December 1, 2002 - Advent 1 “Communion Celebration”
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| Barb Grozell, Marg Taylor |
Barb Grozell, Marg Taylor, Lesley Berg Missing from photo: Sharon Clay, James Farrell, Jane Clarke, and Carol Henderson |
Many people in the world today live an exile experience like those described by Isaiah. It is not easy for those who live secure, affluent lives, to fully understand the impact of the breakthrough longed for by people who live under the threat of military oppression, hunger, fear, or poverty. What experiences of liberation and transformation do you long for? How powerful is your yearning for change?
If you would like to stay seated for any or all of the “standing” parts of the service, please feel free to do so.
Prelude “Lift Up Your Heads” by D Paxton
A time of silent preparation—Lighting the Christ Candle
Call to Worship (Responsive)
One: A child’s eyes light up as she imagines a dancing, laughing time, far, far in the future.
All: An old person dreams of a day when infirmity and anxiety will cease.
One: A wise person reflects on the untapped potential within humanity – the potential to build a world where joy and sharing prevail.
All: And we, gathered in the name of Christ, catch a glimpse of Advent hope.
Prayer of Approach (Responsive)
One: God, your presence is revealed in the light of hope. The light of hope shines brightly.
All: Joyfully we worship, for your graceful gift of Jesus is at hand.
One: The light of hope overcomes the darkness.
All: Joyfully we know that the powerful ones, and the terror-bringers, will not have their own way.
One: The light of hope reveals the needs of home and community.
All: Joyfully we will work to support the downhearted, and to show friendship to the lonely.
One: Your presence is revealed in the light of hope.
All: The light of hope will go before us on our Advent journey.
Hymn #2 “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus” tune 333
Time with the Young & the young at heart
One: Advent is a time of waiting.
All: With anticipation, we await the coming birth.
One: With expectation, we await a coming fulfilment of justice and compassion.
All: With hope, we await the coming of Emmanuel, God with us.
One: Advent is a time of preparation.
All: With anticipation, we prepare ourselves for re‑birth and renewal.
One: With expectation, we prepare for the promise of peace on earth.
All: With hope, we prepare to be God's incarnate love for the world.
One: During this cold time of the year, the daylight grows shorter.
All: We light this candle as a sign of hope. The sun will return.
One: During this festive time of the year, we are aware that many, in this season, are lost and lonely.
All: We light this candle as a sign of hope. Despair is not the final word.
One: During this joyous time of the year, we are aware that much, in our world, is broken.
All: We light this candle as a sign of hope. The promise of Christmas will not be broken.
(lighting of thefirst Advent candle)
Hymn #7 “Hope Is a Star” vs. 1
The Sunday School & Youth leave for their classes.
We Remain in God’s Presence Through Confession
Loving God, you come to life in hope. In those times when we confront the despair that deadens us, you are alive! In those situations where we refuse to give in to the dark and self-serving powers, you are alive! In the ways that cause us pain, but keep our conscience clear, you are alive! In the light at the end of the dark and turbulent tunnel, you are alive! In the will of the faith community to work with zest, you are alive…(Silent Confession)
Assurance of Pardon (One)
As we experience hope, as new paths and fresh opportunities open before us, we experience the peaceful energy of your presence. In God’s presence we are free. Thanks be to God! Amen.
Biblical Notes
A Prayer for Mercy and Help
Hymn #1 “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” vs 1-3, 6-7
We Respond In Giving And Gratitude
Offertory “O Lovely Peace” by Handel
Jody Davison: flute, Clint Houston: cello
What can I give him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;
If I were a wise man, I would do my part;
Yet what I can I give him – give my heart.
God accept this money offered, these gifts given, the goodwill of our hearts, that disappointment may be turned to hope, and worry may be turned to anticipation, as we await with wonder the birth of Christ. Amen.
The Service of the Table
Hymn #469 “We Gather Here”
In this crossover moment,
the moment of pause between preparation and celebration,
heaven's membrane begins to tear
and eternity silently spills into time, and we meet you, God.
In this crossover moment, the moment of "Aha!”
waters part and the songbird sings and promise is fulfilled
and belonging confirmed and the saviour breaks through
and a voice calls from heaven whispering to us
"My children, My loved ones,"
and we hear you, God.
In this crossover moment,
the moment of bread and wine
between prophecy and promise,
heaven slips in and waits for us,
haunting the Saviour's words over breaking bread and pouring wine, "My body, my blood, my sacrifice, my covenant."
We listen to heaven as it steps over from symbol to presence
in the breaking and spilling
and rending and flowing,
the splashing and pouring all around us
in this sharing of promise as the whole universe sings
Holy, holy, God of all power,
holy, God of might,
heaven and earth are full of your glory.
Hosanna in the highest!
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of our God!
Blessed is the one who is God's Son!
From Baptism to Eucharist,
from discovery through to journeying,
from "Behold!" to "Aha!"
our moving through is our thanksgiving
as we cross over into this new moment with you, may we and these gifts, touched by your Spirit, be signs of life and love to one another and to the world.
So be it.
Through Christ, with Christ, in Christ and in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory is yours, God most Holy, who we have met in Jesus of Nazareth who taught us to pray by saying: “Our Father…”
Breaking the Bread/Lifting the Cup
(As the elements are being distributed, please retain them so that we may all partake together.)
Sharing the Bread and Cup
Prayer after Communion
We give thanks, almighty God, that you have refreshed us at your table with the remembrance of the presence of Jesus Christ. Strengthen our faith, increase our love for one another, and send
us forth into the world united in courage and peace, rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit; through Jesus Christ. Amen.
Hymn #20 “On Jordan’s Bank”
Commissioning (Responsive)
One: In the darkened sky that hangs over humanity, hope seems a futile dream.
All: But we have hope as we leave this church.
One: Hope stirs in the resolution to celebrate the joys of each day.
All: Hope stirs as we assert our confidence in the Christian community.
One: Hope comes clear when we pass through the testing times, battered but unbroken.
All: Our hope finds a focus in the journey of a young couple to Bethlehem 2000 years ago – a journey in which we join.
Choral Amen
#298 “When You Walk From Here”
When you walk from here, when you walk from here.
Walk with justice, walk with mercy, and with God’s humble care.
Postlude “Rejoice, Ye Pure in Heart” by Ritter
The Life And Work Of The Congregation
Please remember that the Sanctuary is your place of refuge. We invite you to experience this reflective space during office hours throughout the weekJ
World AIDS Day Candlelight Vigil – Tonight @ 7:00 p.m. at the Pavilion at Echo Dale Park.
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Tanya Hoffarth & the Blue Notes from Crescent Heights High School |
Jane Clarke leading the vigil. |
November birthday: Emma Eremenko
December Celebrations
Birthdays: Frank Czember, Harmy Bruins, Ed Buckholz
Anniversaries:Glenn & May Marr (52 years)
Elmer & Gladys Schlenker (51 years)
Flowers are placed in the Sanctuary this morning
in loving memory of
Raymond Dubeau
by
his family
Thought For Today
“And yet, when I look up to the sky,
I somehow feel
that everything will change for the better,
that this cruelty too shall end,
that peace and tranquility will return once more.”
by Anne Frank
Reflection for Advent I, Communion:
Let me begin with Heather J. Laine’s story: Super Bear
Heather writes: “I attended university away from home and always looked forward to coming home to Halifax for the holidays. One Christmas, my mother, a store manager in a local shopping mall, was asked if she knew anyone who might be interested in some part-time work and extra money over the holiday season. Within a few hours of arriving home, I had a job.
I was hired to work as "Super Bear," sort of a superhero sidekick to Santa. Basically, it was my job to wander the mall during Santa's visiting hours and send children Santa's way. Being only nineteen years old, and the cynical university student, I thought I was well aware of just how commercial Christmas had become.
But not even my jaded ears were prepared for the onslaught of "I wants" that faced poor Santa daily. Santa was quite good about not promising anything. In fact, when one five-year-old girl appeared with a five page typed list, Santa asked her how she would feel if he brought all those toys to the children next door and then had nothing left by the time he got to her house. In no uncertain terms, she told him exactly what she thought.
Every night when I got home, I thought about what had happened to children, to society. Had everyone, right down to five year olds, become so involved in 'stuff' that 'stuff' had become what we valued? Was getting oodles of gifts under the tree all that mattered? What were parents teaching their children? What happened to "Good will toward men" and all those kind, neighbourly thoughts in the English Christmas Carols I loved so much?
As Christmas Eve approached, I began to look forward to the end of the job. Besides losing five to seven pounds a day in fluids and earning some much needed pocket money, I was not enjoying myself. On the second to last day of work, I was on one of my patrols around the mall. I spotted a young boy, perhaps six or seven, and tried to point the way to Santa's workshop. He came up to me and said that he and his mother were just leaving and that he didn't have time to go see Santa. He asked if I could tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas. I nodded my head and bent down on one knee. He looked up at me and said, "Super Bear, will you please tell Santa that all I want for Christmas is a cure for my little sister's leukaemia?"
I was glad that Super Bear didn't talk, for at that moment, I began to cry. Here was a little boy, who like most his age, probably had several items circled in the Sears Christmas Wish Book. But all he wanted was that one thing, that one intangible thing. I looked at his mother, gave her a hug, whispered to her that I would see what I could do, and waved good-bye as they left the mall. Then I went to my mother's store, took off my bear head, and cried for half an hour.
That little boy and his mother restored in me my faith in people, and reminded me that some people do know what the holiday season is all about.”
Hope! Love; God’s and ours.
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Friday was buy nothing day…we can’t be foolish…in a market economy it is the movement of goods and services that systematically distributes resources to the players in that market. As north Americans we are at the top of the heap of the world’s players. But if we get lost in that game we cease to see what is important in life. Ms Laine’s story reminds us of that and so do exercises like Friday’s call to awareness of our over consumption and the consumerism frenzy that keeps us from engaging the life that is ours in the economy of God.
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The essence of the Isaiah reading is that it too reminds us that we are God’s and while we may from time to time get lost in the frenzy that our lives can become, we remain God’s forever.
Now the assurance of that is somewhat lost on the frantic writing of the prophet but there it is at the end of the passage when the writer says, “Now consider, we are all your people.” Before that reminder, though, the promise…the hope… that if God should cleanse us then we shall be clean indeed…we shall be prepared to move into life as those in relationship with our creator.
Jesus offers us that cleansing, that wakeup and that shift in perspective that holds before us the gentle truth that it is the abiding presence that is key.
The “awareness” of God’s abiding presence is our strength and our balance.
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Today we gather to share and celebrate a communion meal together and the communion meal we share reminds us that God is here, that we struggle for balance, not alone, but in community, and not without strength but in the strength of Jesus, the one who embodied God for us and gifts us with that gift.
When you think about it, what better way to head into advent—our time of wandering toward hopeful expectation—than to wander together in the assurance of the presence and promise of our God.
I am the clay and God is the potter who formed me; each one of us gathered here today is the clay and God is the potter who formed us; it is also true that our African sisters and brothers are the clay and God is the potter who formed them. It is World AIDS day and we do well to remember we all are the handiwork of our God, and together we all are children of God, who must care for each other.
We, in our corner of the world, have a tendency to forget, to ignore, and to not think about our African brothers and sisters. But in this global village, where we go to specialty coffee shops for Kenyan coffee and tea, we have a responsibility to the families of those who pick the beans.
The words of Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor, have forever implicated and branded me. He spoke about the horrors of the Rwandan war, saying that so long as we remain silent about tragedies such as that genocide, we are complicit in them.
This is the first Sunday of Advent, when we wait and prepare for the coming of Christ. I believe that God, who revealed Godself to us as a baby, waits for us to respond creatively to the AIDS crisis in Africa, here at home and everywhere. AIDS is a creeping reality in the world.
We are capable through strategic efforts of saving 25,000,000 lives over the next decade. Do we have the will?
Our strength is in our awareness…our ministry is in our compassionate response. The energy for our response has for centuries been found in our gathering like this gathering today and the gathering tonight in the World AIDS Day Candlelight Vigil service at Echo Dale park.
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Gathered around this table let us remember that Empowered by their experience of the risen Christ, the early church met for the proclamation of the Word and the breaking of bread. In the church of the third millennium we continue to enact the history and hopes of a people, and God’s care and concern for the world.
The brokenness of our world is lifted up in the bread broken. The bloodshed of our world is remembered in the cup shared. In the gathered grain we are brought together and grounded in God’s good earth. In the fruit of the vine we are united with the groaning of all creation.
We do this at table to remember our identity as a covenant people of God. We receive, and are sustained as, we embrace the truth that we are the body and blood of Christ. This is our Eucharist, this is our thanksgiving. This is our abiding Hope in the face of all that is about us and within us that clamors to keep us from this hope.
But we are not alone, we are not forgotten, we believe in God who has created and is creating: thanks be to God! Amen.