5th. December. 2021. Service.
Service of Worship 5th December 2021
Second Sunday in Advent
Prelude Dona Nobis Pacem
Bible Introit 786 “May the God of Peace go with us”
May the God of peace go with us as we travel from this place; may the love of Jesus keep us firm in hope and full of grace.
Collect
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.
Hymn 474 “Hail to the Lord’s Anointed”
Call to Prayer
A voice in the wilderness cries out:
Prepare the way of the Lord!
Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill be made low.
The crooked shall be made straight, and rough places, smooth.
A voice in the wilderness cries out:
All people shall see the salvation of God!
Lift up your hearts in expectation!
Praise to God who brings us peace.
Prayers of Adoration and Confession
God of peace and promise, giver of life, alive in us through the power of your Holy Spirit, your voice calls us from our selfish wandering and sets us once again on the paths of righteousness and peace for your Name’s sake.
You are the living water that purifies us, baptising us for service in this world so badly need of your love.Refresh our souls and renew our minds in our time of worship together, and rekindle in us a desire to serve you each day that we liveMay glory, honour and praise be yours now and always,Holy One, Holy Three, our Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier.
Merciful God, our baptism proclaims the washing away of our sin and the start of our new life in Jesus Christ. We confess that we still live in sin.
We sin against you and one another, often by thoughtless words, impulsive and careless actions, and sometimes in bitter reaction to things other people say or do. Sometimes we fail to do what we should, often because we lack love or compassion. We excuse ourselves and take comfort in familiar habits and traditions.
Forgive us when we mistake such comfort for the peace you offer us in Christ Jesus. Make us aware of our shortcomings and show us how we my find new and better ways of following him.
Zechariah, father of John the Baptist, proclaimed this hope: “By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, giving light to those in darkness, guiding our feet in the way of peace.” Give us grace to receive God’s tender mercy today,
to trust that God’s peace will prevail in us and in all those who seek forgiveness in Jesus’ name.
Prayer for Understanding
Holy God, our holy scriptures have revealed your Word to your people in many generations. In the fullness of time, you revealed the Living Word in Jesus Christ. By the power of your Holy Spirit, make your word alive to us, illustrate it in ways our minds can grasp and embed it deep within our souls that we may discover your healing and reconciling power in our individual and communal lives today.
We thank and praise you for the blessings of this Advent season through Jesus Christ, the Saviour who comes to us full of grace and truth. In his name we pray,
The Lord’s Prayer in the version most familiar to you.
Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, The power, and the glory, For ever. Amen.
Intimations
The Inverkeithing Christmas Fayre will be held on Saturday 11th December from 2-4pm in the Church.Donations for the Fair can be brought to the Coffee morning between 10 & 12 on Tuesday or on the day any time after 12.00 to the Church.
On Sunday 19th December the Children’s Nativity Services for the whole family will be held at the usual times in both congregations.
On Christmas Eve there will be a joint Carol service in Inverkeithing at 6:30 pm. Worship will be as usual on Boxing Day in both congregations.
Invitation to the Offering
We make our offering today as a sign of our commitment to the peaceful reign of Christ among us, trusting that our gifts will accomplish more than we might ever imagine, because God will bless them—and us.
Prayer of Dedication
Mighty and Merciful God, we bring our gifts to you, trusting that your blessing will multiply their effects in the world. Use them and us to prepare the way for Christ to enter lives with his compassion and courage, so that the world will know his peace and trust his name.
All Age Talk
Look at that! There are only [number of days] until Christmas! Are you ready? That’s a question we hear quite often these days, isn’t it? What do people mean when they ask if you’re ready for Christmas? (Pause for responses.)
They might wonder what you need to do to be ready. So what do you need to do to be ready for Christmas? (Pause.) But what I wonder is, are you ready for Christ?
In our Bible lesson today, we hear the voice of John the Baptist crying out to the people, “Prepare the way for the Lord. Fill in the valleys and level off all the mountains. Make the crooked roads straight and the rough places smooth.”
Do you think John the Baptist really wanted the people to work on the roads? What John really wanted was for the people to get ready for the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. He was telling people to get their hearts right and return to God.
No matter how good people may think they are, there are always some crooked ways and rough places in their lives. There are things such as dishonesty, selfishness, pride, jealousy, and many more. John wanted the people to make those crooked ways straight in preparation for Jesus’ coming.
During the Christmas season, we, too, can prepare by looking at our hearts and smoothing out rough places like dishonesty and selfishness. And the good news is, God will help us. Let’s ask Him to do that right now.
Dear Father, we want to be ready for You. Make our crooked ways straight and our rough places smooth. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Primary Year B Quarter 4 Episode 8: “His Name Is John” on Vimeo
Hymn 282 “Christmas is coming” (chorus & verses 1-2 ) *
Reading Malachi 3:1-4
3 ‘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. Amen.
Reading Luke 1:68-79
‘Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,
because he has come to his people and redeemed them.
69 He has raised up a horn of salvation for us
in the house of his servant David
70 (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago),
71 salvation from our enemies
and from the hand of all who hate us –
72 to show mercy to our ancestors
and to remember his holy covenant,
73 the oath he swore to our father Abraham:
74 to rescue us from the hand of our enemies,
and to enable us to serve him without fear
75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
76 And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High;
for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him,
77 to give his people the knowledge of salvation
through the forgiveness of their sins,
78 because of the tender mercy of our God,
by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven
79 to shine on those living in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the path of peace.’
Amen, this is the word of the Lord, to Him be all glory and praise.
Hymn 472 – “Come, thou long expected Jesus”
Sermon
I came across the following life history.
For what it’s worth: I was 51 when I got a PhD. I was 51 when I started my dream job. I was 54 when I married the love of my life. I was 55 when I ran my first marathon. I was 67 when I self-published my first book I turn 70 next year, I can’t wait! Douglas Lumsden.
Here is another life history:
Isaac Watts was a genius. At 4 years of age, he had learned Latin, at 9 Greek, at 11 French, and at 13 years old Hebrew. His poetic re-working of the Psalms was magnificent. Unfortunately for poor Isaac, he was not a looker. His one chance at love came and went with a young lady named Elizabeth Singer, who actually fell in love with Watts sight-unseen through his published poems. Elizabeth was so taken with this man, who could write so deeply and passionately, that she threw caution to the wind and in a letter asked him to marry her.
But when they finally met, she retracted her offer. She later wrote that Isaac Watts was “only five feet tall, with a shallow face, hooked nose, prominent cheek bones, small eyes, and deathlike colour…I admired the jewel but not the casket that contained it.”
Isaac never married, but he spent his single life focused on the glory of God. In 1719, Watts published his poetic work based on Psalm 98 that would go on to become what many consider the greatest Christmas hymn of all time: “Joy to the World.” (From Lifeway by Lloyd Stilley).
Great music has always been associated with Christmas. We’re familiar with the story of Christmas: the angels, the shepherds, the virgin and the baby. But are we familiar with the biblical songs of Christmas? The events of Christmas are so stupendous that it results in an outburst of singing that describes the impact this child will have on the world of sinners.
Songs come and go; but there are four songs of Christmas that have endured for 2,000 years. Zechariah, John the Baptist’s father, composed the first song for Christmas long before Isaac Watts. In Latin the song is named “Benedictus” after the first word in the song.
Here then, we have the life history of Zechariah who was a priest by birth and by practice. He was married to Elizabeth, who was a descendant of Aaron. They belonged to the Priestly caste of the Jewish people, whose purpose was to serve God in the Temple and attend to the worship there. We know that they were related to Mary and Joseph, and it has been credibly asserted that they too were of a Priestly family. The word we normally translate as Carpenter to describe Joseph’s occupation, “technon” was also used for any person who had a practical calling and could include everyday priests.
Zechariah and Elizabeth were righteous people, seeking to live according to what the Lord intended. Like Joseph and Mary they lived their lives humbly within their community with the same hopes expectations joys and sorrows as everyone else.
We are told then that Zechariah was a priest who married a daughter of a priest. This was considered a rare and wonderful circumstance for a priest. They were both exceptionally devoted to God. You can imagine the wonderful future many anticipated for this good and devoted couple. I’m sure the wedding toast included a blessing for them to have many children and may one of those sons be the promised Messiah sent to set God’s people free.
That was the dream of all newlyweds in Israel. Every Jewish bride was taught to have a large family because the next son might be Messiah, the heaven-sent Deliverer of Israel. If there was any couple that seemed qualified to be human instruments of that promise, it was Zechariah and Elizabeth.
However, Zechariah and Elizabeth had been unable to have children and, finally, we learn that ‘they were getting on in years. Luke states the facts plainly and without emotion, but we can be sure the couple were filled with pain. They had no children because Elizabeth was barren, though today we prefer to state that a couple is infertile rather than humiliating the woman. If you can think of a cultural or as family issue that our society interprets as God having forgotten you or even punishing you, then you will know something of how Zechariah and Elizabeth felt. If you’ve ever longed for something but had your desire become despair and your despair become hopelessness and your hopelessness become reluctant acceptance, then you know what went on in this couple’s experience.
A great privilege comes to Zechariah. He is selected for temple duty. There were so many priests that they drew lots to determine who could serve on temple duty. Zechariah not only got temple duty, but he was assigned to offer incense, which was a once-in-a-lifetime privilege. Once selected then the priest’s name was removed from future contention so that others would have the privilege. He offered this incense in front of the curtain that separated the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies. Only the High Priest went into the Holy of Holies, and that was just once a year. The Jewish tradition described the priest who gets to offer this incense as “rich and holy” for the rest of his life. Like past Moderators of the General Assembly being called Very Reverend”
So now we tag along with Zechariah as he enters the sanctuary and we listen in on the remarkable news which the angel, Gabriel, has been sent to share, that his ageing wife will conceive. She will give birth to the forerunner of the Messiah. Even though the angel has come directly from the presence of God, and there are several biblical precedents for older women giving birth to sons, Sarah to Abraham for example, Zechariah doubts God can do this. Zechariah is unable to take in this announcement that Elizabeth will soon conceive. And so he fumbles out an argument of sorts and soon we hear that Gabriel is having none of it and for the next nine months Zechariah is sentenced to silence, unable even to speak the words of blessing which the people were expecting that day as they waited in prayer outside the sanctuary. It would be better for Zechariah to say nothing than to give a false message about God’s plan of salvation.
This cannot have been easy for someone who was accustomed to speaking and being heard, one who had long taken this for granted as do many of us, especially ministers! Luke does not tell us, of course.
Instead we are given the joyful response of Elizabeth. This is followed by the story of Gabriel’s visit to Mary to announce another, even more momentous birth. And, finally, the familiar account of Mary’s hurried visit to her cousin Elizabeth and the wondrous exchange between them.
By the end of the first chapter, we hear that the child has been born and that Zechariah assents to giving him the name, ‘John.’ And then, after all of this, we hear these remarkable Spirit-filled words recounting in a few short verses God’s saving activity across time and space, acknowledging in a few words the unique role John will play, and finally summing it up with this marvellous promise:
“By the tender compassion of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” Luke 1:78-79
Pregnancy involves a long wait, as everyone involved knows So we may wonder about those months of enforced silence which brought Zechariah to the point of speaking aloud such beauty.
Did he find himself not only hearing but listening more closely to all that was going on around him and within him. There is some debate as to whether Zechariah was not only mute, but also whether he may also have been struck deaf… for now I am going with the understanding that he was only unable to speak. Perhaps with the utter inability to speak the many responses he may have been formulating, he just settled in as a ‘receiver’ of all the sounds around him and spent his time assimilating everything that he was hearing in order to discover a deeper meaning which surely comes out in his song.
We may pause for a moment and consider how we deal with the times of disappointment and imposed inactivity in our lives. How do they shape us. Zechariah and Elizabeth had to come to terms with childlessness in an age when it was thought that some failure or sin must be the cause of barrenness. They maintained their faith, but others often don’t. When we are blessed in life do we consider the cost to those who long to be but are not. I recall a lovely woman in Sydney, Belle Ferguson, tall, lanky, ungainly, who in her loneliness rehearsed everything she was going to tell her friends, recalling how, because of her height, she was never asked to dance as a girl. She never married but stayed home to look after her mother. She was not bitter, but wistful, she was faithful to her church and took comfort in memories of her choral singing. Her character was formed by her disappointment, she was looked after in old age by her nephew and nieces.
And in this time when he was less distracted by the sound of his own voice, we may wonder if Zechariah also found himself more watchful now — able to take in the joy on Elizabeth’s face more fully and the wonder in Mary’s, too, as they greeted one another. As he observed the changes in Elizabeth’s body and bearing in the months that followed, as he witnessed an entire community caught up in the wonder of all of this as they, too, found themselves seeing something they probably never expected to see.
In the silence, removed from the business and bustle of life, he formulated a hymn of praise and prophecy. Reducing the glorious poetry to its essence, Zechariah declares anew the ancient promises of God to Abraham and David, of the redemption of his people from enmity and hatred, of the fulness of salvation that we may serve God in holiness. The challenges we face today are no different from those of the ancient past. His prophecy climaxes in these glorious words the essence of our faith:
76 And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High;
for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him,
77 to give his people the knowledge of salvation
through the forgiveness of their sins,
78 because of the tender mercy of our God,
by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven
79 to shine on those living in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the path of peace.’
I wonder now at how we might just see ourselves in both Zechariah and Elizabeth in ways perhaps we never have before.
For me and most in our congregations, like Zechariah we now find ourselves closer to the end of active ministry than the beginning. Having seen more than one round of all of this, it is perhaps easy to let scepticism take over, to allow repeated experiences (not always positive) to calcify into impressions which are not easily altered, to expect that at this ‘late date’ God could not possibly do anything new. Maybe all of us need to be quiet for while in order to be able to hear and see more clearly what God is up to right before our eyes.
Now we might consider that in all that has been so hard during the past year it may be that the ‘enforced quiet’ will turn out to be a gift in ways we could not have imagined. The pandemic is not over so what value is there in continuing to rail against it. Zechariah could not say a word for nine months or so. Maybe we have too much to say about the state of the world, and too little to say about the hope we have in Jesus Christ.
Perhaps it is time to possess our souls in quietness over this Advent and Christmas. To take time to reflect on the goodness of God rather than on the evils enveloping the world or the disappointments we have known.
And for us to realise that getting older and facing and accepting what our lives have been does not mean God is finished blessing us. Isaac Watts never married, but he lived comfortably sponsored by Lady Mary Abney, and wrote many books and hymn as well as: Joy to the World: Come ye that Love the Lord, Jesus Shall Reign Where’er the Sun; O God, Our Help in Ages Past and When I Survey the Wondrous Cross. The legacy is life, like Zechariah and Elizabeth’s was a channel of blessing to millions of people despite the disappointments. Put your legacy in God’s hands. Amen.
Prayers of Thanksgiving and Intercession
Come, Christ Jesus, be our guest this morning
Enter our lives today with your blessing.
We are lonely for you and the peace you bring.
Come close to us in friendship and faithfulness, that in this season of celebration, we may know your love around us
and be filled with gratitude, especially in the face of challenge and uncertainty.
Christ Jesus, coming among us,
Bring us peace.
Come, Christ Jesus, be our guide in the ways of wisdom and understanding in this age of disinformation and constantly changing news and opinion and in the face conspiracy theories and distrust.
We thank you for the kindness we encounter among friends and good neighbours, in warm houses and warm smiles.
We pray for those who have lost their way in life and feel like there is no place to turn, who feel rejected or have known disappointment or failure. Equip us to reach out to people who need your embrace, who long for words of encouragement, acceptance and love.
Christ Jesus, coming among us,
Bring us peace.
Come, Christ Jesus, be our hope.
Touch our lives with your healing and grace, that we may feel whole again.
We remember before you people we know and others known to you who are living with pain or illness this season,
those who face depression or discouragement,
all who are worried about the impact of the pandemic,
and any who will find it hard to be merry this year because of their grief and loss.
(Keep silence for 30 seconds)
Shine the light of your comfort into their lives and ours.
Christ Jesus, coming among us,
Bring us peace.
Come, Christ Jesus, and rule in our lives.
Claim your rightful place in our hearts.
This world is struggling for the justice and mercy you bring.
We remember before you places marked by violence and upheaval,
and the devastating impacts of the climate crisis.
(Keep a brief silence)
Empower with grace the rulers and leaders of our nation who are working to establish peace and justice.
Encourage every honourable action and co-operation as they front global challenges and local needs.
Give hope to people living under oppression
and others who live with fear or hunger or are exposed to the elements as migrants and refugees.
Speed the day when the world’s peoples will live as neighbours,
reconciled in your truth and freedom.
Christ Jesus, coming among us,
bring us your peace and hear the prayers we offer in your Holy Name. Amen
Hymn 270 “Put all your trust in God
1 Put all your trust in God,
in duty’s path go on.
Walk in his strength with faith and hope,
so shall your work be done.
Give to the winds your fears,
hope, and be undismayed.
God hears your sighs and counts your tears,
God shall lift up your head.
2 Through waves, and clouds, and storms
he gently clears your way;
await his time; so shall this night
soon end in joyful day.
Leave to his sovereign sway
to choose and to command,
then you shall marvel at his way
how wise, how strong his hand!
3 You see our weakness, Lord,
our hearts are known to you:
give strength to every failing hand
and keep our footsteps true.
Let us, in life, in death,
your steadfast truth declare,
confessing, with our final breath,
your love and guardian care.
Sending out and Benediction
May your love overflow,
rich and wholesome in the world.
May you be found pure and blameless,
having prepared a way and a place
for the Lord in your hearts.
May you reap the bountiful harvest of righteousness
that comes through Jesus Christ,
to the glory and praise of God. Amen.
“May God’s blessing surround you each day”
Postlude There’s a voice in the wilderness crying
*Regrettably not all our C of S Advent Hymns are available on YouTube.