First Sunday Of Advent
Worship
Lectionary Worship Aids
Series VI, Cycle A
Object:
Theme: Time To Wake Up
Call To Worship
Leader: Awake, awake put on your strength, O arm of the Lord.
People: Awake, as in days of old, the generations of long ago!
Leader: How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace,
People: who brings good news, who says to Zion, "Your God reigns."
Invocation
Great God of Power; we praise you for Jesus Christ who came as a light to this dark world to save us from our sins. We thank you for the prophets' hope, the angels' song, for the birth in Bethlehem. We thank you that in Jesus you joined us, sharing human hurts and pleasures. Glory to you for your wonderful love. Glory to you, eternal God; through Jesus Christ, Lord of lords, and King of kings, forever. Amen.
Confession
Understanding Father, we know your wish for us is that we keep the commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves. We humbly confess that too often we grow weary in well-doing, and so this morning we come with penitent hearts asking your forgiveness. Strengthen our resolve, O Lord, that we may lay aside the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Offertory Prayer
Receive these gifts, Almighty God, as evidences of our faith, as expressions of our love, as symbols of our thankfulness, and as proof of our commitment. Amen.
Hymns
"Wake, Awake For Night Is Flying"
"I Want To Walk As A Child Of The Light"
First Sunday Of Advent
Gospel Lesson: Matthew 24:36-44
Theme: Be Ready -- The Son Of Man Is Coming
Call To Worship
Leader: Come, let us worship and bow down before the Christ who was, and is, and is to come,
People: for he is the Savior of the world, and the hope of the ages.
Invocation
Lord God, we come with our thirst to this oasis of living water. We come with our guilt to a forgiven and forgiving community. We come with hearts full of joy to this hour of celebration and love. Be with us in our worship, and enfold all that we are in the everlasting arms which reach out to us eternally; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Confession
Lord, today we begin a season of preparation. We want to make ready our hearts for your coming. We must confess, however, that we are so intent on celebrating your advent so long ago, and speculating on when you will return, that we forget you are ready to come to us now. Forgive our blindness, awaken us to your presence, and come into our hearts now, Lord Jesus. Amen.
Offertory Prayer
Our Father, during this season in which we celebrate the love of God as expressed in the gift of your Son, it is fitting that we also express our love in a tangible way. Receive these gifts as our expression of that love. Amen.
Hymns
"O Come, O Come, Emmanuel"
"Lift Up Your Heads"
First Sunday Of Advent
Psalter: Psalm 25:1-10
Words Of Assurance
In this find strength: that God not only forgives the past, but gives a new vision for the future, and inspires a new commitment for the present.
Pastoral Prayer
O God of earth and altar, with whom the morning stars sang together to herald your first creation, this is the season of joy, but our ideals are crying still for our world to be made new. Your earliest voice declared, "Let there be light," but we have stood in its way and by our own willfulness have created shadows that enlarge the dark. Our days are clouded over by the threat of war, the decline of true religion, and the loss of clear meaning to life. So few give heed any longer to your call to us to be just and kind, and live in quiet fellowship with our God. In the words of the Psalmist then we pray: "Turn us again, O God of hosts, and cause your face to shine and we shall be saved."
We thank you, our Father, in this festive season, that in the midst of the ages you commanded light to shine into our darkness which brought to us knowledge of your divine being in the face of Jesus Christ. We bless you that that light increased in and through him, and down the countless years ever since he has brought release and pardon from sin through his unfailing grace; healing to all our hurts through the touch of his tender love; and the hope and promise of a new age of goodwill and fraternity for the whole inhabited earth.
Lord, we praise you for all these gracious benefits bestowed upon our common life, and we plead for help to prepare a wide room within us for the Child of Bethlehem, so that he may exercise his rule forever in our minds and hearts. Christmas is a time for deeper prayer and more costly devotion; challenge our wills to cast off the easy ornaments of sentimentality and make this time truly a celebration of the coming of eternal light to shatter the darkness and bring new life to all.
May he who came first as a little child, come now as more than a child -- the Savior, victor over sin and death, the redeemer of the world, and the Prince of Peace. Come to each of us in some unexpected insight, some invasion of unlooked-for power, and work your transforming miracle in our hearts -- faith for fear, courage for cowardice, strength for weakness, victory for defeat. Increase our confidence in you, burnish again our ideals that the fingers of the world have tarnished, give us brave hearts, and send us, who came here with plumes shorn and armor dented, into the world again rearmed with faith and strength for tomorrow's battles. We pray in the spirit of Christ. Amen.
Benediction
Go in peace, for the one who came to earth to rescue you will lead you through all of life, until at last he brings you to the home not made with hands, eternal in the heavens; and the blessing of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit be with you always. Amen.
Call To Worship
Leader: Awake, awake put on your strength, O arm of the Lord.
People: Awake, as in days of old, the generations of long ago!
Leader: How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace,
People: who brings good news, who says to Zion, "Your God reigns."
Invocation
Great God of Power; we praise you for Jesus Christ who came as a light to this dark world to save us from our sins. We thank you for the prophets' hope, the angels' song, for the birth in Bethlehem. We thank you that in Jesus you joined us, sharing human hurts and pleasures. Glory to you for your wonderful love. Glory to you, eternal God; through Jesus Christ, Lord of lords, and King of kings, forever. Amen.
Confession
Understanding Father, we know your wish for us is that we keep the commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves. We humbly confess that too often we grow weary in well-doing, and so this morning we come with penitent hearts asking your forgiveness. Strengthen our resolve, O Lord, that we may lay aside the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Offertory Prayer
Receive these gifts, Almighty God, as evidences of our faith, as expressions of our love, as symbols of our thankfulness, and as proof of our commitment. Amen.
Hymns
"Wake, Awake For Night Is Flying"
"I Want To Walk As A Child Of The Light"
First Sunday Of Advent
Gospel Lesson: Matthew 24:36-44
Theme: Be Ready -- The Son Of Man Is Coming
Call To Worship
Leader: Come, let us worship and bow down before the Christ who was, and is, and is to come,
People: for he is the Savior of the world, and the hope of the ages.
Invocation
Lord God, we come with our thirst to this oasis of living water. We come with our guilt to a forgiven and forgiving community. We come with hearts full of joy to this hour of celebration and love. Be with us in our worship, and enfold all that we are in the everlasting arms which reach out to us eternally; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Confession
Lord, today we begin a season of preparation. We want to make ready our hearts for your coming. We must confess, however, that we are so intent on celebrating your advent so long ago, and speculating on when you will return, that we forget you are ready to come to us now. Forgive our blindness, awaken us to your presence, and come into our hearts now, Lord Jesus. Amen.
Offertory Prayer
Our Father, during this season in which we celebrate the love of God as expressed in the gift of your Son, it is fitting that we also express our love in a tangible way. Receive these gifts as our expression of that love. Amen.
Hymns
"O Come, O Come, Emmanuel"
"Lift Up Your Heads"
First Sunday Of Advent
Psalter: Psalm 25:1-10
Words Of Assurance
In this find strength: that God not only forgives the past, but gives a new vision for the future, and inspires a new commitment for the present.
Pastoral Prayer
O God of earth and altar, with whom the morning stars sang together to herald your first creation, this is the season of joy, but our ideals are crying still for our world to be made new. Your earliest voice declared, "Let there be light," but we have stood in its way and by our own willfulness have created shadows that enlarge the dark. Our days are clouded over by the threat of war, the decline of true religion, and the loss of clear meaning to life. So few give heed any longer to your call to us to be just and kind, and live in quiet fellowship with our God. In the words of the Psalmist then we pray: "Turn us again, O God of hosts, and cause your face to shine and we shall be saved."
We thank you, our Father, in this festive season, that in the midst of the ages you commanded light to shine into our darkness which brought to us knowledge of your divine being in the face of Jesus Christ. We bless you that that light increased in and through him, and down the countless years ever since he has brought release and pardon from sin through his unfailing grace; healing to all our hurts through the touch of his tender love; and the hope and promise of a new age of goodwill and fraternity for the whole inhabited earth.
Lord, we praise you for all these gracious benefits bestowed upon our common life, and we plead for help to prepare a wide room within us for the Child of Bethlehem, so that he may exercise his rule forever in our minds and hearts. Christmas is a time for deeper prayer and more costly devotion; challenge our wills to cast off the easy ornaments of sentimentality and make this time truly a celebration of the coming of eternal light to shatter the darkness and bring new life to all.
May he who came first as a little child, come now as more than a child -- the Savior, victor over sin and death, the redeemer of the world, and the Prince of Peace. Come to each of us in some unexpected insight, some invasion of unlooked-for power, and work your transforming miracle in our hearts -- faith for fear, courage for cowardice, strength for weakness, victory for defeat. Increase our confidence in you, burnish again our ideals that the fingers of the world have tarnished, give us brave hearts, and send us, who came here with plumes shorn and armor dented, into the world again rearmed with faith and strength for tomorrow's battles. We pray in the spirit of Christ. Amen.
Benediction
Go in peace, for the one who came to earth to rescue you will lead you through all of life, until at last he brings you to the home not made with hands, eternal in the heavens; and the blessing of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit be with you always. Amen.
