First Sunday of Advent – Year B – 3 December 2023

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The Faith Action Programme would like to thank Paul Goode, Member of Sanctuary First and Scottish Churches Disability Group and a Church of Scotland Elder, for his thoughts on the first Sunday of Advent.

Weekly Worship, based on the Revised Common Lectionary, is for everyone – in any capacity – who is involved in creating and leading worship.

It provides liturgical material that can be used for worship in all settings. Our writers are asked to share their approaches to creating and delivering this material to equip leaders with a greater confidence and ability to reflect on their own worship practice and experience and encourage them to consider how this material might be adapted for their own context.

We would encourage continual reflection on the changing patterns of worship and spiritual practice that are emerging from disruption and how this might help identify pathways towards development and worship renewal.

An archive of resources for daily worship can be found on the Sanctuary First website.

We may not all be gathered in the same building, but at this time, when we need each other so much, we are invited to worship together, from where we are – knowing that God can hear us all and can blend even distant voices into one song of worship.

Introduction

Advent is a time when we start to reflect and wait for the Lord coming into our world. In the secular world many shops and garden centres have been displaying and selling Christmas decorations and ideas for the Christmas table since September. The Church, now in Advent, is creating a time to prepare for the birth of God's Son to come and live with us. Many churches across the land each Sunday will light candles on their Advent wreath, starting with one for hope, then one for love, then one for joy and then finally one for faith.

Whilst preparing for this I went through the readings set for this Sunday and realised that ‘hope' was very apt for today and hope runs through all the readings.

Our Church today across the world needs to be open to all, welcoming each and every one of us. We are all God's children and God knows us intimately.

When I was asked to prepare these notes in August, it was very hard in the middle of summer, even though it wasn't that warm, to start thinking about Advent, Christmas and winter. A couple of days later I went to our local garden centre and to my amazement they were already preparing an area for their Christmas decorations.

I was extremely honoured and felt very humble to be asked and started to read the passages.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic, we as a family have not been to church as we used to call it. Every Sunday, because my wife and son were isolating, we decided to have a service in our home. As we felt very alone and could not have a lot of personal contact, we decided to send the service via Facebook to our friends and family. Three years on and we are still, every Sunday, broadcasting our service live at 10.15 am. We have only missed three Sundays, taken as holidays. We have a congregation of 150 on average each week and the comments are very encouraging.

Our son, who is 26 but severely disabled, loves the service and often takes part in the prayers.

Hope being the theme today is a wonderful sentiment and the hope we have is that we encourage all to worship God however and whenever it is right for you.

Isaiah 64:1-9

This section of Isaiah appears in the final of three parts of the Book and is addressed to the people who had returned to Jerusalem following the long years of captivity in Babylon. These people need reassurance that God is with them, even though they were feeling that God was not near them.

Isaiah's cry in the first verse of today's reading: "Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down," is a cry to the Lord.

Hope is in this reading, that God will listen and will take action. In this Advent period, the hope is that God's Son will be sent to come among us. Hope is also to remember that we are all equal and God knows us: "We are the clay, you are the potter, we are all the work of your hand."

Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19

This psalm is one of lament and the Psalmist is turning to God for hope. It is a sort of plea to God the Shepherd, to be led to still waters and to be restored. It has the suggestion of Psalm 23; salvation is the cry and restoration so that we may be saved. There is a sense of hope in verses 17-18 and in verse 19: "Let your face shine, that we may be saved."

The psalms are just brilliant to turn to when we are feeing low or need some words of encouragement, especially when we have lost hope for the future.

As we are in the winter and the periods of darkness are becoming longer, we need to hear the words of this psalm to give us hope that when Jesus arrives at Christmas there will be light and that God's face will shine on us. Reflecting on this passage you can really feel the lament, but also the plea in asking God to protect us and take us by the hand to safer and quieter places. The passage also encourages us to ask of God and to be thankful for all God gives us.

1 Corinthians 1:3-9

This is the beginning of Paul and Sosthenes's letter "to the church of God that is in Corinth" (v2). On first reading this passage it could be suggested that it is just an introduction, with not a lot to say to us today, let alone the Christians of Corinth. Corinth was a beautiful city and a place of influence and had a thriving secular society. There were even some in the church that were moving away from the teachings of Jesus.

Paul is writing to the people of the church in Corinth and the newly formed Christian Church. He is saying that they have the spiritual gifts and that they should use them and he is encouraging them to keep hope in their hearts that Jesus Christ will come into their lives and remain with them through every eventuality.

Reading and reflecting on this passage I am reminded that we are all equal, we all have our own individual gifts and that all these gifts can be used by God. We should all be welcomed into God's Church and be encouraged to be part of the life of God's Church. This raises two questions:

Do we welcome all God's people into our Church?
Once in church, do we encourage all people not just to ‘sit in the pews', but to be part of the life of God's Church?

All God's people have at least one spiritual gift that could enrich the life of God's Church. God is faithful and the hope is that Jesus will be born into our world. There is a sure sign of hope in this passage, one which we could all learn from. And we hear too, how God will remain faithful to us and will be alongside us as we journey through Advent.

Mark 13:24-37

This reading is the second half of Jesus's longest speech. It is the so-called "Little Apocalypse" at the beginning of the new lectionary year. This passage looks forward with hope to the end of suffering.

The disciples are being instructed to wait and watch for the fall of the "powers" (v25) and to anticipate a genuine transformation of the world. We still have that sense that we need to hope that the world will become at peace. These are words of hope to people living through a crisis. Even the fig tree, that was cursed (Mark 11), is coming back to life and flourishing.

Today, the garden is sleeping; the grass, all the shrubs, plants and trees are looking dormant, recovering from the summer. Yet we know that underground the plants are preparing themselves for the Spring, getting ready, like the fig tree that had withered, to put out leaves.

We need to learn to wait and watch, not to be too impulsive and impatient, Jesus will come again: "And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake" (v37). Remember to keep awake – not physically but mentally – as we never know what God's plan is for us and when Jesus will come again. But we should take comfort in the words found in John 14:3: "I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also."

Sermon ideas

Advent and Hope

Advent is a time when we start again; the start of the Christian year and a time not only to reflect on the past year but also to look forward to what the coming year will bring. As a nation, we like to be positive about the future, whether it be in our church life, our personal life or our nation's life.

For the last few years, my wife, my son and I have developed a way to talk to people about our faith and God over the internet. We were isolating due to Covid-19. It is very strange sitting in front of a screen with no congregation in the room and delivering a message with enthusiasm.

I like to ask questions to my congregation. When I was leading worship in person in church I would ask questions at the start of my message. I would not only ask them from the front, but I would go to them at their seats and ask the question. This was an interesting exercise as many people would initially feel very uncomfortable, but once they understood, they would become very involved. It does take practice and confidence to ‘think on your feet' but everyone would remain awake, as per Jesus's instructions in verse 37 – "And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake."

Some questions you might like to ask your congregation:

Why should you keep you awake?
What were your hopes for last year?
What are your hopes for the coming year?
Why should we need hope?
How can ‘the Church', or ‘your church' be inclusive?
Is the Church inclusive?

One thought for the last question might be: How can God's Church be more inclusive?

After I have asked these questions and heard the answers, I would then develop the responses, often talking about my own experiences as illustrations.

I would also pick a few sentences from the readings and talk about the relevance in my life to that particular sentence. For me, Isaiah 64 verse 8: "Yet, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand." We are all made of the same clay and God moulds us as God wants us. We are all God's children and loved equally.

Church should be accessible to all, not just to be able to enter the church, but also all should be encouraged to be part of church life to the full. It is my hope that God's Church will welcome each and every one of us, irrespective of who we are.

I always like to end my message or sermon with a thought for the congregation to go away and think about. I also like to make them smile, so I might preface the last question with something like: "I hope you are still awake."

Prayers

Prayers are very individual, but my wife and I have always tried to include our son, who has profound disabilities but clearly understands prayer and likes to join in and help. So these prayers are meant to be inclusive and the refrains/responses allow the congregation to join in.

Gathering prayer/ Call to worship
O Advent God, come to us we pray.
Enter our hearts this day,
as we worship, bring our prayers and our praise to You.
As we light the candle of hope in our hearts,
may we hold the small flickering flame throughout this week.
May the flame of Jesus Christ's love stay within us, and be close by us.

Light the flame of hope in our hearts.
We thank You, God for this time of Advent
to prepare our hearts for the coming of the Christ child.
The wee baby born in a lowly stable
who was Christ the King, Christ our Saviour.

Light the flame of hope in our hearts.

The mornings are chilly with the cold and early frosts of winter.
As we wake and look at the swirling misty hills, fields and valleys,
such views bring us hope.
Hope that Your creation is always turning
and we can have certainty in its glory and beauty throughout the seasons.

Light the flame of hope in our hearts.

O God of mists swirling in the elements
You brought the mystery of the Christ child to earth
You sent us hope of His coming.
The hope of the star, that pointed the way.
The hope that brought the shepherds and the wise men.
Come Advent God, come.
Come Advent God come, be in our hearts today.

Light the flame of hope in our hearts. Amen

Confession
O Lord, though You have given us great hope, at times we doubt.
We know our faith is weakened by challenging events in our lives.
Sadness and despair drown all hope as the tears fall,
and we are washed away in the floods and torrents of regret and fear.
Forgive us Lord we pray, and give us renewed strength for our weakness.

May we follow the Advent star.

Forgive us Lord, when we become too immersed
in the hurly-burly of Christmas.
Forgive us when we get stressed about all the preparations.
Forgive us if we become overwhelmed by all we have to do.

May we follow the Advent star.

We are truly sorry that at times we lack faith,
we lose hope,
we do not hold onto Your way.
We stumble on our journey towards the stable.

May we follow the Advent star.

Teach us to be more like the wise men
who never doubted the journey they had to make,
following the star.
Teach us to be humble like the shepherds
who travelled with the star.

May we follow the Advent star.

And may the star of Christmas Hope be with us this day
and all through Advent.
Amen

Thanksgiving
O Lord, we thank You for this time of Advent.
A time to be still and know that You are God.
A time to prepare our hearts and minds.
We thank You for this time of peace and calm to prepare.
A time to think about what happened all those hundreds of years ago.
Let us take a moment to reflect on the star,
the star that shone as a beacon of hope over the lowly stable.
As the flame of the hope candle flickers
we give thanks for all we have.
We give thanks for our families and friends
and for the time we may be able to spend together
during Advent and at Christmas time.
We give thanks for the farmers
who will provide the food on our tables on Christmas day.
We give thanks for the stars
that pinprick the sky on a winter's night.
We give thanks for the moon
that guides our way in the darkness.
We give thanks for the beauty of nature
and the world You have made.
Amen
Prayers for others
O Lord, we give thanks that we are all Your children and You love us all equally.
We are all included in your love.
Whether we have a disability,
wherever we come from,
whatever our background or experience,
whatever our ability and our talents.
We are all here together to share in prayer with You.