Sunday, Dec 20, 2020 - Vision to Reality: How?
Theme: Envisioning New Realities - Vision to Reality: How?
Lighting of the Advent Candles (Love)
The journey of Advent is one of complexity that is supposed to lead us to the transformative love of the Christ child. As we come to this Sunday of love it is easy to skip over this word and hurry through the day. However, the love that the Christ child brings is “God’s love for human beings, and from this divine frontier-crossing love finds the strength to cross barriers itself, and to find the way even to the enemy. Love has pleasure in the other, in what is new.” (Jürgen Moltmann) A love that crosses barriers and invites us into new, transformative relationships.
Today we relight the candles of hope, peace, and joy with the recognition that we needed to be reminded how God is at work in our lives. (The candles of hope, peace, and joy are relit) Now we light the candle of love that reminds us that we belong to a God of love. (The candle of love is lit)
Prayer
Luke 1:39-45 Common English Bible Translation
Mary got up and hurried to a city in the Judean highlands. She entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. With a loud voice she blurted out, “God has blessed you above all women, and he has blessed the child you carry. Why do I have this honor, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as I heard your greeting, the baby in my womb jumped for joy. Happy is she who believed that the Lord would fulfill the promises he made to her.” (Question: Who has been present in your life that showed you love?)
Luke 1:46-49
Mary said, “With all my heart I glorify the Lord! In the depths of who I am I rejoice in God my savior. He has looked with favor on the low status of his servant. Look! From now on, everyone will consider me highly favored because the mighty one has done great things for me. Holy is his name. (Question: Who helps you to know you are worthy of love?)
Luke 1:50-51
He shows mercy to everyone, from one generation to the next, who honors him as God. He has shown strength with his arm. He has scattered those with arrogant thoughts and proud inclinations. (Question: What mercy do you need in your life?)
Luke 1:52-53
He has pulled the powerful down from their thrones and lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty-handed. (Question: What needs do we feel go unmet and which ones are fulfilled?)
Luke 1:54-55
He has come to the aid of his servant Israel, remembering his mercy, just as he promised to our ancestors, to Abraham and to Abraham’s descendants forever.” (Question: What stories have helped you to navigate your life in new ways?)
Reflection Together
Prayers of the People and the Lord’s Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
And forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us;
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil
For thine is the kingdom and the power
and the glory, forever. Amen
Blessing
Song List (to listen to from wherever you get your music)
Prepare the Way, O Zion – 106 GTG
Love Has Come – 110 GTG
Away in a Manger – 115 GTG (verse 2)
Once in Royal David’s City – 140 GTG (verse 1)
Angels, from the Realms of Glory – 143 GTG (verse 4)
Quotes by Rowan Williams
“We have grounds for hoping that our lives here within the complex system of created reality can show in some degree the gratuitous and generous love out of which everything comes, the love of the Creator in whose image we are made.”
“Love: an expression of the freedom to receive. Love: that which drives us to take time and to let go of anxiety. Love: that which permits us to be enriched and to be ‘given to’, made alive, to be breathed into. Not a passive thing, as some of those images might suggest, but a state of openness to joy.”
Quotes by Jürgen Moltmann
“It is the divine power of love that lifts people out of themselves and lets them forget their own ego. People are only concerned about themselves when they are frightened. But there is no fear in love.”
“In the flood of love, the whole joy of God is with us. That is why Paul is right when he says that without love the best human gifts and achievements, the most elevated religious feelings, and the wisest knowledge remain empty – ‘a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.’”
“The love of the Lord is compassion-the love of the liberated is joy. Compassionate love is love for those who are different, for the compassion is awakened not through beauty but through misery.”