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.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Woman of no Distinction

Don't often post other people's stuff here... But I found this so powerful that I thought I should. It's a performance poem based on John 4: 4-30, and I have attached the original YouTube video below. A word for women, and men, everywhere... "to be known is to be loved, and to be loved is to be known."


I am a woman of no distinction
of little importance.
I am a women of no reputation
save that which is bad.

You whisper as I pass by and cast judgmental glances,
Though you don’t really take the time to look at me,
Or even get to know me.

For to be known is to be loved,
And to be loved is to be known.
Otherwise what’s the point in doing
either one of them in the first place?

I WANT TO BE KNOWN.

I want someone to look at my face
And not just see two eyes, a nose,
a mouth and two ears;
But to see all that I am, and could be
all my hopes, loves and fears.

But that’s too much to hope for,
to wish for,
or pray for
So I don’t, not anymore.

Now I keep to myself
And by that I mean the pain
that ke…
Keep reading

Advent Candle Liturgy 5: Christmas

Image
The culmination of our advent candle liturgy at Dundonald Methodist for this year. It can be used at a Christmas eve service or on Christmas morning... We'll be using it tomorrow...
Hope, peace, joy, and love. Four weeks, four candles, four promises made by God, and all of them find fulfillment in the one we light this morning: the Christ candle. In Christ we find the hope of transformation, the peace that this world cannot give, the fulfillment of joy and the love that embraces us in all our diversity and fallibility.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not overcome it. The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world d…
Keep reading

An Epistle To Our Elected Leaders

Image
Dear DUP and Sinn Fein, 

My friend Stocki has already sent you, and our other political leaders, an open letter, and social media suggests that many agree with what he says (including myself), but I was already writing this when I saw his, and whilst it covers similar ground, and fewer may read this, I want to add my tuppence (especially since it takes a lot to get me writing these days!) And at the heart of it is this, I recognise that you both have a legitimate electoral mandate. The big question is what you do with it. Both of you have made great play of the fact that people voted for you on the basis of your statements before the election. Now I have no desire to get into the legitimacy of those positions. You campaigned on them and you each were elected on those platforms. Both of you grew your vote in a highly polarised election, and whilst the DUP lost a significant number of seats they are still the largest party. So you both have a mandate. And so far in the negotiations you …
Keep reading