Welcoming:
Good morning.
We see the white roofs every morning these days, and the white frosts that gently touch and lay on the grass, and they tell us what season we are entering - not just early winter, but the season of waiting, the season of hope, the season of seeking the Light of Christ in the midst of a dark night’s silence.
Welcome to Chemainus United Church’s first Advent Service of the year. This Sunday we begin our journey of Advent; In the end we will arrive at the mystery of Christmas, which is not just a simple holiday for us Christians. It is a time when we see a ray of light in the darkness, hear the message in the silence, anticipate the suffering of Christ that is not yet unrevealed to the joyful crowd gathering around the happy occasion of a new birth. Welcome everyone into this Great Wakening and Waiting.
CALL TO WORSHIP: ADVENT WREATH LITANY
ASSURANCE OF GOD’S GRACE
Hear these words from the Apostle Paul: “You know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For Salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armour of light.”
May the love of God the Creator, Christ the Son and the Holy Spirit sanctify you and equip you with the armor of light, so that you can be a light and hope for many who come to you. Amen.
CHILDREN’S TIME
Good morning, my friends! Advent blessings to you!
By the way, what time is it…?
(Anxiously ask as if I really need to know what time it is now. Checking my pockets, my wrist to see where I put my watch…)
Do we have anyone who can tell me what time it is now?
(Props: put a watch, a clock, a calendar around the nativity set.)
Okay, got it!
So the time is 11 AM on December the first, 2013... Which is the first Advent Sunday... Which is the time of WAITING…for…???
(Receive answers. If the children can’t answer immediately...)
During Advent, what do we wait for …? (Receive answers..If no answers, ask WHO do we wait for?)
Yes! We are waiting for THE CHRIST CHILD. BABY JESUS. THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD to come to us.
You know, since I was a child, I have been wondering, “Hmm.… what is so special about the fact that Christ came to us as a BABY?”
What does it mean that Jesus, who has come to the earth like any other baby, is the LIGHT of the world?
(Prop; a ball that lights.)
THIS SEASON OF ADVENT is a time to prepare ourselves for welcoming Jesus into our hearts, as if we welcome a new baby brother or sister into our family with love and prayer.
WILL YOU PRAY WITH ME?
Dear God, let us prepare our hearts as loving homes for the coming Christ Child. Amen.
OFFERING PRAYER
God is about to send a message of hope to the world.
May our offering today be a message of hope for all. Amen.
COMMUNION
Dear friends in Christ, it is our great joy that we are welcomed to the feast of bread and juice – an ordinary meal, less substantial than our breakfast, ordinary food that is made with mere grains and grapes, ordinary - yet sanctified to be holy for the love we receive as we share in this feast.
As an invitation for today’s communion, I would like to share a story from the Philippines.
Ed de la Torre was writing about developing a “Eucharist of rice” in the Philippines, using the rice cakes called bibingka and native palm wine as the agents of communion. Preaching about the breaking of the host to desperately hungry peasant farmers, de la Torre explained simply, “We BREAK it because we are poor, and we don’t have enough. We must share the little we have.” Later, from jail, on a hunger strike, de la Torre wrote a poem and smuggled it out to his church. “To starve after justice,” it began, “to ache for it, like food.”
At this table we starve after hope, justice, peace, love. We ache for them, like food. So we gather around this table. For those who know their need, God is immediate – not an idea, not a theory, but life and food.
L: May God be with you.
P: And also with you.
L: We open our hearts.
P: We open our hearts to God.
L: Let us give thanks to God.
P: It is right to give our thanks and praise.
Creator of the Universe, you speak in the darkness, bringing song out of silence, dance out of stillness, life out of death.
Your life fills us now and gives us the power to praise you and bless you.
So we sing a song of great thanks and praise with the company of saints here and all around the world, of men and women and children, in ages past and in the present, as one body, God’s body, in endless diversity.
MV 203
Beholding your holiness in all our human lives, we praise you and bless you.
On the night before his friends betrayed him
and enemies took him away to be killed,
Jesus shared supper with them all.
He blessed bread, broke it, gave it to them and said,
“This bread is my body,
making covenant with you and all humankind.
Whenever you eat it, remember me.”
Then he blessed the cup and said,
“This is the cup of life, my blood poured out for all,
making covenant with you and all humankind.
Whenever you drink it, remember me.”
Now whenever we eat this bread and juice,
Jesus rises in us and makes us one body.
REMEMBERING THE COMMUNITY
After all, we can’t be a Christian by oneself.
God, on this table of the great sharing of your love,
Where bread is broken and juice is poured out,
We remember those who suffer and are in need of the nourishment of healing, in need of encouragement and the hope of a new life;
We pray for those who are hungry, sick and afraid, those who are in prison and without homes, enemies and friends, the violent and those who suffer at other’s hands.
We pray for those who are lonely, scared of the uncertain future, depressed or hopeless, and those who mourn for the loss of a loved one. Sustain and strengthen their hearts with your love, consolation and faithful presence.
Especially we pray for the bereaved in our church family who still hurt from the death of someone they have loved, and for all those who are currently going through a life-changing moment. Let us never spring back to who we WERE, but transform – “metamorphose” into a new way of being we may have never imagined for ourselves but YOU have imagined for us.
LORD’S PRAYER
Life-giving God,
you raised Jesus in glory from the tomb.
Now show us his body alive in your children.
Open our hearts to your Spirit, enlivening us.
Heal us, inspire us and give us your power
so we may live as Jesus lives and love as Jesus loves.
“Holy Gifts for Holy People.”
DISTRIBUTION
PRAYER AFTER COMMUNION
God, when the world is just too much, when our life bogs down in mess and challenges, we break, and try not to see you, because it is too painful to believe that you are with us in the darkness. Yet, in the process of breaking, you never let us be the same, unchanged. We TRANSFORM within the shelter of your being, readied for the future that is only known to you. May this food we have eaten sustain us into the future that only hope and trust in you will bring to fruition, with your sustaining love. Amen.
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