Waiting, REMEMBERING, Preparing and Readiness


The second of my short liturgies for lighting advent candles at the beginning of worship:


Voice: 1 Advent is a time for waiting.
Voice 2: We light the first candle to remind us that we are waiting for God to come.
[THE FIRST CANDLE IS LIT]
Voice 1: Advent is also a time for remembering
Voice 2: for remembering God’s promises to us.
Voice 2: Promises of hope and healing
Voice 1: Promises of peace and justice
Voice 2: Promises of judgement and salvation.
Voice 1: The promise of a Messiah to Israel
Voice 2: The promise of a child to Mary
Voice 1: A promise fulfilled
Voice 2: A promise yet to come to fulfilment
[THE SECOND CANDLE IS LIT]
Voice 1: Moses said:
Voice 2: 'God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind.
Voice 1: Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfil?
Voice 2: And God said through Jeremiah
Voice 1: 'The days are coming, when I will fulfil the gracious promise I made to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah.
Voice 2: In those days and at that time I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David's line;
Voice 1: he will do what is just and right in the land.
Voice 1 & 2: Let us pray:
All: Faithful God, may we trust in the promises of your word. May the light of your spirit burn within us so that we might be trusting and trustworthy. Amen.



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