Peace – The Arrival of the Kingdom - 12/6/2020
Call to worship:
L: This is the season of live memories.
P: Let us remember the life of the One whose birth we hail.
L: This is the season of new beginnings.
P: Let us begin our watch for the One whose grace we extol.
L: This is the season of great expectations.
P: Let us expect the summons of the One whose love we proclaim.
L: This is the season of glad celebrations.
A: “O Come, let us adore him, Christ the Lord!”
Opening Hymn: Angels From the Realms of Glory #220
1 Angels from the realms of glory,
wing your flight o'er all the earth;
ye who sang creation's story
now proclaim Messiah's birth:
Refrain:
Come and worship, come and worship,
worship Christ, the newborn king.
2 Shepherds, in the field abiding,
watching o'er your flocks by night,
God with us is now residing;
yonder shines the infant light: [Refrain]
3 Sages, leave your contemplations,
brighter visions beam afar;
seek the great Desire of nations;
ye have seen his natal star: [Refrain]
4. Saints, before the altar bending,
watching long in hope and fear;
suddenly the Lord, descending,
in his temple shall appear:
(Refrain)
Opening Prayer:
Eternal God, who in Jesus Christ awakens our hope for a new heaven and a new earth, we approach you with troubled but expectant hearts. We are troubled by conflicts within, yet reassured by your promise of salvation for those who trust you. We are troubled by conflicts without, yet encouraged by your pledge of peace for those who follow you.
Take from us, O God, the fear that we are not your people, and make us messengers of the hope for peace on earth.
Epistle Reading: 2 Peter 3: 8-15a
8 But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. 9 The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed.
11 Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, what sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, 12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire? 13 But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home.
14 Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish; 15 and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation. So also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given him,
Children's Message (video)
Hymn: Love Divine, All Loves Excelling #384
1. Love divine, all loves excelling,
joy of heaven, to earth come down;
fix in us thy humble dwelling;
all thy faithful mercies crown!
Jesus, thou art all compassion,
pure, unbounded love thou art;
visit us with thy salvation;
enter every trembling heart.
2. Breathe, O breathe thy loving Spirit
into every troubled breast!
Let us all in thee inherit;
let us find that second rest.
Take away our bent to sinning;
Alpha and Omega be;
end of faith, as its beginning,
set our hearts at liberty.
3. Come, Almighty to deliver,
let us all thy life receive;
suddenly return and never,
nevermore thy temples leave.
Thee we would be always blessing,
serve thee as thy hosts above,
pray and praise thee without ceasing,
glory in thy perfect love.
4. Finish, then, thy new creation;
pure and spotless let us be.
Let us see thy great salvation
perfectly restored in thee;
changed from glory into glory,
till in heaven we take our place,
till we cast our crowns before thee,
lost in wonder, love, and praise.
Prayer of Dedication:
Almighty and everlasting God, you have ordained every time as a time of preparation for the coming of Christ. Yet we need the challenge of Advent to prepare for his birth. As with gratitude we recall his coming to first century Jewry, let us with joy Anticipate his coming to twenty-first century Christiandom. Grant us patient hearts coupled with goal-oriented hands so that all will wait in anticipation for the One who can save us all. Amen.
Gospel Reading: Mark 1: 1-8
¹ The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
2 As it is written in the prophet Isaiah, “See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way;
4 John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 6 Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7 He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. 8 I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
Sermon Title: Peace – The Arrival of the Kingdom (video)
Well, we have made it another week into our journey to Bethlehem where the Babe will be waiting for us along with His mother and her husband, Joseph. And while it seems like the waiting feels like it is taking an eternity to come to fruition, there are so many parts of this plan that are already in motion.
This Sunday, we have lit the candle of peace and preparation. Or, as I like to put it, you can’t have true peace without a certain amount of preparation. We hear about this preparation and the vision for what a peaceful kingdom looks like in Isaiah 11: 1-10 - A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear; but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.When you speak of planning, it is so important to mention this passage as it tells of the traditions and visions that Isaiah had for the coming King. Jesse was David’s father and so this beginning verse speaks to the emergence of a new scion or offspring of the Davidic line. Throughout the ancient Near East, the mark of a truly righteous king is his willingness to protect the poor and his nation’s most marginalized groups of people, most especially widows and orphans. And once the ideal king inaugurates a righteous society, peace and harmony will spread throughout nature and all the land.
Still, even though this passage describes what the people feel life with Jesus Christ in it will be like (though they did not refer to Jesus by name, only by title (He)), it is not repeated in the Gospels other than to explain why Galilee (a heavily Gentile region) became the center of Jesus’ ministry. This is because many of the New Testament writers were more concerned about getting the message of Christ and his sacrifice to those who did not know him yet, the said Gentiles. The Jews were Chosen people and so they assumed that they would get this message on their own.
Sadly, while there were some who did, not everyone fell in with this line of thinking.
The arrival of the kingdom was a well prophesied, much anticipated, and longed for event in Biblical history. Have you ever gone to a party or other event and arrived purposely a little late so that you could make a grand entrance? Or perhaps you remember the television show “Cheers” set in a Boston bar and when one of the main characters (a barfly named Norm) came in, everyone would stop what they were doing to greet him by shouting his first name.
The arrival of the Kingdom was so much more of a big deal. It meant so many things to so many people and they had been waiting for so long.
And thus the question that begs to be asked is, how long have we been waiting? Here we are, only three short weeks from celebrating the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ, and still we wait. We wait to see the baby and we think of hope. We wait for His second coming and fear being judged. For some, we are curious as to what this kingdom will look like. Others may be wondering if they will be welcome or if the doors will be shut in their face. Still others are unsure of the existence of the kingdom and want to see, touch, hear the proof that it is there, waiting for us.
If we look at the message from Romans 15: 4-13, we find what we need.
For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope. May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus, so that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the circumcised on behalf of the truth of God in order that he might confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written,
“Therefore I will confess you among the Gentiles,
and sing praises to your name”; and again he says,
“Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people”; and again,
“Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples praise him”; and again Isaiah says,
“The root of Jesse shall come, the one who rises to rule the Gentiles; in him the Gentiles shall hope.”
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Indeed, may the God of all hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Closing Hymn: Heralds of Christ #567
1. Heralds of Christ, who bear the King's commands,
immortal tidings in your mortal hands,
pass on and carry swift the news you bring;
make straight, make straight the highway of the King.
2. Through desert ways, dark fen, and deep morass,
through jungles, sluggish seas, and mountain pass,
build now the road, and falter not, nor stay;
prepare across the earth the King's highway.
3. Lord, give us faith and strength the road to build,
to see the promise of the day fulfilled,
when war shall be no more, and strife shall cease
upon the highway of the Prince of Peace.