NOTTINGHAM NORTH EAST CIRCUIT
Sunday 5 December 2021
Advent 2
A service prepared by Phil Colbourn, a local preacher at Burton Joyce
Hymn numbers for Singing the Faith (StF)
Lighting the Advent Candle
· The second candle represents faith and is also called "The Bethlehem Candle." Micah foretells that the Messiah will be born in Bethlehem, the birthplace of King David. The second candle also symbolises preparation for the coming king.
CALL TO WORSHIP
Psalm 24, 1
1 The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it,
the world, and all who live in it;
2 for he founded it on the seas
and established it on the waters.
3 Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord?
Who may stand in his holy place?
4 The one who has clean hands and a pure heart,
who does not trust in an idol
or swear by a false god.
PRAYERS
Adoration
Father, great I Am, you met with Moses that day
in a bush blazing with all the colours of fire
so, we pray, meet with us today as we walk with you
and as you walk with us in the way
In Jesus name. Amen
Confession
Father, great I Am, we abuse your gifts. We dump our waste in the rivers, leave litter in the streets, fill the air with pollutants, destroy your peace with our noise, chase after shadows and avoid your light. Forgive us, Lord. Have mercy.
Thanksgiving
To all and each where regret is real, God pronounces pardon and peace, and grants to us the right to begin again. Thanks be to God. And so, as a forgiven people, we lift our faces to the light and walk together in faith.
Father, great I Am, we bless you
You bring forth bread from the earth and fruit for us to enjoy
You call us through the wilderness to a place of plenty.
For these and all your blessings we thank you, Lord. Amen
Hymn StF 171 Hark the glad sound
Hark, the glad sound! The Saviour comes,
the Saviour promised long;
let every heart prepare a throne,
and every voice a song.
He comes, the prisoners to release,
in Satan’s bondage held;
the gates of brass before him burst,
the iron fetters yield.
He comes the broken heart to bind,
the bleeding soul to cure,
and with the treasures of his grace
to enrich the humble poor.
Our glad hosannas, Prince of peace,
your welcome shall proclaim,
and Heaven’s eternal arches ring
with your belovèd Name.
Advent Calendar
Rowan Williams
He will come like last leaf’s fall.
One night when the November wind
has flayed the trees to the bone, and earth
wakes choking on the mould,
the soft shroud’s folding.
He will come like frost.
One morning when the shrinking earth
opens on mist, to find itself
arrested in the net
of alien, sword-set beauty.
He will come like dark.
One evening when the bursting red
December sun draws up the sheet
and penny-masks its eye to yield
the star-snowed fields of sky.
He will come, will come,
will come like crying in the night,
like blood, like breaking,
as the earth writhes to toss him free.
He will come like child.
Advent Litany
Father, great I Am, you created us in your image
Come to our longing, O God of our joy
Christ, great I Am, you are the image of God
Come to our longing, O God of our joy
Holy Spirit, giver of life, you are the joy of heaven
Come to our longing, O God of our joy
The Lord’s Prayer
INTRODUCTION
It’s the second Sunday in Advent and I have planted sweet pea seeds as an act of faith:
1) That spring will follow winter, and summer, too.
2) That the life hidden in the seed will sprout, grow, flower and bear fruit.
A month ago, in Glasgow at COP26, members of Christian Climate Action, alongside many others, staged protests with the group called Extinction Rebellion. They are so concerned about the state of the planet, worried about seedtime and harvest, that they feel they must act.
HYMN StF 92 Think of a world without any flowers
Think of a world without any flowers,
Think of a world without any trees,
Think of a sky without any sunshine,
Think of the air without any breeze.
We thank You, Lord, for flowers and trees and sunshine,
We thank You, Lord, and praise Your holy name.
Think of a world without any animals,
Think of a field without any herd,
Think of a stream without any fishes,
Think of a dawn without any bird.
We thank You, Lord, for all Your living creatures,
We thank You, Lord, and praise Your holy name.
Think of a world without any people,
Think of a street with no-one living there,
Think of a town without any houses,
No-one to love and nobody to care.
We thank You, Lord, for families and friendships,
We thank You, Lord, and praise Your holy name.
OFFERTORY PRAYER
All good gifts around us are sent from heaven above
So, thank the Lord, O thank the Lord, for all his love.
Creator God, great I Am, take and use our lives and our gifts
Establish and extend your kingdom among us. Amen
FIRST READING Malachi 3, 1-4
“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.
SECOND READING Romans 8, 19-23
19 For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.
22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.
REFLECTION
It is exactly three years since I delivered a version of this sermon at Burton Joyce. We then started out on the road to becoming an Eco Church. It’s a long road and we haven’t got very far but one consequence of that sermon and a subsequent public meeting is that there is now a Climate Action and Biodiversity Group meeting regularly in the village, mostly by Zoom.
We live at a time of Climate Crisis. We need a new heaven and a new earth. This theme of a new heaven and a new earth runs all the way through scripture, from the very beginning to the very end. But hardly has creation been finished in Genesis, when things start to go wrong. I’ll skip all the intermediate stages but right at the end of the Bible, in Revelation 21, we see the new Jerusalem descending from heaven, the Bride of Christ, us, the church.
At last, we think, surely, this *must* be it: Creation perfected.
But, no. Paul, writing to the young church in Rome about AD 50, is not convinced that the earth is yet working as it should. He is waiting for a new software release, Creation X. And here we are, two thousand years later, in 2021, after 26 COPs, in a crisis of epic proportions: both environmental and ecological. In his letter, Paul takes a hike through the contradictions of life, through the forest of experience, wondering how we can understand the way things are. How does God’s great plan of redemption make sense? It is all very confusing and he can’t see the wood for the trees.
But then, in Romans 8, he struggles up the last steep slope and finds himself at the top of the mountain. There below him, the whole of salvation’s story is laid out, from the Garden of Eden to the allotments in Burton Joyce. Suddenly, he understands [Romans 8, 19]: “Creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed”.
Let the words drill down in your soul. Creation is waiting. For us to stand up and be counted
These verses can be difficult to understand and we often skip over them and go straight from one good bit to the next but, if we skip this bit, we miss the whole point. All the way from Genesis to Revelation, the founding principles of Creation have stayed the same:
* Creation is good. (It might not be perfect but it is good)
* It includes everything on earth (physical and biological)
* We are (in some way) responsible for the care of the earth
* We are answerable to God
And, first and finally
* God delights to walk with us in the garden
These principles, established in Genesis 1 & 2, lay upon us the duty to “serve and preserve” the natural world. It is our job and it is the principle that Jesus exemplifies in his role as the Servant King. As his followers, we are called to serve not just the human world but also the natural world; all of God’s creation. It is our responsibility to care for and conserve the Earth.
The earth is the Lord’s but the responsibility for its well-being is ours. AMEN
HYMN StF 663 I, the Lord of sea and sky
I, the Lord of sea and sky,
I have heard my people cry.
All who dwell in dark and sin
my hand will save.
I, who made the stars of night,
I will make their darkness bright.
Who will bear my light to them?
Whom shall I send?
Here I am, Lord. Is it I, Lord?
I have heard you calling in the night.
I will go, Lord, if you lead me.
I will hold your people in my heart.
I, the Lord of snow and rain,
I have borne my people’s pain.
I have wept for love of them.
They turn away.
I will break their hearts of stone,
give them hearts for love alone.
I will speak my words to them.
Whom shall I send?
Here I am, Lord. ......
I, the Lord of wind and flame,
I will send the poor and lame.
I will set a feast for them.
My hand will save.
Finest bread I will provide
till their hearts be satisfied.
I will give my life to them.
Whom shall I send?
Here I am, Lord. .....
INTERCESSIONS
For the Earth: the climate, the destruction of living things; that people do the right thing
For the people of the world: wars, drought, flood & wildfire; compassion for refugees
For ourselves, our family and friends: in a time of Covid, in the lead up to Christmas
For the church of Christ in every place: Come, Lord Jesus, come.
For all your mercies, we give you thanks, O Lord. Amen
FINAL HYMN 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.
Advent responses
With love and compassion: Come, Lord Jesus
In power and in glory: Come, Lord Jesus
He is coming, He is coming soon. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus
BLESSING
May the God of creation, of the spinning suns and the running waters, keep company with us on our journey and bring us at the last safe home. And the blessing of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, be with us and remain with us, and all we love, now and for ever. Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment