Bulletin – Sunday, December 18, 2022 – Fourth Sunday of Advent

Sunday, December 18, 2022
Fourth Sunday of Advent
Welcome Love

Approach

Lighting the Advent Candle

One:   We have lit three candles—for hope, for peace, and for joy. Today we light the fourth candle—the candle of love. With this flame we signify the love of God that surrounds and fills us at all times, but that we recognize in a special way in the Christmas story. We have prepared ourselves to welcome love. There is no greater power than love. It is stronger than rulers and empires, stronger than grief or despair, stronger even than death. We love, because God loves us.
All:      Loving God, we open ourselves to you this Christmas season. As the candles are lit, light our lives with your imagination. Show us the creative power of hope. Teach us the peace that comes from justice. Fill us with the kind of joy that cannot be contained, but must be shared, so that we might radiate joy in all that we do. Let us welcome love so that we might magnify your love within us. Prepare our hearts to be transformed by you, that we may walk in the light of Christ. Amen.

Call to Worship

One:   Across the universe creation waits
All:      for the prophets to speak their words of expectation and their vision of renewal.

One:   May we gather round them today once more
All:      and let their longing grip us and lead us into birth and blessing.

One:   So come now my friends this is the meeting place of promise and prophecy
All:      let us listen through the ancient words that we might be ready to hear a baby’s cry, the we might discover a love divine.

One:   So let us enter into this sacred time
All:      let us worship in word and song.

(adapted from Roddy Hamilton

Hymn – “People, Look East”

People, look east. The time is near
Of the crowning of the year.
Make your house fair as you are able.
Trim the hearth and set the table.
People, look east and sing today:
Love the guest is on the way.

Furrows, be glad. Though earth is bare,
One more seed is planted there:
Give up your strength the see to nourish,
That in course the flower may flourish.
People, look east and sing today:
Love the rose is on the way.

Birds, though you long have ceased to build,
Guard the nest that must be filled;
Even the hour when wings are frozen
God for fledgling time has chosen.
People, look east and sing today;
Love the bird is on the way.

Stars, keep the watch. When night is dim
One more light the bowl shall brim,
Shining beyond the frosty weather,
Bright as sun and moon together.
People, look east and sing today:
Love the star is on the way.

Angels, announce with shouts of mirth
Christ who brings new life to earth.
Set every peak and valley humming
With the word, the Lord is coming.
People, look east and sing today;
Love the Lord is on the way.

Prayer of Approach and Confession

Most Gracious God we greet you once again in this sacred space. We have come because we need to be reminded of your love and your expectations for our living. We know in our hearts that we need, want, and desire your presence in our lives. So we come in prayer and listen for your Word to speak to our hearts and reveal again you desires for us. We long to feel you with us, we look forward to your coming once again. We long for you in our lives.

But, O Holy God of Promise, we so often place our trust in the things we can see, and touch, and easily believe. But you did not ask us to believe what is easy, you have asked us to believe what is true!

Forgive us, Holy One, when we doubt the ways you work. Forgive us when we find it hard to believe an ancient story. Forgive us we question how you chose to enter the world, born as one of us. Forgive our lack of faith and belief in ways which seem so impossible to believe. Help us to look in faith, open our belief, and set aside our doubts that you sent your Son, born of a virgin—the one who has come to set us all free. We offer these prayers in the name of your Son, Emmanuel, God with us. Amen.

(adapted from Henrietta Stith Andrews and Jan Brooks)

Words of Assurance

Response – “Jesus Came Bringing Us Love”

Jesus came bringing us love,
Jesus came bringing us love,
Jesus came bringing us love,
Hallelujah, forevermore!

Time for All Ages

Hymn – “Once in Royal David’s City”

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 the 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 that child who seemed so helpless is our lord in heaven above;
And he leads his children on to the place where he is gone.

The Word

Scripture Reading:           Isaiah 7:10-16

¹⁰ Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz, saying, ¹¹ Ask a sign of the LORD your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven. ¹² But Ahaz said, I will not ask, and I will not put the LORD to the test. ¹³ Then Isaiah said: “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary mortals, that you weary my God also? ¹⁴ Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel. ¹⁵ He shall eat curds and honey by the time he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. ¹⁶ For before the child knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land before whose two kings you are in dread will be deserted.

Scripture Reading:           Matthew 1:18-25

¹⁸ Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹ Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. ²⁰ But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. ²¹ She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” ²² All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: ²³ Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means, “God is with us.” ²⁴ When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, ²⁵ but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.

Hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church.
Thanks be to God!

Meditation – “Discover Love”

Anthem – “Celebrate Jesus the King”

Offering / Response

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 Response

Prayers of the People

One:   Into our troubles and weaknesses, into the barren places of our souls, come God Incarnate,
All:      come down, come in, come among us and make us whole.

One:   Into the war torn and the refugee, into those who live in conflict, come God Incarnate,
All:      come down, come in, come among us and make us whole.

One:   Into the homeless and the unemployed, into those who feel abandoned, come God Incarnate,
All:      come down, come in, come among us and make us whole.

One:   Into the sick and those struggling with illness, into those whom we lift up in prayer this day…come God Incarnate,
All:      come down, come in, come among us and make us whole.

One:   Into the poor and the hungry, into those who are oppressed or abused, come God Incarnate,
All:      come down, come in, come among us and make us whole.

One:   Into the lives and loved ones, Into those from whom we are estranged, come God Incarnate,
All:      come down, come in, come among us and make us whole.

One:   Into our joys and celebrations, into our work and our achievements, come God Incarnate,
All:      come down, come in, come among us and make us whole.

One:   O Christ we long for your coming. Hasten that day when those who seek you in every nation will come from the east and the west, from the north and the south and sit at the table in Your Kingdom. Hasten the day when Your Kingdom will come in all its glory and suffering and pain and sickness and oppression and death will be overcome forever. Hasten the day when we will all live within Your Kingdom in peace, harmony, joy, and love together. Amen.

(adapted from Christine Sine)

Anthem – “Carols of the Angels”

Benediction

Depart in peace, and take with you the certain knowledge that God is always coming into the world. We will seek God, not in a long ago stable or ancient manger, but in the people we meet and the depths of our own hearts. May the blessing of Christmas make you a blessing to others; may the peace of the season pervade all that you do. We will welcome the challenge of discipleship. We will offer ourselves as God’s ministers. We will go forth in hope, peace, joy, and love.

Response – “Saviour Dwell With Us”

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 love through us this day.
Saviour, dwell with us that we may go forth, your light to be.