Luke 3:1-6
Confession and Forgiveness
Blessed be the holy Trinity, ☩ one God,
alive in the world, reviving creation, arriving soon.
Amen.
Let us confess our sin in the presence of God and of one another.
Silence is kept for reflection.
God of mercy,
we confess that we have sinned.
We trust earthly powers and human authority alone.
We grow fearful. We cling to false comforts.
God of might,
we confess that we have sinned.
We have turned away from our neighbors.
We have trusted false promises.
God in our midst,
we confess that we have sinned.
We plead: come to us.
Bring your mercy to birth in us.
A righteous branch springs forth: it is Christ the Lord, our Savior, in whom we have forgiveness, life, and mercy.
By the power of the Holy Spirit, receive the grace and forgiveness of God through ☩ Christ Jesus, whose day draws near.
Amen.
Gathering Song:
Light One Candle to Watch for Messiah
Prayer of the Day
Stir up our hearts, Lord God, to prepare the way of your only Son. By his coming give to all the people of the world knowledge of your salvation; through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen.
First Reading: Malachi 3:1-4
1 See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight—indeed, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. 2 But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?
For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap; 3 he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the Lord in righteousness. 4 Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.
Word of God. Word of Life.
Thanks be to God.
Psalm: Luke 1:68-79
68 Blessed are you, Lord, the God of Israel,
you have come to your people and | set them free.
69 You have raised up for us a mighty Savior,
born of the house of your servant David.
70 Through your holy prophets, you promised of old to save us from our enemies,
71 from the hands of all who hate us,
72 to show mercy to our forebears,
and to remember your holy covenant.
73 This was the oath you swore to our father Abraham:
74 to set us free from the hands of our enemies,
free to worship you without fear,
75 holy and righteous before you, all the days of our life.
76 And you, child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High,
for you will go before the Lord to prepare the way,
77 to give God’s people knowledge of salvation
by the forgiveness of their sins.
78 In the tender compassion of our God
the dawn from on high shall break upon us,
79 to shine on those who dwell in darkness and in the shadow of death,
and to guide our feet into the way of peace.
Second Reading: Philippians 1:3-11
3 I thank my God every time I remember you, 4 constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, 5 because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now. 6 I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ. 7 It is right for me to think this way about all of you, because you hold me in your heart, for all of you share in God’s grace with me, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. 8 For God is my witness, how I long for all of you with the compassion of Christ Jesus. 9 And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight 10 to help you to determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, 11 having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.
Word of God. Word of Life.
Thanks be to God.
Gospel Acclamation
Alleluia. Prepare the way of the Lord. All flesh shall see the salvation of God. Alleluia. (Luke 3:4, 6)
The Holy Gospel according to Luke
Glory to you O Lord
Gospel: Luke 3:1-6
1 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, 2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3 He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, 4 as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah,
“The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.
5 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;
6 and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’ ”
The Gospel of the Lord.
Prais to you O Christ
Here’s the thing…Advent is like the vestibule (narthex) of Christmas.
- It is an entryway…a transit-point…a place to take off coats and overshoes…a mud room.
- But not a place where we linger very long.
The Lord be with you.
Because this is so…it is difficult to give Advent the attention it deserves.
- But Advent is so much more than just a waiting room.
- It is a beautiful…holy…hopeful season of the Church year.
- So…we should not rush through it.
I was with a group of tourists visiting the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican in Rome.
- It is the historic chamber whose painted ceiling is one of Michelangelo’s masterpieces.
- The entire Christian story in pictures…from Adam and Eve through Jesus enthroned in the heavens.
- The Sistine Chapel’s size comes as a shock to most visitors.
- It is a surprisingly small room.
- Well…this guy dashed in one end of the Chapel and out the other before he even realized he had been there.
- He mistook the Chapel for a sort of antechamber.
- Somebody had to go after him and call him back…saying:
- Hey…you missed it.
- Come back into the chapel…and this time…remember to look up!
- It is the sort of thing that is so easy to do during Advent.
- It is tempting to dash through these four weeks…arms full of preoccupation…eyes cast downward.
- Advent is a destination.
- We miss the beauty and simplicity of these days of preparation if we only have eyes for Christmas.
All the preparations for the secular Christmas holiday have to do with things.
- There are cookies to bake…presents to wrap…a tree to decorate and wreaths to hang.
- When John commands: Prepare the way of the Lord…he has something more spiritual in mind.
- What John is talking about is repentance.
- Luke tells us he proclaimed: a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
Repentance is not something most people are inclined to think about in the days leading up to Christmas.
- When the secular holiday culture encourages us to believe…
- It is a vague…uninvolved and uncommitted sort of goodwill.
- It is about dreams realized and wishes fulfilled.
- It is about the pursuit of happiness.
- Not the pursuit of virtue or decency or integrity or civility.
- There is a major disconnect between what our faith suggests we do during this season…
- And how the larger culture is inviting us to use our time.
John urges us to: Prepare the way of the Lord.
- The word prepare comes from a Latin word:
- Composed of the prefix prae…or beforehand.
- And parare…which means to make ready.
- Most of us have…in our kitchen drawer…a little knife with a small…sharp blade…called a paring knife (taken from the Latin praeparare: prae…or beforehand and parare…which means to make ready).
- The word paring or to pare means to make something ready by cutting away all that is not necessary.
- So…you take out your paring knife and peel off an apple’s skin.
- Also…digging out the core with its seeds.
- This is how you make the apple ready for its role in the recipe.
That verb pare is embedded in our word prepare.
- So…when John the Baptist clarifies what he means by preparing the way of the Lord…
- He uses exactly this sort of cutting image.
- Talking about an ax lying at the root of the trees…ready to cut down those trees that do not bear good fruit.
John’s idea of preparation has to do with radical simplicity.
- Cut away from our lives…he is saying…all that is unnecessary.
- All that detracts from our spiritual journey.
- Confess our sins and practice justice and righteousness…
- So…we may be ready to greet the Messiah when he comes.
This morning…John has laid out before us a contrast.
- These weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas are…for the larger culture…a time NOT of simplicity… but of excess.
- It is not that we are…kind of…ignoring John the Baptist’s message.
- We…sort of do…precisely the opposite!
So…how should we prepare for the coming of our Lord?
- Why not try…amid our holiday rush…to do some paring.
- To carve out some islands of time to stop doing and simply be?
- There is much joy to be found in reflecting on the simple details of the story of Jesus’ birth.
And yes…we would do well also…in these days…to find some time to repent.
- That is…to turn from our preoccupation with material things.
- And discover new ways to live more simply and more faithfully.
- It is what preparing the way of the Lord truly means:
- Cutting away the excess…and focusing on what is true and new.
For that kind of change…change in thinking and change of heart it takes truth and promise.
- Namely truth and promise that is external to us.
- And it comes only from God reaching into the graves we dig ourselves into.
- And then bringing out new life.
- Because if repentance comes from something other than an external word of Truth and Love and God…
- It is not repentance…it is self-improvement.
- And what happened that day by the banks of the Jordon was way more than just a massive wave of self-improvement.
John’s preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins was not so that sinners would confess and stop being bad.
- Instead…it was so that all would hear the truth about this God who comes near to us in the person of Jesus Christ.
- Not so that we might only be good…but that we also might be new.
- John says to them: Prepare the way of the Lord.
- Get ready for something new…there is one who is coming who will change everything.
So…John prepares the people to receive the Gospel by making room for it.
- How? By washing away their old ideas and expectations.
- The untruth and sin and shame and all competing identities float away in the Jordon…
- Because the real thing was finally here.
- Because in Jesus…God is doing a new thing…
- Not only to make us good but also to make us new.
- Now is the time: prepare the way of the Lord!
Song of the Day:
On Jordan’s Bank the Baptist’s Cry
Prayers of Intercession
As we prepare for Emmanuel, God-with-us, let us pray for all people and places that long for God’s presence.
A brief silence.
Refining God, move through your church. Root out practices that harm your people, and kindle a fire for sharing the gospel among bishops, pastors, deacons, and all the baptized. Lord, in your mercy,
receive our prayer.
Renewing God, transform your creation. Steer us from habits that harm what you have made, and guide us in practices that preserve and restore creatures and habitats. Lord, in your mercy,
receive our prayer.
Ruling God, teach the nations your ways. Strengthen organizations and communities that broker peace and care for refugees, immigrants, and all caught in the center of conflict. Lord, in your mercy,
receive our prayer.
Rescuing God, restore your people who are in any need. Heal all who are suffering especially: John & Lisa Mountain, Terry Vernon, David & Carol Beazley, Margaret Miller, Bill Treichler, Shirley Treichler, Hope Garrett, Julia Busby-Morgan, Lisa (Bob & Doris’s daughter. Chad Rudzik, June Gust, Ellen Cuoco, Vicki Salzgeber, John Satino (June’s son’s dad), David Wilfong (Esther Gustason’s son-in-law), Clinton Nelson, Clementine, Annie Clapper, Stacey Bryant, Pam Hendry, Betty Hurley. Provide comfort and strength, and nurture sustained wholeness for the future. Lord, in your mercy,
receive our prayer.
Reforming God, fill this congregation with your presence. Enrich our seasonal preparations, and bless the efforts by worship committees, music ensembles, staff, clergy, and lay leaders as they work in the weeks ahead. Lord, in your mercy,
receive our prayer.
God of community, your Spirit holds us together. Sustain our care for one another especially: Church of God – Pastor Troy…SDA – Pastor Ralph…Bay Point Christian – Pastor Randall…DayStar Life Center…Canguros Day School. Inspire us to seek new ways to live together and to embrace the diversity of thought and identity in our communities. Lord, in your mercy,
receive our prayer.
Reassuring God, we remember those who have died and rest in you. Guide us in deep gratitude for their life, and allow us to learn from their faithful witness. Lord, in your mercy,
receive our prayer.
Savior of the nations, come, and receive these prayers and the pleas of our hearts, in the name of Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Pray with me:
Our Father, 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 trespasses,
as we forgive those
who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever.
Amen.
Blessing
God of endings and beginnings,
God in the darkness and the light,
God, our hope for the journey,
☩ bless and keep us now and forever.
Amen.
Sending Song:
The King Shall Come
Dismissal
Go in peace. Prepare the way for Emmanuel.
Thanks be to God.