Third Sunday of Advent CALL TO WORSHIP Based on today’s reading P: The Promised One of God brings good news to the oppressed and binds up the brokenhearted. C: We are witnesses to the light of Christ! P: The Promised One of God proclaims liberty to captives and release to prisoners. C: We are witnesses to the light of Christ! P: The Promised One of God comforts all who mourn and gives a mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit. C: Rejoicing always, praying without ceasing, holding fast to what is good, we are witnesses to the light of Christ! LIGHTING OF THE ADVENT WREATH A Celtic Prayer Week 3: JOY P: As we hope for your arrival, as we pray for peace in your living, as we wait and watch and wonder how you might reveal yourself to us, O God, give us joy in your Advent. Light Three Candles P: Joy is not a commodity that can be bought or sold, but lives deep in the human spirit. Help us to hear that truth and believe it, to let go of what our consumer culture says will bring us happiness: money, success, a scramble to the top that leaves us flat. If we’ve robbed others of what they need in our clamor for more than our fair share, forgive us. Help us hear the call of John the Baptist to turn around and begin again. God of love, we were made in joy; may we live that way. C: We light a candle for joy. May it light the Way. CONFESSION AND FORGIVENESS P: God is patient and merciful, desiring all to come to repentance. Trusting this promise of grace, let us confess our sin. Silence for Reflection P: Everlasting God, C: you love justice and you hate wrongdoing. We confess the fear, greed, and self-centeredness that make us reluctant to work against oppression. We are complicit in systems of exploitation. We choose comfort over courage. Look upon us with mercy. Turn our hearts again to you. Make us glad to do your will and to walk in your ways for the sake of our waiting world. Amen. P: Hear these words of assurance: God clothes you with garments of salvation and robes of righteousness. In the tender compassion of + Jesus Christ, your sins are forgiven. God’s covenant is eternal, and God’s blessing rests upon us all. C: Amen. HYMN “People Look East” PRAYER OF THE DAY P: We thank you, O God, for all those in Scripture who have pointed to Christ: for your prophets Elijah and Isaiah, for other prophets, and for John. We thank you, too, for those in our lives who have pointed us to Christ: pastors and teachers, strangers and friends. Give us eyes to see him today among those who are oppressed, imprisoned, brokenhearted, or beaten down, and we will give our testimony, too: how Christ releases and sets free; how he turns ashes into garlands; how he repairs and builds up what was ruined. We, too, will point others to Jesus, the Light of the world. C: Amen. READINGS Hebrew Bible Reading: Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11 In the language of the jubilee year described in Leviticus 25, the prophet, moved by the spirit of God, announces deliverance for those who are oppressed and comfort for those who mourn. 1The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; 2to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; 3to provide for those who mourn in Zion— to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit. They will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, to display his glory. 4They shall build up the ancient ruins, they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations. 8For I the Lord love justice, I hate robbery and wrongdoing; I will faithfully give them their recompense, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. 9Their descendants shall be known among the nations, and their offspring among the peoples; all who see them shall acknowledge that they are a people whom the Lord has blessed. 10I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my whole being shall exult in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. 11For as the earth brings forth its shoots, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations. Gospel: John 1:6-8, 19-28 6There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light….19This is the testimony given by John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” 20He confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, “I am not the Messiah.” 21And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the prophet?” He answered, “No.” 22Then they said to him, “Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” 23He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ ” as the prophet Isaiah said. 24Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. 25They asked him, “Why then are you baptizing if you are neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?” 26John answered them, “I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know, 27the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal.” 28This took place in Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing. SERMON HYMN “Awake, Awake, and Greet the New Morn” PRAYERS OF INTERCESSION P: God who restores, you have done great things for us and we rejoice! So often you have filled us with laughter, even turning tears of sadness into shouts of joy. You send prophets, who point the way to justice and show the way to you. We thank you for sending good news to us and repairing so much that we have devastated. P: In this season of light, we lift up in prayer so many who wait in darkness: people oppressed by poverty and discrimination, by political upheaval or dangerous rulers; people imprisoned wrongly and also those imprisoned justly. Right what is wrong among us and in us and restore us to you, to others, to ourselves. Make the brokenhearted whole again and comfort those who mourn. In all the jostling and jingling of these days, do not let us lose sight of you or those whom you especially came to serve: people who are in need of healing, people who are overlooked or underserved, the ones who are lost, and the ones we have made to feel little and least. P: Light of the world, live among us always, full of grace and truth. C: Amen. OFFERING PRAYER Financial gifts may be sent to the church. P: Gracious God, teach us to give thanks in all circumstances, for you are always with us. Thank you for the privilege of sharing what we have with others, of giving ourselves away in love, and of receiving the gifts that others share with us. With our whole being, spirit and soul and body, we rejoice in you. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. C: Amen. LORD’S PRAYER Spoken in Cantonese BENEDICTION P: The God of peace bless you, the love of Christ sustain you in hope, and the anointing of the Spirit + remain upon you now and forever. C: Amen. HYMN “Oh, Come, Oh, Come, Emmanuel” CHARGE P: Go And...Be Present! So that you can better love and serve God and your neighbor. C: Thanks be to God. Printed by permission oneliscense.net A-717495
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AuthorRev. Lori E.L. Kitzing Archives
April 2024
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