Here we have the fourth of the advent candle liturgies that we've been using in Belfast South Methodist Church derived from the Hope and History material. This is the only one that diverges from the current year's lectionary reading from Isaiah (we are using today's reading on Christmas Day)... By the way, today's illustration is one of the wonderful David Esler windows in our sanctuary entitled "Hope".
VOICE 1: Behold, my servant, whom I endorse,
VOICE 2: The one I
chose, in whom I take joy;
VOICE 1: My Spirit
is in him and he will bring justice to all nations.
VOICE 2: He won’t
seek publicity for himself,
VOICE 1: or raise
the rabble with his speeches.
VOICE 2: He won’t
brutalise the bruised
VOICE 1: or
discount those who bring him no benefit,
VOICE 2: But
faithfully he will work for justice;
VOICE 1: he will
not let up or get down until all things
are set right throughout the earth.
VOICE 2: In his
rule these islands will find real hope.
VOICE 1: This is
what God, the ETERNAL I AM, proclaims—
VOICE 2: he who
stretched out the skies like a canvas,
VOICE 1: he who
sculpted the earth and formed all that comes from it,
VOICE 2: he who
breathes his breath into its people,
VOICE 1: and gives
the spark of life to all who walk upon it’s surface:
VOICE 2: "I,
the ETERNAL I AM, have called you to live right;
VOICE 1: I will
take hold of your hand so that you will walk with me
VOICE 2: I will
protect you, binding you to me for the sake of all people
VOICE 1: As a
beacon of hope for all nations
VOICE 2: to open
blind eyes and free prisoners from dark dungeons
VOICE 1: to clear out the prisons and release those who have become used to
prison life.
VOICE 2: "I am
the ETERNAL I AM; that is my name!
VOICE 1: I will not
give up my glory to another or share my
praise with lifeless idols.
VOICE 2: The past
is the past, and now is the time for new things;
VOICE 1: I’m giving
you a taster before they come in all their fullness."
VOICE 2: Sing to
the LORD a new song,
VOICE 1: Sing his
praise all around the earth,
VOICE 2: Sing it in
the skies as you fly from place to place,
VOICE 1: Sing it
across these islands wherever your national loyalties may lie.
VOICE 2: Let urban
sprawl and rural idyll resound with raised voices;
VOICE 1: Let shouts
be heard on mountaintop and seashore
VOICE 2: Let us
give glory to the ETERNAL I AM
VOICE 1: and
proclaim his praise in these islands.
From Isaiah 42: 1-12
VOICE 2: We lit the
first two candles
in anticipation of the coming of the kingdom
of peace and justice,
and the third to mark the joy that
kingdom would bring.
Now we light the fourth candle
in testimony to the hope that is ours
in Christ;
Not simply a hope of heaven but in
the here and now,
as a symbol of our commitment
to be bringers of hope to this
neighbourhood.
ADVENT SONG
Glens of the north, rejoice;
river and moorland-spring,
hark to the advent voice;
valley and lowland, sing:
Christ comes, the promised Prince of Peace;
To rule and make all conflict cease.
Hills all across the south
Welcome the coming king,
Hear the words of his mouth;
Justice and peace they bring:
He comes the humble poor to raise,
Let every voice proclaim his praise.
Lands to the east, awake,
soon you shall all be free;
the chains of slav’ry break,
and rise to liberty.
In all your towns, cold, damp and grey,
will dawn that promised joyous day.
Shores of the farthest west,
Land of the setting sun,
Welcome our heavenly guest
The hope of all has come;
He is the never ending light,
That triumphs o’er the darkest night.
PRAYER
We look forward with a sure and
certain hope, O Lord
To your kingdom of peace and justice.
When history will come to its
consummation,
And all anticipation will find its
fulfilment.
Hope for the poor and powerless,
Hope for the ill and infirm,
Hope for the lonely and bereaved.
We humbly admit that in the past
we have offered little hope on this side
of the grave,
pointing to a hope of heaven, a
hope-deferred,
rather than anticipating the hope to
come in the here and now.
We pray that you would forgive us
and fill us with the hope that
supplants the pain of the past,
lifts our eyes to the bright new
horizon of the future
and helps us to transform the present
age
for we ask it in the name of your son
Jesus Christ
And for the sake of his coming
kingdom. AMEN
Reflection
According to ancient Greek stories the first woman was Pandora,
and as a wedding gift Zeus, the king of the gods, sent her a little box with a
big heavy lock on it, but he made her promise never to open the box. He gave
the key to Pandora’s husband and told him to never open the box. But Pandora
was very curious. She wanted to see what was inside the box, and one day, when her
husband lay sleeping, Pandora stole the key and opened the box. And out flew
every kind of disease and sickness, hate and envy, and all the bad things that
people had never experienced before. Pandora slammed the lid closed, but it was
too late. All the bad things were already out of the box. They flew away, out
into the world. All except one… One tiny butterfly whose name was Hope…
In the Bible we read a different story. There the first woman
is called Eve, but once again it is through that woman that sin and sorrow and illness and death came into the world… But once again there is hope…All through the Old Testament the prophets said that another woman
would give birth to a son… and he would bring in a new kingdom… of peace,
justice, joy and HOPE… Not a cross your fingers and hope not to die sort of hope... But a sure and certain hope... Not simply hope of a better life in the hereafter but a hope that transforms the here and now because of our hope hereafter...
Closing
Exhortation & Benediction
Go
out into the neighbourhood
to put flesh and blood on the hope that we
have in Christ.
May his kingdom come and his will be done
in our neighbourhood as it is in heaven. AMEN
Comments