First Sunday of Advent

“Waiting on God requires the willingness to bear uncertainty, to carry within oneself the unanswered question, lifting the heart to God about it whenever it intrudes upon one’s thoughts.” ~Elizabeth Elliot

PRELUDE: I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day
WALTHAM/Kristin Link, arr.
© 2020, Kristin Link
Photos used by permission of Sally Guan

GREETING

PSALM 27 Kitty Nesbitt
(from Christine Robinson’s Psalms for a New World)

You are my light and my salvation
Whom then shall I fear?
You are the strength of my life
of what shall I be afraid?

Trials, enemies, changes, difficulties—
they rise up and they resolve
Therefore–
I will trust you
I will wait for you
I will seek you.

PRAYER

Ever-present Spirit of Creation, help us to wait with hope and eager expectation. Help us to trust in your presence and your call to us. May we find ways to let go of the urge to try and control our own lives, and to know the benefit of centered patience in these uncertain times. May we have the eyes to see all the marvelous things that are happening in our lives, even as we wait, and to appreciate the gifts through which we are called toward your loving light. Help us to cling to that love through the hard moments of our waiting, to bring peace into each situation, and to stay on the path even in the troubling moments. For you are a patient spirit and we would be your patient people as well. Amen

HYMN: #25 Away in a Manger (vs. 1, 2)
Led by Lorraine Casto and Lotyss Pino

INTRO

SCRIPTURE: Mark 13:24-37 Mary-Ellen Petrich

HYMN #36 In the Bleak Midwinter
Christina Rossetti/Gustav Holst
public domain

SERMON

PRAYER MUSIC Meditation on “See, Amid the Winter Snow”
John Goss/John G. Barr
© 2017 Lorenz Publishing Co

PASTORAL PRAYER

QUESTION and BENEDICTION

POSTLUDE ‘Twas in the Moon of Wintertime
Huron Carol/Marilyn Ham
©2004 Alfred (Sacred Performer Series)