, come Emmanuel. Come, Emmanuel.
Come, come Emmanuel. Come, Emmanuel.”

This gentle chant will be used as our response to the Words of Assurance during the season of Advent. It was written by James J. Chepponis in 1995.

“We Raise a Song of Advent Praise”

“We raise a song of Advent praise, expectant hope proclaim,
For God who has in Christ once come, comes to us yet again.

The wilderness shall burst in flower, the streams shall overflow,
When God shall bless the earth with love, when God shall bring us home.

The two-fold call, “Rejoice, repent,” the message for this day,
That we may ready heart and house for God who comes to stay.

For poor and helpless such as we, the Saviour Christ is born;
With Mary we both wait and pray and sing, in faith and hope.

What joy in one small baby’s cry, the promise now fulfilled,
When God shall in an infant’s form be in the earth revealed.

Sing alleluia, O my soul, sing praise to God alone,
For in the advent of the Lord, creation is made whole.”

The words for this Advent hymn were written by Flora & Wayne and focus on the messages of Isaiah and John the Baptist. We will be using the hymn tune WINCHESTER OLD (published in 1592), also known as the tune for the English carol, “While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night.”

Hear Mantovani and his orchestra at: https://youtu.be/dhrHIEgtNkc

“The Lion and Bear (The World God Imagines)” (TLUS 126)

“The lion and bear, like the cattle will graze,
This is the world God imagines.
When wolf lies with lamb we will all be amazed,
This is the world God imagines.

No hurt or destruction in this holy place
Where justice and peace are flowing free.
The earth will be full of the knowledge of God:
This is the world God imagines.

A garden creation, we’ll tend it with care,
Work for the world God imagines.
Its harvest of plenty with all we will share,
Work for the world God imagines.

No hurt or destruction in this holy place
Where justice and peace are flowing free.
The earth will be full of the knowledge of God:
This is the world God imagines.

The Spirit of God lives among us today
To bring the world God imagines.
While Jesus walks with us to guide all our ways,
To bring the world God imagines.

No hurt or destruction in this holy place
Where justice and peace are flowing free.
The earth will be full of the knowledge of God:
This is the world God imagines.
This is the world God imagines.
This is the world God imagines.”

This week’s anthem was written by David Kai (2022). It was inspired by the theme of the 2022 meeting of the Hymn Society in the USA and Canada. This song draws on different biblical images of ideal times and places: the Peaceable Kingdom (Isaiah 11), the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2) and the new Jerusalem (Revelation 4 & 21).  This song is included in Then Let Us Sing, a music resource published by the United Church of Canada in 2025.

“In this Advent Time of Waiting”

“In this Advent time of waiting may we serve the Prince of Peace.
Share our gifts with those around us, joy and hope in all increase.
Dream the vision, tell the story, healing bring to those in need.
Share the promises once more, Christ is near, who came before.”

Our offering response for the season of Advent will be sung to a variation of the traditional Polish carol, W ZLOBIE LEZY, known in English as the carol “Infant Holy, Infant Lowly.”

“O Little Town of Bethlehem” (VU #64)

“O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie!
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep the silent stars go by;
Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light;
The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.

 For Christ is born of Mary; and gathered all above,
While mortals sleep, the angels keep their watch of wondering love.
O morning stars, together proclaim the holy birth,
And praises sing to God the King, and peace to all on earth.

How silently, how silently the wondrous gift is given!
So God imparts to human hearts the blessed gift of heaven.
No ear may hear his coming; but in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive him, still the dear Christ enters in.

O holy child of Bethlehem, descend to us, we pray;
Cast out our sin, and enter in; be born in us today.
We hear the Christmas angels the great glad tidings tell;
O come to us, abide with us, our Lord Emmanuel.”

The text for “O Little Town of Bethlehem” was written by Phillips Brooks (1835–1893), an Episcopal priest, Rector of the Church of the Holy Trinity, Philadelphia. He was inspired by visiting the Palestinian city of Bethlehem in 1865. Three years later, he wrote the poem for his church and his organist, Lewis Redner, added the music. Redner’s tune, simply titled ST. LOUIS, is the tune used most often for this carol in the United States and Canada.

See Sarah McLachlan sing this carol at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyPMDD8fGeA

Hear the song “Bethlehem” by Chris Tomlin at:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kL2d4MI85KA

Hear Nat King Cole at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHKORmpW4Cg

“A World of Peace”

“May we be filled with peace in our hearts, in our lives.
May we be filled with a world of peace. 
May we be filled with peace in our hearts, in our lives.
May we be filled with a world of peace. 

Peace, now the promise begins.
Peace is the light within.
Peace in the mystery.
Peace holds all that can be. 

May we be filled with peace in our hearts, in our lives.
May we be filled with a world of peace. 
May we be filled with peace in our hearts, in our lives.
May we be filled with a world of peace.”

Our benediction response for the season of Advent was written by Mary-Ellen Kish in 2010.