Advent II

Gathered through the power of the Holy Spirit, we worship God with gladness. We encourage you to pray over the words that follow, and follow the links within the liturgy. Prayers in this service are adapted from Celebrate God’s Presence (UCPH). Thanks this week to Dave, Cor, and Heather!

PRELUDE: “It came upon a midnight clear”

LIGHTING THE SECOND ADVENT CANDLE

The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness shall never overcome it.
We are drawn to mayhem, forgetting we belong
to the Prince of PEACE.
Source of light, shine in our lives,
and in your world with your everlasting peace.
Amen.

O come, O Wisdom from on high,
who orders all things mightily;
to us the path of knowledge show,
and teach us in her ways to go.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
shall come to thee, O Israel.

OPENING PRAYER

Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, O Promised One,
we come to this time of Advent awaiting your presence.
Give us the wisdom to see meaning in uncertainty.
Give us the courage to wait in times of pain and trouble.
Give us the compassion to wait for one another.
Give us the faith to wait for the Messiah
when we are threatened by the Herods of this world.
Give us the hope to wait for the Saviour
even when we cannot hear the angels singing.
Give us the love that does not wait
when it meets Christ in our neighbour. Amen.

HYMN OF PRAISE: “There’s a voice in the wilderness crying”

There’s a voice in the wilderness crying,
a call from the ways untrod:
prepare in the desert a highway,
a highway for our God!
The valleys shall be exalted,
the lofty hills brought low;
make straight all the crooked places
where God, our God, may go!

O Zion, that bringest good tidings,
get thee up to the heights and sing!
Proclaim to a desolate people
the coming of their King.
Like the flowers of the field they perish,
like grass our works decay;
the power and pomp of nations
shall pass, like a dream, away.

But the word of our God endureth,
whose arm is ever strong;
God stands in the midst of nations,
and soon will right the wrong.
God shall feed the flock like a shepherd,
the lambs so gently hold;
to pastures of peace will lead them,
and bring them safe to fold.

There’s a voice in the wilderness crying,
a call from the ways untrod:
prepare in the desert a highway,
a highway for our God!
The valleys shall be exalted,
the lofty hills brought low;
make straight all the crooked places
where God, our God, may go!

PRAYER OF CONFESSION

When the Lord comes,
things now hidden will come to light,
and the purposes of the heart
will be revealed to a forgiving God.
Everything done,
and everything undone,
will be met with mercy.
Help us gather in the desert,
and heed the Baptist’s cry,
to learn true repentance,
and the way of new life in Christ.
Amen.

ASSURANCE OF PARDON

The Good News of this Advent season
is forgiveness of sin and new life.
Let us commit our lives
to Christ’s way of hope and peace.

SPECIAL MUSIC: “There’s a Song in the Air” (Holland)

FIRST READING: Isaiah 40.1-11

Comfort, comfort my people,
says your God.
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.
A voice of one calling:
“In the wilderness prepare
the way for the Lord[a];
make straight in the desert
a highway for our God.[b]
Every valley shall be raised up,
every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
the rugged places a plain.
And the glory of the Lord will be revealed,
and all people will see it together.
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
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.
The grass withers and the flowers fall,
because the breath of the Lord blows on them.
Surely the people are grass.
The grass withers and the flowers fall,
but the word of our God endures forever.”
You who bring good news to Zion,
go up on a high mountain.
You who bring good news to Jerusalem,[c]
lift up your voice with a shout,
lift it up, do not be afraid;
say to the towns of Judah,
“Here is your God!”
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.
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.

SECOND READING: Mark 1.1-8

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 baptized by him in the Jordan River. 6 John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around 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 baptize you with[e] water, but he will baptize you with[f] the Holy Spirit.”

HYMN: “O day of God, draw nigh”

O day of God, draw nigh
in beauty and in power,
come with your timeless judgement now
to match our present hour.

Bring to our troubled minds,
uncertain and afraid,
the quiet of a steadfast faith,
calm of a call obeyed.

Bring justice to our land,
that all may dwell secure,
and finely build for days to come
foundations that endure.

Bring to our world of strife
your sovereign word of peace,
that war may haunt the earth no more
and desolation cease.

O day of God, draw nigh
as at creation’s birth;
let there be light again, and set
your judgements in the earth.

REFLECTION

Who is about to be born, and in early middle-age, and about to begin a promising career, and apparently doomed?

If you answered Jesus, you would be correct. If you answered Jesus in the season of Advent, you get a bonus point. My riddle points to the mixed up timeline we’ve entered, and the extent to which the season is trying to accomplish several things at once.

Of course, the Bible is filled with biographies, stories of characters that give us a glimpse of the span of their lives. Most famous, perhaps, is Moses: from the babe in a basket to an aged liberator, gazing upon the promised land. Or David, a mere lad, out tending the sheep while God’s anointed is being chosen. We will see the span of his life too, victories, foundations, and personal defeats. Or Esther, the beautiful young orphan who becomes queen, develops a mastery of court life, and saves the Jewish people from death.

In each case, the story is told straight, a linear description from beginning to end: selected or saved for service, engaged in a crisis or conflict, and triumphant at the last. In each case, of course, it is God that is victorious, and we give thanks. What we don’t do, in the course of telling these stories, is interrupt the order: we wouldn’t tell the story of the burning bush to explain why the baby Moses was set adrift on the Nile.

In Advent, we enter a unique version of time. Future is present, the past predicts the future, and the one for whom we wait is already here. Heroes of the narrative occur in the middle of the story, but they help us prepare for the beginning. The baby John the Baptist may appear in the time of Jesus’ nativity, but now he’s the fully grown John who will help us prepare for Jesus’ birth.

“After me,” says John, “comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” Again, these words fit the prelude to Jesus’ baptism in the River Jordan, but they also describe our fondest hope, the time for which we wait.

The glue that holds this story together is baptism. John is practicing one aspect of baptism (“a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins”) and Jesus another. John’s work, like Advent, is preparatory, allowing us to make room for Jesus to enter our hearts. We must die to our old selves to welcome him in, to find new life in Christ. St. Paul knew this better than most:

Don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. (Rom 3)

In Athens, the wise ones would say “tell us more, for you are bringing strange things to our ears.” (Acts 17) It is strange, to conflate baptism and death, but remember that the timelines are not what they seem. When we were baptized we entered the death and resurrection of Jesus, not some distant event, but the same death and resurrection that happens at every baptism, both now and in the future.

This is what John means when he describes our baptism as baptism with the Holy Spirit. It exists outside of time, and it defies time, because new life in Christ never stops happening. Maybe this is why Paul’s Athenian friends were so puzzled. Your life unfolded in a predictable manner: spun, measured, and cut, without any sense that it could be respun or uncut or measured in a different way. Jesus takes away loom and tape and scissors, sets them aside, and says ‘walk with me, and follow in my way.’ Nothing about your life is set when we’re talking about new life in Christ.

Just now the practical people are crying out for something tangible, and for them, I have a confession. Not an actual confession, though I do have a few. My confession is the abiding belief that confession is at the very heart of who we are and what we do. In confession, we ask God to help us set aside the things we regret and the things that are holding us back.

But there is more than just that. In confession we send a signal to others that it’s healthy and appropriate to name the ways we fall short and seek forgiveness. In a world of facades and falsehoods, we can be the voice that says “we all screw up, and we all need God’s help to get by.” We can’t self-pardon. But when we model a way of being that includes humility and a realistic sense-of-self, it can start catching. Maybe others will admit they’ve failed, and fallen short, and that they need something outside themselves to make it right. That is when the Spirit moves, and new life comes.

So John was right all along. People enter the desert places longing for something, anything that can help them. And he appears, practicing a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins—which was always just a fancy way to describe confession. They were busy making room: leaving cluttered lives and unresolved situations to seek the new life that only God in Christ can bring.

May God bless you as our Advent journey continues. May you enter and reenter the story as needed, always aware that it leads to new life. Amen.

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE

“A voice cries in the wilderness:
prepare the way of the Lord!”
O God, we pray that in our hearts
your way may be prepared,
that the path among us,
by which your Spirit comes,
may be made straight.
Prepare among us the path of peace.
Grant the peace that comes in following your ways,
in opening our lives to you, and sharing our gifts for your sake.
Prepare among us the path of love.

We pray for all who need to be embraced by love:
all who are cramped and narrowed in spirit;
all who have lost the ability to trust;
all who ache for a signal they are cherished;
all who gather in the desert wastes of this world
beset by longing or great need.
We pray for those in need of hope today:
all who mourn the death of a loved one;
who grieve the end of a relationship;
who are worried for a friend;
all who are anxious for a family member’s health;
people who are overwhelmed by illness or disability;
who live in the midst of social collapse,
warfare or grinding poverty.
Prepare among us the path of joy.
We pray for those whose spirits need to be buoyed up
and who have forgotten childhood’s gift
of taking delight in the simple things of life,
which come from you, O generous God.

Hear our thanks and praise as our spirits turn to you,
and as we remember, in a moment of silence,
the blessings we enjoy…
O God of hope, peace, joy, and love,
we honour you now and always,
through Jesus, your Anointed One,
and in the expectant power of your Holy Spirit.
Amen.

THE LORD’S PRAYER

Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.

HYMN: “On Jordan’s bank, the Baptist’s cry”

On Jordan’s bank, the Baptist’s cry
announces that the Lamb is nigh;
awake and hearken, for he brings
glad tidings of the King of Kings.

Then cleansed be every life from sin;
make straight the way for God within;
and let each heart prepare a home
where such a mighty guest may come.

In you, we find abundant life,
our refuge in the midst of strife;
without your grace we waste away,
like flowers that wither and decay.

Stretch forth your hand, our health restore,
and help us rise to fall no more.
O let your face upon us shine,
and fill the world with love divine.

All praise to you, eternal Son,
whose advent has our freedom won;
and praise to God whom we adore,
with Holy Spirit evermore.

BLESSING

Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way,
and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless
until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again. Amen.
—1 Thessalonians 5:23

God be with you till we meet again;
loving counsels guide, uphold you,
with a shepherd’s care enfold you;
God be with you till we meet again.