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.
