First Sunday in Advent
The People.
Psalm 95: verses 6 and 7
Come, let us bow down in worship,
let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;
for he is our God
and we are the people of his pasture,
the flock under his care.
And One is for God's people,
In every age and day,
We are watching for His coming.
We believe and we obey
O come O come Emmanuel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKu0or0t8Uw
Isaiah chapter 43: verses 1 to 13.
God’s love is the best love
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BM_syqyFU8
Luke chapter 2: verses 36 to 40
The race that long in darkness pined
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02ue46jlKKY
The race that long in darkness pined
has seen a glorious light;
The people dwell in day who dwelt
in Death’s surrounding night.
To hail thy rise, thou better Sun!
the gathering nations come,
Joyous, as when the reapers bear
the harvest-treasures home.
To us a Child of hope is born;
to us a Son is given;
Him shall the tribes of earth obey,
him, all the hosts of heaven.
His name shall be the Prince of Peace,
for evermore adored,
The Wonderful, the Counsellor,
the great and mighty Lord.
His power increasing still shall spread;
his reign no end shall know;
Justice shall guard his throne above,
and peace abound below.
John Morison. 1750-98
This is the first Sunday of Advent. A time when traditionally we think about the lives of the faithful people. The people of every generation who have led us to be where we are now. The gospel writers were well aware of the importance of those who had gone before. Both Luke and Matthew list the genealogy of Jesus. There are differences between the accounts in the two gospels, but the important thing is that they list real people, people who would have been known about to the readers of the day.
Have you ever watched “Who do you think you are?” Where someone, usually famous, has their family tree researched to find out more about their ancestors. Often, they discover things about family members that they find difficult to come to terms with. Some of their ancestors are often complete unknowns, others are famous, and some are notorious.
When we look at the ancestors of Jesus in the genealogies, the same is true; some are famous, some are notorious, and many are unknowns, people about who we know nothing.
Of those that we know anything about, some are good, such as Solomon, but there is a lot of fornication, adultery, incest, polygamy, murder and fraud. The sort of thing that we would keep quiet about if it were in our family tree.
But they all played their part in the story, they all enabled the story to elapse, God’s purposes to be fulfilled. The people over the generations who enabled the coming of Jesus.
This Sunday we celebrate the faithful of every age who enabled the kingdom of god to be established where we are. The people who will enable the return of Jesus. These are the saints. Perhaps you can think of people who you have known who played their part. Perhaps they are well known, perhaps only you know what they did. Ordinary people who have done extraordinary things for the Kingdom.
I sing a song of the saints of God
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLOv27S7MbQ
Prayer:
God our Father, as Christmas-time approaches we have a lot to get ready. There are presents to be bought and wrapped, greetings to be sent.
Never let us forget to prepare our hearts for the time of your coming. What will be the good of all our activity if it crowds you out, or of our gifts and greetings unless our own lives are presentable to you and to other people?
Not that our trying to put a fair covering on ourselves would be any use. You know us too well for that. We can only ask that you will make the best of us. At least with your help we can see to it that other people receive the presents that you have told us to deliver to them -- gifts of love, and joy, and peace, and hope – food for the hungry, houses for the homeless, welcome for the despised.
God our Father, there is more to get ready that we realised, and time may be shorter than we think. May our praise now give new zest to our stewardship; for Jesus Christ’s sake Amen.
An army of ordinary people
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