Advent 2004

hoping to be fed…our hands serving

 

Seekers Church

A Christian Community

In the Tradition of the Church of the Saviour

 

Advent 2004

hoping to be fed…our hands serving

 

 

CIRCLE TIME

 

ENTRANCE

 

REFLECTION

In each of our lives Jesus comes as the bread of life – to be eaten, to be consumed by us.  This is how he loves us.  Then Jesus comes in our human life as the hungry one, the other, hoping to be fed with the bread of our life, our hearts loving, and our hands serving.

 

Mother Teresa of Calcutta

an excerpt from An Advent Sourcebook, pg16

 

CALL TO WORSHIP

Leader:      Holy Beloved, bring us together

                  to join our voices in prayer and praise.

 

Voice 1:     Our hearts are heavy with yearning

                  for justice for the poor

                  and peace for the afflicted.

 

Voice 2:     With loving hearts and serving hands

                  we await the announcement

                  of the dawn of your kindom.

 

All:             May our work and our worship

                  unite us in the Body of Christ.

 

 

INVOCATION

 

HYMN

 

WORD FOR THE CHILDREN

 

SILENCE

 

RESPONSIVE READING

Leader:      In each of our lives

                  Jesus comes as the bread of life.

 

People:      Then Jesus comes into our lives

                  as the hungry one, the other.

 

 

SILENCE

 

PRAYERS

CONFESSION

Leader:      This is a season of waiting,

                  waiting again for the coming of Christ.    

 

Voice 1:     We have waited so many times,

                  and still the world boils over with violence.

 

Voice 2:     God calls us to be peacemakers,

                  to feed those hungry for community.

 

Leader:      Too often we can't get beyond our own pain

                  to reach out to others.

 

Voice 1:     We know the promise that

                 Jesus is the Bread of Life.

 

Voice 2:    We contribute to the oppression

                 of the many who are denied the means to live.

 

All:            Forgive our selfish focus on our own hungers.

 

INDIVIDUAL PRAYERS OF CONFESSION

 

ASSURANCE

Leader:      As we walk with Christ,

                  our complacency becomes compassion,

                  oppression gives way to justice,

                  and conflict becomes a doorway

                  to acceptance       of one another in Christ.

                  God promises healing even as we wait.

 

All:             Amen.

 

PRAYERS OF THE COMMUNITY

 

JESUS PRAYER

All:             Eternal Spirit, Father and Mother of us all,

Holy is your name.

 

Let justice and mercy fill all Creation

and let us recognize

that every thought and thing belongs to you.

 

Feed us with the bread we need for today.

Forgive our sins

as we forgive those who sin against us.

Stand with us in trial and temptation.

Free us from the grip of all that is evil.

     

For you alone are creating our universe,

now and forever.

     

Amen.

 

HYMN

 

THE WORD

FIRST LESSON

SILENCE

GOSPEL

SERMON

SILENT REFLECTION

 

OFFERING

 

SHARED REFLECTIONS

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS

 

HYMN

 

BENEDICTION

Leader:      With loving hearts

                  and serving hands

                  let us go out

                  to await the new birth of Christ

                  in the world.

 

All:             Amen.

 

 

WORSHIP RESOURCES

Call to Worship: from Philipp Nicolai, 16th c. in An Advent Sourcebook   pg 36-37

 

 

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