Advent 2000: A Bright Snarl

 

Seekers Church

A Christian Community

In the Tradition of the Church of the Saviour

 

Advent 2000

 A Bright Snarl

 

SILENT REFLECTION

The old ark’s a moverin’.  Each live thing wags its home waters, rumples the turf, rearranges the air.  The rocks press out protoplasm; the protoplasm pummels the rocks.  It could be said that this is the one world, and that world a bright snarl.

 

Annie Dillard.  Teaching a Stone to Talk, pg. 130.

PRELUDE

 

LIGHTING THE ADVENT CANDLE

 

CALL TO WORSHIP

Leader:            We arrive here like continents,

crashing against one another like boulders.

 

Community:    We come here to worship,

to be shaped by the force of the spirit.

 

Leader:            Oh God who raises up rocks and prophets,

we come seeking your way,

a way that will lead us to peace.

 

All:                   In Spirit we are connected

as we follow the star

and wait to be born anew. 

 

INVOCATION

 

HYMN

 

WORD FOR THE CHILDREN

 

SILENCE

 

LITANY

Leader:            As the Creator shapes the rocks,

moves the waters, breathes the wind

so comes one from God

who will recreate this people.

 

Community:    Wait with joy and thanksgiving. 

Wait.

 

Leader:            Look to the trees, the earth,

the animals of field and forest

as they prepare for the one who comes.

 

Community:    Wait with joy and thanksgiving. 

Wait.

 

Leader:            Look for the messenger

who comes to bring us tidings

that will transform our hearts and lives.

 

Community:    Wait with joy and thanksgiving. 

Wait.

 

Leader:            This living God will make this one world

a new thing.  Be ready to see and to know.

 

Community:    Wait with joy and thanksgiving. 

Wait.

 

Leader:            We watch.  We breathe.  We pray.

For the God of sea and mountain to come

to us a lowly child of flesh and mystery,

a keeper of faith, a spark of revolution.

We wait.

 

SILENCE

 

PRAYERS

COMMON CONFESSION

Leader:            Faithful Lover of all your creation,

                        you promise to deliver the hungry and the weak,

                        but too often

we mistake your promise for a guarantee

that we will always have everything we want.

 

Community:    You promise to bring justice to the poor,

                        mercy to those in need,

                        but too often

we mistake your promise for a guarantee

that our lives will be filled only with good things.

 

Leader:            You promise to gather the outcast,

                        to make the lame walk and the blind see,

                        but too often

we mistake your promise for a guarantee

that we will never be sick, never hurt, never grieve.

 

All:                   Forgive us, Patient Keeper of the Promise,

                        when we mistake your promises of eternal love

                        for guarantees of our own comfortable security.

 

ASSURANCE

Leader:            Rejoice in God with prayer and thanksgiving,

                        and the peace of God

                        which surpasses all understanding,

                        will guard your hearts and your minds

                        in Christ Jesus.

 

PRAYERS OF THE COMMUNITY

 

HYMN

 

THE WORD

FIRST LESSON

SILENCE

GOSPEL LESSON

SERMON

SILENT REFLECTION

 

OFFERING

 

SHARED REFLECTIONS

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS

 

HYMN

 

BENEDICTION

Leader:            Outside the cold of winter waits to push at us;
and deep below, the continents are floating
on the molten center of the Earth.

A bright snarl of hope pushes from within
and everywhere the din of strife falls,
the pain recedes, as Christ approaches once again.

Go forth to spread the good news
as we wait together for the birth of Jesus.  Amen.