Call To Worship

Take this moment sign and space

Take my friends around

Here among us make the place

Where your love is found me

(Iona Abbey Music book pg 122)

Call to Worship:

One:  Anticipation!

All:   Expectant Hope!

One:  Invitation!

All:   Advent!

One:  Again, still, always we are encouraged by God to seek.

All:   We seek the ways of God, steadfast in love and faithfulness.

One:  With hope, with community and with light we will not seek in vain.

 Advent Candle Lighting

One To all things there is a season

All A time for every purpose Under heaven.

One For God in the wisdom of creation created all things to exist in Balance. 

All For in balance we find the center and center is the divine light within each of us. 

One  Our world has lost its balance.  The Scales have tipped Despair, War, Sorrow, Hate weigh heavy.   The burdens of Despair weigh as a millstone around societies neck. 

All  Hope is Lost is the darkness of Despair.

One, Still into the darkness the light of hope breaks in in the promise of a child who shall be the light to the world. 

All  We place this measure of joy to begin to bring balance back to the world. 

One We light this Candle a Candle of Hope to dispel the darkness, the light of the Divine shines at the center of all things.

Prayer :  God of creation. You created all things to be held in balance.   For where there is Despair there is hope.  You have called us to have hope for our world.    In a world which knows great hunger, anger and despair we   Today want to lift our hope high and let your justice spring forth like the brightening of the dawn sky. May the hope of your coming bring balance to the world Hope for right Relationships  for communities which are fair; for economies which sustain; and power which liberates and are worthy of nurture.   Amen

 When I have in the past been at Westfield for Christmas There are those moments when you are alone. Alone in my little log cabin   There are no cars, there is just the warmth of the candles and lamps shining through the windows,  the sound of the fire, the smell of hot cider and a calmness and oasis in the go go go of Christmas.  In that moment you realize it is not Christmas, not yet, it is Advent

Advent is about preparing   Its about building again the relationship with God. A time to reach in and seek out the divine within us. To look once more for the balancing of the spirit. 

 When I have in the past been at Westfield for Christmas There are those moments when you are alone. Alone in my little log cabin   There are no cars, there is just the warmth of the candles and lamps shining through the windows,  the sound of the fire, the smell of hot cider and a calmness and oasis in the go go go of Christmas.  In that moment you realize it is not Christmas, not yet, it is Advent

Advent is about preparing   Its about building again the relationship with God. A time to reach in and seek out the divine within us. To look once more for the balancing of the spirit. 

Gospel is another apocalyptic style.  Speaking of being ready.    The gospel reminds us about continuing being in right relation with God and ourselves and the world around us. 

What I have been reminded of is that in all the go go , we need to stop and be in the moment. 

I heard a reflection on how we need to embrace advent to let it bring us to Christmas,   They reflected on Mary’s time with her cousin Elizabeth. It was a long visit a slow visit. A time of getting ready for what was going to happen. 

A slow time (not sure what that would look like). It feels like long nights,  sitting by the fire, or in candle light, the wind outside playing around the house. The last Sunday of advent this year is the winter solstice, the longest night.   Maybe this year more than others we are called to embrace the slow time of advent.

A slow time    to reflect on what Christmas shall mean or does mean in our lives. 

 Several years ago Ron Sexsmith recorded a song “Maybe this Christmas.”      Not a song about Christmas but of what we might hope it will be, a song of expectation, of advent waiting.  I changed the lyric, changing Christmas for Advent

Maybe this advent will mean something more

Maybe this year love will appear deeper than ever before

And maybe forgiveness will ask us to call someone we love, someone we've lost For reasons we can't quite recall maybe this Advent

Maybe there'll be an open door Maybe the star that shone before will shine once more

Maybe this advent will find us at last In Heavenly peace

Gratefully For the love we've been shown in the past

Maybe this Advent 

Maybe this advent We can will mean something more as we renew our relationships with God,

Maybe this advent we can work at deepening our relationships, maybe we can join the Christmas conspiracy which is a move from the commercial to a view of this time as relationship.

Maybe this advent will find us at last in heavenly hope grateful for the love we’ve been shown in the past and now to see the joy that is in our lives  and glow of love that is our divine core.   

We may not know the time or the place where God will touch our lives, but in this time of Advent hope we prepare to accept that gift of love promised to us by the one who has called us from our very beginning to be in a relationship of love,  a relationship which reminds us that we are not alone. 

Offering

We give thee but thy own.   The work of the Church continues and there are three ways you can continue to support that work.   Consider using PAR, use the donate button on our Web Site or drop your gift at the Manse.   Let us make our offering and give thanks.       

  One: Praise God who from all Blessing flow

   Prayer With joy and thanksgiving we celebrate this opportunity to share. Your promises are more real to us, O god, when we participate in the outreach our gifts make possible. Lead us, we pray, to do what is right with these offerings and with the time and talents you entrust to us. Amen. 

Sending Forth and Blessing.

One:  Go out to the world in hope with a new outlook; God is lighting a lantern in the wilderness to guide us forward. 

All:   We will take the promises of God to a needy world; share good news with friends and co-workers.

One:  God will direct your paths during the week ahead and provide all that you need to face its choices.

Blessing

One:  May God the one who brings us comfort surround you, May Christ our Joy walk with you. May the Continued presence of The Holy Spirit illuminate our path and keep us safe until we can gather again in community. Amen 

VU 4

God of all places present unseen

Voice in our silence song in our mist

Send us your people knowing and sure

Called to spread the word.

amen amen amen