Shout aloud and sing for joy
ST ANDREW’S CHURCH
DECEMBER 12th 2021 ADVENT THREE
LIGHTING THE CANDLE of JOY
Today, along with the candles of hope and peace, we light the candle of JOY
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
- St. Andrew's welcomes you to this online worship service as we celebrate the 3rd Sunday of Advent. May the Joy of the presence 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.
CALL TO WORSHIP
Joy is the celebration given by God.
Joy is the celebration at the birth of the Christ Child.
Joy is the celebration when the angels sing
“Glory to God in the highest.”
We celebrate the joy of Christ coming again
The Lord, our God, is in our midst.
Let us sing out loud and shout our praises!
God rejoices over you with gladness and renews you with love.
We will rejoice with all our hearts at what the Lord has done
With joy, draw water from the well of salvation in this time of worship.
God is our salvation; we will trust and have no fear.
HYMN 124 People in darkness
Online: Joyful, joyful we adore thee
PRAYER OF INVOCATION
God of Joy and Justice,. You are our strength and our song. You gather those who have strayed from you and welcome them back to your side. You bring healing to those who are broken in body and spirit, and draw close to those who walk alone. Through your great love and mercy, you transform us all into more than we ever thought we could be. We will trust in you and not be afraid. We will always rejoice in you With joy, we sing of your glory and proclaim your saving power to those near and far .Receive our prayers and praise this day, for you alone are worthy, God most holy, Source of light, shine in our lives and in your world with your life-giving joy. With humble hearts we pray you will hear our confession …….
UNISON PRAYER OF CONFESSION
All knowing God, We know perfect joy only comes through faith in you, yet we seek it out in lesser ways. In search of comfort, we indulge our desires. In search of love, we hide from our faults. In search of approval, we spend beyond our means. Forgive us, O God, for seeking satisfaction in the wrong places. Help us turn again to you, our true source of joy, and guide us to discover what is honourable, just, and pleasing in your sight. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
ASSURANCE OF PARDON
The scriptures say, “Do not worry about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.” The forgiveness we seek is ours through the grace of Jesus Christ. May the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, be with you.
THE PEACE
HYMN 131 Tomorrow Christ is coming
Online: Oh come, oh come, Emmanuel
SCRIPTURE READINGS
Luke 1: 26 – 38
26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”
34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. 37 For no word from God will ever fail.”
38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “Let it be to me as you have said .” Then the angel left her.
Matthew 1: 18 - 25
18 This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel (which means “God with us”).
24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25 But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.
SERMON
God of truth and wisdom, send us your Holy Spirit to teach us through the scriptures, read and interpreted this day. Open our eyes to understand your truth more fully, and our hearts to live out your wisdom in the example of Jesus, your Living Word. Amen.
The prophet Isaiah writes, “Shout aloud and sing for joy, O royal Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel!”
The Third Sunday of Advent, which we celebrate this week, is traditionally known as Gaudete Sunday, “gaudete” being the Latin word for “rejoice.”
Advent is not only about joy, about waiting and hoping, it is also about judgment. Advent is preparation not only for a remembrance of Christ’s first coming as a baby in Bethlehem, but also for Christ’s second coming, in power and glory.
God is not finished with us yet. Now, I hasten to add, God has already claimed us and redeemed us in baptism. The work of salvation is over, and it is all God’s doing in Jesus Christ. But it is precisely here that the adventure begins
The “Christmas Story “ is a beautiful story but hardly full of explicit documentary detail. The Bible is indeed God’s story yet the Bible doesn’t tell us all the details we would like to know.
Thus sometimes it is good for us readers to recognize customs and traditions of the biblical time as recorded in other sources. We also realize that speculation and gossip is a factor in any generation which can colour the truth. Hence when we read nonbiblical authors we must consider the source
It would be interesting to know whether Matthew or Luke wrote the first account of the months preceding the birth of Jesus. The authors do not conflict with each other, but they certainly approach Jesus’ birth from two contrasting perspectives. It is as if Luke interviewed Jesus’ mother, Mary, and Matthew interviewed the father, Joseph. Reading Luke’s story, Joseph is a minor figure in the story, and Mary gets most of the attention. However, in Matthew’s story, Joseph is the main character.
Now in the first century, marriages were arranged often when the children were quite young. The groom’s family would always have to pay a negotiated price to the bride’s father. After a settlement was reached, the engagement would be publicly announced. The couple would continue to live separate and apart for a year. They were not to have sex during this period to demonstrate the bride’s purity. The engagement was binding and could only end by death or divorce. If the bride was found to be pregnant during that time, the groom could annul the marriage, or the couple would be married immediately and begin living together.
Mary’s father is no doubt happy with the price he had fought for his daughter, the joy of his life. Her mother is thrilled because she knows of Joseph’s reputation as a righteous and honest man. Joseph is happy knowing he could afford the price to get married. His parents are glad that his son is marrying into a good family. Mary is content knowing who is going to be her husband. Everything looks perfect, until God intervenes into the situation.
Following the custom of the day, Mary may have been as young as twelve or thirteen years old when she became betrothed to Joseph, who could have been an older teenager, perhaps eighteen or nineteen years old.
The event is brief which changes life in this family forever . God sends the angel Gabriel to Mary to let her know, “I have good news of great joy. God has chosen you to have a son, who will become the Savior of the world. Your child, is going to be the fulfillment of God’s promise. You are to call him Jesus, for He is to be the Son of the Most High.” He then gives Mary a sign by telling her that her relative Elizabeth, in her old age, has also conceived a son, and that she is six months pregnant (1:36). She never doubts, or stops to question the angel words. No, Mary simply believes.
Mary’s utterance, “Let it be.....” takes her from Nazarene poor girl to highly exalted mother of our Lord Jesus Christ. So she waits, and as she waits she prepares herself. She prepares herself for the birth of the Savior. She prepares herself for the journey that would ultimately lead her Heavenly Son, yet human baby, from a manger birth to a wooden cross.
Mary’s joy finds its center in God, even as news of this unplanned pregnancy shatters her once stable life. Yet, despite the physical and emotional pain Mary no doubt knows she will endure, Mary chooses to give God all the praise for the holy pregnancy and birth she is blessed to endure. For Mary this is God’s gift to her.
Let it be … Three, Tiny, seemingly insignificant words. Yet with these three little words Mary enters her season of waiting- her personal Advent season.
Might you think, there may have been tension in the relationship between Mary and her parents when she announces, she believes she is about to get pregnant, and that Joseph will not be the father of the child. If you were her father and you had negotiated this price and now your daughter is claiming a future pregnancy by someone other than the family you negotiated with, how would you feel?
So, Luke says that in those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah (1:39), which is where Elizabeth and Zechariah live.
Travel from Nazareth to a town in Judah would have taken three or four days. The exact location of the unknown town in Judah where her relatives lived is not known. However, a sixth-century tradition places it about five miles from Jerusalem.
Some have suggested that Mary went to Elizabeth to hide her pregnancy. That is not likely as it would not have yet been evident that she was pregnant. It is also unlikely that Mary would take a journey of three days without first talking to her parents about it, especially since she stayed there a full three months with Elizabeth, probably until just after John the Baptist was born.
When Mary arrives she enters the house of Zechariah and greets Elizabeth (1:40). Our modern, western greeting is quick and simple: “Hi ! How are you? It is good to see you!” That is about the extent of our greeting. However, in that culture, a greeting was “an extended social event, involving a lengthy dialogue.” Luke captures something of that extended greeting in the rest of the narrative. When Elizabeth hears the greeting of Mary, the baby leaps in her womb (1:41).. With joy Elizabeth says to Mary, “For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy” (1:44)
Elizabeth then says, “And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (1:43).This is an amazing statement by Elizabeth. She refers to the unborn babe as “my Lord.” Therefor she is the first person in the New Testament to confess her faith in Jesus as Lord.
Upon , hearing Elizabeth’s account and seeing her pregnant must have been a wonderful encouragement to Mary. God gives her a personal confirmation that his word to her is indeed true. Although Mary’s pregnancy is not yet evident, Elizabeth’s pregnancy is clearly evident for all to see.
Mary replies, "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name.
Waiting is something that, if we are brutally honest with ourselves, most of us hate doing. Waiting is often exasperating – yet often unavoidable. That being said, however, we do need to admit that there are times when we really don’t mind waiting. Waiting can be a good thing But, more often than not, waiting is something we don’t enjoy all that much. But, have you ever stopped to consider that waiting is biblical?
Mary’s voice echoes in our ears as we consider waiting from a biblical perspective this morning. You see, maybe, just maybe, waiting doesn’t need to be a wasted experience. Maybe waiting, if placed in proper perspective, can really be beneficial; can serve as a time of preparation. When seen from this light waiting can become a centering exercise.
But there is another part and person in this storied waiting game.
Leonard Bernstein, the famous conductor of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, was once asked which instrument was the most difficult to play. He immediately replied, “The second fiddle. I can get plenty of first violinists, but to find someone who can play the second fiddle with enthusiasm—that’s a problem. And if we have no second fiddle, we have no harmony.”
Joseph tends to get lost in the Christmas story because of Mary, Jesus, the angels, the shepherds, the magi, and so many others. But Joseph is a very important character in the Christmas story. He carries out his role so well that he brings a beautiful harmony to the entire Christmas story that we do well to examine.
We need to understand the culture and times .They lived in a society bound not simply by moral customs, but by divine law. To have premarital relations is to transgress God’s law. It is shameful sin. The Jews understood and valued sexual purity. To break that law meant that a couple was unchaste, defiled, and further, brought shame on the child, the fruit of that union.
Note the only characteristic mentioned about her fiancée Joseph. He is a descendant of David. For him, it is a nice little distinction to be able to claim, but it carries no outward advantage. He is a carpenter; fine work to do, but one that also marks him as belonging to the lower social and financial class.
Even so, consider Joseph’s dilemma. He learns that Mary is pregnant. We have to be careful of speculation. We do not know how he learns. Perhaps Mary breaks the news. Perhaps, more likely, her parents speak for her.. Perhaps he has been told of Mary’s bizarre explanation of the conception resulting from the Holy Spirit. We don’t know, though we certainly can anticipate how credible he thought her story was.
What do you do as Joseph, when your bride to whom you are engaged comes back after being away for three months. Rumors are flying around that she might be pregnant. You talk with her and she admits she’s pregnant, but only by the Holy Spirit. You are a righteous man, but you cannot accept this story.
How do you love someone whom you believe isn’t telling the whole truth, someone who has humiliated you in public, someone who has betrayed your trust? Joseph feels his only options are to get even with Mary with a public divorce, or to keep her from being disgraced by getting a private divorce. Of course a private divorce means he will be financially responsible for this child. Confused and uncertain he chooses the private option.
One night , as he wrestles with his emotions an unnamed angel of the Lord appears to him in a dream and says, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
So Joseph takes Mary home with him. How does Mary feel, knowing that Joseph did not believe her until an angel spoke to him. Through our experience we know there are times when we wished things would have happened differently with the ones we love, but sometimes its okay to accept the next best thing.
Joseph is sometimes called “the forgotten man of the Christmas story.” Joseph loved and worshiped and served God faithfully. God remembered Joseph, and chose him to be Jesus’ earthly father. Joseph, the quiet but strong carpenter, who will be the guiding hand that will equip and prepare the Son of God for his own earthly ministry.. Joseph’s faithful service to God is not forgotten by God at all.
Joseph, the forgotten man- , the second fiddle, is a wonderful example of trusting the Lord in every circumstance of life. Initially, he has no clue about all that is happening to Mary and Elizabeth and Zechariah. But, because of his love and devotion for God, he trusts him in every circumstance.
It seems clear that Matthew has two primary purposes for telling Jesus’ birth. They are to explain the reason for his coming and to establish that his birth does fulfill the prophecy for the Messiah.
Our concern is not whether we think the writers were correct or honest, but to understand their mindset. It was important to them to read and relate the prophesies in the Old Testament Scriptures Equally important is to relate to Jesus and his work on the cross. The narratives were not mere history or morality tales; the laws and wisdom literature were not simply commentary on how to live; and the prophets were not only foretelling the immediate events of the Jewish nation. All these pages were telling about, whispering of, building up to Jesus the Messiah.
May our waiting be a time of preparation but also a time of centering. May we echo the words of Mary, and may our waiting be centered on Faith- Acceptance- and Joy- Found only in God and in God’s message to each of us.
This Jesus is our Immanuel, God with us. In him God dwells among us, speaks to us, ministers to us, and eventually died for us. Because he did, God is with us now and shall be forever. That is what Christmas is about. AMEN
HYMN 118 Hark the glad sound
- Hark the glad sound! The Saviour comes,
the Saviour promised long;
let every heart prepare a throne,
and every voice a song!2. You come the prisoners to release
in Satan's bondage held;
the gates of brass before you burst,
the iron fetters yield.3. You come the broken heart to bind,
the wounded soul to cure,
to bring the treasures of God's grace,
good tidings for the poor.4. Our glad hosannas, Prince of Peace,
your welcome shall proclaim,
and heaven's eternal arches ring
with your most honoured name.
OFFERING
We make our offering today with joyful hearts, anticipating our celebration of God’s gift to us in Christ Jesus. Know that our gifts may touch lives in deep need this season with the joy we have received 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
Just and joyful God, we bring our gifts with hearts that rejoice in your goodness to us, in Christ and in creation. Send your Holy Spirit to bless them and us with the power to shine the light of Christ into lives where Jesus can turn despair into joy.
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
O God, our Strength and Salvation, we come before you with joy and thanksgiving as the beauty of this season unfolds with starry nights and sparkling snow, with faces that smile and generosity that grows even after a long, hard year of pandemic struggles. With the kindness of your Spirit, awaken opportunities for understanding to emerge among those who have differed, and refresh our community and congregation with joyful anticipation that your gift to us in Christ can change everything. Generous God, Send joy to the world again.
Tender God, We delight in the joy you bring into our lives and neighbourhoods through our life together in Christ, and through the love of family and friends. These gifts have sustained us through stressful times and we thank you. We pray for those who are finding it hard to be joyful this year, remembering those facing illness in spirit, mind, or body, and those waiting for diagnosis or treatment, as anxiety grows.(Keep a brief time of silence) We pray for those who are lonely or in mourning, and all who have been touched by tragedy and violence.
We pray for those searching for work, struggling with rising costs, worried deeply about their security. We pray for those working to bring justice to the discouraged and defeated, and those doing their best to care for the earth you love, despite the challenges.
Give us eyes to see your movement. especially while we wait Allow us to have faith, acceptance, and joy instead of angst, worry and despair. Move us to be people who joyfully wait on you, Not only in this Advent season but all the year through.
We pray for members of the Canadian Armed Forces who are deployed and may face loneliness and hardship.
We pray for support for local food banks as staff and volunteers strive to provide food, toiletries and other essential items this winter. We lift to you all the agencies which protect those who are vulnerable
We pray that parents and caregivers of children and youth are blessed with wisdom and patience.
Loving God we bring before you all those whom we have mentioned by name ………….
We also know you are aware of those whom we present in the silence of this holy place ………………
We pray for a sense of joy at the dawn of a new day that is initiated by the birth of the Christ child among us. Use us to bring to joy to others through our friendship, generosity and understanding. Generous God, Send joy to the world again.
We offer our prayers in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, our hope, our peace, and our joy, who taught us to pray these words together:
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 530 I come with joy
I come with joy, a child of God, forgiven, loved and free,the life of Jesus to recall, in love laid down for me.
I come with Christians far and near to find, as all are fed,the new community of love in Christ's communion bread; in Christ's communion bread.
As Christ breaks bread, and bids us share, each proud division ends.The love that made us, makes us one, and strangers now are friends.
The Spirit of the risen Christ, unseen, but ever near,is in such friendship better known, alive among us here;alive among us here
Together met, together bound by all that God has done,we'll go with joy, to give the world the love that makes us one.
BENEDICTION
Be on guard – Be alert ! Watch ! Wait ! For you do not know when the time is coming .Blessed be the Lord who does wonderous things May his glory fill the whole earth May the grace of God, the love of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit abide with you this Advent season And the people all say AMEN
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)
ONLINE: Take oh take me as I am