The Fourth Sunday of
Advent
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Prelude, Welcome, and Information Hymn
#242 Awake! Awake and Greet the New Morn |
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The grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you
all. And also with
you. Psalm: Luke
1:46b-55 (The Magnificat) And Mary said, “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in
God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant. From this day all
generations will call me blessed. The Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. He has mercy on those who fear him in every generation. He has shown the strength of his arm; he has scattered the
proud in their conceit. He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the
lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has
sent away empty. He has come to the help of his servant Israel, for he has remembered
his promise of mercy, the promise he made to our fathers, to Abraham and his
children forever.” |
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The Lord be with you. And
also with you. Let us pray. Stir up your power, Lord Christ,
and come. With your abundant grace and might, free us from the sin that binds
us, that we may receive you in joy and serve you always, for you live and
reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. |
Reading:
Micah 5:2-5a
A reading from the prophet Micah
2But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah, who are one of the little clans of
Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to rule in Israel, whose
origin is from of old, from ancient days. 3Therefore he shall
give them up until the time when she who is in labor has brought forth; then
the rest of his kindred shall return to the people of Israel. 4And
he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the
majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they shall live secure,
for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth; 5and he
shall be the one of peace. If the Assyrians come into our land and tread upon
our soil, we will raise against them seven shepherds and eight installed as
rulers.
The Word of the Lord
Reading:
Hebrews 10:5-10
A reading from the letter to the Hebrews
5Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and
offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me; 6in
burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure.
7Then I said, ‘See, God, I have come to do your will, O God’ (in the
scroll of the book it is written of me).” 8When he said above,
“You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and
burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the
law), 9then he added, “See, I have come to do your will.” He
abolishes the first in order to establish the second. 10And it
is by God’s will that we have been sanctified through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ once for all.
The Word of the Lord.
Gospel
Verse:
Alleluia. Here I am, the
servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word. Alleluia! (Luke 1:38)
Gospel Reading: Luke 1:39-45 [46-55]
A reading from the Gospel of Luke
39In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the
hill country, 40where she entered the house of Zechariah and
greeted Elizabeth. 41When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the
child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit 42and
exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the
fruit of your womb. 43And why has this happened to me, that the
mother of my Lord comes to me? 44For as soon as I heard the
sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. 45And
blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was
spoken to her by the Lord
This is the Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, O Christ.
Sermon
(added at the end of the document)
Hymn
#263 Savior of
the Nations, Come
Thanks and Offertory
Prayers of the Church:
With gratitude that the Almighty has done great
things for us, we offer our prayers for the world, the church, and
for all people according to their needs.
[Short
pause]
Almighty
One, bless us with an awareness of the great things you have done and the great
things you are doing. God, in your promised mercy, Hear
our prayer.
Almighty
One, watch over our families and our friends so all generations may
continue to call you blessed. God, in your promised mercy, Hear
our prayer.
Almighty
One, continue to show the strength of your arm and lay low our pride. Lift
up all who suffer from illness, whether physical, mental, or spiritual. God, in
your promised mercy, Hear our prayer.
Almighty
One, fill the hungry with good things and continue to turn the tables of the
world for the good of your kingdom. God, in your promised mercy, Hear
our prayer.
Almighty
One, look with favor on all your lowly servants and those who preach, pray,
sing, and serve in your church. Bless the congregation of St. Peter’s, Brodhagen and their
pastor, Pr. Laura Sauder. God, in your promised mercy, Hear
our prayer.
Almighty
One, we trust in your help. Hear the prayers we keep in our hearts… … God, in
your promised mercy, Hear our prayer.
Almighty
One, raise up the sufferers of natural disasters in British Colombia,
Ontario, and Kentucky. Be merciful to all those enduring violence in this
season. God, in your promised mercy, Hear our prayer.
Into your
hands we commend all for whom we pray, trusting in your promise of mercy;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Hymn #293 That Boy Child of Mary
The
Lord’s Prayer
Finally let
us pray for all things as our Lord would have us ask:
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, forever and ever. Amen.
Closing prayer
Glory to God,
whose power, working in us,
can do infinitely more than we can ask
or imagine. Glory to God from generation to generation,
in the Church and in Christ Jesus, for
ever and ever. Amen.
Hymn #267 Joy to the World
Benediction and
Sending
The Lord bless us and keep us.
The Lord make his face shine on us and
be gracious to us.
The Lord look upon us with favor and +
give us peace.
Amen.
Go in peace. Serve the Lord. Thanks
be to God!
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December 24 (7pm – Christmas Eve)
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January 9 & January 23, 2022
My soul proclaims the greatness of
the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my Savior
·
Luke puts
this song onto the lips of Mary, the mother of Jesus, when she visits her
cousin Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptizer. It’s a wonderful piece of
poetry that might be based on a similar song in the Hebrew Bible, which we
Christians call the “Old Testament.” I’d like to think that Mary actually spoke
these words, and still they remain inspired no matter the source.
·
It is a song
of praise and a song of protest. It begins with wonderful praise: My soul proclaims the greatness of the
Lord… and it continues in that praise while outlining the greatness
of God in the reversal of the “normal.” The poor are raised up, the hungry are
filled with good things, the humble know the favor of God and that by grace
alone. Mary, the one who is pregnant and has an uncertain future, becomes the
embodiment of the people of Israel, thanking God for God’s fulfillment of the
promise to Abraham and his children forever.
·
What all this
come down to is the simple statement: Things
ain’t right! The world is not how it is supposed to be. We could ask if
things will ever be as they are supposed to be, but I don’t think we’d get a
straight answer. The Bible begins with creation and the story of how things go
out of whack. The Christian Scriptures show a vision of things getting even
more wild and strange, but end with “a new heaven and a new earth”, done up
right, with healing available and God living with the people.
·
Mary’s song
(called the Magnificat from an old translation “My soul magnifies the
Lord.”) tells what is to come. God Almighty will have mercy, show strength,
scatter and cast down the proud and mighty, fill the hands of the hungry, and
remember the promise to Abraham and Abraham’s children: I will make your offspring as numerous as
the stars of heaven… (Genesis
26:4)
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For lack of
better words, everything will be turned around and maybe even turned
upside-down. The history of our salvation is filled with reversals of fortune
and desires and with other topsy-turvy ideas.
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If we look at
it, Christ has come to challenge the built-up structures of sin, death, the
devil, and oppression. And not just challenge, but overcome at the cost of his
own life. His life, death, and resurrection show God’s strength to do what God
has always done – lift the lowly, free the slave, feed the hungry, give justice
to those who have not seen justice. It has been promised and just because we
don’t see it everywhere, does not mean it is not happening.
·
If you get a
chance, listen again to the words of the Church’s Advent hymns and Christmas
Carols. Many of them sing of this sacred reversal of all things. Take one
instance in the Carol, “O Holy Night”:
Truly He taught us to love one
another;
His law is love and His Gospel is Peace
Chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother
And in His name, all oppression shall cease.
·
Could I dare
say that the Magnificat is the soul of the Gospel? That might be too
much, especially in the face of John’s Gospel’s God so loved the world… Maybe it just answers the
statement Things ain’t right! in
some detail. It tells us again the grace of God in Jesus stands against hated,
oppression, and injustice. The fact that all this seems to turn the world
upside-down and upset things shows us that our idea of what is “normal” is
really the thing that is turned upside-down and in God’s own time, things will
be set right.
·
As the
prophet Micah said: And he shall
stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of
the name of the Lord his God. And they shall live secure, for now he
shall be great to the ends of the earth; and he shall be the one of peace.
·
Let this be
our song as well as Mary’s:
My
soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my Savior
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