ST. ANDREW’S CHURCH

DECEMBER 19^th    2021

 

LIGHTING OF THE CANDLE OF LOVE

Joining the candles of Hope, Peace, and Joy, we light today the candle of Love

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

• St. Andrew's welcomes you to this online worship service as we celebrate the 4th Sunday of Advent. May the Love of Christ be with you now and forever more.
• Thank you Rev. Shirley Cochrane for leading our worship today.
• We continue to pray for Rev. Ena van Zoeren as she recovers from surgery. May God grant Ena healing, restoration and his peace as she makes plans to return home.
• Our Loonie Offering for the month of December is going to go to the SAFE House. For more information check out the "Recent Posts" to the right of your screen.

 

ADVENT CALL TO WORSHIP

Love is a gift of God.

Love burns in our hearts.

Love is warmth in a world that is often bitter and cold.

In Jesus Christ, we receive God’s gift of love

God who spoke to Mary and Elizabeth,

speak your Word to us now.

God who blessed them with new life,

bless us with great expectation.

God who gave them songs of praise to sing,

receive our joyful praise.

God who loves beyond all measure,

we are here to worship you with hearts full of love.

 

HYMN      115 Hail to the Lord’s anointed

 

1. Hail to the Lord's Anointed, great David's greater Son;
   hail, in the time appointed, his reign on earth begun!
   He comes to break oppression, to set the captive free,
   to take away transgression, and rule in equity.
2. He brings salvation speedy to those who suffer wrong;
   he saves the poor and needy, and helps the weak be strong;
   they sing who once were sighing, their darkness turned to light,
   for they, who once were dying, are precious in his sight.
3. He shall come down like showers upon the fruitful earth,
   and love, joy, hope, like flowers, spring in his path to birth.
   Before him on the mountains shall peace, the herald, go,
   and righteousness, in fountains, from hill to valley flow.
4. All powers shall bow before him, and gold and incense bring;
   all nations shall adore him, his praise all people sing,
   for he shall have dominion o'er river, sea and shore,
   far as the eagle's pinion or dove's light wing can soar.
5. O'er every foe victorious, Christ on his throne shall rest,
   from age to age more glorious, all blessing and all blest:
   the tide of time shall never his covenant remove;
   his name shall stand for ever: that name to us is Love.

 

OPENING PRAYER

O God, our Saviour, With Mary, our spirits rejoice in you this day, for you look with favour on all your children. You have done great things for us. You have scattered the proud and lifted up the lowly. You have filled the hungry with good things, and kept the promises made to our ancestors. Your mercy is known from generation to generation. And so, we praise and magnify your holy name with hearts full of gratitude, trusting you will do great things once again through Christ our Lord, , born for and to be with us.  Source of light, shine in our lives and in your world with your unending love. Through Jesus, in whose name we pray our confession together

 

UNISON PRAYER OF CONFESSION

God of Life and Love, The stories of Advent remind us that you are a God of surprises. You surprised Elizabeth with news she would bear a child late in life. You surprised Mary with news she would bear our Saviour. Your surprises overturned their lives We confess we do not always meet life’s surprises with the same courage. Forgive us when we hesitate to greet you in the unexpected. Forgive us when we prefer routine over new possibilities. We praise and thank you for your great love and mercies in our lives AMEN

 

ASSURANCE OF PARDON

We have made our plea for mercy, trusting in God’s gift of love made flesh in Jesus.  Now receive God’s forgiveness as a lasting token of God’s love.

 

THE PEACE

May the peace of Christ be with you      and also with you

 

HYMN                131 Tomorrow Christ is coming

Online: Emmanuel God with us

 

 

 

SCRIPTURE READINGS

 

Luke 1: 39 – 55

³⁹ At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, ⁴⁰ where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. ⁴¹ When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. ⁴² In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! ⁴³ But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? ⁴⁴ As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. ⁴⁵ Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!”

⁴⁶ And Mary said:

“My soul glorifies the Lord
⁴⁷     and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
⁴⁸ for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
⁴⁹     for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
holy is his name.
⁵⁰ His mercy extends to those who fear him,
from generation to generation.
⁵¹ He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
⁵² He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
⁵³ He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.
⁵⁴ He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful
⁵⁵ to Abraham and his descendants forever,
just as he promised our ancestors.”

 

SERMON

Open our ears, O God, to hear your voice speaking to us through the scriptures. Open our hearts to recognize your presence with us and know your direction for us. May we say with Mary, “Let it be with me according to your Word.” Amen.

 

Advent has a pattern that stretches across its four Sundays. The first Sunday begins at the End - the parousia— as we await Jesus’ second coming. The focus of week two backs up to zoom in on John the Baptist, who prepares the people for the coming of Jesus’ ministry.  During Advent weeks 3 and 4, we back up to the beginning of Christ’s story to focus on preparing for the coming of the birth of Christ,

Last week in Verses 39–45 we read the narrative telling of the encounter of Elizabeth and Mary, both of whom are pregnant. It portrays Elizabeth and her yet-to-be-born son John as recognizing the yet-to-be-born child of Mary as Messiah, “Lord.”  Today we continue that conversation with Mary.

I think we tend to think of Mary as a simple peasant girl, yet she has grown up in a faithful Jewish home and no doubt has taken the teaching in the synagogue and family to heart

 

Thus, we find a determined, strong, assertive young woman; educated, sharp, committed. In the years to come this is the resourceful, competent woman from whom Jesus learns much of what he knows about God's will for him and for his world. Here is a woman blessed...

 

I love Eugene Peterson’s creative translation of Mary’s psalm, especially the first verse: “I’m bursting with God-news, I’m dancing the song of my Savior God.” It is a wonderful image—the pregnant Mary absolutely bursting with the good news: -- mercy for the faithful who revere God, --strength for the weak who rely on God, --honor for those who have been shamed but look to God, --food for the hungry who turn to God, --and help for Israel and those who have trusted God’s ancient promises.

It is important to remember that the Magnificat is a song, - a psalm. Mary’s Psalm sounds the initial, clear, trumpet call that the event of the Christ’s coming is to be a world-transforming, universe-shaking event. It is one of the few texts in the Bible, written in an ancient patriarchal culture, where a woman is presented as the main character, even more so as one who speaks prophetically

So, we need to understand the so-called “Magnificat” is a radical protest song. The kind of song that the enslaved Israelites might have sung in Egypt. The kind of song you might have heard on the lips of the exiled Judeans in Babylon. The kind of song that has been sung by countless people of faith through the ages in resistance, in defiance of empires, slavers, terrorists, invaders, and the like.

However, Mary’s song of resistance is not completely new. It is a song in harmony with the psalms that others had sung in past generations. Like Miriam, Deborah, and Hannah before her, Mary bursts into song with the good news.

Luke presents her as preaching that God brought judgment on the proud and the powerful, sending the rich away empty, and conversely that God lifted up the lowly and fed the hungry (verses 51–53).

Luke shapes the Magnificat by having Mary speak of God’s actions in the past tense: God did great things for me,  showed strength, scattered the proud, brought down the powerful, lifted up the lowly, filled the hungry, sent the rich away empty, and helped Israel (verses 48–54). Modern English translations render the verbs in the perfect tense -for example, “has looked” - implying an action in the past that continues on into the present. But the Greek verbs all indicate actions completely completed in the past.

Thus, we see that the Magnificat is a paradoxical prophecy. It speaks of a future God will bring in through the yet-to-be-born Messiah using past tense verbs. There is a sense, in which Luke is proclaiming that already at the point of awaiting the coming of the messiah, salvation is a done deal.

Already the reign of God has arrived, but when we look around at the world, we plead that God’s reign might yet come. Is not this the paradox of Advent itself: Christ already came - born, preached, healed, opposed the powers-that-be, died, resurrected, and ascended and yet we begin the Christian year waiting, preparing, and hoping for him to come again?

Mary’s Psalm announces, “Christ has come to challenge the structures of sin, death, the devil, and oppression. Christ has come in the strength of the Lord to do what the Lord has always done: lift up the lowly, free the enslaved, feed the hungry, give justice to the widow, the orphan, and the sojourner.”

At the center of the paradox is the concern for why Jesus came/is coming. We often talk about this in terms of individual redemption. As the beginning of the Magnificat focuses on the reversal of Mary’s situation cannot be separated from the latter portion that focuses on systems of power being reversed, our salvation is part and parcel of the saving of the world.

Hear, feel, savor Mary’s cry of resistance:  even so Mary will not allow us to think of individual salvation apart from Jesus turning the power structures of the world on its head.

If the cross is truly the means by which Emmanuel ransoms captive Israel, then we have to reimagine everything we think we know. We have to reread the story that came before and discover the mystery hidden in the scriptures too often masked by other, perhaps more obvious, but not necessarily God inspired interpretations.

Scriptural interpretation has taken on many faces over the centuries. Outside of dedicated scholars I dare say most of us have never had access to the mindset of changing centuries attitudes of just what scripture is telling us.   Following Luke, the ultimate level of Christian faith is concerned with the reversal of the systems of oppression that keep some on top by putting others on the bottom

It is historically clear that throughout the ages, God’s people have faced oppression. And in the face of that oppression, God’s people have sung God’s songs of resistance.

But the sad truth is, over the centuries, God’s people have also been oppressors. We have enslaved others—and each other. We have stolen from, oppressed, and slain others. And when we have done so, the oppressed, the enslaved, the persecuted have sung God’s songs of resistance against us.

How it is that we have closed our ears to Mary’s radical song of resistance, even though there is so much oppression and evil in the world. We have turned Christmas into a cattle-lowing, no-crying-he-makes Jesus, a Silent Night.

Still, we have and do sing Advent songs and Christmas carols that follow in Mary’s tradition of resistance.  Most of the references to liberation and resistance in Christmas carols have been spiritualized. For example, “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.”

. But at least one Christmas carol reminds us of the ends to which the son of Mary was willing to go in order to cast the mighty down from their thrones and uplift the lowly:

Nails, spear shall pierce him through, the cross he borne for me, for you; Hail, hail the word made flesh, The babe, the son of Mary!

The gospel is good news precisely because it both promises and delivers the transformative newness that broken-hearted people need: mercy, forgiveness, strength, honor, food, help, salvation, redemption, reconciliation, holiness, light, guidance, knowledge of God and on and on.

Advent is a season of wonder and mystery. Throughout we look back to the past as we reach forward to the future. Advent is the season of waiting, when we join ancient Israel in anticipation of the Christ to come.  The incarnation we await at Christmas is inseparable, not only from Good Friday and Easter but forward to the advent that lies in the future.

No longer do we look to the Law. We look to the cross, where self-giving love shows us the heart of God. This is the love of God for the world

Through the incarnation of Jesus within each of us, to the self-giving, cross-shaped love that shows the world the face of the God, may this Christmas image of God’s unfathomable love be borne by each of us.   AMEN

HYMN                114   Emmanuel, Emmanuel;    X2

 

Emmanuel, Emmanuel,
his name is called Emmanuel.
God with us, revealed in us,
his name is called Emmanuel.

 

OFFERING

We make our offering this day with hearts full of love, filled with the hope and joy this season brings. Give knowing God’s love will spread far and wide through what we offer in Jesus’ name.

 

DOXOLOGY

Praise God from whom all blessings flow;

Praise him all creatures here below

Praise him above ye heavenly host.

Praise Father Son and Holy Ghost

 

OFFERTORY PRAYER

God of Life and Love, receive our gifts this day as tokens of our love for you and signs of our willingness to share that love in the world around us. Bless our lives as well as our gifts, so that we may be a blessing to others for the sake of the Christ Child, our Saviour and our friend.

 

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE

God of Zechariah and Elizabeth and John, God of Mary and Joseph and Our Lord Jesus Christ, throughout all generations you have been faithful to us. You have given new life to the world through sons and daughters, through grandchildren and great grandchildren, who took up the promises you made to their fathers and mothers and followed your way in the world. In this time and in the time to come, raise up a new generation who will live out the new life you promise in Christ Jesus, with us and with your church in every neighbourhood and nation.

God of Our Hearts and Our Hopes, may your new possibilities be born in us this day.

Thank you, O God, for all the faithful saints we have known in our lives. Their trust in you gives us hope whenever our own faith wavers. May we be faithful in this generation as others have been before us, so that our ministry and mission in Jesus’ name will be renewed, engaging the world in refreshing, respectful ways.

We pray today for those struggling with loss and discouragement this season: for those who have lost someone dear; for those who cannot find meaningful work; and all for whom challenge and change make the future uncertain.   Embrace them with your compassion and strength to persevere.

We pray for those for whom sickness and death obscure your promise of health and salvation; and for those who have given up on themselves and on the goodness of others. We remember those who face conflict in their homes or their homelands, those who wonder and those who fear what tomorrow may bring. We pray for the creation that has suffered from fire, storm and earthquake this year, and for the lives disrupted by drought and despair. Embrace all who suffer with your comfort and courage.

We pray for socially marginalized and vulnerable people who find this time of the year difficult.  We pray for all who are held in bondage to spreading misinformation and threats to others who are on a path to good health and freedom.  It’s so easy for us to stand in judgement but we lift to you those who are held in bondage by evil asking that they will open their hearts and minds to you and be set free to wholesomeness and respect.

We give thanks for the efforts that have been made to confront systemic racism in our society, and we pray for those who continue to work toward ending racial discrimination.

 

Almighty God as we share our concerns together, we are ever aware that you know each situation intimately and we give thanks We lift to you today …………

 

God of All Life and Each Life, as a challenging year comes to a close, and a new year beckons, come to us and be with us once more as we celebrate Christ’s birth. With the tenderness of your Spirit, lighten our burdens, and show us new possibilities for our own lives and for the ministries we take up in Jesus’ name, for we find confidence in the prayer he taught us:

 

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.  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, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.

 

HYMN      122   Oh come, O come Emmanuel;   vs 4 – 7

4. O come, Thou Branch of Jesse, free
   Thine own from Satan's tyranny;
   From depths of hell Thy people save,
   And give them victory o'er the grave.
   Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
   Shall come to thee, O Israel.
5. O come, Thou Key of David, come
   And open wide our heav'nly home;
   Make safe the way that leads on high,
   And close the path to misery.
   Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
   Shall come to thee, O Israel.
6. O come, Thou Dayspring, come and cheer,

our spirits by thine advent here ;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death's dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

BENEDICTION

As our advent time of watching and waiting fades and our celebration of the birth of our Messiah, Jesus Christ draws near, may we joyfully tell of God’s grace and love. And may that grace of God, Love of Jesus and nearness of the Holy Spirit be with you today and always.

 

CLOSING SONG

  

May the peace of Christ go with you

And also with you

May the peace of Christ go with you

In all you do    (X2)