December 2, 2012
1st Sunday of Advent
Worship Theme: I Believe In the Sun/Hope
Jeremiah 33:14-16 CEB
1 Thessalonians 3:9-12 GW
Luke 21:25-36 The Message Bible
“Believing Is Seeing”
A reading from the
Gospel of Luke, chapter 21, verses 25-36; listen for a word from God to you and
me, the people of God.
Good Morning. Well, winter is finally here. We now have
snow on the ground. . . the sun is not as hot as it was and it is dark later in
the morning and earlier in the evening, Winter is a hard time for me. With the
cold and snow sometimes I think it will never end. But I know it will. It has
happened this way for so long that even though I may not see the signs of
spring, I believe it will happen. I have seen it and so in the seeing I have
come to believe.
This believing is seeing thought has also got me thinking
about our relationship with our Risen Lord Jesus. Like the Sun, He is always
there. Even when the sun doesn’t shine we believe it is still there on those
cloudy days. And just the sun, the “Son” of man, our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ, is there even in the dark night of our souls, even when we can’t see
the light of day through our pain and sorrow, shining God’s light of compassion
and love upon us.
Today, we begin our pilgrimage to the stable. It is the
time when we go back to the beginning of our salvation; we go back to the
manger stall where love came down from heaven. We go back to the place that
God, once again, rolled up His sleeves and became involved with humanity in the
form of a child. Sometimes, this seems so incredible it is hard to believe.
Especially when we are going through those times of trouble and God seems
absent in our lives. As we walk the road to Bethlehem, we are going hear
stories from Scripture about the hope that is found through Christ’s presence
with us. . .”even when”. . . we can believe even when. . .
The Jeremiah passage from this morning gives us a promise
of hope. The Lord will rise up a righteous branch from David’s line. It is a
promise that was fulfilled in the form of a baby so long ago. The Israelites
put their hope in God. They hoped for a Savoir to free them from their
captivity. But the Savior that came not only freed them from their captivity of
sin but also frees you and me from that same captivity. They were waiting for a
Messiah but the Messiah that came was not one that they expected. The Messiah
that came took the world not by storm but by love and compassion. They may not
have seen this Righteous Branch but they believed in the promise of God.
From the 1st Thessalonians scripture, Paul
Talks about thanking God for the believers in Thessalonica. They prayed that
God and the Lord Jesus would guide them. Even without seeing. . . even though
imprisoned. . . he believed in the presence of God and Jesus with them. That
was Paul’s hope. We find hope in the presence of God and Jesus in our lives
just as Paul did.
And then there’s the scripture from Luke I read this
morning. Hope! Hope in the one who came, died, rose and conquered! Even though
things around are bad, even though things look like it is falling apart, even
though it looks like the end is near, there is hope. . . the return of the babe
in the manger, our Risen Lord Jesus Christ. Even though we see bad things
happening, we can believe that He is coming and in the belief in Him we will
see the help that is on the way. What we can be discourage by what we see but
our belief helps us see with a new set of eyes. . . eyes that are set on the
eternal not on what is temporal.
Today is the 1st Sunday of Advent, the Sunday
of Hope. We have a hope within us as we believe in the Son. Just as we believe
that the sun is shining, even though obscured by clouds, we can believe that
the Son of God, our Risen Lord Jesus Christ shines down upon our lives, even
through the time of despair and confusion. . . this is our hope. This is our
believing is seeing. And as we believe, we will see the glory of God, through
His Son; shine bright in the darkness around us. Believing truly is seeing.
Let
us pray. . .
Eternal One, Silence from whom our words
come; Questioner from whom our
questions arise; Lover of whom all our
loves are hints; Disturber in whom alone we find
our rest; Mystery in whose depths we
find healing and ourselves; come near and enfold us
in your presence; restore to us your
peace; renew us through your power; and
ground us in your grace. Come, O come,
God-with-us. Amen
(adapted from: Ted
Loder General Resources)
Amen.
Worship
Theme: “I Believe in the Sun/ Hope”
Luke
21:25-36 (The Message Bible)
Jeremiah 33:14-16 (Common English Bible)
1 Thessalonians 3:9-12 (God’s Word Translation
Bible)
Call to
Worship
Unison
Prayer
Candle
Lighting Liturgy (GBOD)
Great
Thanksgiving for Advent (Alex Joyner, GBOD)
Prayer
of Dedication (Adapted from
GBOD 2012)
and
sermon – “Believing is Seeing”
by Pastor Ruth
Foss
sermon blog
meditation
blog
“God’s
Whisper” blog
Suncook United Methodist Church
Suncook, NH
December
2, 2012
First
Sunday of Advent
All
of my poems are copyrighted by Raymond A. Foss, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004,
2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012. All rights reserved. Contact me
at Ray Foss
for usage. See all 21,680+ of my poems at http://www.raymondafoss.blogspot.com
Poetry Where You Live.
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