An All Hallows Advent Service of the Word for Wednesday (November 30, 2022)

THE LIGHTING OF THE ADVENT WREATH

Jesus said, ‘Keep awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.’
Amen. Come soon, Lord Jesus!

The first candle is lit, and this response is used

Jesus is the light of the world.
A light no darkness can ever put out.

Open this link in a new tab to hear Mark Earey’s “Advent Candles Tell Their Story.”

Advent candles tell their story
as we watch and pray,
longing for the Day of Glory,
‘Come, Lord, soon,’ we say.
Pain and sorrow, tears and sadness,
changed for gladness
on that Day.

WELCOME

Whoever is leading the service may greet the other participants.

MEDLEY OF HYMNS AND SONGS

Open this link in a new tab to hear Charles Wesley and Christy Nockles’ “Advent Hymn (Christ Whose Glory Fill the Skies).”

Christ whose glory fills the skies
Christ the everlasting light
The Sun of righteousness arise
And triumph o'er these shades of night

And come thou long awaited one
In the fullness of your love
And lose this heart bound up by shame
And I will never be the same

So here I wait in hope of you
All my soul's longing through and through
And dayspring from on high be near
And daystar in my heart appear

Dark and cheerless is the morn
And 'til your love in me is born
And joyless is the evening sun
And 'til Emmanuel has come

So here I wait in hope of you
All my soul's longing through and through
Dayspring from on high be near
And daystar in my heart appear

So here I wait in hope of you
All my soul's longing through and through
Dayspring from on high be near
And daystar in my heart appear

Open this link in a new tab to hear Seth Gilbert and Zach Hodges’ “Psalm 117”

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord
Praise the Lord, all people praise the Lord
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord
Praise the Lord, all people praise the Lord

(Everyday, everyone, every nation cry out
Everyday, everyone, every nation cry out)
All people praise the Lord

For His merciful kindness
Has been great toward us
And the truth of the Lord
Endures forever
Praise the Lord

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord
Praise the Lord, all people praise the Lord

(Everyday, everyone, every nation cry out
Every tribe, every tongue,
Every nation cry out
Everywhere, in every song,
Every nation cry out)
All people praise the Lord

For His merciful kindness
Has been great toward us
And the truth of the Lord
Endures forever
Praise the Lord

For His merciful kindness
Has been great toward us
And the truth of the Lord
Endures forever
Praise the Lord

Ostinato refrain:
All of his people praise the Lord
All of his people praise the Lord
All of his people praise the Lord….

Everyday, everyone, every nation cry out
Every tribe, every child,
Every nation cry out
Everyday, everyone, every nation cry out
Every tribe, every child,
Every nation cry out

Everyday, everyone, every nation cry out
Every child, every child,
Every nation cry out

Everyday, everyone, every nation cry out
All of his people

come on and praise the Lord.

All of his people praise the Lord
All of his people praise the Lord
All of his people
come on and praise the Lord.

Open this link in a new tab to ear Martin Luther and David Ward’s “By Grace Alone.”

1 Out of the depths I cry to You,
Lord, hear my voice of pleading;
Bend down Your gracious ear, I pray,
Your humble servant heeding.
If You remember each misdeed,
And of each thought and word take heed,
Who can remain before You?
Only by grace, by grace alone.

2 Your pardon is a gift of love,
Your grace alone must save us,
Our works will not remove our guilt,
The strictest life would fail us.
Let none in deeds or merits boast,
But let us own the Holy Ghost
for He alone can change us:
Only by grace, by grace alone.

3 Though great our sins and sore our woes
His grace much more aboundeth;
His helping love no limit knows,
Our utmost need it soundeth.
Our kind and faithful Shepherd He,
Who will set all His people free
From all their sin and sorrow:
Only by grace, by grace alone.

Coda

Only by grace,

Only by grace, by grace alone.

Silence is kept.

The Lord be with you.
The Lord bless you.

Let us pray.

Silence is kept.

Heavenly Father,
give us grace to receive your word,
understanding to know what it means,
and the will to put it into practice.
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

SCRIPTURE READINGS

A reading from the Old Testament: Deuteronomy 30: 11-14 The Choice of Life or Death

“This command I am giving you today is not too difficult for you, and it is not beyond your reach. It is not kept in heaven, so distant that you must ask, ‘Who will go up to heaven and bring it down so we can hear it and obey?’ It is not kept beyond the sea, so far away that you must ask, ‘Who will cross the sea to bring it to us so we can hear it and obey?’ No, the message is very close at hand; it is on your lips and in your heart so that you can obey it.

Silence is kept

A reading from the New Testament: Romans 10: 5-17 Salvation Is for Everyone

For Moses writes that the law’s way of making a person right with God requires obedience to all of its commands. But faith’s way of getting right with God says, “Don’t say in your heart, ‘Who will go up to heaven?’ (to bring Christ down to earth). And don’t say, ‘Who will go down to the place of the dead?’ (to bring Christ back to life again).” In fact, it says,

“The message is very close at hand;
it is on your lips and in your heart.”

And that message is the very message about faith that we preach: If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved. As the Scriptures tell us, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced.” Jew and Gentile are the same in this respect. They have the same Lord, who gives generously to all who call on him. For “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!”

But not everyone welcomes the Good News, for Isaiah the prophet said, “Lord, who has believed our message?” So faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ.

Silence is kept.

May your word live in us
and bear much fruit to your glory

MESSAGE

Messengers of Good News

How many of us assumed when we heard or read today’s New Testament reading that Paul is writing to the Christians at Rome about pastors and others licensed to preach in our churches? Anyone care to raise their hand?

Guess what? We were wrong in our assumption. Paul is writing about all of us. We are all called to be messengers of good news, to tell everyone around us about Jesus Christ, to tell people far and near about him, to tell our families, our relatives, our friends, our neighbors, our fellow students, our coworkers, all the people God has placed in our lives.

Take off your shoes and socks or stockings and look at your feet. They are beautiful. They are the feet of the bearers of good news.

Living our faith in the eyes of the world is certainly the right thing to do. So is serving Christ in the last and the least, in those who are thirsty, hungry, homeless, lonely, naked, sick or injured, in those who are a prisoner or a refugee, in those who are the victims of injustice and unkindness, and to go about doing good as he did, taking advantage of every opportunity that comes our way.

While we may live exemplary lives, doing no harm, and avoiding all manners of evil, and do much good in our lifetimes, how we live and what we do, however, will not give rise to faith in those around us, in those to whom we minister.

As Paul writes the church at Rome in today’s New Testament reading, “faith comes from hearing, that is, from hearing the Good News about Christ.” God lights the fire of faith in the human heart, in inner our innermost thoughts and feelings, with words. They may be the words of a pastor or an elder but more often than not they are the words of a family member, a relative, a friend, a neighbor, a school mate, a colleague. How we live our lives and the good we do may add fuel to the fire. They are a vital part of our witness. But God uses words to fan the flames and turn smoldering tinder into a blazing conflagration. Our words. Yours and mine.

If our witness is to have a lasting impact upon the lives of others, an impact that will endure for all eternity, we must not only show the love of our Lord to them but also we must share with them the good news about him. This may be a new experience for us. We may have bought into the notion that our beliefs are a private matter and that telling others about them is bad manners, an intrusion on their privacy. Many people, however, are open to having conversations about spiritual matters with those who have formed a friendly relationship with them, who have earned their trust, and who are willing to genuinely listen to them.

A helpful resource for those thinking about getting their feet wet and becoming more active in sharing their faith with others is Steve Sjogren, Dave Ping, and Dough Pollock’s Irresistible Evangelism: Natural Ways to Open Others to Jesus (Group, 2003). Its authors provide easy ideas that will help you let go of your fears about reaching out to others and enable you to gain more confidence in actively sharing your faith with them.

For churches George G. Hunter III’s The Celtic Way of Evangelism: How Christianity Can Reach the West…AGAIN, Tenth Anniversary Edition (Abingdon Press, 2010) offers one approach to evangelism that they might wish to employ in a culture while, while it is suspicious of organized religion, has not entirely turned its back on things of the spirit. Hunter is a Distinguished Professor of Church Growth and Evangelism at Asbury Theological Seminary, Wilmore, Kentucky, and the author of The Recovery of a Contagious Methodist Movement (Adaptive Leadership) and Radical Outreach: Recovery of Apostolic Ministry and Evangelism, both of which are published by Abingdon Press.

Late last night I watched a video podcast in which Thom Rainer, the founder and CEO of Church Answers, was explaining what he saw churches needed to do to survive in the twenty-first century. After listing five of the six purposes of the local church—worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry, and prayer, he noted that one very important purpose of the local church is missing in many churches—evangelism. Its absence he explained accounted for why the influence of Christianity is waning in the United States and church attendance has shrunk.

During the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic many individuals who were nominally Christian and attended church for business, political, or social reasons concluded that they no longer needed to go to church. Churches which had drawn new members from these nominal Christians lost this part of their base. They could no longer count on augmenting their membership from this population segment. It has evaporated. They are faced with the challenge of reaching out to the larger population, a population that may have no church background, may have been hurt by their past church experiences, may have a view of Christians and the local influenced by a number of stereotypes, or who may be adherents of a different religion.

We have reached a time in which all Christians and all churches need to give serious thought to Paul’s words and their implications: --

“But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent?”

It is a time in which we need to leave the Christian bubble with which we have surrounded ourselves and reach out to that larger population, to become the messengers of Good News that God intends us to be. As our Lord said, those who love him will obey his commandments. They will share the good news about him. They will make new disciples. They will baptize the new disciples and instruct them in our Lord’s teaching. They will not be content to gather in ever decreasing numbers in near empty sanctuaries and to limit their ministry to church parking lots. Like the apostles, they will go out into the world.

If our Lord comes again in our lifetime, he will find us carrying out as faithful servants the duties and tasks that he has given us.

And we ourselves will be able to pray with untroubled hearts, “Come, Lord Jesus, come!”

Silence is kept.

RESPONSE

Open this link in a new tab to hear Roger Jones’ arrangement of Timothy-Dudley Smith’s “How Shall They Hear.”

How shall they hear,' who have not heard
news of a Lord who loved and came;
nor known his reconciling word,
nor learned to trust a Saviour's Name?
nor learned to trust a Saviour's Name?

`To all the world,' to every place,
neighbours and friends and far-off lands,
preach the good news of saving grace;
go while the great commission stands,
go while the great commission stands.

`Whom shall I send?' Who hears the call,
constant in prayer, through toil and pain,
telling of one who died for all,
to bring a lost world home again?
to bring a lost world home again?

`Lord, here am I:' your fire impart
to this poor cold self-centred soul;
touch but my lips, my hands, my heart,
and make a world for Christ my goal,
and make a world for Christ my goal.

Spirit of love, within us move:
Spirit of truth, in power come down!
So shall they hear and find and prove
Christ is their life, their joy, their crown,
Christ is their life, their joy, their crown.
Christ is their life, their joy, their crown.

PRAYERS

Let us pray to God the Father,
who has reconciled all things to himself in Christ:

For peace among the nations,
that God may rid the world of violence
and let peoples grow in justice and harmony …;

Father of all
Hear your children’s prayer

For those who serve in public office,
that they may work for the common good …;

Father of all
Hear your children’s prayer

For Christian people everywhere,
that we may joyfully proclaim and live our faith in Jesus Christ …;

Father of all
Hear your children’s prayer

For those who suffer from hunger, sickness or loneliness,
that the presence of Christ may bring them health and wholeness …;

Father of all
Hear your children’s prayer

Let us commend ourselves, and all for whom we pray,
to the mercy and protection of God.

Open prayer may be offered and silence is kept.

THE COLLECTS

God of mercy and power,
whose Son rules over all,
grant us so to live in obedience to your holy will,
that at his appearing
we may be raised to eternal life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Lord Jesus Christ,
fill us with your Holy Spirit
and send us out with confidence in your word,
to tell the world of your saving acts,
and to bring glory to your name. Amen.

THE LORD’S PRAYER

Let us pray with confidence as our Savior has taught us:

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,
the power, and the glory
for ever and ever.
Amen.

CLOSING HYMN

Open this link in a new tab to hear Marty Park’s arrangement of Hugh Sherlock’ “Lord, Your Church on Earth Is Seeking.”

1 Lord, your church on earth is seeking
your renewal from above:
teach us all the art of speaking
with the accents of your love.
We will heed your great commission
Go now into every place-
'Preach, baptize, fulfil my mission;
serve with love and share my grace!'

2 Freedom give to those in bondage,
lift the burdens caused by sin;
give new hope, new strength and courage,
grant release from fears within.
Light for darkness, joy for sorrow,
love for hatred, peace for strife-
these and countless blessings follow
as the Spirit gives new life.

3 In the streets of every city
where the bruised and lonely dwell,
we shall show the Saviour's pity
we shall of his mercy tell.
In all lands and with all races
we shall serve, and seek to bring
all the world to render praises
to our Lord, Redeemer, King.

All the earth to render praises
to our Lord, Redeemer, King.

CONCLUSION

Let us bless the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

The almighty and merciful God bless us
and keep us now and for ever. Amen.