Wednesday, December 4, 2019 at Trinity Presbyterian Church, Arlington, VA
Prelude: Trinity Brass
Bring Your Torches, Jeanette, Isabella
Wassail Song, English Traditional
Scripture: Isaiah 40:3-5
A voice cries out: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord,
Make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be lifted up,
And every mountain and hill made low;
The uneven ground shall become level,
And the rough places a plain.
Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
And all people shall see it together,
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.’
Call to Worship:
(based on Isaiah 40:1-11)
One: Listen! The voice of God calls out across the ages.
All: We hear and respond. We rise up to worship God
from the valleys, the mountains, and the plains.
One: Like a shepherd God leads us and tenderly gathers us together.
All: Comfort, comfort O my people says our God of love.
The grass withers and the flower fades;
But the word of our God will stand forever!
Opening Prayer:
O God,
You call to us from the wild places,
You call to us from the inner chambers of our hearts.
We come in answer to your call.
We come to pray, to praise,
To learn of your love for all creation.
Reveal your glory that we may see it together –
Inform and inspire us to seek your kingdom on earth in our time. Amen.
Lighting the Advent Wreath
Each year we tell ourselves it will be different. We will say no to the fuss and the stress. We will open our hearts for the coming of Christ. Yet each year calendar fills up quickly: holiday programs, Christmas parties, volunteering, shopping, cleaning, baking, putting up the tree. Before we know it, nothing has changed. This year, the invitation comes to us again.
Listen. An ancient prophet dreams of a world transformed by God’s vision of peace:
In days to come the mountain of the Lord’s house will be the highest of the mountains…all the nations will stream to it. Many will say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and we may walk in his paths.”…The Lord will judge between the nations, and will settle disputes for many peoples; they will beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation will not lift up sword against nation, neither will they learn war any more.
Isaiah 2:2-4
Today we light the first candle of Advent. One solitary light that flickers with the hopes and dreams of all the years gone by. This year, we pray for that ancient dream of God’s realm of peace. All we want for Christmas is God’s peace, in our hearts, in our homes, in our neighborhoods, and in the world.
Scripture: Isaiah 40:6-11
A voice says, ‘Cry out!’
And I said, ‘What shall I cry?’
All people are grass,
their constancy is like the flower of the field.
The grass withers, the flower fades,
when the breath of the Lord blows upon it;
surely the people are grass.
The grass withers, the flower fades;
but the word of our God will stand for ever.
Get you up to a high mountain,
O Zion, herald of good tidings;
lift up your voice with strength,
O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings,
lift it up, do not fear;
say to the cities of Judah,
‘Here is your God!’
See, the Lord God comes with might,
and his arm rules for him;
his reward is with him,
and his recompense before him.
He will feed his flock like a shepherd;
he will gather the lambs in his arms,
and carry them in his bosom,
and gently lead the mother sheep.
Music: Trinity Brass
Wexford Carol, Irish Traditional
A La Naninta Nana, Spanish Traditional
Scripture: Matthew 3:1-3
In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’ This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, ‘The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’
Advent Reflection:
Prepare the Way of the Lord
A few weeks ago, one of my seminary classmates retweeted someone else on Twitter. It was one of those Richard Scary pictures with all of the different characters. The heading was “Types of Christians on Twitter.” I got a little concerned looking through it, because I didn’t see any that I could identify with…until I found one, labelled “Advent Police.”
Yep. There I am.
It was reassuring. Every year, I feel quite odd in December, because, honestly, I like Advent more than Christmas. And Mark Stanga can testify to my role as the Advent Police after working together to plan this service. Mark sent me a list full of Christmas favorites to select music for tonight. I crossed nearly all of them out because they were “too Christmas.”
It’s only December 4! We have 21 more days until Christmas.
Over Thanksgiving, my Mother-in-Law told me that she had bought Advent Calendars for my wife and me. We have my wife’s. Mine hadn’t arrived yet, but, “it’s ok,” she told me—it was a 12 days of Christmas Calendar, so we had until the 13th. I told her no, we had until the 25th—the 12 days of Christmas start the 25th. I left unsaid that it wasn’t an Advent Calendar, it was a Christmas Calendar. I do have some self control.
It’s not just that I’m a Christmas Crank, though, in all fairness, I am. Christmas wasn’t an official holiday in Scotland until the late 1950s, and I may have said words to the effect of “they caved too soon.” It’s not only a sense that the excesses of Christmas consumption have overtaken the ahistoric celebration of Jesus’ birth—these same concerns have also completely bulldozed Advent.
I do like an underdog. I like that Advent calls on us to prepare ourselves. Advent asks us to slow down. Even if, every year, we get caught up in the acceleration of Christmas parties, the consumerism of Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and other shopping, Advent is there, nagging us to take a minute. And you are here tonight because you listened.
So, we are here. We are slowing down.
How do we prepare the way for the Lord?
I invite you to close your eyes.
Imagine yourself in a wilderness. The ground is rough. Perhaps you imagined yourself in an American wilderness, full of trees. Perhaps you imagined yourself in something like the Judean desert, surrounded by stones and boulders. Either is fine. Around you are obstacles to clear, holes to fill in.
You hear a voice crying out: “Prepare a way for the Lord.”
You find a path, but it is narrow and uneven. I want you to look at the obstacles, the trees, shrubs, boulders, whatever they are. Imagine that they are the things you have done which you need not have. Imagine clearing them away. You are making the path wider by clearing your calendar, by undoing the things you should not have done. You feel space opening around you and in front of you.
Look now at the ground. It is uneven, full of holes. You have cleared away the unnecessary things, but not everything is superfluous. There are some things that need to be done, the internal work to prepare yourself for the coming of the Lord. You find a shovel, and start to fill the holes. As you fill them, you let go of grudges and resentments. With the trees and rocks gone you find time for those you love. The road becomes smoother.
Breathe deeply. The wilderness is no longer impenetrable. You still have ground to cover, obstacles to remove and holes to fill, but you have the tools to do so. You have the time.
It’s only December 4.
Benediction:
Go in peace—
love and care for one another in the name of Christ;
—and may the power of the Holy Spirit
make the rough places in your life smooth,
—may the dark valleys of your hearts
be filled and the rugged mountains leveled
and the way of the Lord be made ready in you,
—and may He come unto you
and bless you and shine forth from you
both now and forevermore. Amen.
Postlude: Trinity Brass
Selections from The Nutcracker, Tchaikovsky
Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy
March Trepak
Sources:
Opening Scripture, Call to Worship and Opening Prayer from From Valleys to Mountains, Service Prayers for the Second Sunday of Advent by Rev. Penny L. Lowes, found on re:Worship
Advent Wreath Lighting by Rev. Nancy J., found on re:Worship
Benediction by Rev. Richard Fairchild, found on re:Worship