Advent And Baptism
Sermon
Dancing The Sacraments
Sermons And Worship Services For Baptism And Communion
Call To Worship:
O come, all ye faithful, and worship the Lord.
Hymn: "O Come, All Ye Faithful"
(words and music: John F. Wade)
Children's Time:
(Children like to make noise. They enjoy participating in storytelling by making "sound effects." Invite your children to be the "animals" around the manger, as you tell the Nativity story.)
The man and woman entered the barn out of the dark night. They could hardly see inside but they could hear. They heard a cow moo. (Invite the children to make "mooing" sounds.)
As they fed their donkey hay, after his long trip to Bethlehem, he said, "Hee--haw." (Have children make "hee--hawing" sounds.)
The moon shone through the window of the barn onto the rafter above the manger. They saw a dove and heard it coo. (Let the children make "cooing" sounds.)
They felt something soft and wooley and wondered what it was until they heard ... (let the children guess) ... the lamb baa. (Have the children make "baaing" sounds.)
(Ask the children for their suggestions of other animals that might be in the barn if Jesus were born today [chicken, duck, dog, cat, lion, etc.] Or, tell the story with pictures, such as Only A Star1 in which Margery Facklam imagines other creatures at the manger.)
The Sacrament Of Baptism
Prayer Of Confession:
Forgive us, Lord, when we are silent and should be speaking, when we are speaking and should be silent. Forgive our closed minds and ears, mouths and hearts in the name of Christ our Lord, whose birthday we celebrate. Amen.
Words Of Assurance:
God says to us in the sanctuary of the Spirit, "My constant love is better than life itself."
New Testament: Matthew 1:18--25
Sermon:
Last Advent our Bible study group drew from a bowl small slips of paper on which were written the names of a person or an object from the Nativity story. I wanted to be "the star," but Joseph chose me instead. As the star went to someone else, I had "star envy," but for one year I wondered about, meditated, and was surprised by Joseph. Why had I drawn Joseph's name? Or, why had Joseph chosen me? Who is Joseph?
Joseph was the "stand--in--father" for Jesus, asked to make a difficult decision and then play, behind the scenes, the part he was chosen to play, just like the boy chosen to play "Joseph" in the Nativity pageant. On the day of the pageant he became sick and his mother called the director, who replied, "Never mind. Joseph isn't necessary."
Yet Joseph is necessary, for he was of the house and lineage of David. In the dream the angel appeared to Joseph, saying, "Joseph, son of David ... Mary will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins" (Matthew 1:20).
Joseph stands for the paradox of parenthood: this child will inherit the "throne of David" because of Joseph's lineage and yet is not Joseph's son, according to the heavenly messenger, but the son of the Holy Spirit. Perhaps all of us are "Joseph" one way or another. Baptism says that this child is our child and yet not our child, but God's.
At baptism we "stand--in" for God, whose child this is, taking care of the child in God's stead, as the words remind us, "Remember who you are. You belong to God." My mother used to say, "Remember you are a Mueller," which was to give me limits, boundary lines, as well as goals. I had a name to remember that represented other people who counted on me to remember and uphold that name.
The Hebrews believed there was no life without a name, for without a name one had no identify. The old Hasidic story says that on the Day of Judgment we will not be asked why we were not more like Abraham or Moses or David, but why we were not more like ... (fill in your own name).
One of the most beautiful examples of naming is when Mary saw Jesus, after his death, thinking he was the gardener, and Jesus turned to her and said, "Mary." Jesus named her aloud and her eyes were opened and she saw. "Master!" she cried (John 20:16).
During Advent we remember the names given to Jesus: "Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9:6), as well as "Lamb of God, good shepherd, the Word, door, light, Son of God." This, being Advent, we are concerned with the name Emmanuel, "God with us."
I read somewhere that if our greatest need was information, God would have sent an educator. If our greatest need was technology, God would have sent a scientist. If our greatest need was pleasure, God would have sent a performer, but our greatest need is love, is God. Joseph named him "Jesus, God--with--us, Emmanuel."
Baptism names us. In the Garden Adam named what God had created, completing what had been made. When our third son was born, eager for a daughter, we had chosen the name Katherine Elizabeth. Looking down at the small bundle in my arms, I knew that name would not be acceptable. Three days later, when it was time for me to leave the hospital, the child still had no name. The nurse declared, "No name, no take out!" At last his parents agreed on a name and Thomas William, three days after his arrival into the world, was born.
What's in a name? That unnamed infant, my third son, was given the name of one of my favorite authors, Thomas Wolfe, and today he is a writer. My father named me "Elaine" and I love and honor the Arthurian myth.
The name "Joseph" represents the love and stability of being a parent; the sleepless nights waiting on the sick child or late teenager or failing parent. Joseph is the meals and meetings, the broken trust and the healing hugs, balancing the budget, disguising the leftovers, grieving the debt or separation.
I believe Joseph chose me because that year I was given the choice to keep money meant for my retirement or use it to invest in a home for my son and his family. In Jesus' parable of the prodigal son, giving the son his inheritance before the father's death was shocking to Jesus' audience, but, as the loving father, that is what he did.
I believe Joseph chose me to help me become aware of connecting my right and left brain activities: masculine - the power to organize and act, and feminine - the power to relate, imagine, and connect.
In W. H. Auden's Christmas Oratorio the angel Gabriel spoke to Joseph, saying, "To choose what is difficult all one's days as if it were easy, that is faith. Joseph, praise."2
Joseph wanted a sign, but faith is trust, and Gabriel told Joseph he must believe. The "proof" of Joseph's dream was his response, as we are called to unfamilar places to enter perpetual possibility.
To trust, to go against the accepted wisdom of our conventional culture, is not easy. To let go of control and trust God, as we do when we sleep, is to be open to surprise.
During Advent we open our heart and ears and mind to prepare to experience the meaning of Christmas, the gift of God's love that comes to us in the gift of the sacred story, for "we who must die, demand a miracle."
When we live out of that story, learning to love and wait during this season, when love blooms and the divine becomes human, we make room for the child.
"We who must die demand a miracle," and God put on human flesh, the Eternal did a temporal act, and the storyteller wraps the story in swaddling cloths of gentle words that hearers may carry in their hearts, as we pray:
Lord, give us a sign, as large as Time,
as the raging Red Sea, open before us,
as the baptism of Jesus at the Jordan,
as your invitation, calling us by name, as the shepherd calls his sheep.
Then, Lord, help us join the line to leap,
to endure with trust and patience to the end.
Remind us of your presence, your words that will not pass away,
and birth again within our hearts your promise
so we may choose what is difficult as if it were easy,
and with Joseph, praise. Amen and Amen.
Hymn: "El Shaddai"
(words and music: Michael Card and John Thompson)
Prayers Of The People
Pastoral Prayer:
We pray in your name, El Shaddai, and in its power to heal and transform. We give you thanks for sun and moon, day and night, for names by which to live fully in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ, whose name we pray as we say together,
The Lord's Prayer
Offering
Doxology
Hymn: "Away In A Manger"
(words: Anon.; music: James R. Murray)
Benediction:
Go now in the name of God, the Parent, Creator, Christ the Son, and the creative Holy Spirit. Amen.
____________
1. Margery Facklam, Only A Star (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans).
2. W. H. Auden, The Collected Poems (New York: Random House, 1945).
O come, all ye faithful, and worship the Lord.
Hymn: "O Come, All Ye Faithful"
(words and music: John F. Wade)
Children's Time:
(Children like to make noise. They enjoy participating in storytelling by making "sound effects." Invite your children to be the "animals" around the manger, as you tell the Nativity story.)
The man and woman entered the barn out of the dark night. They could hardly see inside but they could hear. They heard a cow moo. (Invite the children to make "mooing" sounds.)
As they fed their donkey hay, after his long trip to Bethlehem, he said, "Hee--haw." (Have children make "hee--hawing" sounds.)
The moon shone through the window of the barn onto the rafter above the manger. They saw a dove and heard it coo. (Let the children make "cooing" sounds.)
They felt something soft and wooley and wondered what it was until they heard ... (let the children guess) ... the lamb baa. (Have the children make "baaing" sounds.)
(Ask the children for their suggestions of other animals that might be in the barn if Jesus were born today [chicken, duck, dog, cat, lion, etc.] Or, tell the story with pictures, such as Only A Star1 in which Margery Facklam imagines other creatures at the manger.)
The Sacrament Of Baptism
Prayer Of Confession:
Forgive us, Lord, when we are silent and should be speaking, when we are speaking and should be silent. Forgive our closed minds and ears, mouths and hearts in the name of Christ our Lord, whose birthday we celebrate. Amen.
Words Of Assurance:
God says to us in the sanctuary of the Spirit, "My constant love is better than life itself."
New Testament: Matthew 1:18--25
Sermon:
Last Advent our Bible study group drew from a bowl small slips of paper on which were written the names of a person or an object from the Nativity story. I wanted to be "the star," but Joseph chose me instead. As the star went to someone else, I had "star envy," but for one year I wondered about, meditated, and was surprised by Joseph. Why had I drawn Joseph's name? Or, why had Joseph chosen me? Who is Joseph?
Joseph was the "stand--in--father" for Jesus, asked to make a difficult decision and then play, behind the scenes, the part he was chosen to play, just like the boy chosen to play "Joseph" in the Nativity pageant. On the day of the pageant he became sick and his mother called the director, who replied, "Never mind. Joseph isn't necessary."
Yet Joseph is necessary, for he was of the house and lineage of David. In the dream the angel appeared to Joseph, saying, "Joseph, son of David ... Mary will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins" (Matthew 1:20).
Joseph stands for the paradox of parenthood: this child will inherit the "throne of David" because of Joseph's lineage and yet is not Joseph's son, according to the heavenly messenger, but the son of the Holy Spirit. Perhaps all of us are "Joseph" one way or another. Baptism says that this child is our child and yet not our child, but God's.
At baptism we "stand--in" for God, whose child this is, taking care of the child in God's stead, as the words remind us, "Remember who you are. You belong to God." My mother used to say, "Remember you are a Mueller," which was to give me limits, boundary lines, as well as goals. I had a name to remember that represented other people who counted on me to remember and uphold that name.
The Hebrews believed there was no life without a name, for without a name one had no identify. The old Hasidic story says that on the Day of Judgment we will not be asked why we were not more like Abraham or Moses or David, but why we were not more like ... (fill in your own name).
One of the most beautiful examples of naming is when Mary saw Jesus, after his death, thinking he was the gardener, and Jesus turned to her and said, "Mary." Jesus named her aloud and her eyes were opened and she saw. "Master!" she cried (John 20:16).
During Advent we remember the names given to Jesus: "Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9:6), as well as "Lamb of God, good shepherd, the Word, door, light, Son of God." This, being Advent, we are concerned with the name Emmanuel, "God with us."
I read somewhere that if our greatest need was information, God would have sent an educator. If our greatest need was technology, God would have sent a scientist. If our greatest need was pleasure, God would have sent a performer, but our greatest need is love, is God. Joseph named him "Jesus, God--with--us, Emmanuel."
Baptism names us. In the Garden Adam named what God had created, completing what had been made. When our third son was born, eager for a daughter, we had chosen the name Katherine Elizabeth. Looking down at the small bundle in my arms, I knew that name would not be acceptable. Three days later, when it was time for me to leave the hospital, the child still had no name. The nurse declared, "No name, no take out!" At last his parents agreed on a name and Thomas William, three days after his arrival into the world, was born.
What's in a name? That unnamed infant, my third son, was given the name of one of my favorite authors, Thomas Wolfe, and today he is a writer. My father named me "Elaine" and I love and honor the Arthurian myth.
The name "Joseph" represents the love and stability of being a parent; the sleepless nights waiting on the sick child or late teenager or failing parent. Joseph is the meals and meetings, the broken trust and the healing hugs, balancing the budget, disguising the leftovers, grieving the debt or separation.
I believe Joseph chose me because that year I was given the choice to keep money meant for my retirement or use it to invest in a home for my son and his family. In Jesus' parable of the prodigal son, giving the son his inheritance before the father's death was shocking to Jesus' audience, but, as the loving father, that is what he did.
I believe Joseph chose me to help me become aware of connecting my right and left brain activities: masculine - the power to organize and act, and feminine - the power to relate, imagine, and connect.
In W. H. Auden's Christmas Oratorio the angel Gabriel spoke to Joseph, saying, "To choose what is difficult all one's days as if it were easy, that is faith. Joseph, praise."2
Joseph wanted a sign, but faith is trust, and Gabriel told Joseph he must believe. The "proof" of Joseph's dream was his response, as we are called to unfamilar places to enter perpetual possibility.
To trust, to go against the accepted wisdom of our conventional culture, is not easy. To let go of control and trust God, as we do when we sleep, is to be open to surprise.
During Advent we open our heart and ears and mind to prepare to experience the meaning of Christmas, the gift of God's love that comes to us in the gift of the sacred story, for "we who must die, demand a miracle."
When we live out of that story, learning to love and wait during this season, when love blooms and the divine becomes human, we make room for the child.
"We who must die demand a miracle," and God put on human flesh, the Eternal did a temporal act, and the storyteller wraps the story in swaddling cloths of gentle words that hearers may carry in their hearts, as we pray:
Lord, give us a sign, as large as Time,
as the raging Red Sea, open before us,
as the baptism of Jesus at the Jordan,
as your invitation, calling us by name, as the shepherd calls his sheep.
Then, Lord, help us join the line to leap,
to endure with trust and patience to the end.
Remind us of your presence, your words that will not pass away,
and birth again within our hearts your promise
so we may choose what is difficult as if it were easy,
and with Joseph, praise. Amen and Amen.
Hymn: "El Shaddai"
(words and music: Michael Card and John Thompson)
Prayers Of The People
Pastoral Prayer:
We pray in your name, El Shaddai, and in its power to heal and transform. We give you thanks for sun and moon, day and night, for names by which to live fully in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ, whose name we pray as we say together,
The Lord's Prayer
Offering
Doxology
Hymn: "Away In A Manger"
(words: Anon.; music: James R. Murray)
Benediction:
Go now in the name of God, the Parent, Creator, Christ the Son, and the creative Holy Spirit. Amen.
____________
1. Margery Facklam, Only A Star (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans).
2. W. H. Auden, The Collected Poems (New York: Random House, 1945).
