St Clement Church
The Second Sunday of Advent Community Service
Good morning
Today, we continue our Advent journey with John the Baptist. He is at his most ‘aggressive’ in his warnings and demands … not quite what we might be wanting, or needing, in our run up to Christmas … or is it?
My love to you all
Liz
God of peace, on this second Sunday of Advent, may your peace fill our hearts and our world. Help us to be peacemakers in our relationships and communities. In Jesus’ name, we pray.
Amen
We say together:
God of hope, who brought love into this world, be the love that dwells between us.
God of hope, who brought peace into this world, be the peace that dwells between us.
God of hope, who brought joy into this world, be the joy that dwells between us.
God of hope, the rock we stand upon, be the centre, the focus of our lives always, and particularly this Advent time.
Amen
Hymn: 3 Come thou long expected Jesus
Prayer of Confession
Most merciful God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ we confess that we have sinned in thought, word, and deed.
We have not loved you with our whole heart.
We have not loved our neighbours as ourselves.
In your mercy forgive what we have been,
help us to amend what we are,
and direct what we shall be;
that we may do justly, love mercy,
and walk humbly with you, our God.
Amen
The Collect
O Lord, raise up, we pray, your power and come among us, and with great might succour us; that whereas, through our sins and wickedness we are grievously hindered in running the race set before us, your bountiful grace and mercy may speedily help and deliver us; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, to whom with you and the Holy Spirit be honour and glory, now and for ever.
Amen
Readings:
Isaiah 11. 1 – 10
Romans 15. 4 - 13
Hymn: 12 On Jordan’s bank, the Baptist’s cry
Gospel: Matthew 3. 1 - 12
(Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew. Response: ‘Glory to you O Lord.’)
In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’ This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.”’ Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan confessing their sins.
But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, ‘You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance. Do not presume to say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as our ancestor,” for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the axe is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing-fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing-floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.’
(This is the Gospel of our Lord. Praise to you, O Christ)
Reflection
I don’t know about you, but I find today’s Gospel reading a real ‘wake-up’ call.
Did you hear what John says?
The wrath of God is coming. The axe is out and ready. It doesn’t matter who you are or from what family you come.
After listening to John, it’s tempting to look at the advent wreath, with its two lit candles, and see the season of Advent as merely the countdown to Christmas. Let’s leave this wild man behind. We know Christmas came last year. It will come again this year just like for almost 2000 years. It’s only a few weeks away. So, maybe we can dismiss John’s message as allegory, metaphor, or symbolism. Maybe it’s the ramblings of someone who’s spent too much time by himself in the desert eating grasshoppers. Or perhaps we hear the message and think about all those other people to whom it applies. You know, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, someone other than us.
But we can’t do that. The Church says this viper sermon of John’s is the gospel, the good news of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew. For most of us, though, threats, anger, and judgement are not good news.
We would rather hear and think about sweet baby Jesus. But John’s not preaching a Christmas sermon. John doesn’t mention a beautiful night with a bright shining star to guide us. There are no humble and gentle shepherds guarding their flocks by night; no wise men bearing gifts from afar. John’s not looking at a manger scene where the little Lord Jesus lays down his sweet head. He seems to have forgotten the innocent but faithful Virgin. The name Jesus isn’t even mentioned in today’s gospel. This is Advent, the season when wrath, axes, and unquenchable fire are talked about as good news.
John is looking for God to do something drastic, right now. John’s message is, “Repent – turn or burn!” His refrain is, “Wrath, axes, fire.” God’s coming and he’s going to get you.
I suspect that part of our discomfort with John and his name-calling, his preaching of wrath, axes, and fire is, or at least should be, that at some level we know he’s right. When we look around our world, watch the news, or examine our own lives we’re confronted with the reality of John’s words. Our world and our lives are not as they should be, as they can be, as God wills them to be. We could each name the sinful or broken places of our lives and world: anger, violence, greed, poverty, homelessness, war, lives controlled by fear, years of guilt that have crippled us. The list could go on and on.
There’s only one sin worse than the evil itself and that is indifference to that evil. Indifference is more insidious than the evil itself; more universal, more contagious, and more dangerous. Often, we live such busy, exhausted lives that we have become indifferent to what is happening in the world, indifferent to the needs of another human being. Maybe our world view, even our church view, is so small that if something doesn’t directly affect our lives or those we love, then it is of no consequence to us. Sometimes the pain and fear in our lives causes us to be indifferent to those relationships that need forgiveness and reconciliation. Maybe we have become indifferent to ourselves and can no longer see the original beauty with which God created us. Perhaps indifference has convinced us that our life is meaningless. Indifference comes in many forms. It’s always sneaky, often disguising itself as freedom or independence.
John’s cry of repentance is the call to turn away from our indifference to engage, at a life-changing level, the coming kingdom, and the way that kingdom reorders our relationships and priorities. John’s words are words of interrogation. Do we care enough to change our lives and the world in which we live? Do we love enough to get angry about the suffering and plight of other human beings – even if we’ve never met them?
God does. That’s why divine wrath, axes and fire are good news. God loves enough to get angry. The good news is that our God is not indifferent. God is not indifferent to creation. God is not indifferent to the evil and suffering in this world. God is not indifferent to God’s people. God is not indifferent to your life or mine.
God’s anger is the rejection of indifference. God is paying attention, and is present in this world, in our lives. The anger of God is a form of God’s presence and love in this world. God’s anger is not offered as a punishment but as an encouragement to change, to turn our lives around. That can be frightening and even painful. But there is an agony even more excruciating. That is the agony of being forsaken, discarded, rejected, and abandoned. It is the agony of being the object of indifference.
God’s anger is never the goal. The goal of divine anger is not punishment and retribution. Divine anger is the means, the instrument. The goal is love and relationship. Divine anger recognizes and celebrates the existence, the sacredness, and the value of every human life.
Divine wrath is God’s expression of longing for us. It is God saying to you and me, “You are worthy of my time and attention. Your lives are worthy of being judged. I care and love you enough to get angry when you settle for less than I am giving you, when you accept being less than you are called to be.
Wrath, axes, and fire are God’s calling us to turn away from, to repent of, our indifference. Where does indifference rule our lives? How have we become indifferent to ourselves, to others, even to God? In what ways does indifference deny each of us the Kingdom of Heaven?
To name the places and ways of our indifference is the beginning of repentance and the Kingdom of Heaven has come just a bit nearer than it was before.
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
Amen
Let us declare our faith in God
Do you believe and trust in God the Father, source of all being and life, the one for whom we all exist?
We believe and trust in him.
Do you believe and trust in God the Son, who took our human nature, died for us and rose again?
We believe and trust in him.
Do you believe and trust in God the Holy Spirit, who gives life to the people of God and makes Christ known in the world?
We believe and trust in him.
This is the faith of the Church.
This is our faith.
We believe and trust in one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Amen
Hymn: 486 We have a gospel to proclaim
Our Intercessions
Prayer is the burden of a sigh, the falling of a tear, the upward glancing of an eye when none but God is nigh.
Dear Lord
On this the second Sunday in Advent, we bring before You all our innermost thoughts and concerns as we prepare to celebrate the anniversary of Your birth.
Too often we are too busy with all our preparations for Christmas and we forget to spend time preparing ourselves for the celebration of Your birth.
Too often we are too busy to set aside a quiet time each day to talk to You and to ask for Your guidance and forgiveness.
In this time of Advent may we prepare ourselves, in quiet humility, to join with those who visited the stable, so long ago, to offer our gift to You – the only gift we really have, the gift of ourselves.
Lord, in your mercy: hear our prayer
Lord, may we have faith, like John the Baptist, whose faith was strong enough to believe even in a desert that your father and his kingdom were no farther away than his hands. Make our hearts strong like his, not swayed by trials or snared by false pleasures. Give us the courage to be faithful until your promises are fulfilled.
Lord, in your mercy: hear our prayer
During Advent this year, please help church communities and each one of us, to prepare and be ready, in many imaginative ways, for the coming of the Christ Child. Help us to understand through them the different truths about God’s amazing love and grace.
During this time, may we remember those, in our own families, communities, country, and around the world for whom Christmas this year will not be a time of celebration. We bring before You all those who live in poverty that makes each day an interminable struggle; those in war torn countries, for whom fear and terror are constant emotions; those whose lives have been torn apart by both man-made and natural disasters, those who are lonely or in despair.
We pray that they may feel Your love and blessing and know that they are never alone.
Lord, in your mercy: hear our prayer
Lord, we pray for those we see and talk to everyday; for those we often argue with and misunderstand; for those who brighten our lives and make us smile; for a greater thankfulness and appreciation of those we usually take for granted.
We ask Your forgiveness for when we have fallen far short of living our lives as You would have us live them; for the unkind or thoughtless words we have said, for the unkind or thoughtless deeds we have done, for the putting of ourselves and our own wishes before the needs of others.
May we, this Advent time, think of how we can truly become Your followers living our lives and treating others as You would wish us to do.
Lord, in your mercy: hear our prayer
We bring before You all those who are suffering in body, mind or spirit. May they know that if they stretch out their hand to You, You will take it and lovingly guide and comfort them through whatever they may have to face.
We especially bring before you: We especially bring before You: Reverend Diane, Ken, Brian, May, Susan, Tony, Jan, Lynda, Dot, Maureen, Pam and David, Sandra, Roger and Helen, Michael and Patricia, Rob and Alison, Mary, Jeremy, Anita and Stephen, Callum and Elaine, Sue and Martin, Margaret and John, Coral and Paul, Barbara, Simone, Felicity, Dinah, Daphne and David, Liz, David and Jeanette, Stanley, Carol, John, all those known to each of us and those who have no one to pray for them.
We bring before you all those who have died this week, those known to us and those who have passed unnoticed. We ask that You welcome them into the eternal peace of Your kingdom and comfort their families and friends who are left behind.
Dear Lord,
O Thou by whom we come to God, the Life, the Truth, the Way, The path of prayer thyself hast trod; Lord, teach us how to pray.
Rejoicing in the fellowship of St Andrew, St Allen and St Clement and all Christian people to your unfailing love.
Merciful Father, accept these prayers for the sake of your son, our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen
We say together:
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
Voice in the Wilderness
In the wilderness vast, where the wild winds blow,
A prophet emerged, with heart all aglow.
Born of a promise, a miracle’s grace,
John would prepare the Messiah’s embrace.
Clad in garments of camel, with locusts to dine,
He roamed the rough terrain, a spirit divine.
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven draws near!
Make way for the Lord, let your hearts be clear!”
The people came flocking from cities and towns,
With burdens of sin, in their sorrowful crowns.
They sought out the truth, in the depths of their souls,
For John spoke of hope, and the healing of holes.
“Baptism of water,” he called from the shore,
“An outward reflection, of what’s at your core.
But one comes after me, whose sandals I’m not,
Worthy to carry; His fire will be hot.”
With a voice like thunder, and eyes full of fire,
He preached to the masses, igniting desire.
The Pharisees came, with their questions and doubt,
But John saw their hearts, and he called them out.
Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee?
Bear fruits of repentance let your hearts be free!
Don’t claim Abraham’s blood, as your shield from the knife,
For God can raise children from stones to new life.
In the muddy waters of Jordan, he stood
With hands raised in faith, as he called to the good.
Come forth, all you sinners, your burdens laid bare,
For the love of the Father is waiting to share.
The Peace
Jesus says: ‘Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.
Do not let your hearts be troubled,
Neither let them be afraid.’
The peace of the Lord be always with you.
Hymn: 11 O come O come, Emmanuel
The Blessing
As we await our coming Saviour, may we go in peace and love to serve the Lord. Amen