Beth began our
service this morning with a prayer for all the people who worship in this
church - so that we can leave here loving each other and loving ourselves and
above all loving our God and being ready to live his word.
Hymn TiS 107 AHB 25 Sing praise and
thanksgiving, let all creatures living
This is one of those really happy
hymns that has a swing - and a tune that makes me feel like I am a better
singer than I really am. It includes
pure praise for all God has provided, joyful thanksgiving for what God has
given us to lead us through darker times and ends with a plea for us to live
our lives in a way that brings glory to our God.
Lighting
of the Advent Candles
After
relighting the candles of Expectation, Hope and Joy, Jan lit the fourth Advent
candle; the candle that symbolizes the Peace that starts in our hearts. She reminded us this Peace is brought to us
by the coming of Jesus into the world and by us inviting Jesus into our hearts.
Prayers of
Thanksgiving / Confession
Beth
invited us to “Have a yarn with our Father - God.” She spoke of the relentless passage of time
as seasons come and go and our reminiscences sometimes reflect we are getting
old and in danger of “coming to bits”.
She reminded us how lucky we are we can worship in gladness and live
through Him without fear. Even when we
are too human and “forget” our duty, God brings us back to Him with renewed
peace, energy and love. Our sins are
forgiven.
Children’s
address
As Kaye
& Terry’s beautiful granddaughter brought over a chair for Beth to sit on
while she told a special story - several decades vanished for many of us who
had loved and cherished the child’s mother as part of our Marsden Road Church
family all those years ago. Beth brought
out a doll which she said was very old – almost as old as she was – and this
doll was a girl doll all dressed in pink.
She laid the doll on its tummy on a tiny blanket and to the tune of
Braham’s Lullaby, the doll began to move and slowly began to roll over. Jesus was alive and Jesus moved, Beth told us
all - and although he could have told us what to do he gave us free will so we
can choose to live good and active lives for him. Jesus loved to cuddle children Beth said, and
she recited a little poem; “My Christ was sunburned, warm and brown and he
cuddled all the kids in Nazareth town.”
Hymn TiS 293 AHB 218 Unto us a boy is
born!
The last verse is
such fun as it gives us permission to make a loud and joyful noise.
Omega and Alpha he! Let the organ thunder,
While the choir with
peals of glee now rends the air asunder.
Reflection: It is
hard to know what to write about Beth’s Reflection today as there were so many
levels to the “Miracles of Christmas” she presented. The core message was Christmas is holy and
pure and beautiful and the miracles include belief and trust and the power of
Grace which comes from beyond ourselves.
To
underline the first miracle of belief, Beth asked the ladies to imagine the
reaction of their own mothers if they had announced an impending virgin birth
when they were young. It was suggested
with a gentle smile that she would not have asked if we would like her to knit
pink bootees or blue bootees. That
Joseph and others came to believe - at a time and in a place when women were
not held in high esteem and men were taught to give thanks they were not born a
dog, a gentile or a woman was a miracle.
It was a miracle that God trusted people like us with his only son.
God’s love
is greater than the storm Beth reminded us, as she told of an experience when
she was ministering in Wagga Wagga, at a church where her home was “sandwiched”
between the church building and a two story high Telecom tower with no
windows. With her three granddaughters
staying the night so they could go to church with her in the morning, Beth was
a bit distracted and had to dash over to the church to collect some forgotten
papers after dinner. As she would be
gone only a minute she left the girls happily in the dog’s “care”. A huge thunderstorm struck, making it
impossible for her to return for longer than she expected or wanted and she was
worried about the girls being frightened of the thunder and lightening. She was surprised when the storm abated
enough for her to return to the house, where she found three girls on the
lounge, all sound asleep, with a slightly nervous dog standing guard over
them. When she asked later if the
children were frightened by the storm they told her that the storm angels sang
to them so they were not afraid - and promptly asked for more toast, with no
hint of concern. Beth worked out that
the “storm angels” came from the Wesley Choir practicing in the church and the
sound bouncing off the unbroken wall of the Telecom tower to be heard as “storm
angels” despite the noise of the storm itself.
Beth
quoted some of the words from the beautiful hymn; “There’s a light upon the
mountain”.
But His
angels here are human, not the shining hosts above,
For the
drum-beats of His army are the heart-beats of our love.
We
understood the heart of Beth’s message - we can be human angels as we go out
into God’s world in the spirit of Christmas, to love and to serve. God’s love is stronger than the storm.
Bible
readings Isaiah
35:1-10 & Matthew
11: 2-11
Our Bible
passages this morning were read for us by Carolyn. Beth said that it was an oversight on her
part to leave the readings until after her Reflection, but went on to suggest
this oversight could actually better set the context of the passages. I could easily understand what she meant
because I rather like reading the last page of a story first - with the excuse
it helps me to appreciate the methods and skill of the storyteller.
In the
first reading Ahaz refuses God’s invitation to ask for a sign from him to
protect Jerusalem. However, wearied by
the refusal to accept his promise of deliverance, God gave him the sign anyway; A young woman is with child, and she will
bear a son, and will call him Immanuel.
The second reading begins: This is
the story of the birth of the Messiah and ends with the words; And he
named the child Jesus.
Hymn TiS 268 AHB 224 Joy to the World
This hymn
was a fitting summons to us just before the annual celebration of the birth of
Jesus. I felt it was reminding us to
celebrate with renewed joy in 2013.
Joy to the world, the
Lord is come! Let earth receive her
King;
Let every heart
prepare Him room, And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven and nature
sing, And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing.
Offering /
prayer Beth suggested we could celebrate the
joy of having something to give, as we gave thanks for God’s gifts to us and
thanked Him for the privilege of being in a position to give back to help
others.
Prayers
for Others Jack chose to follow a different track in the
prayers this morning. He wanted to share
two recent occasions when he had experienced harmony among people of different
races, colours and religions. He felt as
he enjoyed these events that God would indeed have been pleased. He stressed that prayer is a two way “thing”
and reminded us we must live our life in the setting of our words and turn them
into deeds God would have us do. He also
asked us to include a prayer for those who will have an empty chair at the
Christmas table this year; a prayer I really appreciated.
Hymn TiS 303
AHB 227 Hark!
the herald angels sing
The
Dismissal and Benediction
“My Christ
was sunburned, warm and brown and he cuddled all the kids in Nazareth town.” These words, repeated by Beth after the
Benediction, certainly created a wonderful image of the love of Jesus for all
the children, especially at Christmas.
We sang; The
Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face to shine upon you, and be
gracious unto you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you
peace.
The Advent
candle of Peace burned brightly as we finished the service.
No comments:
Post a Comment