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Preaching Notes for Nov. 30 to Jan 4
Advent to Christmas 2
November 30 (St Andrew's Day - Advent 1)
Lection
Luke 21: 25 - 36
Psalm 25 : 1 - 10
Jer 33: 14 - 16
1 Thes. : 3: 9-13
Call to Worship
Show us your ways, O Lord;
Lead us into truth,
Wrap us in your mercy,
Cradle us in forgiveness,
Lead us into humility and reveal to us your steadfast love and faithfulness.
Prayer of Approach
Eternal God, in the span of history you made yourself known to
those who went before us. You are the comfort of the traveller and the
sanctuary of the prophet. In days past you brought our forebears to this
place and established us in hope. With various needs we gather, seeking to
claim for this generation the leading of your wisdom.
Meet us here, Lord.
You know our weakness and our failures are not hidden from you
for we stand before you without pretence. In the quiet of this sanctuary
restore us with your acceptance, cure us with your forgiveness.
Look on us with Love, Lord.
Gentle God, move among us; heal the wounds that rob us of
strength and with your love restore us to life. Show us how to use the past
as a step rather than as a burden. Instil in us such faith that we may have
no need to fear and such love that we may be a light in the darkness of life
for others.
Work your will among us, Lord. Amen
Sermon Notes
When the early settlers arrived in this land their first act, after three months or more in a tossing sailing ship, was to give thanks to God for their safe arrival. In our comfortable and secure modern life the threat of death is often seen as a distant irrelevance and the practice of our antecedents seems to some to be a quaint archaism. Yet from time to time when death comes close we too feel an awesome relief that helps us understand something of their spirit.
For the ancient Hebrews the promise of the Messiah had become a faint and distant hope. Like the promise that was heard in Scotland of fertile land that a man could own, open spaces, oceans full of fish, forests full of timber and religious freedom.
Luke calls his hearers to recognise that the time line of history has shortened right up. The signs he refers to are reflections of what he has learned of the ministry of Jesus. The revelation of God fresh in his understanding. The Jesus who called his friends to follow him is not calling them to old familiar paths but to new and frightening freedoms in which they will have to address life as pioneers.
As the early settlers carved a place for themselves among forests and
tussock along unmarked pathways and unbridged rivers so the followers of
Jesus are invited to plot a new, a unique, course that exchanges the old
securities of home and custom and religious observance for the challenges of a Gospel of Grace. Loving God with all their energy and their neighbour as themselves.
The time is short. As surely as the bud burst of the fig signals the arrival of spring so the advent of Jesus signals the new beginning.
The call is to escape the captivity of the customs we have made into laws and the rules we have made from habits. The opportunity is to begin again. Examining the community in which we walk as if we had not seen it before and subjecting all our prejudices and presuppositions to the white light of the coming of Jesus.
Prayer for others
Compassionate God, the wonder of your love astounds us for you
forgive even those who think they do not deserve your forgiveness, you shelter the powerless and treasure the fallen. Help us to see the world through the prism of your love.
We pray for the innocents of the world. The infants we have received
in your name, that they may ever be nurtured in grace.
We pray for little children everywhere that they may be allowed to
enjoy laughter, good food, glowing health and peaceful surroundings. Where
they are threatened, watch over them and show us how to love them for you.
Lord of the little children, hear our prayer.
We pray for those who need a new beginning.
We remember those who have suffered grief and see the world through the
shadows of sadness, give us patience as we deal with them, compassion as we care for them and love as we walk beside them.
We remember those who are under threat of death; for those with incurable
disease and all who experience a captivity of spirit by whatever name it is
known. We pray for their families as they struggle to face reality and the
anguish of watching love fade
God of compassion, show us how to love them for you.
We pray for the Church; that it may be a centre of peace, hope and
enlightenment in the community.
Where it is weary; refresh it.
Where it is smug; awake it;
Where it is torn with dissent, heal it;
Where it is strong, humble it
That in all places we may be agents of your will. Amen
Suggested Hymns:
O come, O come,Emmanuel
Come thou long expected Jesus
Lord Jesus once a child
All my hope..