UNITED
Second Sunday of Advent -
Communion Sunday
Anne G. Cohen
Baruch 5:1-9 (Hebrew Apochrypha)
Luke 3:1-6 (Christian Gospel)
For Our Reflection:
When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night... I go
and lie down where the wood drake rests... I come into the peace of wild
things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come
into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind
stars waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the
world, and I am free.
- Wendell Berry, The Country of
Marriage
The
Woods and the Wilderness
Baruch attah
Adonai - Blessed are You O God...
A man called BLESSED was given credit for these words of consolation -
although the man BARUCH had been dead several hundred years when the
poem was written.
But the words and the lives of the dead have consoled us countless times
- messages in a bottle brought from beyond to the land of the living
through the water ways of time.
We are mortal - we suffer - and yet we reach, with hope, beyond
ourselves - to the peace and healing of God's House.
off the garment of your sorrow and affliction - and put on - forever -
the beauty of God's Glory. Put on new clothes and receive a new name -
the name that reveals God's intentions for us - "Righteous Peace, Godly
Glory."
Prepare yourself for
children, our parents, our lovers and friends. God has lowered the
mountains and raised the valleys so that all may walk (or run - or be
carried) with safety and relative ease toward the day of arrival.
And God has ordered the woods and every fragrant tree to shade us from
the elements - to protect us until we need no protection. In
anticipation we bring those fragrant trees into our homes. We invite
the stars into their branches and dress the trees in the beauty of God's
Glory. We reach with hope into the darkness - inviting the peace and
healing of God's House into our own. And we anticipate,
we prepare for
It was raining as we drove south from
mist settled into the stands of trees. The wet pavement curved through
the mountains as we crossed the border into
flattened out between the hills.
As we traveled at 70 mph nearly blinded by too much scenery and speed,
we saw, with astonishment, a buck - crowned with an impressive pair of
antlers - standing motionless on the shoulder of the road. One second
later we saw his mate lying dead at his feet.
And seconds later we were past the tableau - hearts pounding, breathless
from pain. It was a proud vigil - seared into our memories with the
heat of beauty and loss.
The peace of wild things does not anticipate death - nor does it hope
for more. But it does not preclude grief when it comes or vigils kept
in the rain. It is, perhaps, God's intention to have us keep company -
we humans and the wild things - so that we humans might learn to slow
ourselves down, to wait on grief, to keep vigil with the woods, to learn
to navigate the wilderness of our pain.
My aunt fell asleep as the afternoon sun warmed her face on a
highway in the
December 11th a few years ago. There were a few injuries and one
fatality in that head-on collision. And as we gathered from around the
country - through the rain and snow - to grieve and keep vigil with our
cousins, we brought the tree into the living room, wound lights in its
branches and helped the children hang Aunt Cloie's
ornaments.
It was not an act of defiance. It was an act of peace and consolation
in the midst of a vast wilderness of pain. It was an invitation - as we
waited for God to come and stand with us in the Bitterroot - cradling
the light of hope in strong arms - and placing it in a manger wet with
our tears.
And each year the cousins - in
and
the stars down from heaven and hang our hopes in the branches - dressing
ourselves and our lives in preparation for
send an ornament to each of Cloie's children - a gift
of beauty and pain
- my roadside vigil in the wilderness of our loss.
May the Peace and Healing of God's House be found in yours as we walk
together through Advent.
**************************
Bulletin
_____________________________________
WE GATHER FOR PRAYER AND CELEBRATION
Music for Gathering
Welcome and Perspective on the Day
Musical Preparation for Worship - A Time for Centering
+ Call to Worship (Based on Baruch 5:1-9)
One: God is bringing God's people home with great
rejoicing.
Many: With all our being, we celebrate God's love.
One: God gives us a new name: Righteousness, Peace, and
Godly Glory.
Many: With all our being, we celebrate God's love.
One: God makes fragrant trees spring up to provide
shade
for the
people.
Many: With all our being, we celebrate God's love.
One: God calls us to take off clothes of mourning, and
to
put on the splendour of God's glory.
Many: With all our being, we celebrate God's love.
One: When God's people gather, there is a feast to
which all are
invited.
Many: With all our being, we celebrate God's love.
One: Come, people of God, let us worship the God
who
comes to us anew.
+ Advent Hymn We Hail You God's Anointed
Hymnal # 104
+ Advent Poem (unison)
In each heart lies a Bethlehem,
an inn where
we must ultimately answer
whether there is room or not.
When we are Bethlehem-bound
we experience
our own advent in his.
When we are Bethlehem-bound
we can no
longer look the other way
conveniently not seeing stars
not hearing angel voices.
We can no longer excuse ourselves by busily
tending our
sheep or our kingdoms.
This Advent let's go to
and see this
thing that God has made known to us.
In the excitement and confusion, in the merry chaos,
let's listen
for the brush of angels' wings.
This Advent, let's go to
and find our
kneeling places.
+ Our Common Prayer (unison)
Creator God who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done,
on Earth as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
And forgive us our debts
As we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil,
For Thine is the kingdom and the power
And the glory forever. Amen.
Time for Silent Reflection
One: My soul waits in silence.
All: God is my rock and my fortress.
I will be at peace.
Silent Reflection
The
Assurance of Good News (unison)
Every valley shall be filled,
and every mountain and hill shall be made low,
and the crooked shall be made straight,
and the rough ways made smooth;
and all flesh shall see the wholeness of God.
Sung Response Song of
Advent by Eugene Butler
Choir
WE TEACH, REFLECT AND PROCLAIM
Lighting
Conversation with Our Children The Candle of
Peace
Children's Hymn (sung as candle is lit) Advent is
Waiting CSB #9
Reading from the Hebrew Apochrypha
Baruch 5:1-9
Reading from the Christian Gospels
Luke 3:1-6
Meditation The Woods and the Wilderness
WE RESPOND TO GOD'S INVITATION
Celebration of Holy Communion
+ Welcome to
the Table
Let Us Talents and Tongues Employ Hymnal #347
Invitation
and Words of Institution
Sharing the
Bread and the Cup
Communion will be served to you as you remain seated.
Please wait until all have been served before eating the bread -
and again before drinking the cup - to signify our unity with
one another and with all who eat and drink at God's table
around the world.
Prayer of
Thanksgiving (in unison)
We affirm the goodness of life and the openness of the future
because our God is a God of life and love. As God comes
to us in this act of communion, so let us go out to others in
acts which bring healing, reconciliation and hope to our world.
Amen.
Intercessions, Celebrations and Encouragements
Call to Prayer Be still and know that I am
God Hymnal # 743
Time for
Silence
Our Joys and
Concerns and an Offering of Prayer
Sung
Response O Come, All Ye Faithful
by
We Offer Our Gifts So That Our Lives May Be Our Prayer
Offertory Mary, Did You Know?
by Mark Lowry and Buddy Greene
Bob Erickson and
Arr. by Lloyd Larson
Prayer of Dedication (unison)
By giving, we open ourselves to the possibilities of being a healing
presence in the world. By giving, we open ourselves to the holy
task of bringing God's light into the lives of others. May God
bless our giving with new meaning. Amen.
+ Sending Hymn In the Bleak Midwinter
Hymnal # 128
+ Commissioning (unison)
Deep peace of the running wave to you.
Deep peace of the flowing air to you.
Deep peace of the quiet earth to you.
Deep peace of the shining stars to you.
Deep peace of the infinite peace to you.
+ Sung Response (we gather in some semblance of a circle)
NCH # 584 Refrain
I am the Light of the World
You people come and follow me
If you follow and love you'll learn the mystery
Of what you were meant to do and be
+ Postlude
*********************
WORSHIP NOTES
Call to Worship is from Seasons of the
Spirit curriculum
for Advent, Christmas, Epiphany 2003 (p.33)
Advent Poem is from Kneeling in
Bethlehem by Ann Weems (p.21)
The Assurance of Good News is from Seasons
of the Spirit
curriculum for Advent, Christmas, Epiphany 2003 (p.33)
(adapted)
Commissioning is adapted from Gaelic Runes and found in
Singing the Living
Tradition, Unitarian Universalist
Association,
Beacon Press (#681)
*********************
Prayer for Peace on Earth
Hazrat Inayat Khan
Send Thy peace O Lord, which is perfect and
everlasting, that our souls may radiate peace.
Send Thy peace O Lord, that we may think,
act and speak harmoniously.
Send Thy peace O Lord, that we may be contented
and thankful for Thy bountiful gifts.
Send Thy peace O Lord, that amidst our worldly strife,
we may enjoy Thy bliss.
Send Thy peace O Lord, that we may endure all,
tolerate all, in the thought of Thy grace and mercy.
Send Thy peace O Lord, that our lives may become
a Divine vision and in Thy light, all darkness may vanish.