BELLS CORNERS UNITED CHURCH
FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT / CELEBRATION OF AGAPE MEAL
NOVEMBER 29, 2020
*Check the audio recording and link to video recording of this service at bcuc.org
You can also dial-in by phone to listen to the audio recording at 613-820-8104
Gathering Music / Carol Sing: O Come All Ye Faithful (vs. 1, 2) Voices United #60
1 O come, all ye faithful,
joyful and triumphant,
O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem;
come and behold him,
born the King of angels.
Refrain:
O come, let us adore him, Christ the Lord.
2 God of God,
light of light,
lo, he abhors not the virgin's womb,
very God,
begotten, not created. Refrain
Words in English: Frederick Oakeley, 1841; Music: John Francis Wade, 1743. Song # 592e04d371906 Reprinted with permission under ONE LICENSE #A-733214. All rights reserved
All Poor Ones and Humble (vs. 1) Voices United #68
1 All poor ones and humble
and all those who stumble
come hastening, and feel not afraid;
for Jesus our treasure,
with love past measure,
in lowly poor manger was laid.
Though wise men who found him
laid rich gifts around him,
yet oxen they gave him their hay,
and Jesus in beauty
accepted their duty,
contented in manger, he lay.
Then haste we to show him
the praises we owe him,
our service he ne’er can despise;
whose love still is able, to show us that stable; where softly in manger he lies.
Words: v1 Katherine Emily Roberts, 1927; Music: Welsh carol, harmony Erik Routley 1951
Song # 89840 & 58064 Reprinted with permission under ONE LICENSE #A-733214. All rights reserved
Welcome & Announcements
Good day everyone! I welcome and greet you in the name of Jesus Christ, on this first Sunday of Advent with an agape meal. Advent is a time of waiting, of preparing, of getting ready as we welcome and celebrate the birth of the Christ child. This year has not been what we had expected due to the COVID-19 pandemic with modified ways of doing Advent and Christmas. It is hard to not be able to celebrate in the ways which we are accustomed to. But here is hope as we anticipate Jesus’ birth at Christmas. We are invited to share in both new and familiar ways.
Next Sunday, we have an opportunity to gather in the sanctuary for a modified worship service at 10 am. A maximum number of 28 people are invited to gather. Please call the office to register. Full information on procedures and safety measures are posted on our website.
If you are not able to worship with us in the church sanctuary, please know that BCUC offers worship service in a number of ways. Check our website at bcuc.org, for our worship service in audio, video and text formats along with the weekly announcements, online meetings, events and other updates. You can also listen to the service via telephone by dialing 613-820-8104. Please continue to reach out by connecting with each other through emails, phone calls and prayers.
And here are some announcements:
- Please support the Advent Appeal recommended by the Service, Outreach and Social Action Committee. In a little while, you will know more about it when Ellie Topp informs us about it.
- There is an opportunity for families to remember loved ones who have passed, through a poinsettia memorial donation option for Advent this year. As in the past, you may donate a minimum of $10. A virtual flower display with the loved ones’ names will be included in the online version of the service. Some live flowers will also be placed in the sanctuary. Call the office for more information.
- Order for Turkey Pies are now being received as well as the 2021 Canadian Church Calendars, grocery cards and the Book of Memories Volume 2. Please contact the office to place an order.
- Join us for a spontaneous Prayer Circle every Wednesday at 8 pm. Wherever you are, say a prayer for the world, your community including the congregation, your family, and yourself.
- And for those of you who are able to join us via Zoom, there will be zoom fellowship every Sunday at 11: 00 am. Link has been emailed to you or call the office for more information. For other announcements, please check your email or the church website.
Minute for Mission & Service: SOSA Advent Appeal Ellie Topp
Good morning! This morning I’d like to introduce you to the 2020 Advent Project at Bells Corners - supporting the Mission and Service Fund.
The Mission and Service Fund of the United Church of Canada, thanks to global partnerships, has been working to help some of the most vulnerable people during the COVID 19 crisis. Here is a glimpse of what is happening in three different areas of the world because of our donations to the M&S Fund: the Middle East, Africa and China.
Can you imagine how difficult it is to keep six feet apart from others when living in a crowded refugee camp? Accessing food is always a challenge for the vulnerable at Al Husn Refugee Camp in Jordan and now it is even more difficult with COVID 19 restrictions. Earlier in the year, the United Church’s Mission & Service fund helped Jordan’s Department of Services to Palestinian Refugees respond quickly and distribute over 150 food hampers to those with the greatest need. It is interesting to note that the vegetables were grown in the camp’s two greenhouses which were built the previous year with M&S funds.
In Africa, the United Church has worked with the Zimbabwe Council of Churches to supply many households with basic food needs. In addition they provided education on good hygiene practices and distributed soap and clean water to minimize the spread of the virus.
In China, the UCC has had a long time partnership with Amity Foundation in Hubei Provence working to fill holes in the government social safety net. Since January 2020 Amity has been actively working to help contain the COVID-19 outbreak, supporting hospitals and communities in remote areas in fighting the virus.
We may be thousands of miles apart but our givings to Mission and Service can make a real difference in the lives of the people in these areas and also many places in Canada. Please give generously to our Advent project as detailed in the church announcements.
Friends, in the quiet of this moment, in the stillness of our hearts, I now invite you to centre yourself in the presence of God as we prepare to receive the gift of Advent hope. Let us gather in worship.
Lighting of the Advent Candle: Hope Acolytes: The Wightman Family
(Gord Dunbar, Gathering ACE 2020-2021)
Reader 1: Our Advent journey has begun. We prepare for the celebration of Christ’s birth.
We come to embrace the good news of the Light of the World.
Reader 2: It is within the hidden mysteries of life we discover vulnerability. Within the dancing shadows cast by a flickering candle flame we discover the promise of hope and of new possibilities
Reader 3: We light a candle reminding us of the way of hope.
(The first Advent candle is lit)
Sung Response: Hope is A Star (Verse 1) Voices United #7
Hope is a star that shines in the night,
leading us on till the morning is bright.
When God is a child there’s joy in our song.
the last shall be first and the weak shall be strong,
and none shall be afraid.
Words © Brian Wren, 1985; Music © Joan Collier Fogg, 1987
Song # 93750 Reprinted with permission under ONE LICENSE #A-733214. All rights reserved
Call to Gather: (George Allan, Gathering, ACE 2020-2021) Rev. Lorrie Lowes
We gather in this time of waiting we call Advent
to reflect upon our lives, our faith,
our past, present and future.
We gather to support each other
through the coming season of Christmas
with its joy for some, sorrow for others.
We gather to reset ourselves on our faith journey
within our Christian family, the church.
Let us gather to praise and worship!
Prayer of Approach and Silent Confession: Rev. Kim Vidal
(Catherine Tovell, Gathering, ACE 2017-2018)
As we begin our Advent journey, O God, we find ourselves waiting in hope. Waiting is nothing new. We seem to always be waiting for something. Yet in this time, you call us to wait with hope, not frustration or despair, trusting that you are with us and will show us the way. Open us up to this hopeful waiting.
Silent Confession
Words of Assurance
Even within the deepening shadows of this season, the light of God abounds.
We are a pilgrim people; we set out on journeys that lead to new insights and reveal new experiences, knowing that God will be with us wherever we go.
Let us not be discouraged. Let us be open to the light. Let us give thanks to God. Amen.
Advent Hymn: O Come, O Come Emmanuel (vs 1-4) - Voices United #1
1 O come, O come, Immanuel,
and ransom captive Israel
that mourns in lonely exile here
until the Son of God appear.
Refrain:
Rejoice! Rejoice! Immanuel
shall come to you, O Israel.
2 O come, O Wisdom from on high,
who ordered all things mightily;
to us the path of knowledge show
and teach us in its ways to go. Refrain
3 O come, O come, great Lord of might,
who to your tribes on Sinai's height in ancient times did give the law
in cloud and majesty and awe. Refrain
4 O come, O Branch of Jesse's stem,
from every foe deliver them!
That trust your mighty power to save,
and give them victory o'er the grave. Refrain
Words: trans by John Mason Neale, 1851; Music: 15th Century plainsong arr. Healey Willan
Song # 92288 Reprinted with permission under ONE LICENSE #A-733214. All rights reserved
Storytime for the Young at Heart Rev. Lorrie Lowes
Today is the first Sunday of Advent! That means Christmas will soon be here! I bet you are getting excited.
Have you started your Christmas wish list yet – things you hope will be under the tree for you this year? Well, that’s actually a good place to begin our preparations for Christmas. A wish is very much like Hope – and Hope is what the first candle in our Advent wreath stands for. Now, it doesn’t really stand for the toys and presents you will open on Christmas morning. It stands for the things we hope for this world – and there are lots of things to hope for this year! We might hope for a vaccine to protect us from the pandemic, or an end to this pandemic altogether. We might hope for peace in places in the world where there is war and violence. We might wish for all people to have clean water and good food, and safe, warm places to sleep. So many big wishes – big hopes - for this big world of ours!
When I was thinking about wishes this week, I remembered how I sometimes wish on a star! It’s kind of interesting that we do that, isn’t it? I think perhaps it’s because a star is a bright light that shines when the night is darkest – a little flicker of light just when we need it most. Hope is like that too. When things seem scary or dark, hope is that little bit of light that reminds us that things will not always be this way and that there are still amazing things happening in the world.
Do you remember the star in the Christmas story? It told the magi that something wonderful was going to happen! That gave those wise men hope and it showed them the way to get there. That same star showed the shepherds where the baby Jesus was sleeping when it stopped over that little stable in Bethlehem – and seeing that a little baby could be born even when there was no room in a warm inn for that birth to take place, gave those shepherds hope that wonderful things can still happen when times seem bleak.
As we start our Advent journey toward Christmas, I think I’d like to mark this first Sunday with a star. I hope it will remind us that something wonderful and good is coming. I hope it will remind us to wish for all the things the world needs to make it like God’s dream. I hope it will also remind us to do what we can to be a little bit of light in these dark days.
It’s just one little light in our wreath this week but it is the spark of hope that good things are on the way!
Hymn: Lord Prepare Me to Be a Sanctuary - More Voices #18 – Erin & friends
Lord, prepare me to be a sanctuary,
pure and holy tried and true; with thanksgiving,
I’ll be a living sanctuary for you.
Words & Music © John W. Thompson and Randy Scruggs, 1982 Kruger Organisation Inc
Song # 119603 Reprinted with permission under ONE LICENSE #A-733214. All rights reserved
Prayer for Illumination Reader: Tamara Glanville
Help us, O God, to be alert to signs
of your reign breaking into our lives.
May your Word of hope inspire us to bring
your promises to life in our waiting world. Amen.
The Reading: Isaiah 64:1-9 (NRSV)
Tear Open the Heavens
O that you would tear open the heavens and come down,
so that the mountains would quake at your presence—
2 as when fire kindles brushwood
and the fire causes water to boil—
to make your name known to your adversaries,
so that the nations might tremble at your presence!
3 When you did awesome deeds that we did not expect,
you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.
4 From ages past no one has heard,
no ear has perceived,
no eye has seen any God besides you,
who works for those who wait for him.
5 You meet those who gladly do right,
those who remember you in your ways.
But you were angry, and we sinned;
because you hid yourself we transgressed
6 We have all become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth.
We all fade like a leaf,
and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
7 There is no one who calls on your name,
or attempts to take hold of you;
for you have hidden your face from us,
and have delivered us into the hand of our iniquity.
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.
9 Do not be exceedingly angry, O Lord,
and do not remember iniquity forever.
Now consider, we are all your people.
Hear what the Spirit is saying to all of us. Thanks be to God!
Sermon: “When God Hides” Rev. Kim Vidal
The Christian liturgical year has turned, and the Advent season is staring us in the face. As the curtain rises on this first Sunday of Advent, we see the writer of third Isaiah on centre stage reciting a message of lament and hope for the Israelites. Generally, a lament is a prayer that cries out to God from the midst of desperate grief, pain, or any circumstance that seems out of control. It vocalizes the hurt to God with the conviction that God can and will bring relief. A lament is not just the venting of frustration, but is a profound statement of faith in God from the midst of utter human hopelessness.
As a point of history, Isaiah chapter 64 was written around 6th century before common era, during the post-exilic period when the exiled Israelites were just returning to Jerusalem from so many years of captivity and exile in Babylon. The Persian king Cyrus had defeated the Babylonians (539 BCE) and established a decree that the exiles could return to their homeland. Threats, divisions, land battles and power struggles erupted between and among returnees, those who had remained in the land, and those who had settled there from other places after Jerusalem was conquered by foreigners. The whole time they had been in Babylon, the exiled people had thought and dreamed about coming home. They imagined returning to their houses and their fields as they remembered it and prayed about returning to their Temple. But when they did come home, they found their city in shambles and their Temple in ruins. They were devastated beyond compare. Something went terribly wrong.
The writer of Isaiah 64 uttered some daring words. After all, he is a product of the prophet Isaiah’s school of thoughts - of consolation and encouragement. And yet what he wrote here speak to a people which seem to be at the end of its rope. The exiles who returned from Babylon were desperate. Listen to his voice. Listen to his lament, his cry of distress that calls out from this morning’s reading. “O that you would tear open the heavens and come down,” he yells at God. “Make things better, God! Come and shake the mountains! Make yourself known to the nations. Do the things you did in days of old when people really knew you were God!” This is a desperate voice, a voice of someone who is yearning for a change, longing for a saving act, wishing for a complete reversal of events.
The writer confesses that all of the people have sinned. Yet even that confession seems to blame God: “You were angry, and we sinned; because you hid yourself, we transgressed. It’s not our fault, God! If you were not so far off, if you were not absent when we needed you, we wouldn’t have sinned.” The writer believes that God has hidden in anger. In their sin, the people had become like a filthy cloth and fading leaves. Their lives had become barren, painful and empty brought on by the consequences of their sinfulness. We feel the writer’s honest feelings: anger, longing, confessing, blaming lamenting.
Today, we might say that this passage portrays utter depression in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. In times of crisis such as the current pandemic, as people of faith, hope is what we look for. In a New York Times article on March 10, 2020, Italian journalist Mattia Ferraresi wrote the following: “Holy water is not a hand sanitizer and prayer is not a vaccine….But for believers, religion is a fundamental source of spiritual healing and hope. It’s a remedy against despair, providing psychological and emotional support that is an integral part of well-being. It’s also an antidote to loneliness, which several medical experts point to as one of the most worrisome public health issues of our time. At a deeper level, religion, for worshipers, is the ultimate source of meaning. The most profound claim of every religion is to make sense of the whole of existence, including, and perhaps especially, circumstances marked by suffering and tribulation. Take such claims seriously enough, and even physical health, when it is devoid of greater purpose, starts to look like a hollow value.”
Looking at the world around us, I think it might be reasonable to come to the same conclusion. Something is wrong. There is the wrath of nature: there are hurricanes and tsunamis. There are wildfires and earthquakes and floods. There is war, famine and disease. And then there is the suffering brought on by human behaviour. There is corruption and greed. There is fear and anxiety as our nation and the world seem to slip into economic recession. And what about our own lives? We struggle every day with difficulties and challenges. We struggle with illness, with depression, with grief and loss. We struggle with job insecurity, and the constant battle to make ends meet. We struggle with the loss of friendships and relationships and lovers and spouses. We struggle with addiction and isolation.
We too sometimes utter words of desperation: “Where are you God? Why don’t you do something earthshaking? Why don’t you come to our rescue?” We have all been in life situations that give rise to those kinds of questions that are turned into prayers of anguish. In the struggles of a church in conflict, someone cries out, “O God, if only you would split the sky open and come down into the midst of this mess and heal us!” In a marriage on the brink of divorce a prayer goes out, “O God, what did I do wrong?” In a seemingly hopeless situation and the increasing limitations of hospital resources, a mother prays, “Merciful God, where are you now that my child sick of COVID needs you most?” In the persistent financial crisis, an unemployed man prays, “I haven’t had steady work for a year now. Where are you God? Give me a sign that you’re still there.” O, that you would tear open the heavens and come down!
But through the anger and sadness, the confessing and blaming, comes deep assurance - a message of hope, of faith, of trust. “Yet, O God, you are our Parent, our loving Father and our caring Mother; we are the clay and you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.” The writer assures the people, reminding you and I, that God is still present – that God is still speaking – that God is still listening through the hands, the heart, the lips, the love from fellow human beings who live in God’s ways. The writer made an appeal to God’s presence and intimacy and talks about relationship. The image of God as potter and the people as clay takes us into a new level of hope. No longer are we talking about God hiding. Instead, God is invited in – to make Godself known again. What does the writer mean for God as the potter and the people as the clay? If God is the potter then God is present with the people. God journeys with them in their brokenness and in their joyful moments. God wants to shape them and fashion them into something beautiful and useful, durable and strong. I like what the theologian Tim Suttle has to say about the image of the potter and the clay: “The potter working with clay became a powerful way for the people of God to make sense of the hiddenness of God and the pain of their lives. It fed their imagination, helping them connect the dots between their present struggle and where God was trying to take them…”
The ending of this lament is poignant: “Do not be exceedingly angry, O Lord, and do not remember our iniquity forever… we are all your people.” As we enter into this journey of Advent, I wonder what might happen to our communities if we took Third Isaiah’s reminder of communal responsibility and accountability more seriously? In our culture where division and separation are all too often the norm, what might happen if we took the concept of “we are all your people”; the notion of inclusivity; the view of “you are my neighbour” to heart? What if we thought significantly about those on the opposite side of our own spectrum – be it theologically, politically, economically, socially and considered them as part of us? What if their past became our past? What if their brokenness, our own? How would we pray? How would we lament? How would we hope? How would we look for the long-expected Jesus we anticipate in this season?
Too often, I think our prayers, laments, hopes and expectations are based solely on our own lived experience. However, if we are to fully proclaim the good news, Isaiah’s reminder is that we must see others as part of our larger story. This means that our neighbours are not merely people who live around us, they are actually a part of us who share a story and a predicament in which we need God’s presence. Waiting calls for patience, faith, hope, anticipation, and attentiveness to the subtle moments and movements of our lives. Isn’t this what Advent is all about? About waiting upon God who comes into our lives gracefully, unexpectedly and works for us, for our good? What should be our Advent message to those who have lost hope? With the image of the potter and the clay, I strongly believe that we are a community committed to reshaping ourselves and our communities from death to life, from despair to hope, from hate and injustice to love.
As we gather today at the table of grace, as we share the bread and the cup of blessing, we are not left without hope. God doesn’t hide. Through God-fearing, God-loving people, God continues to recreate us, mould us, shape us. Yes, God is still present. God is still speaking. God is still listening. Welcome to Advent. Amen.
Sources that helped me with my sermon:
BCUC Lectionary Group
Stephen Riley, “All of Us!”, http://www.aplainaccount.org/advent-1b-1st-reading
MagdaleneMusings.blogspot.com
Tim Suttle, “Decrescendo”, patheos.org
Prayers of the People and the Lord’s Prayer: Rev. Lorrie Lowes
(Brenda Duckworth, Gathering A/C/E 2014/2015, p31. Used with permission.)
Holy and awesome Creator, please hear our prayer.
Be with all who suffer from oppression.
Surround with your healing power those who are ill.
Comfort all who are lonely.
Strengthen those who are weak in spirit and those who are depressed.
Protect our children, our future.
Encourage with hope the helpless and hopeless.
Enfold all creation with your magnificent, inspiring love.
We ask all this in the name of our Saviour, our Mediator, Jesus Christ,
And in these ancient words we repeat together:
Our Father, who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kin-dom 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 kin-dom, the power and the glory,
Forever and ever,
Amen.
Hymn: One Bread, One Body - Voices United #467
Refrain:
One bread, one body, one Lord of all
One cup of blessing which we bless
And we, though many, throughout the earth
We are one body in this one Lord
1 Gentile or Jew, servant or free
Woman or man, no more. Refrain
2 Many the gifts, many the works
One in the Lord, of all. Refrain
3 Grain for the fields, scattered and grown
Gathered to one, for all. Refrain
Words and Music © John B. Foley, 1978, harm Gary Smith 1988
Song # 80673 Reprinted with permission under ONE LICENSE #A-733214. All rights reserved
The Agape Meal: Rev. Kim Vidal & Rev. Lorrie Lowes
“Agape” is the New Testament Greek word for “self-giving love”. The kind of love that comes from God and models God’s loving choice for our well-being and all of Creation. In the Christian tradition, agape is also the name for informal meals and times of togetherness and mutual sharing which remind us of all those meals Jesus shared with his friends and the unity that his Spirit continues to give us even today.
Proclamation (inspired by 1 Corinthians 11:23-26). (Kim)
We enter the story when a meal has been shared,
when prayers of thanksgiving have been spoken, when fellowship shared.
This is the place and this is the time. Here and now,
God waits to break into our experience.
On the night when Jesus was betrayed, he took a loaf of bread,
and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said,
“This is my body broken for you. Do this in remembrance
of me.”
In the same way, he took the cup, saying,
“This cup is the new covenant. Do this, as
often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you
proclaim Jesus who gives us Advent hope.
Prayer of Consecration (Lorrie)
Loving friend and companion, we welcome your presence with us. May these gifts of bread and cup, nourish our bodies, hearts and minds. And may our spirits be refreshed as we live in the light of your presence, with us now, and at all times and places. Send now your Holy Spirit upon this bread and this cup, O God that they might be our remembrance and our proclamation of the presence of Jesus Christ with us, through us and in us. Amen.
The Sharing of the Bread and the Cup (Kim)
Let us now share and partake the bread and the cup reminding us of God’s unconditional love.
This is the bread – food for the journey. Take, eat and be nourished by God’s love.
This is the cup – drink for the journey. Take, drink and be sustained by God’s grace.
Prayer after the Meal (Lorrie)
For the bread we have eaten, for the wine we have tasted, for the life we have received, we thank you, loving God. Empower us to live as Jesus has lived, to bring new life to others and to give light to the world. Amen.
Invitation to Offer: Rev. Kim Vidal
We are the work of God's hands, the psalmist says, and God continues to shape us each day into a people of goodness and peace. That is why we bring gifts this morning: to be part of creating a more beautiful world through the ministry of this church and the witness of our lives each day. Let us gather our time, talents and treasures together and present them as an offering to God.
If you are not on PAR and wish to send in your offering and donations, you can drop them in the slot by the kitchen door of the church or mail them to BCUC. You can also send in your support through e-transfer. Thank you for your continued love and support to BCUC.
Offertory Prayer (spaciousfaith.com)
Holy One, this Advent season we wait in hope.
And we give in hope.
Hope for your coming reign;
Hope because of your presence with us even now.
Receive these generous offerings,
And use them for your work of healing and hope in our world. Amen.
Sending Forth: Rev. Lorrie Lowes
(Robin Wardlaw, Gathering A/C/E 2017/2018, p30. Used with permission.)
Enter this Advent with Hope.
Enter this advent with patience.
May your waiting be rich and the presence
of our God full and near to you.
Bear God’s hope to this world, like one candle. Amen
Hymn: O Come, O Come Emmanuel (vs 5-7) – Voices United #1
5 O come, O Key of David, come
and open wide our heavenly home.
Make safe the way that leads on high
and close the path to misery.
Refrain:
Rejoice! Rejoice! Immanuel
shall come to you, O Israel.
6 O come, O dayspring, from on high,
and cheer us by your drawing nigh!
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night
and deaths dark shadows put to flight. Refrain
7 O come, desire of nations, bind
all peoples in one heart and mind.
O bid our sad divisions cease
and be for us the Prince of Peace. Refrain
Words: trans by John Mason Neale, 1851; Music: 15th Century plainsong arr. Healey Willan
Song # 92288 Reprinted with permission under ONE LICENSE #A-733214. All rights reserved
Zoom Fellowship hosted by Lorrie at 11:00 am. Link has been emailed. See you there!