Dec 8, 2002

The freedom, hope, and peace we seek may come to us in unexpected ways and in a time frame we may not be prepared for. Ultimately, we must put our trust in the God who sees us through change and who encourages and empowers us along the way.

If you would like to stay seated for any or all of the “standing” parts of the service, please feel free to do so.

Sharing Announcements

A Time of Greeting

All: And we, the followers of Jesus, offer worship and prayer and service, in the name of God’s Anointed One.

Prayer of Approach

All: Peace is your gracious gift, God. We give thanks for the Advent promise of peace, revealed in the coming of Jesus Christ. We give thanks for the opportunity to receive peace and to share peace in this faith community. We give thanks for the ways in which we can share peace, in this nation and in this neighbourhood. We rejoice that, in Jesus, we have the hope of peace, which encompasses heaven and earth, time and eternity. Amen.

Advent II Litany: Peace (responsive from reverse of the bulletin)

One: We light this candle committing ourselves to peace-creating, to justice-making, and to shaping a world that is filled with love.

We Remain in God’s Presence Through Confession

God of patience and peace, you wait for us to turn to you. Sometimes we are ashamed to turn, for we are not at peace; we are not without spot or blemish. As we turn to you, you welcome us and forgive us. Our true life begins to shine, and we experience the peace of your presence as we find ourselves in your embrace. Forgive us for the times we have not turned, and by your Holy Spirit, give us power to keep turning to you in all things…(Silent Confession)

We live in an imperfect world. The potential for good and to change is in all of us. We are forgiven. The good news is that we are a forgiven people, restored, loved, and free to love. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Prayer of Illumination

Isaiah 40:1-11 From the Hebrew Scriptures Pg. 700

Anthem “We Are Waiting” by Albrecht & Althouse

Mark 1:1-8 From the Christian Scriptures Pg. 45

All: Thanks be to God

Sermon: "Preparing the Way"

PJ is one of my favourite neighbours. PJ is a senior Golden Retriever, a beloved fixture on my street. His muzzle is white and he hasn't any energy or interest for chasing squirrels, but he loves to go for his daily walk. Slowly he ambles along, greeting and being greeted by everyone. He often stops at the front yard where the neighbourhood children gather. He lies down on the grass, while the kids stop their shouting to sit quietly with him and scratch behind his old ears. Then he strolls on to visit another friend. How wonderful to be loved and appreciated at that great old age and to be interested in the world around!

Chaplaincy in Sudbury, Ontario is a ministry that serves six seniors' homes and residences. Lorraine Mercer is an assistant chaplain there. She feels her work is "to bring peace, inspire meaning and purpose in life, and to reassure residents of their value to us both in the past and in the present." She and coordinator, Jill Neeley, plan services, provide visits to 500 residents, assist with memorial services, conduct leadership training, and participate on committees.

The Mission and Service Fund has been a strong supporter of Chaplaincy in Sudbury since its inception. Please continue to give generously to M&S so that Chaplaincy and programs like it continue to provide care and joy to our seniors. Like PJ, we all should be loved and appreciated in our senior years.

We Respond In Giving And Gratitude

Our Church Tithes and Offerings

Dedication #55 “In the Bleak Midwinter” vs 4

Prayer of Dedication

The peace of generosity, the peace of compassion, the peace of recognition, the peace of community. Bless these gifts, God, which will convey the peace of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Prayer of Thanksgiving, Intercession & Lord’s Prayer

God who leads by a Star, show us the direction to Bethlehem. Lead us to the place where love is to be born in our lives. Give us signs along the road as we make our journey, that we may follow in your way.

The Life And Work Of The Congregation

Sun. Trustees 9:00 a.m. Youth Room Advent III – Sunday School Presentation

Next Week’s Readings from: Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11; Psalm 126; Luke 1:47-55; 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24; John 1:6-8, 19-28

Thought For Today

Keep your face to the sunshine

and you cannot see the shadow,

by Helen Keller

Christ’s coming has carried, for centuries, the idea of a near fulfilment and the idea of a far fulfilment. It is like our waiting for Christ in our Advent prayers…we build toward Christmas Eve and the joy of knowing that God has chosen to be with us in the life of a special child.

We anticipate that coming, that advent, by engaging passages from the Hebrew scriptures that proclaimed as prophecy that a special one should come. If you read along in the Christian scriptures, the gospels and the epistles, there is a promise of Christ’s coming again that was named after his death and resurrection. This “far fulfillment” is understood to accompany traumatic change.

The study of these last things is Eschatology. “End Times” and many groups and individuals have be consumed by and engrossed in end times obsessions…ever looking for any hint that current events may mark Eschatological events. Thereby living in the end of the End Times!

So all of this stands to reason that whenever in history we experience turbulence and uncertainty, the echo resounds that the Lord’s coming must be near. To some, that understanding is wrapped up in Armageddon and the Apocalypse. For some “great fear” and for others “great joy” is the result of fixating on these themes because they are tied together with the notion of a new heaven and a new earth.

Some have gone to great lengths to write books and make movies that depict a particular translation of “end times” thinking.

What concerns me is the place that world leaders may feel that they are called to participate in working toward the fulfillment of such scenarios. It would appear to me that George Bush’s faith stance has him preparing a holy war in his mind, one in which his interpretation of the Christian vision is something he can impose upon nations of the world. I hear in his rhetoric the declaration that he and his country shall be the upholders of justice and truth.

So this year we move through Advent telling stories of God’s coming in Christ, knowing that the sense of Christ’s coming clearly has a past fulfilment as we look back to that first Christmas Eve and the birth of a child.

But, of course, our Advent journey also has a profound present spiritual connection. We encounter it as we look within and discover anew the many ways that God breaks into our experience, and we contemplate how God may be seeking to enter our lives right now.

It is also important in the face of world events that we understand that for many, God’s presence in Christ has a literal and yet un realized expression in a physical future coming. For people all around the world any of these three understandings may be paramount.

Our place, I believe, is to live with a balance that understands our own very personal end times; something unexpected and uncertain… something that is an inevitable part of living. Peter said, “Since all these things are to melt away in this manner, what sort of people must we be, conducting our lives in holiness and godliness, while waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God?”

So this Advent Sunday—Peace—we do well to remember that “If there is to be any peace in this world, it will come from being and not having.”

That is to say, being ready to honour the God within another human being…and not having the need to make that person over in our image…our belief, our faith.

That is being sensitive to difference and celebrating the differences within the Christian community, and within every religious community…that is not having the need to declare that any one religious perspective holds the keys to God’s kingdom.

Yes, Peace is what Jesus was about and is about. Peace is child-like faith that welcomes with brightness the newness that enters our life every day. We take joy in knowing that with the coming of Christ in the world is the promise of a new heaven and a new earth.

There is no doubt in my mind that when we embrace the essence of Christ in our lives the world is new, the heavens are new the gift of God in Christ is newness of life itself and it colors all we encounter.

I don’t need to see the world self-destruct from the weight of weapons of mass destruction for that to be true…the world of the spirit confirms to my spirit that it is true. In Christ is newness.

I don’t need to have this universe disappear for the heavens to be new…they are new when the voice of a child gives me cause for pause and slows my life to the point of examining my priorities…the heavens are new when someone says thanks for being in my life…they are new when I take the time to say “thanks for being you and having the fortitude to commit to being in community with me.”

Are we willing to be a part of that gift…are we willing to gift others with the same gift that God has given us?

“I sat on the branch of a fir tree—close to its trunk, when it began to snow – not heavily, not in a raging blizzard – no, just like in a dream, without a sound, and without any violence.

Since I did not have anything better to do, I counted the snowflakes settling on the twigs and needles of my branch. Their number was exactly 3,741,952. When the 3,741,953rd flake dropped onto the branch, nothing more than nothing, as you say, the branch broke off.”

The dove, since Noah’s time an authority on the matter, thought about the story for a while, and finally said to herself, “Perhaps only one person’s voice is lacking for peace to come to the world.” From Illustrations Unlimited, James S. Hewett, ed. (Tyndale House, 1988)

Perhaps only your voice is lacking for gift to be reality in the life of another.

I think it is fitting that at this point in Advent, this time of talking peace …this time of expectantly watching as the deadline for Iraq to come clean before the United Nations Security Council slips by…yes—in the face of all these things I think it is fitting that today is the annual day set aside as “Human Rights Sunday.”

We hear from time to time the chant, “there is no peace without justice.” And I think that is true; but who defines justice?

I wonder if justice looks the same to an amnesty international worker as it does to a front line soldier…I wonder if justice looks the same to a suffering child in a nation living under the weight of international sanctions…a child bearing the brunt of the pain and the burden …as it looks to the leader of the worlds most outfitted army?

Assessing what justice is… is always important…the scriptures implore us to assess our lives, our motivations our assumptions and weigh them against the essence of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Chances are that such self-examination will lead us to “repentance” … turning from the position we hold toward another position.

By our repentance, we are freed from the past and can take seriously the birth of Christ.

We need the hope that Christ brings to our weary world – hope that it indeed can be transformed.

A world of much turmoil and despair, of violence and hatred, of selfishness and greed. And conversely, a world of infinite promise and potential: where every village on spaceship Earth could have clean drinking water, where our global village would be freed from wars because weapons of mass destruction, in fact all weapons, would no longer be tolerated, where all children could enjoy the basic necessities of life – food, health, education, and love. That would indeed be a new heaven and a new earth. (Sandrabelle Rogers). Through the spirit of the Christ we meet in the Christmas story it is very much a possibility.

What part of being a voice calling in the wilderness are we? What part of hearing a voice calling in the wilderness are we?

Advent moves ahead…our lives are drawn ahead into places of mystery and uncertainty but not without the presence of the one who was pleased to be revealed to us in the vulnerability of an infant child.

I don’t want to leave this Advent discourse with the idea that everything that surrounds the Christmas story is all light and gift and love and possibility. Christmas is so often a tense time or a sad time. We aspire to make it perfect. Then families and branches of families and children and parents collide…

If we really take it seriously, Advent is a scary time. Like being pregnant. There’s so much change involved and there’s fear of what that change is going to mean to one’s life. It’s like the Kyoto Accord offering great hope but the fear of uncertainty.

It is the reality of new life! You can’t anticipate all of what that new life will bring. In a sense, Jesus is the new life in God, the change, that’s being born into the world at Christmas. Yet we reduce it to that lovely, cuddly little baby…

Isn’t that what happens with the Christ child? Everything is turned upside down for us. As we look at that Christ child and the Christ child looks up at us, it changes everything in our lives.

It should change everything in our lives. This child, like any child, needs to be looked after. What does it mean for us to care for the Christ?

Theologically, it’s significant that the incarnation happens in terms of the smallest, most vulnerable and fragile thing – a baby. All of that can get reduced to “cuddly,” but it’s more about God’s vulnerability with us. God, willing to make us God’s home.

Advent is about the unexpected, the hope; the promise of peace, the challenge of finding newness of life around every corner and in every one. It is about self assessment, about repentance and mostly about preparing the way for God to make a straight path into our lives…in expected, unexpected and wonderful ways.

Embrace your advent journey toward the Christ…only God knows where it will take you. Amen.

We Gather To Worship God

Sharing Announcements

A Time of Greeting

Prayer of Approach

Advent II Litany: Peace (responsive from reverse of the bulletin)

We Listen For God’s Word

Prayer of Illumination

Isaiah 40:1-11 From the Hebrew Scriptures Pg. 700

Anthem “We Are Waiting” by Albrecht & Althouse

Mark 1:1-8 From the Christian Scriptures Pg. 45

All: Thanks be to God

Sermon: "Preparing the Way"

Our Church Tithes and Offerings

Dedication #55 “In the Bleak Midwinter” vs 4

Prayer of Dedication

Prayer of Thanksgiving, Intercession & Lord’s Prayer