Are you awake, or are you drowsing off? This week Jesus advises us to make sure we have a fresh pot of coffee brewed (metaphorically speaking), because it’s vital to be alert and prepared for when the Master returns. Of course, the necessity of being awake and ready is an overarching theme of the Advent season. But while we often associate Advent waiting with hopeful anticipation (fueled by the general bonhomie of the Christmas season both sacred and secular), in this installment of The Immediate Word team member Leah Lonsbury points out that much of the waiting we experience is far more apprehensive and uneasy. Not only is economic uncertainty affecting more people than ever, but news reports feed us such an endless diet of depressing information about the world that it’s natural to wonder what boogeyman is lurking just around the corner. Yet when our thoughts about the future are defined more by fear than by joy, we’re tempted to avoid engaging with the world and instead seek safety and security for ourselves and our loved ones. However, this week’s lectionary texts counsel exactly the opposite. Leah tells us that Jesus expects not passive waiting but a readiness defined by active engagement in the world... even in the face of mortal danger (exemplified by ISIS beheading victim Peter Kassig, who lived out a calling of service to people in Syria and Lebanon). As Paul strikingly puts it in our epistle text, we have no excuse for living otherwise: “[Y]ou are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Team member Chris Keating shares some additional thoughts on the week’s texts and the dilemma of finding peace in the midst of conflict. When violence is all around (as in Jerusalem, with last week’s deadly synagogue attack as well as clashes in its wake) -- or people are arming themselves to the teeth in anticipation of violence (as was the case in Ferguson, Missouri as a grand jury concluded its investigation into the controversial Michael Brown case) -- it becomes more important than ever to focus on the real source of our hope. That, as Chris points out, is the best way to find comfort in the midst of harsh surroundings.
Second-Coming Living
by Leah Lonsbury
Mark 13:24-37; 1 Corinthians 1:3-9
In this week’s gospel text, Jesus issues a sternly worded warning about being ready. We have to be ready at all times, he says, for we never know when or how the master of the house (the Messiah) will return. Throughout Advent, most of our lectionary texts hold a heightened sense of anticipation akin to this one, and that expectation is only ratcheted up by our more secular surroundings.
The Walgreens around the corner from my house has been steadily building its Christmas stock since what had been the Halloween aisle became a Christmas extravaganza on November 1st. There were reindeer band-aids on the first-aid aisle yesterday, and it’s becoming nearly impossible to escape this brand of scurry and scramble even though it doesn’t quite match up with the hopeful anticipation and preparation we typically associate with the season of Advent. Perhaps that’s because in much of our modern-day human experience, a great deal of our waiting and anticipation is anxiety-ridden and -driven -- not so much waiting for the birth of Love in a humble stable as for the other shoe to drop. This isn’t surprising in a world where struggle, disappointment, and tragedy are woven into the human condition, and where the 24-hour news cycle constantly reminds us of that with reports on the latest horrors and all their grisly details (such as the gruesome attack on a synagogue in Israel or the most recent ISIS beheading). As a result, much of our anticipation is based in fear. This can be clearly seen in Ferguson, Missouri -- where gun sales soared and police stocked up on tactical gear as the public nervously awaited the findings of a grand jury investigating the case of Michael Brown, an unarmed African-American teenager killed by police officer Darren Wilson.
In this kind of atmosphere, it’s easy to shut down and give up hope, but that is exactly the opposite of what Jesus is calling us to in our gospel text from Mark. This week we’ll look at the type of readiness and anticipatory living Jesus is describing, and see if we’re up for that kind of risky engagement in a world swirling with anxiety and fear. It’s clear in our passage from Corinthians that Paul believes we are -- because, as he writes, we already have and know and are exactly what the troubled world is aching for, despite our qualms and potentially incapacitating doubt.
In the News
In October, St. Louis-area officials issued more than twice as many gun permits as the same month in 2013. Fifty-three more permits were issued in the first eight business days of November than in the whole month of 2013. Sixty percent of sharply rising gun sales are to new owners, and it seems even the police have been scrambling for protection. Chad Weinman, the owner of an online company that sells tactical gear to law-enforcement agencies, says his warehouse in Chesterfield, Missouri, has been visited by Missouri state troopers as well as officers from the Department of Homeland Security assigned to the St. Louis area to support state and local police. “None of us has ever seen anything quite like this before,” says Weinman. “There is an uncertainty in the air that has my entire staff on edge. To say that St. Louis residents are concerned about what will transpire in the coming days is an understatement.”
And then, in this case, the other shoe dropped. The announcement was made that there would be no indictment.
NBC News reports that “Violence, looting, fires, and gunshots erupted as anger broke out immediately.”
The four school districts that are represented in Ferguson as well as surrounding suburban districts and St. Louis Public Schools cancelled classes following the announcement.
It seems that for many, the anxiety-ridden anticipation -- followed by an expected, though still devastating, verdict -- is causing chaos, implosion, and shutdown. This isn’t true for all, though. The Ferguson Response Network is organizing, resourcing, and broadcasting opportunities for protest all over the country, and Michael Brown’s family is calling for cooperative action to seek justice even in the midst of their own devastation: We are profoundly disappointed that the killer of our child will not face the consequence of his actions. While we understand that many others share our pain, we ask that you channel your frustration in ways that will make a positive change. We need to work together to fix the system that allowed this to happen.
Well-known African-American leaders and celebrities are calling for peaceful, deliberative, and thoughtful continued action as well. From Twitter...
John Lewis: I know this hard. I know this is difficult. Do not succumb to the temptations of violence. There is a more powerful way. #FergusonDecision
Russell Simmons: Just leaving yoga and hearing about the verdict of grand jury. Citizens please begin with prayer; breathe, be thoughtful, and safe.
Tony Rock: The ONLY thing I’m gonna say about Ferguson... Until WE value our lives, no one else will.
Far from Ferguson, fear and anxiety make a steady climb as the world anticipates the next move of the Islamic State, particularly concerning the brutal beheadings the terror group is carrying out and making public. Even in the midst of such horrific brutality, there are those who are able to push back against the violence and continue to spread a message of healing love and a commitment to the human family. This was especially true of Abdul-Rahman Kassig (formerly Peter Kassig), an American army ranger turned humanitarian aid worker in Syria. After his beheading his family shared excerpts of his letters, and reports and tributes from news sources and Kassig’s friends reveal his incredible courage and determination, and his absolute assurance that we must continue to love and serve one another -- even in the face of enormous personal risk.
These are Kassig’s words in his last letter to his parents: I am obviously pretty scared to die, but the hardest part is not knowing, wondering, hoping, and wondering if I should even hope at all. I am very sad that all this has happened and for what all of you back home are going through. If I do die, I figure that at least you and I can seek refuge and comfort in knowing that I went out as a result of trying to alleviate suffering and helping those in need.
And in a 2012 interview with CNN, Kassig said: We each get one life and that’s it. We get one shot at this and we don’t get any do-overs, and for me, it was time to put up or shut up. The way I saw it, I didn’t have a choice. This is what I was put here to do. I guess I am just a hopeless romantic, and I am an idealist, and I believe in hopeless causes.
Kassig’s friend and former roommate Mitchell Prothero remembers him this way: He’d live for days in the hospital, pulling long shifts strictly as a volunteer and was even jokingly nicknamed Abu Homsi by his colleagues and patients because they just couldn’t believe this former American soldier was working for free simply to help people.
Prothero wrote a tribute to his friend, identifying differences in the video that was released of Kassig’s supposed beheading from those of ISIS’s other victims. Prothero noted that Kassig doesn’t feed ISIS’s propaganda machine by speaking, and couldn’t be manipulated for ISIS’s purposes by the fear of death. Prothero tweeted about the impact of this: The murder of my dear friend Peter Kassig illustrates why ISIS will fail. Love, hope, and courage will eventually beat nihilism and cowardice.
In the Scriptures
It can be easy to dismiss texts like the one we have from Mark’s gospel for this week. Its apocalyptic tone might encourage the preacher to dismantle it from the pulpit with a sharp turn to “sound biblical instruction,” but Mark Allan Powell cautions against a swing too far in this direction. He writes on WorkingPreacher.org: “...preachers who do the 12-minute evaluation from the pulpit usually come off as sounding like intellectual elitists or cosmic party-poopers.”
If we stick to the purpose of the text, Powell continues, we might just discover that the gospel’s author is less interested in “curtailing fanaticism” and more focused on “challenging complacency.”
If we can begin to see the second coming that our passage emphasizes as less of a doctrinal certainty to which we are asked to subscribe and more as “a defining reality that affects our faith and lives,” then we may begin to hear Mark 13’s challenge to us as one that asks us to “dig in, stay faithful, and prepare for the long haul.”
If nothing else, apocalyptic passages like this one should cause us to evaluate how we’re living and serving (or not), sharpen our purpose (or lack thereof), and fine-tune our daily living not just for some far-off date circled in red on our calendars but for this day, every day. Since we can’t be for certain when the day is coming, our thinking should be more “it could happen tonight or be happening right now” instead of “it could be decades or centuries in the future, so why worry about today?” If we could make that shift, how different our lives and world would be!
When we can commit in this long-haul apocalyptic vein, then, as Powell writes, the work and life of Jesus endures and “hope does not disappoint; salvation does become reality.”
The right-now, pressing quality of this kind of daily apocalyptic living resonates with the words of Abdul-Rahman Kassig: We each get one life and that’s it. We get one shot at this and we don’t get any do-overs, and for me, it was time to put up or shut up. The way I saw it, I didn’t have a choice. This is what I was put here to do.
And our text from Corinthians tells us that we are already equipped for this one-life, one-shot calling and purpose-filled apocalyptic living. “In every way” we have been enriched, in speech, in knowledge of all kinds. Our lives will testify to Christ’s grace as we await his everyday second coming. And we will be strong until the end, and don’t forget -- God is faithful.
Guess it’s time to put up or shut up, as Kassig would say.
This makes our hopeful anticipation look a little different, doesn’t it? It makes our waiting an active and participatory waiting as we enact the salvation we hope for each day in our corner of the world. And it shores us up against the fear and anxiety that swirls around us on the news, in our backyards, and across the world. If today is the day, we also can go out and do merciful and grace-filled acts of hope. May the same be true of the next day, and the next day, and the next day of the second coming.
In the Sermon
This week the preacher might consider...
* embracing the apocalyptic tone of the text and preach about how we live each day as the second coming. What would that look like in each of our everyday lives?
* exploring the idea of active and participatory waiting in Advent. How might that manifest? How would that change our preparation for and reception of the Love that is born on Christmas?
* preaching on the “more powerful way” that John Lewis tweeted about Ferguson. What is that way? What does it ask of us? What does it call us to do? How have we been equipped to walk and live that way?
* thinking about the subversive and empowering nature of apocalyptic living. What does it tell the world about who we are? Who God is? How things might be different? How does that line up with the larger story of Advent and its unexpected cast of characters?
* weighing the risks of living into the fear and anxiety of waiting for the next shoe to drop vs. the risks of hopeful anticipation and second-coming living. What are the dangers in both? How are we really safe? What do we gain from each? What do we lose?
SECOND THOUGHTS
A Harsh Advent
by Chris Keating
Isaiah 64:1-9; Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19; Mark 13:24-37
Beware, keep alert, and don’t forget to pack your Beretta.
It’s not just a twist on Jesus’ instructions, but rather street-savvy wisdom gaining popularity in St. Louis, where gun sales have surged recently. Anxiety in the area climbed in anticipation of Monday evening’s release of the results of a grand jury investigation concerning the police shooting of an unarmed teenager last August in suburban Ferguson, Missouri.
Peaceful protests turned angry across the city Monday night. Protest organizers and police had both hoped for calm, but the crowd’s response ended with reports of rioting, arson, and looting. By morning, as many as a dozen small businesses in Ferguson had been burned.
At a north St. Louis County church, audible groans were heard from the congregation which had gathered for prayer in anticipation of the announcement. Church members displayed dismay and fear for their neighborhoods.
The unrest seems to articulate our world’s violent outlook, even as congregations prepare for Advent and the coming of Messiah.
In St. Louis, as reactions from grand jury’s report continued, so did preparations for protests and repercussions. Barricades were erected near the county building where the grand jury was meeting, and police deployed armored vehicles. On Monday evening, some school districts cancelled after-school activities, while others called off classes for the entire week.
Some of that seems like good common sense, especially in the wake of last summer’s violence. But the stockpiling of personal weapons adds to concerns about the community’s response and long-standing racial divisions. Along with continued acts of global violence, it may be just another sign that this year Advent celebrations will be competing with much more than Santa Claus, the elf on a shelf, and crowded shopping malls.
“Restore us, O Lord God of hosts,” the psalmist prays. This year, our Advent preparations might do well to echo that prayer.
In the News
Gun shops throughout St. Louis are reporting brisk business, with one selling as many as 30 to 50 guns a day. “Keep yourself armed and ready” is a frequent comment heard on social media.
“We’re selling everything that’s not nailed down,” Steven King, owner of a gun store near St. Louis International Airport, said, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “Police aren’t going to be able to protect every single individual. If you don’t prepare yourself and get ready for the worst, you have no one to blame but yourself.” A majority of the customers are first-time gun owners, and there is a waiting list for shooting lessons well into early next year.
Novice gun owners may pose a particular risk. Last week, a 26-year-old woman from the St. Louis area died when a gun accidentally fired while she was riding in a car. She had been waving the gun, saying she was “ready for Ferguson,” when the car’s driver ducked to get out of the way of the gun. He rear-ended another car, and the impact reportedly caused the gun to fire.
It’s another sign that people are scared, and that they are taking extreme steps to be prepared in case violence erupts. On Monday, as word spread that the grand jury had reached a decision, crowds began to gather near the Canfield apartment complex in Ferguson where Michael Brown was shot in August. Businesses in Ferguson began preparing for protests, including boarding up windows and closing early. Members of the Missouri National Guard are on standby, and the governor has declared a state of emergency.
Throughout St. Louis, churches are preparing both for the grand jury decision and also for Advent. It is a reminder that as we await the coming of the Prince of Peace, the world continues to be caught in the throes of violence and chaos.
Consider also the gruesome massacre of an Israeli police officer and four rabbis last week -- an attack that struck not only the heart of Jerusalem, but also the hearts of people of faith around the world. “This is an attack on all of us,” said Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld, who leads Ohev Sholom synagogue in Washington, DC. “Any terrorist attack is a horror. But to attack people while they are engaged in prayer, are talking to God, is a new low.”
(Of course, as CNN also noted, violence during worship is often non-sectarian. In 1994, for example, Jewish extremists killed 29 Palestinians who were gathered for worship.)
For persons of faith, the specter of terrorist attacks during worship feels especially heinous. The attack of persons gathered for prayer feels particularly vicious -- somewhat akin to the psalmist’s diet of the “bread of tears.” The rabbis were focused on God, and had gathered to pray for peace.
“That’s what’s so horrible about this,” said Herzfeld. “These people were trying to do their part to bring good into this world through their dedication to God.”
Is this any way to start our Advent journey?
In the Scriptures
While shopping malls and radios blast out “Have a Holly, Jolly Christmas,” Isaiah initiates our Advent celebrations with a plaintive lament. In chapter 64, verses 1-9, the prophet cries out for God’s answer. Isaiah demands that God’s presence be made clear: “O that you would tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence.” In tone and style, the prophet resonates with those who have witnessed too much gore and injustice. Like many in our world, Isaiah is troubled, and he has a bone to pick with God. God is hidden (v. 7), unseen because of the people’s transgressions. But there is also a sense that the prophet is longing for God to act as God has done in the past -- tearing open the heavens, causing the mountains to shake and adversaries to quake in fear.
Despite Isaiah’s cry, God seems to remain hidden.
Similarly, the language of Psalm 80 expresses the deep yearnings of God’s people. Get busy, the psalmist seems to say to God. Don’t just stand there -- do something. “Stir up your might and come to save us” (v. 2). This too is a lament, an expression of the community’s longing for healing. This ain’t no cheery Christmas carol -- it is instead a clear articulation of the harshness which surrounds the people of God.
Both passages, however, are filled with faithful hope. Isaiah sounds forth a call to repentance -- not a cry to arms. Isaiah understands that the future can only be filled with hope when the people of God are revived, open, and malleable as clay underneath the potter’s hands (cf. Isaiah 64:8). The psalmist as well cries out for justice built on God’s restoration. Salvation comes not out of a cloud of darkness, but only in the gentle, graceful reflections of God’s face (80:19).
In the Sermon
Many in our congregations are already knee-deep in Christmas. They are ready for the color, the carols, and the camaraderie that holiday celebrations may bring. But let’s also not sell them short. Our church members are also journeying through a time of confusion and violence -- as witnessed in the Jerusalem attacks and the protests in Ferguson. They may wish to dodge those brutal messages, yet like the violence that intruded on the West Jerusalem synagogue, there seems no way to completely escape.
On this first Sunday of Advent, perhaps a way of addressing this confusing mix of feelings is to stand alongside the prophet or to echo the prayers of the psalmist. Paying attention to Isaiah’s bold lament provides a way for the congregation to name the confusion they have experienced. Isaiah offers a bold image of our deepest Advent hopes, which may indeed offer soothing relief in this already harsh season.
The psalmist also provides examples of how God’s people await God’s actions. In conjunction with Mark’s call to watchful waiting, Psalm 80 describes the tender power of the One who comes: a shepherd, a leader of a lost flock, enthroned upon vulnerable cherubim.
Advent is indeed a harsh journey -- but it is undertaken in the hope that the light of salvation shall shine brilliantly.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Dean Feldmeyer:
Waiting for Help
Juan Lopez and Juan Lizama were washing windows 700 feet above the ground -- outside the 68th floor of the new World Trade Center -- when, according to their employer Upgrade Services, “a traction hoist brake mechanism that supports one side of the rig” failed and left their scaffold hanging in an almost vertical position.
Fortunately, they and their equipment were all secured to the scaffolding with safety harnesses. The men reported that their safety equipment and their training paid off.
What, we might wonder, were they trained to do in a situations like this? Answer: remain calm and wait for help to arrive. Given their situation, that was really all they could do. Wait.
And help did arrive. The New York Fire Department effected their rescue by cutting through two panes of safety glass and pulling the men into the building.
The rescue took about two hours, but no doubt it seemed like more to the window washers. Former New York fire commissioner Thomas Von Essen told WNBC that they were “a lot older now than they were two hours ago.”
*****
Things to Do While Waiting
When our kids were little, my wife was always prepared for those times when waiting was unavoidable -- when we got stuck in a traffic jam, in a long line, waiting for the pizza to be served in a restaurant, in the parking lot waiting for me when I had to “just run into the office for a minute.” Her large purse was a virtual warehouse filled with fun activities. Tiny decks of cards, small games, crayons, and sketch pads all fit neatly into its many tucks and folds. (This was before cellphones and electronic games.)
But as the kids got older, it took more than those little games and toys to amuse them. So we invented a game called “Guess What,” which was essentially “20 Questions” except that you could ask as many questions as you wanted. We would take turns thinking of a person, place, or thing, and everyone would ask yes-or-no questions until we guessed what it was.
By the time they got to high school and even college “Guess What” had evolved to “Famous Dead People,” wherein one of us would think of the name of a famous dead person and the others would ask questions until they figured out who it was. Our kids are now in their 30s and have their own kids, and we are back to playing “Guess What” when we have to wait.
It never fails that if we are playing these games while in line at the amusement park or sitting at our table at the restaurant, the waitress or someone at another table or someone else in line (adult or child) will not be able to contain themselves and will blurt out an answer. And if their answer is correct, of course, they get to think up the next famous dead person (or whatever).
Often, given enough time, we will have a dozen or more people playing the game, and there will be a palpable sense of disappointment when the line finally moves, waiting ends, and the game has to cease.
*****
More Things to Do While Waiting
The website www.grandparents.com offers 12 activities to do with your grandchildren in those times and places where waiting is unavoidable. Here are eight that I’ve road-tested with my grandsons:
1. Waving Game: See how many people in other cars you can get to wave back at you in a certain amount of time.
2. Highway Alphabet: Have one person name something they see that starts with “A,” next person “B,” next person “C,” and so on.
3. Ghost: The first person gives a letter, then the second person adds a letter, and so on. The challenge is to not spell a word -- the first person who does complete a word gets a point. The person with the lowest number of points wins.
4. Sing songs: Make a list of “stackable” songs that add a word at the end of each verse (i.e., “Old McDonald”).
5. Going on a Picnic: The first person says, “I’m going on a picnic and I’m bringing __________.” The next person repeats, and then must add another item which starts with the next letter of the alphabet (and so on).
6. Twenty Questions: (See “Guess What” and Famous Dead People” above.)
7. To Tell the Truth: Each person tells two truths and one lie -- the others have to guess which is the lie. The first person who guesses correctly gets to be the leader in the next round.
8. I Spy with My Little Eye: One person identifies only the color of an object in everyone’s vision, and the others have to guess what it is.
*****
Waiting in Pain
Part of my training for the ministry was field experience in Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE), where I worked as a chaplain in a local hospital. The first two weeks of the six-month term were spent in training with four other student chaplains, as the hospital staff tried to prepare us for ministry in a clinical setting.
One day we were placed in the hands of a charge nurse from one of the surgical floors. The first thing she did was to have us all stand, close our eyes, and lift one foot off of the floor. “When you have determined that a minute has passed,” she said, “open your eyes and sit down. And no counting.”
None of us got it right, of course. Four of us were short (one by half a minute), and the fifth was more than half a minute over the time.
When we were all sitting, the nurse said, “Now imagine that you are in excruciating pain, and you push the button and tell the person who answers that you need something for pain, and that person says, ‘Just a minute.’ ”
She was simply reminding us of something most of us already knew. When you are in pain and waiting for relief, minutes become hours and hours become days. Time, in other words, ceases to exist -- there is only “right now.”
*****
Waiting for Godot... and Waiting... and Waiting
Waiting for Godot is a well-known absurdist two-act play by Samuel Beckett, in which the two main characters -- Vladimir and Estragon -- wait under a bare tree at center stage for someone named Godot to arrive.
The two men talk about various topics, but never conclude anything. Other characters enter and leave the scene, but resolve nothing and contribute little (if anything). Eventually a boy enters and announces that Godot isn’t coming, but will come tomorrow instead. Vladimir and Estragon agree to leave and come back the next day, but they don’t leave and the curtain falls on Act One.
Act Two opens, and while the activity on stage is different in type, it is essentially the same as that of Act One. Characters talk, move around, do things, wait -- and they accomplish nothing, achieve nothing, resolve nothing. The boy re-enters and once again announces that Godot will not be coming today but will be coming tomorrow instead. Vladimir and Estragon decide that they might as well leave and come back tomorrow, but they don’t. And with that, the play ends.
As with most absurdist theater, possible interpretations are legion. Beckett himself grew tired of what he called “misinterpretations,” but he never explained anything about the play except to say that it was about “symbiosis,” which only managed to muddy the water even further.
The one thing that most agree on is that the play seems to indicate that waiting time is the time between times, between the already and the not yet, wherein nothing happens or can happen because the time is already filled with waiting... which is itself a non-activity, a non-event.
*****
One Darned Thing After Another
In the 1970 film The Out of Towners, starring Jack Lemmon and Sandy Duncan, Murphy’s Law rules. Everything that can go wrong, does.
Lemmon and Duncan portray George and Gwen Kellerman from Twin Oaks, Ohio, who are taking an all-expense-paid trip to New York, where George is to receive a big promotion in the plastics company he works for. Wanting to be fresh and ready for the 9:00 a.m. meeting, George books a flight that will land in New York the day before, leaving them plenty of time for dinner at the Four Seasons, dancing, and a good night’s rest at the Waldorf-Astoria.
But their plane gets diverted to Boston, and things go downhill from there. A harrowing train ride to New York, getting lost, getting mugged (twice), getting kidnapped, losing their luggage, and getting caught in a thunderstorm all delay their arrival -- and when George and Gwen finally get to the Waldorf, they discover that their room has been given away.
Early in the film the audience responds to each piece of bad luck with sympathetic moans, but as the bad luck and bad choices begin to cascade the audience starts laughing, wondering not how the Kellermans are going to get out of this mess but what new tragic event could possibly befall them.
Waiting for rescue becomes waiting for the other shoe to fall.
*****
Waiting with Dread
Whatif
by Shel Silverstein
Last night, while I lay thinking here,
some Whatifs crawled inside my ear
and pranced and partied all night long
and sang their same old Whatif song:
Whatif I’m dumb in school?
Whatif they’ve closed the swimming pool?
Whatif I get beat up?
Whatif there’s poison in my cup?
Whatif I start to cry?
Whatif I get sick and die?
Whatif I flunk that test?
Whatif green hair grows on my chest?
Whatif nobody likes me?
Whatif a bolt of lightning strikes me?
Whatif I don’t grow taller?
Whatif my head starts getting smaller?
Whatif the fish won’t bite?
Whatif the wind tears up my kite?
Whatif they start a war?
Whatif my parents get divorced?
Whatif the bus is late?
Whatif my teeth don’t grow in straight?
Whatif I tear my pants?
Whatif I never learn to dance?
Everything seems well, and then
the nighttime Whatifs strike again!
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock!
People: Shine forth, you who are enthroned upon the cherubim.
Leader: We will never turn back from you, O God.
People: Give us life, and we will call on your name.
Leader: Restore us, O God; let your face shine, that we may be saved.
People: Restore us, O God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved.
Advent Candle Lighting
Leader: We light this candle in anticipation, as we wait.
People: We wait for the one who makes all things new.
Leader: We wait with hope in our hearts.
People: We wait, knowing that God is still working.
Leader: We work while we wait.
People: O come, O come, Emmanuel.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
“Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus”
found in:
UMH: 196
H82: 66
PH: 21
NCH: 122
LBW: 30
ELA: 254
W&P: 153
AMEC: 103
“I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light”
found in:
UMH: 206
H82: 490
ELA: 815
W&P: 248
“Toda la Tierra” (“All Earth Is Waiting”)
found in:
UMH: 210
NCH: 121
ELA: 266
W&P: 163
“O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”
found in:
UMH: 211
H82: 56
PH: 9
AAHH: 188
NNBH: 82
NCH: 116
CH: 119
LBW: 34
ELA: 257
W&P: 154
AMEC: 102
STLT: 225
“Where Cross the Crowded Ways of Life”
found in:
UMH: 427
H82: 609
PH: 408
NCH: 543
CH: 605
LBW: 429
ELA: 719
W&P: 591
AMEC: 561
“O Master, Let Me Walk with Thee”
found in:
UMH: 430
H82: 659, 660
PH: 357
NNBH: 445
NCH: 503
CH: 602
LBW: 492
ELA: 818
W&P: 589
AMEC: 299
“Rescue the Perishing”
found in:
UMH: 591
NNBH: 414
AMEC: 211
“Come Down, O Love Divine”
found in:
UMH: 475
H82: 576
PH: 313
NCH: 289
CH: 582
LBW: 508
ELA: 804
W&P: 330
“Emmanuel, Emmanuel”
found in:
CCB: 31
Renew: 28
“Your Loving Kindness Is Better than Life”
found in:
CCB: 26
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who is ever at work in your creation: Help us to hear your call to be at work while we wait for you to come and bring your reign to completion. Through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
You, O God, are ever at work in your creation, and you call us to join you. Help us to anticipate you coming in your fullness by joining you in the work of salvation. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially our failure to join in God’s work of bringing wholeness and healing to the world.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. You have called us to be your people and to join you in bringing salvation to your creation, but we seem to spend most of our time just waiting for you to come and do it alone. You have sent us to do the works that you have done, but we have no faith that you are actually at work through us. With a sense of false modesty we avoid the hard work of reconciliation and healing. Forgive us, and renew a sense of power within us that we may wait for you while doing your work. Amen.
Leader: The Christ desires to be made known in and through us. Receive God’s love and grace, and the power of the Spirit to do God’s will.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
We worship and praise your Name, O God, for you are the one who comes to us. You are the one who has entered into our world and is ever-present, yet you are still the one to come.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. You have called us to be your people and to join you in bringing salvation to your creation, but we seem to spend most of our time just waiting for you to come and do it alone. You have sent us to do the works that you have done, but we have no faith that you are actually at work through us. With a sense of false modesty we avoid the hard work of reconciliation and healing. Forgive us, and renew a sense of power within us that we may wait for you while doing your work.
We give you thanks for all the ways you have made your presence known to us. We thank you for times of worship and for times of work. We thank you for those who have allowed your Spirit to work through them so that our lives have been touched. We thank you for those we have reached out to in your name.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We know that your reign is not yet fully realized, and we pray for those who feel this most deeply. We pray for those who are sick or dying or grieving. We pray for those in need. We pray for people who live in the midst of violence. We pray for ourselves, that we may be moved to reach out to those around us.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father . . . Amen.
(or if the Lord’s Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children’s Sermon Starter
Talk to the children about how difficult it is to wait. We can hardly wait for Christmas. But it helps if we are busy. (You might consider using one of the waiting games from this week’s illustrations.) We wait for Jesus, but we keep busy by doing what Jesus would be doing.
CHILDREN’S SERMON
Keep Alert
Mark 13:24-37
Objects: a timer with a bell/alarm (set to go off as you talk), and a prize of some kind
What is this? (Show the timer and let the children answer.) Yes, this is a timer. Do you know what it’s used for? (Let them answer.) Perhaps you might use this to time something that you were cooking. When the bell goes off, you know that it’s time to take something out of the oven or off the stove. Have you ever used one of these? (Let them answer.)
Now, I have this one set to go off -- but I’m the only one who knows what time I set it for. It may go off in the next minute or it may not go off for an hour. If it does go off while we are talking, I will give a prize to the first person who can turn the sound off. After all, we don’t want to wake up anybody here in church who is sleeping.
Jesus told us in the Bible that God is the only one who knows when this world is going to end -- just like I am the only one who knows when this bell will go off. God wants us to be ready, however, when Jesus comes back to take us all to heaven. How can we be ready if we don’t know when he is coming? (Let them answer.) We will be ready anytime if we believe that Jesus
is our Savior and trust him. He wants us to be alert, and that means paying attention to the way we are living, just like all of you are being alert right now, waiting for the timer to go off. If you are living your life the way God wants you to live, you will be ready no matter when he comes. Are all of you ready right now to meet Jesus if he comes back before this service is over? (Let them answer.)
(Note: It doesn’t really matter when the timer goes off as you’re talking, because you can finish before or after it goes off.)
Well, ___________ was certainly alert and turned the alarm off first, so he/she gets the prize. When Jesus comes back, we will all get a wonderful prize -- eternal life with him in heaven. Let’s thank him for that.
Prayer: Dear Jesus: We thank you for making us your people and giving us faith to believe so that we will all be ready when you come back to take us to heaven. Amen.
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The Immediate Word, November 30, 2014, issue.
Copyright 2014 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
