Worship at Home
Worship for the Week Beginning 5th December 2021
Second Sunday of Advent
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Sunday 5th November
Rev Romeo Pedro has prepared this week’s message
This short act of worship is for use from home. Please use this service whenever you like during the week.
Pause to settle yourself in God’s presence, knowing that other people are sharing in worship with you.
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© ROOTS for Churches Ltd www.rootsontheweb.com. Reproduced with permission.
We gather to worship Christ:
Second Sunday of Advent (Hope)
The Spirit of God rests fully on the coming Lord.
The promised Christ is full of wisdom and understanding in the Spirit of God.
The promised Lord will rule with true justice and righteousness.
All fear will change to comfort. All enemies will be transformed into friends.
As we trust in God, we find our peace. In the grace of God, we find our hope.
Let us – with hope – kindle the light of the Lord.
StF 169 – Come, thou long expected Jesus
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
Israel’s strength and consolation,
hope of all the earth thou art;
dear desire of every nation,
joy of every longing heart.
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.
Or
Prayer Confession:
Holy God, Parent of us all, we know we don’t always treat each other as you want us to. Lord God, forgive us, and help us to be more loving. There are times when we insist on getting our own way, despite what others feel. Lord God, forgive us, and help us to be more loving.
Sometimes we increase the tension when we ought to be seeking to make peace. Lord God, forgive us, and help us to be more loving.
Often we say things which hurt each other. Lord God, forgive us, and help us to be more loving.
For our jealousy, our lack of respect, and times when we won’t listen to those we live with. Lord God, forgive us, and help us to be more loving.
And because we sometimes just get bored with each other. Lord God, forgive us, and help us to be more loving.
Amen.
Bible Readings
3 ‘I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,’ says the Lord Almighty.
2 But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness, 4 and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the Lord, as in days gone by, as in former years.
68 ‘Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,
because he has come to his people and redeemed them.
69 He has raised up a horn of salvation for us
in the house of his servant David
70 (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago),
71 salvation from our enemies
and from the hand of all who hate us –
72 to show mercy to our ancestors
and to remember his holy covenant,
73 the oath he swore to our father Abraham:
74 to rescue us from the hand of our enemies,
and to enable us to serve him without fear
75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
76 And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High;
for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him,
77 to give his people the knowledge of salvation
through the forgiveness of their sins,
78 because of the tender mercy of our God,
by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven
79 to shine on those living in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the path of peace.’
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
This week the focus is on prophecies of God’s coming, God’s restoration, and God’s justice and peace.
Yet, in each reading there is a call to prepare to receive the promise in some way. In Malachi, there is the purifying work that will happen when God’s messenger comes, and the people are to seek for, and take delight in, the coming one. The Gospel narrative of John’s coming speaks of John’s call to the people to repent and be baptised in preparation for the coming one.
The message this week, then, is this: God is always coming, always available to God’s people, and always working for restoration.
But, receiving God’s coming takes preparation, and so God sends a messenger to do this work, to prepare God’s people for God’s coming. The challenge is for us to embrace the work of preparation for ourselves – opening ourselves to God’s restoring, cleansing and disturbing work, and making our hearts ready for us to become, in turn, messengers of God’s restorative justice and mercy to the world.
It is hard to take a long view, to make sure that we get all the information we need, and to do the slow, consistent work of transformation, especially when things so often seem to get worse before they get better. It is hard to prepare carefully and thoroughly when we are constantly bombarded with information, opinions, and alternatives. It is tough to commit to long term solutions when we are suffering and want relief now. But, our need for immediate gratification does not help us or our planet. We need time to understand the systems we have created and to learn how to change them.
And then, we need time to implement the changes.
In this work of preparation, God’s people are called to be both the ones who are being prepared, and the ones who call others to preparedness. We are to be committed to work for God’s justice, but also recognise that this will take time, wisdom, and trust that God, who begins the work in us and our world, is the only one who can really bring it to completion.
How much of the day do we spend in reaction? So much pain and injustice is caused simply because we react in fear, anger, self-protection or simply impatience. However, if we can develop a prepared heart, we can more easily slow down, reflect and then act with wisdom and grace. Preparation – particularly of the heart – is restorative. It’s a proactive stance that frees us from ourselves and our destructive or unhelpful patterns of behaviour and moves us into a life that more easily considers, serves and brings restoration to others.
Only when we make listening and watching for God’s messengers a constant discipline can we perceive what God is doing and cooperate with the Reign of God in our lives.
Amen.
Prayers of Intercession
Sing this acapella: (to the tune of “Let there be love”)
There is no peace in our world. There is no peace in our hearts. People are crying for justice. Let it fall like the rain. O Lord remove all oppression. Father we want a new start. Let there be peace in our world. Let there be peace.
Loving God, we pray for those who speak out with the voice of compassion, for the marginalised, the abused and the exploited.
God of Hope, hear our Prayer.
We pray for those who speak out with the voice of courage, against corruption, greed, and injustice.
God of Hope, hear our Prayer.
We pray for those who speak out with the voice of concern for the environment, the forests and the seas.
God of Hope, hear our Prayer.
We pray for those who speak out with the voice of challenge, against complacency, apathy and self-righteousness.
God of Hope, hear our Prayer.
We pray for all those who speak out with your voice, in our world, our communities, our churches: and for those who simply do not hear. Amen.
The Lord's Prayer
Please use the version that you prefer
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy Name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever.
Amen.
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be your name,
Your kingdom come,
Your will be done,
On earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
As we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us from the time of trial
And deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power
and the glory are yours
Now and for ever.
Amen.
StF 180 – O come, O come Immanuel
Or
O come, O come, Immanuel,
and ransom captive Israel,
that mourns in lonely exile here
until the Son of God appear:
Rejoice! Rejoice! Immanuel
shall come to you, O Israel.
O come, O come, O Lord of might
who to your tribes, on Sinai’s height,
in ancient times did give the law
in cloud, and majesty, and awe:
O come, O Rod of Jesse, free
your own from Satan’s tyranny;
from depths of hell your people save,
and give them victory o’er the grave:
O come, O Key of David, come,
and open wide our heavenly home;
make safe the way that leads on high,
and close the path to misery:
O come, O Day-spring, come and cheer
our spirits by your advent here;
disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
and death’s dark shadows put to flight:
Final Prayer of Blessing
God be with us, wherever we go and whatever we do. God be with us, whoever we meet and whatever we say. God bless us and keep us safe, today and always.
Amen.
Service prepared by Rev Romeo Pedro
Webpage: Paul Deakin