6th. December. 2020 Service.
Second Sunday in Advent
Prelude Dona Nobis Pacem
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSdGW_HBrLE
Let us Worship God
Spirit of God, unseen as the wind
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GkOKql5ogw
The Collect for today
Merciful God, who sent your messengers the prophets to preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation: Give us grace to heed their warnings and forsake our sins, that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our Redeemer; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
On Jordan’s bank the Baptist’s cry
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIr21lLgFpg
Call to Prayer
Now is the time to get ready:
Let us prepare the way of the Lord!
Now is the time to be changed:
Let us repent and seek forgiveness.
Now is the time to welcome God into our midst:
Let us worship God in humble expectation.
Prayer of Adoration and Confession
God of all times and places, you are holy and loving.
You create pathways where there is no path.
You prepare us to receive wonders beyond imagining.
In every time and every place, you have raised up leaders who point to your glory and honour your greatness.
You have called us by name, baptized us with water and with the Holy Spirit.
You bless us with all we need to live fully and have set us in the world to serve you.
We are your people, and we worship you
as our Creator, our Redeemer, and the Breath of our lives, one God, now and always.
John the Baptist called people to repent
and now we join in confession, seeking God’s grace.
God of mercy,
We confess that we resist changing our hearts and minds,
even when your Word compels us to reconsider long held opinions and ideas.
We are more comfortable remaining as we are than taking up your challenge.
Forgive us for being set in our ways,
and seeing others only through our prejudices and past experience of them
Forgive us our reluctance to forgive each other as we have been forgiven.
By the power of your Holy Spirit, transform us by your great love and mercy.
Give us new eyes for seeing, new ears for hearing.
In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.
Assurance of Pardon
Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” We trust that peace and forgiveness are God’s gift to us today.
May we be renewed by the power of the Holy Spirit who moves with us into every new day. May the peace of Christ be with us all.
Prayer for Understanding
God of grace, still our busy minds so that we can hear your Word speaking through the scripture. By your Spirit, create a space within us where we may receive your wisdom your mercy, and your invitation to live for you. Amen.
The Lord’s Prayer (in the words most familiar to you)
Hymn “Lord of all hopefulness”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNlLEl8rkSA
Invitation to the Offering
This Sunday in Advent celebrates God’s gift of peace. When we look around the world, we see so many places where peace is missing. There is conflict. There is anxiety. Life seems threatening. But because we know the gift of God’s peace, we live in hope that our gifts will help restore peace to souls and situations by the power of the Spirit.
Prayer of Dedication
God of promise, we bring you our gifts in Jesus’ name, for we know his peace through forgiveness and faithfulness. Receive our offering and bless our gifts and our lives. Help us share the peace you offer us with our neighbours throughout the world you love. Amen.
The Readings
Isaiah 40:1-11
40 Comfort, comfort my people,
says your God.
2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and proclaim to her
that her hard service has been completed,
that her sin has been paid for,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand
double for all her sins.
3 A voice of one calling:
‘In the wilderness prepare
the way for the Lord;
make straight in the desert
a highway for our God.
4 Every valley shall be raised up,
every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
the rugged places a plain.
5 And the glory of the Lord will be revealed,
and all people will see it together.
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.’
6 A voice says, ‘Cry out.’
And I said, ‘What shall I cry?’
‘All people are like grass,
and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field.
7 The grass withers and the flowers fall,
because the breath of the Lord blows on them.
Surely the people are grass.
8 The grass withers and the flowers fall,
but the word of our God endures for ever.’
9 You who bring good news to Zion,
go up on a high mountain.
You who bring good news to Jerusalem,
lift up your voice with a shout,
lift it up, do not be afraid;
say to the towns of Judah,
‘Here is your God!’
10 See, the Sovereign Lord comes with power,
and he rules with a mighty arm.
See, his reward is with him,
and his recompense accompanies him.
11 He tends his flock like a shepherd:
he gathers the lambs in his arms
and carries them close to his heart;
he gently leads those that have young.
Comfort, comfort now my people
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=119C58F3dnQ
Mark 1:1-8
1 The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God, 2 as it is written in Isaiah the prophet:
‘I will send my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way’–
3 ‘a voice of one calling in the wilderness,
“Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.”’
4 And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptised by him in the River Jordan. 6 John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt round his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7 And this was his message: ‘After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 I baptise you with water, but he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit.’ Amen, this is the Word of the Lord, to him be all praise and glory.
Hark a thrilling voice is sounding
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6V0J9Rgsr7A
Sermon
There was a heart-breaking photograph in the newspapers this week of a doctor in full PPE, – gown, gloves mask and visor, hugging an elderly man in a hospital in America. Denied the comfort of a hug from family members, grateful perhaps for the sense of someone touching him with compassion who knows what heartache that old man was feeling.
Comfort and the peace which it brings is desperately needed by millions today as the pandemic and other calamities ravage many lives.
It is fitting then that our scriptures bring us a message of comfort as we hear some good news from the Old Testament as it looks to the future:
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and cry to her,
for her servitude is ended and her iniquity is pardoned.
Behold, the Lord your God comes with might,
and his arm rules for him.
Behold, his reward comes with him
and his recompense goes ahead of him.
The Lord will lead his flock like a shepherd,
he will gather the lambs in his arms,
he will carry them on his chest,
and gently lead those that are with young.
As our Bible Discussion Group discovered this week, Isaiah is something of an enigma. In the first thirty-nine books he is a prophet of judgment and disaster, but as we turn the page into chapter forty everything changes. This Isaiah is definitely a prophet of good news. A man of hope. We have two choices here. We may say that Isaiah saw beyond the coming judgment on Jerusalem the city where the first half of his ministry took place to a hundred years later when his people were in exile, Jerusalem and its temple lay in ruins and prophesied a new hope.
Or, as many scholars say, there was a second Isaiah in Babylon after the destruction of the Temple adding a message of hope in the name of Isaiah. This writer had lived through times that were disastrous, yet he never lost faith in his God; never stopped singing his visionary songs of hope. He trusted a God who never forgets his people. Even though they may be unfaithful, Yahweh’s steadfast love endures forever.
The final verses of the chapter create a beautiful pastoral image. A loving shepherd carrying the lambs in his arms, and when moving his flock, slowing down to accommodate the needs of the pregnant ewe. The mighty God of the whole universe, whom Isaiah saw as working through the political events of strong nations, is also committed to the least and the lowliest among his people.
I am sure that many of you will associate this passage with J.S. Bach’s music “Sheep may safely graze.” That music seems to express the faith and hope which forever flows from the Spirit of God and embraces us with its blessing. The music wraps us around like loving arms. It celebrates the same hope of which Isaiah was the most profound and foreseeing prophet.
Jesus obviously loved the book of Isaiah and nourished his soul on it. He used it as his “inaugural address” in the synagogue at Nazareth. He dared to claim, “this day the word of the prophet is fulfilled in your midst.” Later in his ministry, Jesus identified with the suffering servant of whom Isaiah often spoke; that holy person who would “bear our sorrows and carry our griefs,” and through whose redemptive suffering we would be healed.
Even more years later, among the spreading congregations of the young church, the Gospel writers, Mark, Matthew and Luke all use Isaiah to announce the coming of their Messiah. Through the mouth of John the Baptist they introduce the good news of Christ Jesus.
As it is written in Isaiah the prophet: “I will send my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way’– 3 ‘a voice of one calling in the wilderness,
“Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.”’
For the Gospel writers, the visionary hope of Isaiah was being fulfilled, at first through the word and witness of John, and then through the life, suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus.
Jesus was the supreme person of hope. The faithful Child of God who even on the eve of his betrayal, suffering and death, could say to his friends. “Don’t be afraid. Be of good cheer.
We live in an age of anxiety which is now widespread around the whole world. It is so present and powerful that politicians in almost every country seek to employ it to their advantage. Whenever an election is in the offing, they press their finger on the sensitive “anxiety button” and get the fear reaction they desire.
We may feel that the times have suddenly changed; and become less secure. But if we look at it rationally, we have been extraordinary lucky to have survived this long with so few threats to our daily security. When populations are fearful, they tend to look to and elect leaders they image are strong and will save them.
Quite by chance I came across some lectures by the Canadian psychologist, Jordan Peterson, in which he analysed the personality of Adolf Hitler. His hypothesis is that Hitler was an ultra-fastidious, fearful person who had an extremely low tolerance of anything he perceived to be impure or dirty. He bathed four times a day. He had a horror of germs and illness and believed that people who suffered illness were weak. His aim was to create a strong healthy and long-lasting Reich in Germany, and so he began a cleansing of the so-called Aryan race by eliminating those he thought to be weak, impure or unclean. We know how this escalated. A strong sense of disgust towards anyone different, in any way, motivated his whole political strategy. Of course, lots of people triggered disgust in him. Jews, Slavs, Communists, Gypsies, homosexuals, the mentally ill, the chronically ill, the congenitally malformed. There was no compassion, only disgust. Disgust is a powerful form of fear. On a physiological level it can protect us from disease, but on a social level it can be devastatingly dangerous as it engenders racism and intolerance of anyone who is different or does not conform to our norms.
Think of the many forms of ethnic cleansing that have marred history over the centuries. Think of other human beings who are currently being persecuted or ethnically cleansed. Russian pogroms against Jew and Armenian, tribal wars in Africa, the persecution of Uighurs and Rohingya in our times. They all stem from fear expressed as disgust and then violence.
The Jews of Isaiah’s day were enslaved and degraded, and Isaiah’s message was one of hope for people whose lives were blighted by slavery, a slavery which they saw as God’s punishment for their sin and faithlessness. But isn’t it interesting that when John came proclaiming the fulfilment of Isaiah’s prophecy, he called the Jews enslaved by Rome to repentance first of all? To release their sins and guilt and to be comforted so that they could themselves be comforters
Jesus, whom John foreshadowed, came bearing a new message of comfort, but it was not only for the historic people of God, but for the whole of humanity. This comfort has two components which we must not forget. God in his mercy comforts you in all your hurts, forgives you all your sins and sets you free. Peace is yours; love is yours. That is the first component.
The second is now that you are fearless and free, have compassion, do not look with pride, disdain, disgust or hatred on anyone else. Peace on earth goodwill towards mankind has no room for anything less than compassion and love. Jesus touched the lepers, healed the sick, forgave and encouraged the broken, the despised, the morally compromised the lost. He did not fear them, so could not be disgusted by them, instead he embraced them with his compassion.
Going back, the prophet who wrote the fortieth chapter of Isaiah was speaking to a nation which had been conquered, humiliated, subject to war crimes. The surviving remanent was driven away from their homeland to live in exile in faraway Babylon. Most of us in Scotland have never suffered like that. Recent events are in the “little league” compared to what happened to the Jews in the sixth century BC.
Among the vast army of migrants who have been trudging through Europe, many of whom have potential to enrich our way of life, are those who can identify with the Jews of that era. They know what real calamity and fear is. What it is like to be surrounded by violence.
Having some experience of Aboriginal people in Canada and Australia, as well as descendants of former slaves in Trinidad and Guyana, I am aware of the fact that they were subject to violence every bit as bad, often worse, than that handed out by recent terrorists. They were brutally treated by their white conquerors; dispossessed, raped, enslaved, massacred. The tribes lost their family members, homelands, freedom, much of their culture, often their local language, and their dignity and hope. In places their humiliation continues to this very day.
By putting ourselves into their shoes we will get closer to the situation of the prophet Isaiah. It makes his prophecies all the more amazing. In exile, when most Jews felt despair, and passed hopelessness around like a bitter cup, Isaiah offered them a golden chalice of hope. This hope was grounded in the faithfulness of God.
When others stopped playing music and hung their unused harps on branches of the willow trees by the canals of Babylon, and while they moaned “How can we sing the Lord’s song in an alien land,” this remarkable Isaiah sang his glorious songs of faith and hope. While some looked for temporary respite and comfort, Isaiah offered them the ultimate comfort of placing their full trust in Yahweh their God.
They were really doing it tough! And what about us?
Whenever we start feeling sorry for ourselves, we need a dose of Isaiah’s courage and vision. And we need him to direct us to that “suffering servant” of God who came that we might have hope; that irrepressible hope born in the darkest times imaginable.
What we are facing in the pandemic is hard, it is challenging, and it may be personally costly, but as people who have heard the gospel, we are called above all to be people of compassion and prayer and reconciliation.
Advent hope
Advent is a time for looking forward with peace of heart and mind. No deep valley or ravine in our journey is so dark that the guiding star of God cannot penetrate. No obstacle can be so mountainous that faith cannot shift or level it. No event can be so calamitous, that God cannot use it for a higher purpose. No evil can be so entrenched that redemption is impossible. No suffering or sorrow is too heavy for the Divine Comforter to ease the weight from our shoulders. No threat can be so deadly that God cannot offer the promise of new birth. We can let go of our anxieties to be as a lambs, resting in the arms of the Shepherd. Amen.
Prayers of Thanksgiving and Intercession
God of Wisdom and Patience,
In this season of Advent, we wait for your gifts of hope and peace to claim the world once more.
We wait on you in prayer, knowing you hear us even before we speak.
Prepare our hearts and minds to welcome the coming of your Son once again,
and renew our courage and conviction to follow the way of the Lord.
Thank you for leading us on the Way, especially in these difficult days
when the pandemic still threatens, and people are so divided.
We are grateful that we can rely on your strength and comfort
when so much around us has become uncertain.
Comfort those who are troubled in mind or spirit as the days grow shorter.
Strengthen the bodies and spirits of those who are tired or suffering.
Embrace those who are living with loss,
and protect children and young people
for whom the future seems confusing and unimaginable.
God who makes all things new,
Turn our lives upside down
and shake out the unnecessary distractions of this season.
Help us to focus on what is important and on people who truly matter to us.
Turn our lives upside right that our priorities and purposes match those we have learned from Jesus.
Shape and reshape us until we conform to his way of living and his likeness.
Turn us upside down, O God, that we value what is hidden and small more than what is showy and grand.
Open our eyes to the needs of the most vulnerable in our community and help us speak out with them and for them, even if we have to challenge those who usually get their way.
Turn us right side up, O God,
so that we can see we have more than enough resources to share with those who have much less than they need day by day.
Hear us now as we name places, people, and situations that need your care:
(A silence is kept for 20-30 seconds.)
God, you are Alpha and Omega, our beginning, and our end.
Strengthen us by your Spirit to build your kingdom,
here and now, today, and always through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maty13s_db4
Benediction
Be people of peace.
Let peace live in your heart and share the peace of Christ with all you meet.
Share peace by acting out of compassion and not fear.
Share peace by listening to all sides of the story.
Share peace by praying for our world.
In this Advent season, we need to see, feel, and share peace.
As you go out into the wonder of God’s creations, share peace and hope with those you meet. And the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit be among you and remain with you ever more. Amen.
Postlude There’s a voice in the wilderness crying
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mA73oyWm5gg&list=RDmA73oyWm5gg&start_radio=1&t=23
Hymns
Here are some hymn suggestions to check on YouTube if you wish to sing along. Some may not be as familiar as their titles suggest and the ones marked “listen” do not have the lyrics on the screen:
Prelude Dona nobis pacem
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSdGW_HBrLE
Spirit of God, unseen as the wind
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GkOKql5ogw
On Jordan’s bank the Baptist’s cry
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIr21lLgFpg
Lord of all hopefulness
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BP1ecUkOTB8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNlLEl8rkSA
Forth in Thy Name O Lord I go
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3K1QVyE_QA
Comfort, comfort now my people
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=119C58F3dnQ
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maty13s_db4
Hark a thrilling voice is sounding
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6V0J9Rgsr7A
There’s a voice in the wilderness crying
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mA73oyWm5gg&list=RDmA73oyWm5gg&start_radio=1&t=23
For Children
Before the days of printed newspapers, town criers walked through the streets ringing a bell. Then they shouted out the news from every street corner announcing the time of town meetings and other items of interest to the people. Even after printed newspapers came along, you could walk the streets of a city and hear the voice of a newspaper boy crying out, “Extra! Extra! Read all about it!” Then he would shout out the day’s headlines, hoping to get the attention of those who were passing by so that they would buy a newspaper.
Today, people get the news in many different ways. Think for a moment about how your family gets the news. (Some rely on the newspaper and they read it from cover to cover, some get the news from the Internet, others get the news by listening to the radio. Probably the main way that people get the news today is by watching television. No matter how you get the news, it is important to know what is going on in the world around us.
Long before Jesus was born, God spoke through the prophet Isaiah to tell how He would spread the news of the coming of the Messiah. (This is what God said through Isaiah, “I will send my messenger to prepare the way. He will be a voice of one crying in the desert, ‘Prepare the way for the coming of the Lord! Clear the road for him.'”
John the Baptist was the messenger that God chose to bring this good news to His people. (John was a very unusual man who wore clothes made of camel hair with a leather belt around his waist. His favourite food was locusts and wild honey. Everyone has something unique or unusual about themselves. What’s that for you? John travelled around in the desert preaching that people should repent of their sins and turn to God. Repent means to tell God when you know you have done wrong and stop doing those wrong things. When people listening to John the Baptist confessed their sins, he baptized them in the Jordan River.
John the Baptist was very popular and had a great following, but he always told the people about Jesus. “Someone is coming soon who is greater than I am,” he said. “He is so much greater that I am not even worthy to stoop down and untie the straps on His sandals.” Yes, John was faithful in bringing the news to the people.
It’s been 2,000 years since God sent His Son, but God still needs messengers to spread the news. This year, as we celebrate our Saviour’s birth, won’t you be God’s messenger to share the good news with others? (
Dear God, we thank You for this very special time of year when we celebrate the birth of Jesus. There are many who don’t know about Jesus. Help us be Your messengers and share the good news. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Here are videos about John the Baptist and the chorus, Allelu, allelu
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NMHOLPWeTM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f50UKvfhku4
Intimations
Please remember to indicate to Joan More or Chris Duguid if you wish to attend worship on Sunday. Owing to Government regulations, numbers will be restricted to fewer than fifty persons, twenty-five in North Queensferry and places will be allocated on a first come first served basis each week. Please call Joan 01383 414515 on Friday or Chris 01383 413372 to indicate that you wish to attend. Please do not come without first ensuring your place each week as we do not wish to turn anyone away on the day.
There will be a service of Nine Lessons and Carols in Inverkeithing Church on Christmas Eve at 6:30pm. Please be sure to reserve you place with Joan.