Guide Rails
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
Object:
The lectionary's assigned passage from Isaiah for the Second Sunday of Advent tells us that we are to "prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain" (Isaiah 40:3-4). The vivid imagery is familiar to us, especially at this time of year, from hearing it sung in the opening tenor solos of Handel's Messiah. Yet this text is much more than just part of a beloved holiday tradition -- in this installment of The Immediate Word, team member Ron Love suggests that it's a powerful metaphor for the work of the church in the world. Like a highway, the church connects people in faraway places and of disparate ideologies, allowing them to become fellow travelers on the journey of life and helping to break down the natural barriers of rugged terrain. Ron also points out that another feature of modern highways -- guard rails or "guide rails" as they are more correctly named -- provides us with a useful way of thinking about how the morality that the church engenders functions in our lives. For drivers, these metal barriers are generally well outside of the main visual focus -- but in the midst of the blinding snowstorms that occasionally befall us, they can be life-saving landmarks that can protect us from plunging off the side of the road into a ditch. Likewise, Ron tells us, the church and its teachings can guide us through the varied terrain of life, protecting us from cataclysmic choices and pointing us toward a connection with people who live in circumstances and places far different than what we experience in our own relatively small hamlets.
Team member Mary Austin shares some additional thoughts on this week's Psalm text and its message of peace. Again, the imagery is powerful: we are told that the Lord "will speak peace to his people" and that "righteousness and peace will kiss each other." But as Mary notes, in our world it seems that we rarely experience righteousness and peace simultaneously -- for many of us, righteousness is more typically paired with anger, while we tend to think of peace as an absence of conflict. Mary reminds us that in God's creation, righteousness and peace really are so closely intertwined that they can kiss each other... it is just up to us to slow down and put aside the busy activity of the season long enough to open ourselves up and experience the fullness of shalom -- God's peace in the world.
Guide Rails
by Ron Love
Isaiah 40:1-11
Life is very similar to a journey down a highway. There is that smooth and straight road, absent of potholes, which is a joy to travel. Quietly looking out the windows, we see beautiful wildflowers and trees, pastures and snow-covered mountains, all reminders of our wonderful blessings in life. Then the road takes a curve of disappointment. We come to a hill of struggles, only to be followed by a mountain climb of despair. If this is not difficulty enough, once we are over the mountain, the road on the other side is an unpaved one of dirt and stone. Travel now becomes tiresome and uncomfortable. At the end of it all, there is that unexpected accident from an uninsured motorist.
The Greek abbreviation for Christian is Xn. When it comes to road repair, the church is the XnDOT -- Christian Department of Transportation -- for society. As we learn from Isaiah, it is our job to straighten those curves, lower those mountains, fill those potholes, and pave the rough places so the trip for others can once again be straight and smooth. Like any DOT we lack the funds and manpower to make all roads perfect; but we can certainly repair the damage that a harsh winter in the north, an unexpected hurricane in the south, or an earthquake in the west can inflict. We can certainly plan and then implement that plan as a way to make travel in the future safer and smoother and easier for all involved. At the very least, in the time of greatest need, we can offer to drive.
THE WORLD
Decades ago they were called "guard rails," because people thought the ubiquitous metal rails on highways were there to keep your car on the road if you happened to slide off onto the berm. But calling them guard rails gave drivers the wrong connotation of safety. They expected the rails alongside the road to prevent their automobile from plunging down the hillside into the abyss below.
To correct this misunderstanding, the name was changed to "guide rails." The rails are only meant to act as boundary markers, guiding your car along the correct path on the highway. If misfortune causes you to leave the road they may stop a cataclysmic plunge, but there is no guarantee -- and no suing the state for misrepresentation of their purpose.
John F. Kennedy said, "A man does what he must -- in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures -- and that is the basis of all human morality." As a society, absent of guard rails, are we hesitant to accept the difficult tasks of social justice? As a society, absent of guide rails to keep us on a sane path, have we lost the meaning of human morality?
Decades of inactivity slowly blends from one generation into another. So it is never appropriate to say things are worse now than ever before, but are they any better? Each week The Immediate Word highlights the latest news items and how they transgress the meaning of human morality. Each week The Immediate Word writing team encourages its readers to put in place guide rails for acceptable human behavior. It is a message that is taken up and preached in the pulpits across the nation.
How important is the message? How many people does the preacher reach in a seemingly insular sanctuary? The answer? "Six degrees of separation" has become the byword of the day. In 1967 psychologist Stanley Milgram conducted a study which concluded that (on average) we are only separated by six other people from anyone else on the planet. He determined this by selecting 296 volunteers to send a message by postcard, through friends and the friends of friends, to a specific person in a Boston suburb. From that exercise he calculated that we are only "six degrees" separated from anyone else in the world. It does make it a pretty small world, doesn't it?
Well, the world just got smaller. While "six degrees of separation" has entered the popular lexicon and become the basis of a popular parlor game, the latest research indicates that we are now only "4.74 degrees separated" from anyone across the globe. Facebook along with the University of Milan, using the latest algorithms and the social network's site of 721 million users, calculated the new family that surrounds us at 4.74. The paper announcing their research concluded, "It is reassuring to see that our findings show that people are in fact only four worlds apart and not five."
With this added closeness comes an added responsibility to be concerned for our neighbor. Out of curiosity I decided to employ this new formula with some of my friends over coffee. As we were conversing I discovered that I was one person away from Australia, two away from China, five from Mongolia... and do I need to go on? In a phrase that is too often used, we truly are a "global village."
E.B. White wrote, "Prejudice is a great time-saver. You can form opinions without having to get the facts." Prejudice might do -- except my Muslim neighbor in Iran might know my mother. So it is time we come together. It is a scary thought that our ideological differences could enlarge our world from four to seven.
Let me share one example, and one example will suffice -- Congress. We are all too aware that ideological differences between the Republicans and Democrats are plunging our nation into irreversible debt. Instead of seeing the world as a community of four, these political leaders still live in a world of them and us.
Scott Pelley of CBS News recently interviewed Ken Chenault, the CEO of American Express. When asked what his message is for Congress, Chenault answered with these words: "This is a battle of ideologies to see who wins... I don't see how you can have absolutist positions on either side.... And if we simply have both sides go to their respective corners, the fight never takes place and no one wins. So we need principled compromise." In a 4.74 world it is time to learn to have principled compromise.
To do so we need guide rails of morality and that takes us to our scripture lesson.
THE WORD
There are many reasons for the fall of the Roman Empire; perhaps the least thought of were the roads. The roads were built narrowly, to accommodate a marching army. Roman engineers had not yet developed the ability to construct curves, so if the army had to go around an obstacle it made a 90-degree turn. If it came to a steep and seemingly impregnable hill, no problem, just march over it.
As the army stretched its way further away from Rome, so did its supply line. Conquered cities were expected to exchange commerce as well as send precious goods back to Caesar. Unfortunately, the roads constructed for an army on the move did not accommodate wagons used for trade. The roads were too narrow to accommodate a wagon's wheel base and as one can easily imagine, vehicles travelling in opposite directions, coming head-to-head, came to a standstill. A square turn may be negotiable by a man carrying a lance and a shield, but it was a questionable task for a wagon. A soldier in sandals may scurry over a steep hill, but it became a real sport for the wagonmaster. Due to lack of foresight about what roads would be used for, the entire infrastructure of the empire became an uncorrectable calamity.
Symbolically, Isaiah understood roads. If we are to live in a 4.74 world, accommodating our neighbor and living in obedience to God, then it is time to make straight the roads between us. We need to make a straight highway across the desert of our ideological differences, leaving our respective corners for principled compromise. We need to make low the mountains, so our wagons of mission food and medical supplies can reach their intended recipients. We need to lift up the valleys, so we no longer live in the depths of prejudice. We need to make the uneven ground level, so all people -- young and old alike, invalid and athletic -- can travel it together hand-in-hand.
Most importantly, along these roads will be the guide rail of human morality.
CRAFTING THE SERMON
I. Discuss what it means to be separated from others because of ideological differences and personal prejudices.
II. Discuss how the world has become smaller, which only intensifies our need to compromise, accommodate, and assist.
III. Discuss how we are to build roads of acceptance and neighborliness.
ANOTHER VIEW
by Mary Austin
Psalm 85
As the second week of Advent comes, again we are summoned to attentive living. Last week we were instructed to "keep awake" and "watch." This week, the Psalmist calls us to listen for God. "Let me hear what God the Lord will speak," the Psalmist instructs and in turn God will "speak peace to his people" (v. 8). Or, as The Message renders the same verse, "I can't wait to hear what he'll say; God's about to pronounce his people well."
The Psalmist promises the salvation of God for the people of God. God's word is more than speech -- it creates, and the word and the blessing are one and the same. God offers us a vision of peace beyond what we normally dare to imagine. As Charles M. Wood writes about this passage in Feasting on the Word, "...the peace that the Lord will speak, or the salvation that is at hand, is nothing less than the glory of God dwelling with the people in the land" (Year B, Volume 1, p. 32). For us, peace often means calm and quiet, whether at home or with friends or in the wider world. The absence of personal stress or national conflict looks like peace to us, but God offers something deeper and richer. Righteousness and peace are not just present but close enough to kiss. They are linked together in the divine economy. In the same way, the heavens and the earth meet up again as faithfulness rises up and righteousness reaches down.
Reading this passage, I found myself reflecting how rare it is that righteousness and peace arrive together, let alone kiss. My friends who have the gift of righteousness are so clear about the need for justice that they are rarely peaceable about it. My peaceful friends value harmony and rarely speak up for what's right, not wanting to infringe on others' feelings. It may be hard for us to get the two qualities together, but not for God.
As Rolf Jacobson of Luther Seminary writes about this passage: "In the psalm's closing verses, God's attributes of steadfast love and faithfulness, righteousness and peace are anthropomorphized as tangible forces that act at God's behest and on the people's behalf. The poem portrays these rather abstract qualities of God as concrete realities... Within creation, God's love is really present and incarnate for us in God's faithfulness, steadfast love, righteousness, and peace."
In contrast to our world's violent imagination about how God will come into the world, this vision of God's presence is about shalom, the fullness of God's peace. This is a vision of God coming in relationship with goodness and peace for all who follow. This is not the violent, narrow, exclusionary view of the world that we sometimes hear. This is a world that builds on what we know already, making it full and rich with God's goodness. This is not a vision of war, hunger, persecution, and widespread death but of God's abundant peace made alive in the world.
On the way to that vision, we have our work to do too. God speaks to the faithful, and our call is to remain attentively alert to the divine word. As with all of Advent, we are called to look for and listen for what God is already doing.
The holiday season pushes us into a mode of "less" -- how can we spend less, shop in less time, reduce our to-do list, whittle down our obligations, and try to eat and drink less? But God is talking about more -- a completeness that is more than we usually imagine, and a depth of shalom beyond what we could ever create. We may be looking for places to cut back or pare down, but God is looking for places of fullness.
We look for the coming of the Christ Child, all the while knowing that God's righteousness and peace already belong to us. Let us listen for God's word -- we can hardly wait to hear what God will do next!
ILLUSTRATIONS
The Burma Road -- every crooked place shall be made straight
The Burma Road is 717 miles of twisting turning, looping road that runs through the mountainous jungle country from Burma to China. It was built by 200,000 Chinese laborers during the Second Sino-Japanese War from 1937-38.
During World War II the Japanese controlled the Burma Road but in 1943 a combined force of American, British, Chinese, and Indian troops led by English Major General "Vinegar" Joe Stilwell defeated the Japanese to win back control of this treacherous but nevertheless necessary supply line from the allies to China.
Before the campaign began the Burma Road was bombed almost daily by allied bombers, so as to drive Japanese soldiers from it, make it unsafe for them to use, and "soften" it for the allied attack. Because of the climate, the altitude, the bombing, and the slow pace caused by the twisting and turning road, World War II veterans came to call any impassable road a "Burma Road," and the metaphor continues to apply to this day. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burma_Road for a photo of an aerial view of the Burma Road.)
* * *
Lombard Street -- every straight place shall be made crooked
We usually think of making a crooked road straight for the sake of easy passage. But in San Francisco they did the opposite -- they made a straight street crooked to make it safer.
Lombard Street runs at a nearly 75-80 degree angle for two city blocks and is so steep that it caused a safety problem to motorists and pedestrians when cars' brakes would give out and they would roll, out of control, down the hill and crash. So in the 1920s a man who owned property on the street proposed making the street one-way and designed a series of eight switchbacks decorated with flowers and streetlights that would make the street safer and more scenic.
Today, Lombard Street, advertised as the "crookedest" street in the world, is one of San Francisco's most photographed tourist sites and was featured in a chase scene in the movie Magnum Force. What it isn't is the "crookedest" road that it claims to be. That honor goes to Vermont Street just a few blocks away. A study by a team of engineers using lasers and other complicated instruments judged that Vermont is just a smidge "crookeder."
But Lombard is prettier and more photogenic and has a better story, so it retains the reputation.
* * *
Pikeville, Kentucky, is located in the southeastern part of the state. Because of its location along U.S. 23/460 and U.S. 119 on the Levisa Fork of the Big Sandy River, the citizens of Pikeville were often plagued by spring floodwaters that caused millions of dollars in damage. In October 1987, Pikeville completed one of the most ambitious engineering efforts east of the Mississippi River -- a $77.6 million federally funded cut-through project designed to eliminate frequent flooding, relieve traffic congestion, and alleviate the critical shortage of level land in the downtown area. The Levisa Fork was diverted from its looping course through the city into a half-mile-long cut through Peach Orchard Mountain. Railroad tracks and streets were rerouted from the area and bridges were removed. The former river channel was filled in with dirt and rock from the cut-through, the end result giving the city nearly 400 acres of new level land for commercial and institutional development.
Making the mountains low and the rough places smooth is hard work! This massive undertaking in Pikeville took fourteen years to complete and is second only to the Panama Canal as this hemisphere's largest engineering and earth-moving project.
* * *
In Minnesota, they like to say there are two seasons: winter and "under construction." It is indeed a land of long winters, and when those brief summer months come at last the highway department crews get right to work, filling potholes and repairing other damage caused by the snowplows.
The prophet Isaiah, it seems, lives in the season called "under construction." He envisions a massive public works project, as workers "make straight in the desert a highway for our God." Mountains will be leveled, valleys raised up: all for the purpose of clearing the way before the God of Israel, who will lead the exiled people back home again.
The exiles were used to seeing the Babylonians parade their gods along the grand, processional avenues of their capital city on religious feast days. The procession Isaiah has in mind will be so much grander, because the earth itself will be the Lord's processional avenue. Nothing can stand in the way of God's season of "under construction."
* * *
Back in the 1960s there was a top-ten hit recorded by the Soul Survivors titled "Expressway to Your Heart" that began with blaring car horns. God's goal is also to build an "expressway" to our hearts. Everything in the Bible, over 1,000 pages in all and representing thousands of years of sacred history, is about God preparing a path -- "the way of the Lord" -- to come to us. Over the centuries, God lifted up slaves and knocked down empires and straightened out men and women to bring a Savior to us. God's mighty roadwork is completed. But sometimes the entrance to our hearts remains blocked. Repentance is turning around and removing anything that keeps us from connecting with God. Do we love things more than God? Is our heart filled with bitterness or hate? Have we let ourselves become controlled by some addiction? Is our spiritual life dead or lazy? Are we wrongly clinging to some hurtful relationship? Then repentance and change are needed to open up a path so the Savior can get through to us.
* * *
Justice or righteousness and peace are intimately linked in the Jewish and Christian religions, but the linkage doesn't stop there.
In Greek mythology the goddess Dike is the goddess of justice, fair judgments, and the rights of human beings as established by law and custom.
Dike has two sisters, however. Eunomia is the goddess of good order and good pastures. Eirene is the goddess of peace and the season of spring. Together they make up the Horai, goddesses of the seasons who guard the gates of heaven.
* * *
By now, you've probably received this warning email from a friend. Usually it comes with the following words in the topic line: WARNING? WARNING: ADVENT VIRUS. The body of the email says something like this:
Be on the alert for symptoms of inner Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love. The hearts of a great many have already been exposed to this virus, and it is possible that people everywhere could come down with it in epidemic proportions. This could pose a serious threat to what has up to now been a fairly stable condition of conflict in the world.
Some signs and symptoms of the Advent Virus:
* A tendency to think and act spontaneously rather than on fears based on past experiences.
* An unmistakable ability to enjoy each moment.
* A loss of interest in judging other people.
* A loss of interest in interpreting the actions of others.
* A loss of interest in conflict.
* A loss of the ability to worry. (This is a very serious symptom.)
* Frequent, overwhelming episodes of appreciation.
* Contented feelings of connectedness with others and nature.
* Frequent attacks of smiling.
* An increasing tendency to let things happen rather than make them happen.
* An increased susceptibility to the love extended by others as well as the uncontrollable urge to extend it.
Please send this warning out to all your friends. This virus can and has affected many systems. Some systems have been completely cleaned out because of it.
* * *
When Righteousness Kisses Peace
The following illustrations are taken from the website of the Peace and Justice Support Network of the Mennonite Church U.S.A.
Steve Carcaterra, of Engle, Colorado, reports that for the last couple of years the small town of Glenwood Springs, Colorado, has held a reenactment of the gunfight at the OK Corral (which actually occurred in Tombstone, Arizona). Actors portraying the Earp Brothers and Doc Holliday ride into town on horseback and square off against actors portraying the Clantons, and they proceed to blow each other away in front of bleachers full of cheering people, many of whom are children.
Carcaterra never considered himself an activist, but considering how many people are killed by guns in our country each year, he had to question the appropriateness of making this historic violence into a spectator sport. So he staged a one-man peace witness with a folding chair and some homemade posters saying things like "Real guns kill Real people" and "14,000 Americans died as a result of handgun violence."
His peace witness did not go unnoticed. It triggered a barrage of letters to the editor in the local paper, both pro and con. One of the city's merchants came to his defense when another merchant was ruthless in his criticism of Carcaterra's peace position and personhood in general.
Carcaterra says that his intent was to make people think about the appropriateness of this event and especially the promotion of it as a form of entertainment. And it was successful. Next year he plans to ask the organizers of the event to cease promoting a violent, murderous act as a form of entertainment. If they insist on holding the event, he says he will return, hopefully with even more people.
* * *
Jim Lehman offers this story from his Sonnenberg: A Haven and a Heritage:
The time was 1917-18. Young men from the Sonnenberg (Ohio) Mennonite Church faced the draft (for World War I). Earl Gerber, Aldis Gerber, Menas Nussbaum, and David Baumgartner were drafted on October 4, 1917. Earl and Aldis went to Camp Sherman, where Earl was discharged several months later for physical reasons. Not long after he was home he got a questionnaire from the draft board. Since he had already served and been discharged, he ignored the questionnaire. To his surprise in late March 1918 Sheriff Miller came to take him to the Wayne County jail.
They had barely left home and gone over the railroad tracks and the bridge over Sugar Creek in that small valley when they began to ascend the steep hill with the Model-T Ford with which the sheriff had come to get Earl. In shifting from high gear to low gear the clutch slipped.
Much to the consternation of the sheriff, the auto refused to continue. Farmboy Earl recognized quickly what was wrong but said nothing. Sheriff Miller finally asked Earl, "Where is the nearest phone?"
Earl answered, "I guess the one at my home." When he saw they were about to go and call for a repairman to come and fix the auto, Earl piped up, "Do you have some tools? I'll see if I can fix it."
So they took the backseat out and fumbled for some tools. Finally finding a wrench and a pair of pliers, Earl took them and shortly had the clutch tightened. Then he looked at the sheriff and told him, "All right, she'll run now."
"Are you sure it will run?" asked the sheriff.
"Go on, get in. It will run now," Earl reassured him. They restarted the Model-T and up over the hill they went and hauled Earl off to jail!
* * *
Most people have heard about "The Christmas Truce" on Christmas Day 1914. In the first year of World War I, German, British, and French soldiers disobeyed their superiors and fraternized with "the enemy" along two thirds of the Western Front. German troops held Christmas trees up out of the trenches with signs reading "Merry Christmas" and "You no shoot, we no shoot." Thousands of troops streamed across a no-man's land strewn with rotting corpses. They sang Christmas carols, exchanged photographs of loved ones back home, shared rations, played football, and even roasted some pigs. Soldiers embraced men they had been trying to kill a few short hours before. They agreed to warn each other if the top brass forced them to fire their weapons and to aim high.
What most people have not heard or read is that this incident caused a shudder to run through the high command on either side. Here was disaster in the making: soldiers declaring their brotherhood with each other and refusing to fight. Generals on both sides declared this spontaneous peacemaking to be treasonous and subject to court-martial. By March 1915, the fraternization movement had been eradicated and the killing machine put back in full operation. By the time of the armistice in 1918, 15 million people would be slaughtered.
-- excerpted from David G. Stratman, We CAN Change the World: The Real Meaning of Everyday Life (New Democracy Books, 1991). Available from New Democracy Books, PO Box 427, Boston, MA 02130.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: Let us hear what God will speak.
People: God will speak peace to the people.
Leader: Salvation is at hand for those who fear God.
People: May God's glory dwell in the land.
Leader: Then steadfast love and faithfulness will meet;
People: righteousness and peace will kiss each other.
Leader: Faithfulness will spring up from the ground,
People: and righteousness will look down from the sky.
OR
Leader: Come, let us worship our God and Creator.
People: With joy we offer our praises to God.
Leader: Come and listen to the instructions of God.
People: We come to learn about life and how to live it fully.
Leader: Come and be transformed into God's community.
People: We offer ourselves to God and one another that Christ may be fully present in our world.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
* = Christmas carols, for those congregations where one simply must use them during Advent.
"Savior of the Nations, Come"
found in:
UMH: 214
PH: 14
LBW: 28
ELW: 263
"Toda la Tierra" ("All Earth Is Waiting")
found in:
UMH: 210
NCH: 121
ELW: 266
"Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us"
found in:
UMH: 381
H82: 708
PH: 387
AAHH: 424
NNBH: 54
NCH: 252
CH: 558
LBW: 481
ELW: 789
"Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah"
found in:
UMH: 127
H82: 690
PH: 281
AAHH: 138/140
NNBH: 232
NCH: 18/19
CH: 622
LBW: 343
ELW: 618
"He Leadeth Me; O Blessed Thought"
found in:
UMH: 128
AAHH: 142
NNBH: 235
CH: 545
LBW: 501
"Christ, Whose Glory Fills the Skies"
found in:
UMH: 173
H82: 617
PH: 462/463
LBW: 265
ELW: 553
* "Love Came Down at Christmas"
found in:
UMH: 242
H82: 84
NCH: 165
* "O Morning Star, How Fair and Bright"
found in:
UMH: 247
PH: 69
NCH: 158
CH: 105
LBW: 76
ELW: 308
"Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus"
found in:
CCB: 55
"I Will Call Upon the Lord"
found in:
CCB: 9
Renew: 15
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
ELW: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who desires only that your creation may be made whole: Grant us the faith and the courage to receive your guidance that we may enter fully into the joy of your reign; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We come into your presence this day, O God, to worship you and to receive from you direction for our lives. Open us to your Spirit that individually and collectively we may set our goal on reaching the fullness of your reign. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially the ways we ignore God's guidance and follow those who lead us to ruin.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. You have given us guidance so that we may find you and life that is full and abundant. Yet we refuse to believe that your way is the best way. We are always looking to others to tell us what is good. Time after time we find that the direction we have chosen leads only to hurt for ourselves and for others. We do not find peace and we do not find life. Forgive us and open our hearts and minds so that we may follow your Son, our Savior, into life eternal. Amen.
Leader: God is always waiting for us to turn and follow Jesus. God welcomes us and offers us all that we need or could possibly desire.
Prayer for Illumination
Open our eyes, O God, that as you shed the light of the gospel upon us this day, we may truly see the path you have set before us and how that is the only way to life, joy, and peace. Amen.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord's Prayer)
We praise your name, O God, and offer you our true worship and adoration. You are the one who created us, and you know the ways we must follow in order to enter into life that is full and abundant.
(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 given us guidance so that we may find you and life that is full and abundant. Yet we refuse to believe that your way is the best way. We are always looking to others to tell us what is good. Time after time we find that the direction we have chosen leads only to hurt for ourselves and for others. We do not find peace and we do not find life. Forgive us and open our hearts and minds so that we may follow your Son, our Savior, into life eternal.
We give you thanks for all the ways you have guided us. We thank you for the times we have been aware of your hand upon us and those times when you have wooed us and led us and we were not aware of your presence. We thank you for the scriptures, the teachings of your church, the fellowship and guidance of our sisters and brothers in the faith, and all the ways in which you lead us to you and to life.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for one another in our needs and for any who struggle to find their way this day. We know there are those who suffer poverty, illness, and hardships of all kinds. We know that these conditions can lead us to take our eyes off of you and your way. As you walk alongside your children, help us to be the body of Christ and to make your presence known to those we come in contact with along the way.
(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
Hide something for the children to find. Ask them where they think it is hidden. Then either offer them a map or use the "getting colder/getting warmer" method of directing the children to find the hidden object. Talk with them about how much easier it is to find something if you have a map or guidance. God loves us so much that we are given guidance through scripture, the church, the Spirit, and so on.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Jesus Is the Real Thing!
Mark 1:1-8
Objects: a stick of margarine, some sugar substitute, a can of decaf coffee, some non-dairy creamer
Good morning, boys and girls! Did you know that you make me and many other people happy when they know you are in church on Sunday? Turn around and look at all of the grownups. How many people are happy today because these children are in church? If you are happy, stand up! (have all of the adults stand up) See how happy you make all of these people?
I brought along some things with me this morning, and I want to see how smart you are by telling me what they are and what kind of things they take the place of. (hold up the margarine) What is this? (wait for an answer) Very good, this is margarine, and what is it a substitute for? (let the children answer) Good, for butter. (repeat the process with the other objects)
A long time ago people were waiting for the Messiah. They just knew that God was going to send into the world a great gift. The prophets had been promising it for years. Everyone wanted this person to arrive. There was a man named John the Baptist who represented God, and people thought he was pretty awesome. He preached and baptized and caused a big stir among all of the people. Some of the people started to think that he was the Messiah, the Son of God. They wanted him to be it because they had waited for such a long time.
But John said no. He told the people that he was not the one they were looking for, and instead he said that he was only a kind of substitute for the real thing. He told the people that he baptized with water, which was a sign of their repentance. That meant that God knew the people were really sorry for their sins. However, John said, the real Savior was coming -- and when he baptized it would mean something much more. The real thing of course was Jesus, and Jesus was coming soon. As a matter of fact, John was a cousin of Jesus. So when Jesus brought his baptism, it not only meant that God knew that people were sorry for their sins but that they were also forgiven. The baptism of Jesus meant that the real Spirit of God now lived inside of the people who were baptized.
Just like our margarine, our substitutes for sugar, coffee, and cream are good substitutes -- and so John was a substitute for Jesus. He made the people know that God was coming and made them alert to God's promise. The next time you see one of these substitutes, you can think about John the Baptist and how he told them Jesus was soon coming.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, December 4, 2011, issue.
Copyright 2011 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.
Team member Mary Austin shares some additional thoughts on this week's Psalm text and its message of peace. Again, the imagery is powerful: we are told that the Lord "will speak peace to his people" and that "righteousness and peace will kiss each other." But as Mary notes, in our world it seems that we rarely experience righteousness and peace simultaneously -- for many of us, righteousness is more typically paired with anger, while we tend to think of peace as an absence of conflict. Mary reminds us that in God's creation, righteousness and peace really are so closely intertwined that they can kiss each other... it is just up to us to slow down and put aside the busy activity of the season long enough to open ourselves up and experience the fullness of shalom -- God's peace in the world.
Guide Rails
by Ron Love
Isaiah 40:1-11
Life is very similar to a journey down a highway. There is that smooth and straight road, absent of potholes, which is a joy to travel. Quietly looking out the windows, we see beautiful wildflowers and trees, pastures and snow-covered mountains, all reminders of our wonderful blessings in life. Then the road takes a curve of disappointment. We come to a hill of struggles, only to be followed by a mountain climb of despair. If this is not difficulty enough, once we are over the mountain, the road on the other side is an unpaved one of dirt and stone. Travel now becomes tiresome and uncomfortable. At the end of it all, there is that unexpected accident from an uninsured motorist.
The Greek abbreviation for Christian is Xn. When it comes to road repair, the church is the XnDOT -- Christian Department of Transportation -- for society. As we learn from Isaiah, it is our job to straighten those curves, lower those mountains, fill those potholes, and pave the rough places so the trip for others can once again be straight and smooth. Like any DOT we lack the funds and manpower to make all roads perfect; but we can certainly repair the damage that a harsh winter in the north, an unexpected hurricane in the south, or an earthquake in the west can inflict. We can certainly plan and then implement that plan as a way to make travel in the future safer and smoother and easier for all involved. At the very least, in the time of greatest need, we can offer to drive.
THE WORLD
Decades ago they were called "guard rails," because people thought the ubiquitous metal rails on highways were there to keep your car on the road if you happened to slide off onto the berm. But calling them guard rails gave drivers the wrong connotation of safety. They expected the rails alongside the road to prevent their automobile from plunging down the hillside into the abyss below.
To correct this misunderstanding, the name was changed to "guide rails." The rails are only meant to act as boundary markers, guiding your car along the correct path on the highway. If misfortune causes you to leave the road they may stop a cataclysmic plunge, but there is no guarantee -- and no suing the state for misrepresentation of their purpose.
John F. Kennedy said, "A man does what he must -- in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures -- and that is the basis of all human morality." As a society, absent of guard rails, are we hesitant to accept the difficult tasks of social justice? As a society, absent of guide rails to keep us on a sane path, have we lost the meaning of human morality?
Decades of inactivity slowly blends from one generation into another. So it is never appropriate to say things are worse now than ever before, but are they any better? Each week The Immediate Word highlights the latest news items and how they transgress the meaning of human morality. Each week The Immediate Word writing team encourages its readers to put in place guide rails for acceptable human behavior. It is a message that is taken up and preached in the pulpits across the nation.
How important is the message? How many people does the preacher reach in a seemingly insular sanctuary? The answer? "Six degrees of separation" has become the byword of the day. In 1967 psychologist Stanley Milgram conducted a study which concluded that (on average) we are only separated by six other people from anyone else on the planet. He determined this by selecting 296 volunteers to send a message by postcard, through friends and the friends of friends, to a specific person in a Boston suburb. From that exercise he calculated that we are only "six degrees" separated from anyone else in the world. It does make it a pretty small world, doesn't it?
Well, the world just got smaller. While "six degrees of separation" has entered the popular lexicon and become the basis of a popular parlor game, the latest research indicates that we are now only "4.74 degrees separated" from anyone across the globe. Facebook along with the University of Milan, using the latest algorithms and the social network's site of 721 million users, calculated the new family that surrounds us at 4.74. The paper announcing their research concluded, "It is reassuring to see that our findings show that people are in fact only four worlds apart and not five."
With this added closeness comes an added responsibility to be concerned for our neighbor. Out of curiosity I decided to employ this new formula with some of my friends over coffee. As we were conversing I discovered that I was one person away from Australia, two away from China, five from Mongolia... and do I need to go on? In a phrase that is too often used, we truly are a "global village."
E.B. White wrote, "Prejudice is a great time-saver. You can form opinions without having to get the facts." Prejudice might do -- except my Muslim neighbor in Iran might know my mother. So it is time we come together. It is a scary thought that our ideological differences could enlarge our world from four to seven.
Let me share one example, and one example will suffice -- Congress. We are all too aware that ideological differences between the Republicans and Democrats are plunging our nation into irreversible debt. Instead of seeing the world as a community of four, these political leaders still live in a world of them and us.
Scott Pelley of CBS News recently interviewed Ken Chenault, the CEO of American Express. When asked what his message is for Congress, Chenault answered with these words: "This is a battle of ideologies to see who wins... I don't see how you can have absolutist positions on either side.... And if we simply have both sides go to their respective corners, the fight never takes place and no one wins. So we need principled compromise." In a 4.74 world it is time to learn to have principled compromise.
To do so we need guide rails of morality and that takes us to our scripture lesson.
THE WORD
There are many reasons for the fall of the Roman Empire; perhaps the least thought of were the roads. The roads were built narrowly, to accommodate a marching army. Roman engineers had not yet developed the ability to construct curves, so if the army had to go around an obstacle it made a 90-degree turn. If it came to a steep and seemingly impregnable hill, no problem, just march over it.
As the army stretched its way further away from Rome, so did its supply line. Conquered cities were expected to exchange commerce as well as send precious goods back to Caesar. Unfortunately, the roads constructed for an army on the move did not accommodate wagons used for trade. The roads were too narrow to accommodate a wagon's wheel base and as one can easily imagine, vehicles travelling in opposite directions, coming head-to-head, came to a standstill. A square turn may be negotiable by a man carrying a lance and a shield, but it was a questionable task for a wagon. A soldier in sandals may scurry over a steep hill, but it became a real sport for the wagonmaster. Due to lack of foresight about what roads would be used for, the entire infrastructure of the empire became an uncorrectable calamity.
Symbolically, Isaiah understood roads. If we are to live in a 4.74 world, accommodating our neighbor and living in obedience to God, then it is time to make straight the roads between us. We need to make a straight highway across the desert of our ideological differences, leaving our respective corners for principled compromise. We need to make low the mountains, so our wagons of mission food and medical supplies can reach their intended recipients. We need to lift up the valleys, so we no longer live in the depths of prejudice. We need to make the uneven ground level, so all people -- young and old alike, invalid and athletic -- can travel it together hand-in-hand.
Most importantly, along these roads will be the guide rail of human morality.
CRAFTING THE SERMON
I. Discuss what it means to be separated from others because of ideological differences and personal prejudices.
II. Discuss how the world has become smaller, which only intensifies our need to compromise, accommodate, and assist.
III. Discuss how we are to build roads of acceptance and neighborliness.
ANOTHER VIEW
by Mary Austin
Psalm 85
As the second week of Advent comes, again we are summoned to attentive living. Last week we were instructed to "keep awake" and "watch." This week, the Psalmist calls us to listen for God. "Let me hear what God the Lord will speak," the Psalmist instructs and in turn God will "speak peace to his people" (v. 8). Or, as The Message renders the same verse, "I can't wait to hear what he'll say; God's about to pronounce his people well."
The Psalmist promises the salvation of God for the people of God. God's word is more than speech -- it creates, and the word and the blessing are one and the same. God offers us a vision of peace beyond what we normally dare to imagine. As Charles M. Wood writes about this passage in Feasting on the Word, "...the peace that the Lord will speak, or the salvation that is at hand, is nothing less than the glory of God dwelling with the people in the land" (Year B, Volume 1, p. 32). For us, peace often means calm and quiet, whether at home or with friends or in the wider world. The absence of personal stress or national conflict looks like peace to us, but God offers something deeper and richer. Righteousness and peace are not just present but close enough to kiss. They are linked together in the divine economy. In the same way, the heavens and the earth meet up again as faithfulness rises up and righteousness reaches down.
Reading this passage, I found myself reflecting how rare it is that righteousness and peace arrive together, let alone kiss. My friends who have the gift of righteousness are so clear about the need for justice that they are rarely peaceable about it. My peaceful friends value harmony and rarely speak up for what's right, not wanting to infringe on others' feelings. It may be hard for us to get the two qualities together, but not for God.
As Rolf Jacobson of Luther Seminary writes about this passage: "In the psalm's closing verses, God's attributes of steadfast love and faithfulness, righteousness and peace are anthropomorphized as tangible forces that act at God's behest and on the people's behalf. The poem portrays these rather abstract qualities of God as concrete realities... Within creation, God's love is really present and incarnate for us in God's faithfulness, steadfast love, righteousness, and peace."
In contrast to our world's violent imagination about how God will come into the world, this vision of God's presence is about shalom, the fullness of God's peace. This is a vision of God coming in relationship with goodness and peace for all who follow. This is not the violent, narrow, exclusionary view of the world that we sometimes hear. This is a world that builds on what we know already, making it full and rich with God's goodness. This is not a vision of war, hunger, persecution, and widespread death but of God's abundant peace made alive in the world.
On the way to that vision, we have our work to do too. God speaks to the faithful, and our call is to remain attentively alert to the divine word. As with all of Advent, we are called to look for and listen for what God is already doing.
The holiday season pushes us into a mode of "less" -- how can we spend less, shop in less time, reduce our to-do list, whittle down our obligations, and try to eat and drink less? But God is talking about more -- a completeness that is more than we usually imagine, and a depth of shalom beyond what we could ever create. We may be looking for places to cut back or pare down, but God is looking for places of fullness.
We look for the coming of the Christ Child, all the while knowing that God's righteousness and peace already belong to us. Let us listen for God's word -- we can hardly wait to hear what God will do next!
ILLUSTRATIONS
The Burma Road -- every crooked place shall be made straight
The Burma Road is 717 miles of twisting turning, looping road that runs through the mountainous jungle country from Burma to China. It was built by 200,000 Chinese laborers during the Second Sino-Japanese War from 1937-38.
During World War II the Japanese controlled the Burma Road but in 1943 a combined force of American, British, Chinese, and Indian troops led by English Major General "Vinegar" Joe Stilwell defeated the Japanese to win back control of this treacherous but nevertheless necessary supply line from the allies to China.
Before the campaign began the Burma Road was bombed almost daily by allied bombers, so as to drive Japanese soldiers from it, make it unsafe for them to use, and "soften" it for the allied attack. Because of the climate, the altitude, the bombing, and the slow pace caused by the twisting and turning road, World War II veterans came to call any impassable road a "Burma Road," and the metaphor continues to apply to this day. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burma_Road for a photo of an aerial view of the Burma Road.)
* * *
Lombard Street -- every straight place shall be made crooked
We usually think of making a crooked road straight for the sake of easy passage. But in San Francisco they did the opposite -- they made a straight street crooked to make it safer.
Lombard Street runs at a nearly 75-80 degree angle for two city blocks and is so steep that it caused a safety problem to motorists and pedestrians when cars' brakes would give out and they would roll, out of control, down the hill and crash. So in the 1920s a man who owned property on the street proposed making the street one-way and designed a series of eight switchbacks decorated with flowers and streetlights that would make the street safer and more scenic.
Today, Lombard Street, advertised as the "crookedest" street in the world, is one of San Francisco's most photographed tourist sites and was featured in a chase scene in the movie Magnum Force. What it isn't is the "crookedest" road that it claims to be. That honor goes to Vermont Street just a few blocks away. A study by a team of engineers using lasers and other complicated instruments judged that Vermont is just a smidge "crookeder."
But Lombard is prettier and more photogenic and has a better story, so it retains the reputation.
* * *
Pikeville, Kentucky, is located in the southeastern part of the state. Because of its location along U.S. 23/460 and U.S. 119 on the Levisa Fork of the Big Sandy River, the citizens of Pikeville were often plagued by spring floodwaters that caused millions of dollars in damage. In October 1987, Pikeville completed one of the most ambitious engineering efforts east of the Mississippi River -- a $77.6 million federally funded cut-through project designed to eliminate frequent flooding, relieve traffic congestion, and alleviate the critical shortage of level land in the downtown area. The Levisa Fork was diverted from its looping course through the city into a half-mile-long cut through Peach Orchard Mountain. Railroad tracks and streets were rerouted from the area and bridges were removed. The former river channel was filled in with dirt and rock from the cut-through, the end result giving the city nearly 400 acres of new level land for commercial and institutional development.
Making the mountains low and the rough places smooth is hard work! This massive undertaking in Pikeville took fourteen years to complete and is second only to the Panama Canal as this hemisphere's largest engineering and earth-moving project.
* * *
In Minnesota, they like to say there are two seasons: winter and "under construction." It is indeed a land of long winters, and when those brief summer months come at last the highway department crews get right to work, filling potholes and repairing other damage caused by the snowplows.
The prophet Isaiah, it seems, lives in the season called "under construction." He envisions a massive public works project, as workers "make straight in the desert a highway for our God." Mountains will be leveled, valleys raised up: all for the purpose of clearing the way before the God of Israel, who will lead the exiled people back home again.
The exiles were used to seeing the Babylonians parade their gods along the grand, processional avenues of their capital city on religious feast days. The procession Isaiah has in mind will be so much grander, because the earth itself will be the Lord's processional avenue. Nothing can stand in the way of God's season of "under construction."
* * *
Back in the 1960s there was a top-ten hit recorded by the Soul Survivors titled "Expressway to Your Heart" that began with blaring car horns. God's goal is also to build an "expressway" to our hearts. Everything in the Bible, over 1,000 pages in all and representing thousands of years of sacred history, is about God preparing a path -- "the way of the Lord" -- to come to us. Over the centuries, God lifted up slaves and knocked down empires and straightened out men and women to bring a Savior to us. God's mighty roadwork is completed. But sometimes the entrance to our hearts remains blocked. Repentance is turning around and removing anything that keeps us from connecting with God. Do we love things more than God? Is our heart filled with bitterness or hate? Have we let ourselves become controlled by some addiction? Is our spiritual life dead or lazy? Are we wrongly clinging to some hurtful relationship? Then repentance and change are needed to open up a path so the Savior can get through to us.
* * *
Justice or righteousness and peace are intimately linked in the Jewish and Christian religions, but the linkage doesn't stop there.
In Greek mythology the goddess Dike is the goddess of justice, fair judgments, and the rights of human beings as established by law and custom.
Dike has two sisters, however. Eunomia is the goddess of good order and good pastures. Eirene is the goddess of peace and the season of spring. Together they make up the Horai, goddesses of the seasons who guard the gates of heaven.
* * *
By now, you've probably received this warning email from a friend. Usually it comes with the following words in the topic line: WARNING? WARNING: ADVENT VIRUS. The body of the email says something like this:
Be on the alert for symptoms of inner Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love. The hearts of a great many have already been exposed to this virus, and it is possible that people everywhere could come down with it in epidemic proportions. This could pose a serious threat to what has up to now been a fairly stable condition of conflict in the world.
Some signs and symptoms of the Advent Virus:
* A tendency to think and act spontaneously rather than on fears based on past experiences.
* An unmistakable ability to enjoy each moment.
* A loss of interest in judging other people.
* A loss of interest in interpreting the actions of others.
* A loss of interest in conflict.
* A loss of the ability to worry. (This is a very serious symptom.)
* Frequent, overwhelming episodes of appreciation.
* Contented feelings of connectedness with others and nature.
* Frequent attacks of smiling.
* An increasing tendency to let things happen rather than make them happen.
* An increased susceptibility to the love extended by others as well as the uncontrollable urge to extend it.
Please send this warning out to all your friends. This virus can and has affected many systems. Some systems have been completely cleaned out because of it.
* * *
When Righteousness Kisses Peace
The following illustrations are taken from the website of the Peace and Justice Support Network of the Mennonite Church U.S.A.
Steve Carcaterra, of Engle, Colorado, reports that for the last couple of years the small town of Glenwood Springs, Colorado, has held a reenactment of the gunfight at the OK Corral (which actually occurred in Tombstone, Arizona). Actors portraying the Earp Brothers and Doc Holliday ride into town on horseback and square off against actors portraying the Clantons, and they proceed to blow each other away in front of bleachers full of cheering people, many of whom are children.
Carcaterra never considered himself an activist, but considering how many people are killed by guns in our country each year, he had to question the appropriateness of making this historic violence into a spectator sport. So he staged a one-man peace witness with a folding chair and some homemade posters saying things like "Real guns kill Real people" and "14,000 Americans died as a result of handgun violence."
His peace witness did not go unnoticed. It triggered a barrage of letters to the editor in the local paper, both pro and con. One of the city's merchants came to his defense when another merchant was ruthless in his criticism of Carcaterra's peace position and personhood in general.
Carcaterra says that his intent was to make people think about the appropriateness of this event and especially the promotion of it as a form of entertainment. And it was successful. Next year he plans to ask the organizers of the event to cease promoting a violent, murderous act as a form of entertainment. If they insist on holding the event, he says he will return, hopefully with even more people.
* * *
Jim Lehman offers this story from his Sonnenberg: A Haven and a Heritage:
The time was 1917-18. Young men from the Sonnenberg (Ohio) Mennonite Church faced the draft (for World War I). Earl Gerber, Aldis Gerber, Menas Nussbaum, and David Baumgartner were drafted on October 4, 1917. Earl and Aldis went to Camp Sherman, where Earl was discharged several months later for physical reasons. Not long after he was home he got a questionnaire from the draft board. Since he had already served and been discharged, he ignored the questionnaire. To his surprise in late March 1918 Sheriff Miller came to take him to the Wayne County jail.
They had barely left home and gone over the railroad tracks and the bridge over Sugar Creek in that small valley when they began to ascend the steep hill with the Model-T Ford with which the sheriff had come to get Earl. In shifting from high gear to low gear the clutch slipped.
Much to the consternation of the sheriff, the auto refused to continue. Farmboy Earl recognized quickly what was wrong but said nothing. Sheriff Miller finally asked Earl, "Where is the nearest phone?"
Earl answered, "I guess the one at my home." When he saw they were about to go and call for a repairman to come and fix the auto, Earl piped up, "Do you have some tools? I'll see if I can fix it."
So they took the backseat out and fumbled for some tools. Finally finding a wrench and a pair of pliers, Earl took them and shortly had the clutch tightened. Then he looked at the sheriff and told him, "All right, she'll run now."
"Are you sure it will run?" asked the sheriff.
"Go on, get in. It will run now," Earl reassured him. They restarted the Model-T and up over the hill they went and hauled Earl off to jail!
* * *
Most people have heard about "The Christmas Truce" on Christmas Day 1914. In the first year of World War I, German, British, and French soldiers disobeyed their superiors and fraternized with "the enemy" along two thirds of the Western Front. German troops held Christmas trees up out of the trenches with signs reading "Merry Christmas" and "You no shoot, we no shoot." Thousands of troops streamed across a no-man's land strewn with rotting corpses. They sang Christmas carols, exchanged photographs of loved ones back home, shared rations, played football, and even roasted some pigs. Soldiers embraced men they had been trying to kill a few short hours before. They agreed to warn each other if the top brass forced them to fire their weapons and to aim high.
What most people have not heard or read is that this incident caused a shudder to run through the high command on either side. Here was disaster in the making: soldiers declaring their brotherhood with each other and refusing to fight. Generals on both sides declared this spontaneous peacemaking to be treasonous and subject to court-martial. By March 1915, the fraternization movement had been eradicated and the killing machine put back in full operation. By the time of the armistice in 1918, 15 million people would be slaughtered.
-- excerpted from David G. Stratman, We CAN Change the World: The Real Meaning of Everyday Life (New Democracy Books, 1991). Available from New Democracy Books, PO Box 427, Boston, MA 02130.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: Let us hear what God will speak.
People: God will speak peace to the people.
Leader: Salvation is at hand for those who fear God.
People: May God's glory dwell in the land.
Leader: Then steadfast love and faithfulness will meet;
People: righteousness and peace will kiss each other.
Leader: Faithfulness will spring up from the ground,
People: and righteousness will look down from the sky.
OR
Leader: Come, let us worship our God and Creator.
People: With joy we offer our praises to God.
Leader: Come and listen to the instructions of God.
People: We come to learn about life and how to live it fully.
Leader: Come and be transformed into God's community.
People: We offer ourselves to God and one another that Christ may be fully present in our world.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
* = Christmas carols, for those congregations where one simply must use them during Advent.
"Savior of the Nations, Come"
found in:
UMH: 214
PH: 14
LBW: 28
ELW: 263
"Toda la Tierra" ("All Earth Is Waiting")
found in:
UMH: 210
NCH: 121
ELW: 266
"Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us"
found in:
UMH: 381
H82: 708
PH: 387
AAHH: 424
NNBH: 54
NCH: 252
CH: 558
LBW: 481
ELW: 789
"Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah"
found in:
UMH: 127
H82: 690
PH: 281
AAHH: 138/140
NNBH: 232
NCH: 18/19
CH: 622
LBW: 343
ELW: 618
"He Leadeth Me; O Blessed Thought"
found in:
UMH: 128
AAHH: 142
NNBH: 235
CH: 545
LBW: 501
"Christ, Whose Glory Fills the Skies"
found in:
UMH: 173
H82: 617
PH: 462/463
LBW: 265
ELW: 553
* "Love Came Down at Christmas"
found in:
UMH: 242
H82: 84
NCH: 165
* "O Morning Star, How Fair and Bright"
found in:
UMH: 247
PH: 69
NCH: 158
CH: 105
LBW: 76
ELW: 308
"Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus"
found in:
CCB: 55
"I Will Call Upon the Lord"
found in:
CCB: 9
Renew: 15
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
ELW: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who desires only that your creation may be made whole: Grant us the faith and the courage to receive your guidance that we may enter fully into the joy of your reign; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We come into your presence this day, O God, to worship you and to receive from you direction for our lives. Open us to your Spirit that individually and collectively we may set our goal on reaching the fullness of your reign. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially the ways we ignore God's guidance and follow those who lead us to ruin.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. You have given us guidance so that we may find you and life that is full and abundant. Yet we refuse to believe that your way is the best way. We are always looking to others to tell us what is good. Time after time we find that the direction we have chosen leads only to hurt for ourselves and for others. We do not find peace and we do not find life. Forgive us and open our hearts and minds so that we may follow your Son, our Savior, into life eternal. Amen.
Leader: God is always waiting for us to turn and follow Jesus. God welcomes us and offers us all that we need or could possibly desire.
Prayer for Illumination
Open our eyes, O God, that as you shed the light of the gospel upon us this day, we may truly see the path you have set before us and how that is the only way to life, joy, and peace. Amen.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord's Prayer)
We praise your name, O God, and offer you our true worship and adoration. You are the one who created us, and you know the ways we must follow in order to enter into life that is full and abundant.
(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 given us guidance so that we may find you and life that is full and abundant. Yet we refuse to believe that your way is the best way. We are always looking to others to tell us what is good. Time after time we find that the direction we have chosen leads only to hurt for ourselves and for others. We do not find peace and we do not find life. Forgive us and open our hearts and minds so that we may follow your Son, our Savior, into life eternal.
We give you thanks for all the ways you have guided us. We thank you for the times we have been aware of your hand upon us and those times when you have wooed us and led us and we were not aware of your presence. We thank you for the scriptures, the teachings of your church, the fellowship and guidance of our sisters and brothers in the faith, and all the ways in which you lead us to you and to life.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for one another in our needs and for any who struggle to find their way this day. We know there are those who suffer poverty, illness, and hardships of all kinds. We know that these conditions can lead us to take our eyes off of you and your way. As you walk alongside your children, help us to be the body of Christ and to make your presence known to those we come in contact with along the way.
(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
Hide something for the children to find. Ask them where they think it is hidden. Then either offer them a map or use the "getting colder/getting warmer" method of directing the children to find the hidden object. Talk with them about how much easier it is to find something if you have a map or guidance. God loves us so much that we are given guidance through scripture, the church, the Spirit, and so on.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Jesus Is the Real Thing!
Mark 1:1-8
Objects: a stick of margarine, some sugar substitute, a can of decaf coffee, some non-dairy creamer
Good morning, boys and girls! Did you know that you make me and many other people happy when they know you are in church on Sunday? Turn around and look at all of the grownups. How many people are happy today because these children are in church? If you are happy, stand up! (have all of the adults stand up) See how happy you make all of these people?
I brought along some things with me this morning, and I want to see how smart you are by telling me what they are and what kind of things they take the place of. (hold up the margarine) What is this? (wait for an answer) Very good, this is margarine, and what is it a substitute for? (let the children answer) Good, for butter. (repeat the process with the other objects)
A long time ago people were waiting for the Messiah. They just knew that God was going to send into the world a great gift. The prophets had been promising it for years. Everyone wanted this person to arrive. There was a man named John the Baptist who represented God, and people thought he was pretty awesome. He preached and baptized and caused a big stir among all of the people. Some of the people started to think that he was the Messiah, the Son of God. They wanted him to be it because they had waited for such a long time.
But John said no. He told the people that he was not the one they were looking for, and instead he said that he was only a kind of substitute for the real thing. He told the people that he baptized with water, which was a sign of their repentance. That meant that God knew the people were really sorry for their sins. However, John said, the real Savior was coming -- and when he baptized it would mean something much more. The real thing of course was Jesus, and Jesus was coming soon. As a matter of fact, John was a cousin of Jesus. So when Jesus brought his baptism, it not only meant that God knew that people were sorry for their sins but that they were also forgiven. The baptism of Jesus meant that the real Spirit of God now lived inside of the people who were baptized.
Just like our margarine, our substitutes for sugar, coffee, and cream are good substitutes -- and so John was a substitute for Jesus. He made the people know that God was coming and made them alert to God's promise. The next time you see one of these substitutes, you can think about John the Baptist and how he told them Jesus was soon coming.
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The Immediate Word, December 4, 2011, issue.
Copyright 2011 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.
