Please note that although we had hoped to livestream the service from Mayfield and Easthouses Church today, due to illness and self isolating requirements, none of the members of the livestream team were able to come to the church – let us keep them all in our prayers.
Sitting in different chairs, joining in at different times throughout the day, God’s people still gather for worship on this, the Lord’s day. Welcome, to Sunday worship.
Call to worship – with parts in bold to say aloud
In good times and bad times,
Oh God, you are with us.
In glad times and sad times,
Oh God, you are with us.
Right now, in these tough times,
we wish you were here.
In wretched and rough times,
we wish you were here.
Oh God, always with us,
Come quickly, we pray.
Oh God, always with us,
on this first day of advent, be with us today.
HYMN – Lo He Comes with Clouds Descending
Prayer of Adoration and Confession
God of mystery and majesty,
comfortingly close and disturbingly distant,
worryingly near and comfortably far away,
we bring ourselves tentatively
into awareness of your presence,
wondering what today’s encounter may bring.
Will we be awed by your greatness,
or humbled by your vulnerability?
Will we know, without a doubt,
that you are here,
or grieve for the old certainties,
now gone?
If you did come amongst us once,
do we really expect you to come again?
All these thoughts are in our minds
as we prepare to celebrate the birth
of a child, who grew into a man in whom
your spirit was so powerfully distilled
that they called him Immanuel,
“God with us”.
Eternal God,
we want and need you
to be with us now,
but we fear your presence too.
Will you come with words of comfort
or of judgement?
Will you be pleased with what you find,
and the welcome you receive,
or will we disappoint you
and reject you as we did before?
We have plenty of sins to confess:
we have not been good stewards of creation;
we have not made the best use of our time;
we have not lived up to our own ideals,
never mind your hopes for us.
And we are sorry.
But it is hard for us too:
hard to know what to pray for;
what to do for the best;
hard to go on waiting and hoping
as one millennium gives way to another
and nothing seems to change.
So deal gently with us, God.
Come among us with encouragement
and hope, as well as forgiveness.
Show us a new and better way to live,
and give us strength and courage
to follow in your way.
Amen.
THE ADVENT CANDLES will be lit in the church today symbolising the gifts of God given for the whole world in this season: PEACE, HOPE, JOY and LOVE.
HYMN – Like a Candle Flame
Reading: Mark 13:24-37
Reflection:
HYMN – O Come O Come Emmanuel
Prayers for Others and Ourselves
Creator God,
we bring our prayers from a world
in deep distress.
There are signs and portents all around us,
and no-one to tell us what they mean:
fires and plagues and pestilence;
a shaking up of all we thought we knew;
leaders who are corrupt, or foolish,
or just as helpless as we all feel
in the face of forces we cannot control.
And yet we dare to believe
that it is your world.
We go on asserting that you care,
not just because to do otherwise
is unthinkable, but because
the old stories have a hold on us
and we hold on to them.
We kneel with shepherds and sages
by the straw-filled crib
and we worship.
We listen, spellbound, to the stories
told on hilltop and sandy shore,
and we are hooked.
We watch, aghast, as softly
the agony ends, and the final breath escapes.
We grieve and we despair.
We wake early and we wonder
if maybe, just maybe,
new hope may come with the dawn.
God of birth and growth, decline and death,
God of whatever came before
and whatever may come after
the brief, troubled lives that we know,
we commit to your care and keeping
our lives and our loved ones…
Silence
our world and our worries on its behalf…
Silence
We long for you to come and save us.
May we be ready when you do.
Amen.
HYMN – People Look East
Sending
Go with your heart and soul
in eager expectation,
awaiting the coming of Good News.
Be a living witness of that hope,
sharing the blessing of God
in word and action. Amen