Christmas Eve Candles, Carols, Scripture, Communion

 

Christmas Eve 2012 Candlelight Service

Lessons and Carols and Communion

The Welcome Table:

A Free Universalist Christian Missional Community

www.progressivechurchplanting.blogspot.com

 

INVOCATION

Today is the day which God has made:

Let us rejoice and be glad therein.

What is required of us?

To live justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God.

This is our covenant as we walk together in life in the ways of God known and to be made known: In the light of truth, and the loving and liberating spirit of Jesus, we gather in freedom, to worship God, and serve others

INVITATION
from "Christmas Beatitudes" by David Rhys Williams

On this blessed day let us worship at the altar of joy, for to miss the joy of Christmas is to miss its holiest secret. Let us enter into the spiritual delights which are the natural heritage of child-like hearts.
Let us withdraw from the cold and barren world of prosaic fact if only for a season. That we may warm ourselves by the fireside of fancy, and take counsel of the wisdom of poetry and legend.
Blessed are they who have vision enough to behold a guiding star in the dark mystery which girdles the earth;
Blessed are they who have imagination enough to detect the music of celestial voices in the midnight hours of life.
Blessed are they who have faith enough to contemplate a world of peace and justice in the midst of present wrongs and strife.
Blessed are they who have greatness enough to become at times as a little child.
Blessed are they who have zest enough to take delight in simple things;
Blessed are they who have wisdom enough to know that the kingdom of heaven is very close at hand, and that all may enter in who have eyes to see and ears to hear and hearts to understand.

CALL TO WORSHIP HYMN

"O COME, ALL YE FAITHFUL"

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
O Come, let us adore him, O come let us adore him,
O come let us adore him, Christ the Lord.

Sing choirs of angels, Sing in exultation,
O Sing, all ye citizens, of heaven above
Glory to God, In the highest
O Come let us adore him, O come, let us adore him
O come let us adore him, Christ the Lord.

LIGHTING THE ADVENT & CHRIST CANDLES
In Advent season each week we have pointed the way to Christmas. Peace, Joy, Love, and Hope, these are the touchstones in our journey preparing our hearts for this holy day when we begin again in the spirit of the Child. And so we come to Christmas once again, as have those before us through the centuries, the mighty cloud of witnesses who have lighted our way with their lives of faith, hope and unconditional love.
May the lights we burn tonight warm us with memories of their inspiration and their aspirations.
In miracle and mystery, Jesus was born, light shining in the darkness. In miracle and mystery, all are born, new lights of life full of hope.

May our lives be the Light of this Good News.
Peace and joy and hope and love---which never come easy and are easily lost—all come together in the liberating spirit of God.
May God’s light heal our lives and world.

And may this light, on this special day of birth, remind us that to be in the spirit of Christmas we must be where peace needs to be born,
Where joy needs to be sung,
Where hope needs to be found,
And where love needs to be shared.
We light these candles once again in this Season which reminds us how to live most fully all our days.

We light these candles to proclaim the coming of the light of God into the world.

With the coming of this light let there be peace. Blessed are the peacemakers.

 With the coming of this light let there be joy. Blessed are those who mourn and who suffer in this special time, that their hearts be lifted.

 With the coming of this light let there be love. Such great love helps us to love God and one another, especially our enemies.

With the coming of this light let there be hope, that goodness will prevail in our lives and world, that oppression will end, that what unites us is stronger than what divides us, that we will find our way in the light of God and fear not.

With the coming of this light let there be born once again the simple transforming freedom the Christ Child brings to the world, through which the light of God shines in all, that we may be God’s people every day, and care for one another and for all of God’s Creation, with our hearts, minds, souls, and our hands.

We light these candles to proclaim the coming of the light of God into the world.

PRAYER
O God, who hast brought us again to the glad season when we remember the birth of Jesus, grant that his spirit may be born anew in us. Open our ears that we may hear the angel songs, open our lips that we may sing with hearts uplifted, Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace, goodwill toward all. Amen. (King's Chapel Book of Common Prayer)

FIRST LESSON: Luke 2:1-7

In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. ²This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. ³All went to their own towns to be registered. ⁴Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. ⁵He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. ⁶While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. ⁷And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

"AWAY IN A MANGER"

Away in a manger, no crib for his bed,
The little Lord Jesus laid down his sweet head;
The stars in the sky looked down where he lay,
The little Lord Jesus, asleep in the hay.

The cattle are lowing, the baby awakes
But little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes
I love thee, Lord Jesus! Look down from the sky,
And stay by my cradle, till morning is nigh

SECOND LESSON: Luke 2: 8-12

⁸In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.⁹Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.¹⁰But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people:¹¹to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.¹²This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.”

"THE FIRST NOWELL"
The first Nowell, the angels did say,
was to certain poor shepherds in fields as they lay
In fields where they lay keeping their sheep
On a cold winter's night that was so deep.
Nowell, nowell, nowell, nowell,
Born is the king of Israel.

Third Lesson: Luke 2: 13-20

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,¹⁴“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!”¹⁵When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.”¹⁶So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger.¹⁷When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child;¹⁸and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them.¹⁹But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.²⁰The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

"ANGELS WE HAVE HEARD ON HIGH"

Angels we have heard on high sweetly singing o'er the plains
and the mountains in reply echoing their joyous strain
Gloria, In excelsis Deo; Gloria, In Excelsis Deo.
Shepherds why this jubilee? Why these songs of happy cheer?
What great brightness did you see? What glad tidings did you hear?
Gloria, In Excelsis Deo; Gloria, In Excelsis Deo.
Come to Bethlehem and see, Him whose birth the angels sing
Come adore on bended knee, Christ, the Lord, the newborn King.
Gloria, In Excelsis Deo. Gloria, In Excelsis Deo.

PRAYER OF PEACE AND JUSTICE
"The Work of Christmas" by Howard Thurman

When the star in the sky is gone, When the Kings and Princes are home, When the shepherds are back with their flocks, The work of Christmas begins. To find the lost, To heal the broken, To feed the hungry, To release the prisoner, To teach the nations, To bring Christ to all, to make music in the heart.

HOMILY

“For All The People”

PASTORAL PRAYERS

 

HYMN OF RESPONSE

"IT CAME UPON A MIDNIGHT CLEAR"
It came upon the midnight clear, that glorious song of old
From angels bending near the earth to touch their harps of gold
Peace on the earth, good-will to all, From heaven's all gracious King.
The world in solemn stillness lay, to hear the angels sing.

READING:

“The Christmas We Are Waiting For”

Sister Joan Chittister

The waiting time for Christmas is almost over. But so what? After all, there is nothing special about waiting. It's what we're waiting for that matters.

One of my favorite Christmas scripture readings takes place when John is in prison. It is a gospel that confronts us with the need to make a choice about what we are waiting for.

John is no small figure in scripture. He bellows to peasant and king alike across the land that the world cannot continue as it has been, that we have to learn to think differently, to live differently, to see life differently. And for those actions John paid the price. He is in prison in this scripture, for confronting King Herod.

John has unmasked the evil of the system, he has called both synagogue and empire to repent their abandonment of the Torah, their substitution of Roman law for Jewish law. John, in other words, is a strong and thunderous voice. He calls in no uncertain terms for repentance. He announces the coming of the Messiah who would -- like Moses -- free the Hebrew people again.

But in prison, John, weary from trying, disheartened by failure, surely depressed, maybe even struggling with his own faith, sends a messenger to ask Jesus what surely must be more than a rhetorical question: Are you the one who is to come or shall we wait for another?

Are you the one for whom I have spent my life preparing? Are you the one I gave up everything to announce? Are you the one who shall free Israel -- or have I wasted my time? Has it all been for nothing? "Are you the one?" John pleads.

But if John's question is bad, Jesus' answer is even worse. Tell John, who has lived to banish the empire, that the blind see, the lame walk and the poor have the gospel preached to them....

Not a single mention of an army to rout the garrisons, no talk of thunderbolts and falling thrones, no designation of the leader who would overthrow the emperor. No great religious crusade, even. No new outburst of religious enthusiasm, no embellishment of the temple, or the sacrifices, or the processions. No great blinding political or religious action at all. What John was waiting for, what John expected -- the rise of Judaism to new glory -- did not come.

The answer was searingly, astoundingly, clear. John had spent his life doing church, but Jesus did not come to do church; Jesus came to do justice. The Messiah was not about either destroying or renewing the old order. The Messiah was about building a new one where, as Isaiah said, the desert would bloom, the wilderness would rejoice, sorrow and sighing would flee away and the good news of creation would be for everyone.

On Christmas the question becomes ours to answer.

For what have we waited? For what have we given our lives? For religious symbolism or for gospel enlightenment? For the restoration of the old order or for the creation of the new?

Think carefully about the answer because on it may well depend the authenticity of our own lives and the happiness of many who are even now crippled by unjust systems, blinded by their untruths and fooled into believing that, for them, God wants it that way.

Merry Christmas to you all. And may, where you are, the desert be brought to bloom.

HYMN FOR CHRISTMAS EVE COMMUNION

"O LITTLE TOWN OF BETHLEHEM"

O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep the silent stars go by
Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light
The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.

How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is given
So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of his heaven
No ear may hear his coming, but in this world of sin
Where meek souls will receive him, still the dear Christ enters in.

COMMUNION
We lift up our hearts in God for the gifts of Life given for all.
Thanks be to God.

As Christmas reminds us of how the Divine came into the world in one so small, young, and fragile, so the Gifts of Life Abundant are in the ordinary made extraordinary, in the bread of the earth and the juice of the grape becoming food of the Spirit, incarnations of the Sacred.
Thanks be to God.
As Christmas calls us to be mindful of all those in need, all without a room, all with grief and fear, and to work for a world more just, so may this token of our daily bread, and this token of our cup of forgiveness which quenches the thirst of the soul, call us to go feed others.
Thanks be to God.
As Christmas offers us peace and light in times of darkness, may the sacred offering of this small meal, one to another, inspire us to acts of lovingkindness, all in the Spirit of the One born upon this night who showed us faithfulness without fear, preparing a welcome table for all.
Thanks be to God.

And so we join together in saying the prayer Jesus taught to those who would follow in his radically inclusive hospitable and justice-seeking way of the Spirit.

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. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever, and ever. Amen.

BREAD OF NEW LIFE, CUP OF NEW HOPE

From the beginning of the community gathered around Jesus, it is a community at its truest when it is a community that goes to the manger instead of gathering people into the inn; it is a church that is where those are who have been left out; we become our community when we go to the mangers, and we can trust that the star of Christmas will shine over us there, a greater light than all inside the inn, that we will have a community that reflects the diversity of God's world just like the diversity that gathered around the manger. Our communion is where we re-enact the manger, week after week, Christmas after Christmas, letting Christ be born anew within us so we can be born anew for the world and help it be born anew.

All are worthy and all are welcome in this free and open communion. We follow the practice of intinction, or dipping of the bread into the cup before eating.

May we remember that in our times of hunger and brokenness, of sadness even in holiday season, that God provides wholeness and abundant gifts of Creation all around us, among us, and within us all, more than enough to share with others. There is always enough of what all need if we all share and take no more than we need. That is the way it is in God’s inn called the manger, God’s welcome table, open to all regardless of who they are, what they believed, especially for those who are suffering, and oppressed. Come let us celebrate at the table the birth of the one who would make table gatherings in the midst of strangers and enemies, in the abandoned places of the Empire, reminding all there of God‘s healing presence.

The gifts of bread and juice, of plate and cup passed one to the other, are Christmas gifts from God that remind us of the gift given to the world on that first Christmas morning, and remind us of the gifts we ourselves are as we too, as all are, children of God.   

SHARING CANDLELIGHT FROM THE CHRIST CANDLE

"SILENT NIGHT"
Silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright
Round yon virgin mother and child, Holy infant so tender and mild
Sleep in heavenly peace, sleep in heavenly peace.

Silent night, holy night, shepherds quake at the sight
Glories stream from heaven afar, Heavenly hosts sing Al-le-lu-ia
Christ the Savior is born, Christ the Savior is born

Silent night, holy night, Son of God, love's pure light
Radiant beams from thy holy face, With the dawn of redeeming grace
Jesus, Lord at thy birth, Jesus Lord at thy birth.

BENEDICTION

Go now in peace, and may the peace of God go with you all the days of your life. Go now in joy, finding the deepest spirit in the simplest of things. Go now in love, dedicated to making it visible as justice for all. Go now in hope, the spirit of the Christ Child bringing light into your life and world.

Advent Hope Liturgy: Fourth Sunday, 2012

 

The Welcome Table
A Free Universalist Christian Missional Community

Following the radical Jesus in deeds not creeds. Join us in service to our community throughout the week. Our Welcome Table of Worship is open to all who welcome all, regardless of belief or denomination, race, gender, sexual orientation, age, physical abilities, economic status, or political affiliations. We don’t think Jesus would have it any other way.

Free because we are non-creedal. We don’t give theological tests for admission but encourage you to test us and try us to see if this way is for you. Universalist because we believe God is Love and All who abide in Love abide in God for all time (1 John 4:16). Christian because the generous compassionate way and story of Jesus, while not exclusively so, is our primary pathway opening up to God. Missional because we are sent to serve others more than ourselves. Community because we are made not to be autonomous individuals but to be a people of God.

Invocation
Today is the day which God has made: Let us rejoice and be glad therein.
What does the Eternal require of us? To do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.

Chalice Lighting Covenant
This is our covenant as we walk together in life as a people of God striving to make Jesus visible in the world: In the light of truth, and the loving and liberating spirit of Jesus, we gather in freedom, to worship God, and serve all.

Response For The Hour

O Lord, let my soul rise up to meet you As the day rises to meet the sun.

Fourth Sunday of Advent: The Candle of Hope

Scripture:

Luke 1:39-56

³⁹In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country,⁴⁰where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.⁴¹When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.⁴³And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me?⁴⁴For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy.⁴⁵And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”⁴⁶And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord,⁴⁷and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,⁴⁸for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;⁴⁹for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.⁵⁰His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.⁵¹He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.⁵²He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly;⁵³he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.⁵⁴He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy,⁵⁵according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”⁵⁶And Mary remained with her about three months and then returned to her home.

Lighting The Advent Candles For Peace, Joy, Love, and Hope

One: The Gospel of John speaks of Christ as the light coming into the world. In commemoration of that coming, we light candles for the four weeks leading to Christmas and reflect on the coming of Christ. Christ is coming. Christ is always coming, always entering a troubled world, a wounded heart. And so we light candles of peace, joy, love, and hope as the markers along our way in this season of Advent leading toward the manger in Bethlehem and the renewal of our spirit in the coming of Christmas.
All: Loving God, as we move through the days and weeks of this Advent season, We open all the dark places in our lives and memories to God’s healing light. Show us your creative power. Prepare our hearts to be transformed by you, That we may walk in the light of Christ always coming into the world.

One: The light of peace, may it guide us through our hurts, away from violence, grounded in justice and compassion, knowing that the deepest peace comes not from goods for the self but from The Common Good. All: Blessed are the peacemakers. Halleluia. One: The light of joy, may it surprise us with the spirit of wonder and new creation, and may we find it in the simple things of the Spirit all around us. All: We Rejoice in the Spirit of the Lord, that brings sight to the blind and healing to the wounded, freedom to the captives, liberation to the oppressed, justice to the poor, Halleluia. One: The light of love, may it open our hearts and hands to the plights of others, reminding us of the love of God for us unconditionally, renewing our lives, bringing all together in the oneness of God. All: God is Love and all who abide in Love abide in God. Halleluia. One: The light of hope, that even when we do not feel the spirit of the season, even when God seems far removed from this world and peace and justice and joy and love seem empty words, when fear is all around and our own actions and thoughts have closed the door to the inn shutting ourselves off from others and they from us, may this light of hope still shine, and with every flicker grow stronger with the faith that God is still present, still speaking, still giving birth to that which may save us all. All: In peace, in joy, in love, and in hope, we pause and ponder and pass on to others the ways of God. Halleluia.

Morning Songs of Hope and Advent: #95, There Is More Love Somewhere; #346, Come Sing A Song With Me; #244 It Came Upon The Midnight Clear

Prayer of Confession:

Gracious and Loving God, we acknowledge to you, to one another, and to ourselves that we are not what you have called us to be. We have stifled our gifts and wasted our time. We have avoided opportunities to offer kindness, but have been quick to take offense. We have pretended that we could make no contribution to peace and justice in our world and have excused ourselves from risk-taking in our own community. Have mercy on us, forgive us our sins, and help us to live our lives renewed in your Spirit. We long for peace within and without, for harmony in our families, for the well-being of our neighbors, and help us to love our enemies. Yet we have too often not made the hard choices that love requires. Show us how to walk in your path of faithfulness, hope, and love. Amen.

Please share prayers and blessings, joys and sorrows

Now we join in saying the prayer Jesus taught for all those who would follow in his way of radical compassion, courage, conscience, and commitment.
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. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

Communion

Prayer: O God, in the loving and liberating spirit of Jesus, we gather at this welcoming table open to all, remembering how Jesus gathered people from all the walks of life, stranger and friend and enemies, gave thanks to you, offered all the bread of life and the cup of blessing and proclaimed a covenant of love for all in your name. We remember too the wonder of his life, as we remember the wonder of all of Creation given unto us and how all are One. We remember the agony of his death, and all the terrors and the tyrannies that oppress people today. And we remember the power of resurrection, the mystery of faith in the everlasting Spirit, the triumph over fear. Help us to remember to practice resurrection everyday, as we remember all those who have given Love the ultimate trust and the last word and who have worked to create the beloved community of renewed and abundant life. Help us to remember with this meal especially all those who are hungry, and may we treat all our meals as sacred and to be shared. Take us, bless us, so that even in and with our brokenness we may serve others. Amen.
Jesus said I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me. And they said, Lord, when did we do this? And he said, You did this for me when you did it for the least of these. Here is the bread of life, food for the spirit. Let all who hunger come and eat. Here is the fruit of the vine pressed and poured out for us. Let all who thirst now come and drink. We come to make peace. We come to be restored in the love of God. We come to be made new as an instrument of that love. All are worthy. All are welcome.

Let us Break Bread Together on our knees, let us break bread together on our knees when I fall on my knees with my face to the rising sun o Lord have mercy on me Let us drink wine together on our knees let us drink wine together on our knees when I fall on my knees with my face to the rising sun o Lord have mercy on me let us praise God together on our knees let us praise God together on our knees when I fall on my knees with my face to the rising sun O Lord have mercy on me.

Prayers for Advent: by Kay Northcutt

Passing the Plate and Cup of Communion

1.We’re gonna sit at the welcome table, we’re gonna sit at the welcome table one of these days halleluia We’re gonna sit at the welcome table, gonna sit at the welcome table one of these days 2.All kinds of people round that table, all kinds of people round that table one of these days halleluia, all kinds of people around that table, gonna sit at the welcome table one of these days 3.No fancy style at the welcome table, no fancy style at the welcome table one of these days halleluia, no fancy style at the welcome table, gonna sit at the welcome table one of these days.

Benediction
Let us go out into the highways and byways. Let us give the people something of our new vision. We may possess a small light, but may we uncover it, and let it shine. May we use it to bring more light and understanding to the hearts and minds of men and women. May we give them not hell but hope and courage. May we preach and practice the kindness and everlasting love of God. Amen

“Go Now in Peace, Go Now in Peace, May the Love of God surround you, everywhere, everywhere, you may go.

Liturgy of Love: Third Sunday of Advent

 

The Welcome Table
A Free Universalist Christian Missional Community

Following the radical Jesus in deeds not creeds. We are a church primarily as we are in service to our community throughout the week. Our Welcome Table of Worship gatherings are another way we become church. All of our activities and worship are open to all who welcome all, regardless of belief or denomination, race, gender, sexual orientation, age, physical abilities, economic status, or political affiliations. We don’t think Jesus would have it any other way.

Free because we are non-creedal. We don’t give theological tests for admission, but encourage you to test us and try us to see if this way is for you. Universalist because we believe God is Love and All who abide in Love abide in God for all time (1 John 4:16). Christian because the generous compassionate way and story of Jesus, while not exclusively so, is our primary pathway opening up to God. Missional because we are sent to serve others more than ourselves. Community because we are made not to be autonomous individuals but to be a people of God.

Invocation
Today is the day which God has made: Let us rejoice and be glad therein. What does the Eternal require of us? To live justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God.

Chalice Lighting Covenant
This is our covenant as we walk together in life as a people of God striving to make Jesus visible in the world: In the light of truth, and the loving and liberating spirit of Jesus, we gather in freedom, to worship God, and serve all.

Response For The Hour
O Lord, let my soul rise up to meet you As the day rises to meet the sun.

Third Sunday of Advent: Love Candle
Scripture:
Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.⁸Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love…No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us…God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them…Those who say, ‘I love God’, and hate their brothers or sisters,^* are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister^* whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.²¹The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters^* also.

Lighting The Advent Candle For Love
One: We have lighted two candles---for peace, and for joy. Today we light the third candle—the candle of love. With this flame we signify the love of God that surrounds and fills us at all times, but that we recognize in a special way in the Christmas story. There is no greater power than love. It is stronger than rulers and empires, stronger than grief or despair, stronger even than death. All in God’s love for all.

All: Loving God, we open ourselves to you this Christmas season. As these candles are lit, light up our lives with your imagination. Teach us the peace that comes from justice. Fill us with the kind of joy that cannot be contained, but must be shared. Magnify your love within us. Prepare our hearts to be transformed by you, That we may walk in the light of Christ. Amen.

Advent Songs: #95, There Is More Love; #131 Love Will Guide Us; #225 O Come O Come

Sharing Prayers followed by Lord’s Prayer

Now we join in saying the prayer Jesus taught for all those who would follow in his way of radical compassion, courage, conscience, and commitment.
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. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

Communion
Prayer: O God, in the loving and liberating spirit of Jesus, we gather at this welcoming table open to all, remembering how Jesus gathered people from all the walks of life, stranger and friend and enemies, gave thanks to you, offered all the bread of life and the cup of blessing and proclaimed a covenant of love for all in your name. We remember too the wonder of his life, as we remember the wonder of all of Creation given unto us and how all are One. We remember the agony of his death, and all the terrors and the tyrannies that oppress people today. And we remember the power of resurrection, the mystery of faith in the everlasting Spirit, the triumph over fear. Help us to remember to practice resurrection everyday, as we remember all those who have given Love the ultimate trust and the last word and who have worked to create the beloved community of renewed and abundant life. Help us to remember with this meal especially all those who are hungry, and may we treat all our meals as sacred and to be shared. Take us, bless us, so that even in and with our brokenness we may serve others. Amen.


Jesus said I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me. And they said, Lord, when did we do this? And he said, You did this for me when you did it for the least of these. Here is the bread of life, food for the spirit. Let all who hunger come and eat. Here is the fruit of the vine pressed and poured out for us. Let all who thirst now come and drink. We come to make peace. We come to be restored in the love of God. We come to be made new as an instrument of that love.
#406, Let us Break Bread Together on our knees
Passing the Plate and Cup of Communion

Benediction
Let us go out into the highways and byways. Let us give the people something of our new vision. We may possess a small light, but may we uncover it, and let it shine. May we use it to bring more light and understanding to the hearts and minds of men and women. May we give them not hell but hope and courage. May we preach and practice the kindness and everlasting love of God. Amen

“Go Now in Peace, Go Now in Peace,

May the Love of God surround you, everywhere, everywhere, you may go.”

Advent 2012: Joy and Peace Liturgy For Second Sunday, Dec. 9

 Here is the worship service for Advent Second Sunday we used on Dec. 9. This coming Sunday Dec. 16 we will light the third candle, for Love, and have our special liturgy shaped around the waiting, the preparation, for the coming of Love into our hearts, our lives, our pocketbooks, our faith. It was appropriate that we held our Annual Christmas Party for the neighborhood on this past Sunday, since it was a Sunday to lift up Joy. Here are images from the party to accompany the liturgy...

The Welcome Table
A Free Universalist Christian Missional Community

Following the radical Jesus in deeds not creeds. Join us in service to our community throughout the week. Our Welcome Table is open to all who welcome all, regardless of belief or denomination, race, gender, sexual orientation, age, physical abilities, economic status, or political affiliations. We don’t think Jesus would have it any other way.

Free because we don’t require creedal adherence, even though we may find much truth and wisdom in the ancient creeds and statements of the church. We don’t give theological tests for admission, but encourage you to test us to see if this way is for you. Universalist because we believe God is Love and All who abide in Love abide in God for all time (1 John 4:16). Christian because the generous compassionate way and story of Jesus, while not exclusively so, is our primary pathway opening up to God. Missional because we are sent to serve others more than ourselves. Community because we are made not to be autonomous individuals but to be a people of God.

Invocation
Today is the day which God has made: Let us rejoice and be glad therein.
What does the Eternal require of us? To live justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God.

Chalice Lighting and Covenant Affirmation
This is our covenant as we walk together in life as a people of God striving to make Jesus visible in the world: In the light of truth, and the loving and liberating spirit of Jesus, we gather in freedom, to worship God, and serve all.

O Lord, let my soul rise up to meet you As the day rises to meet the sun.

Advent: Welcome To A New Kind of Time Zone
Celebrating Joy and Peace

Lighting The Advent Candle For Peace

One: The Gospel of John speaks of Christ as the true light coming into the world. In
commemoration of that coming, we light candles for the four weeks leading to
Christmas and reflect on the coming of Christ, the coming of the God’s Anointing of all. It is significant that the church has always used that language—the coming of Christ—because it speaks to a deep truth. Christ is coming. Christ is always coming, always entering a troubled world, a wounded heart. And so we light the first candle, the candle of peace, and dare to
express our longing for peace, for healing, and the well-being of all creation.

All: Loving God, as we enter this Advent season, We open all the dark places in our lives and memories to the healing light. Show us your creative power. Prepare our hearts to be transformed by You, that we may walk in the light of the way of Jesus.

One: We light this candle knowing full well that peace is elusive, and in some parts of the world, it is almost completely absent. Yet in this season of Advent, we trust that God is never absent from us, especially even in our times of struggle. God is always preparing something new.

All: And even where there is war and discord, whether between countries, within families, or within our own hearts. God is present, gently leading us to new possibilities.
---Jeanyne Slettom, alt.

From Morning Songs of Peace: Dona Nobis Pacem, I’ve Got Peace Like A River, Gonna Lay Down My Sword and Shield

 Hymn For Advent: O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
O come, O come, Emmanuel, And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here, Until the Son of God appear
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel, Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Day-Spring come, and cheer Our spirits by Thine advent here
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night, And death's dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel, Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O Come, you Splendor very bright, as joy that never yields to might
O Come, and turn all hearts to peace, that greed and war at last shall cease.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel, Shall come to thee, O Israel.

Prayer of Peace by St. Francis
O God help us to be instruments of Thy peace. Where hate rules let us bring love;
where injury, pardon; where discord, union; where doubt, faith; where despair, hope;
where darkness, light; where sorrow, joy. Let us strive more to comfort others than to be comforted; to understand others--than to be understood; to love others--than to be loved. For it is in giving, that we receive, and in pardoning, that we are pardoned; it is in dying that we are raised to eternal life.

Lighting The Advent Candle For Joy
One: Joy is all around us—in the children, the lights, the music, the gathering together. But how often do we let our preparations—or our memories—push joy to the side?

All: Joy is like an underground spring that wells up within us, but joy is also a choice, an attitude. Like a muscle, it needs to be exercised. So today we open ourselves to joy, trusting that God has already planted it in us. All we need to do is give it care and offer it to share.

One: Loving God, we open ourselves to you, trusting that this is how you made us: you created us for joy-filled hearts and lives. Show us the creative power of hope. Teach us the peace that comes from justice. Fill us with the kind of joy that cannot be contained, but must be shared. Prepare our hearts to be transformed by you, that we may walk in the light of the way of Jesus.

All: We will Rejoice for God has created us with the capacity for joy. We will find what makes us joyful, and make that our gift to the world. We will trust in God's good will for all of creation and open ourselves to God's gentle, transforming love. We will welcome new possibilities in our lives. We will offer ourselves to God's goodness. We will go forth in peace, and joy.

From Morning Songs: #30, Over My Head; #29, Joyful, Joyful; #95, There Is More Love

 Hymn For Advent: Angels We Have Heard on High

Scripture:

True Peace and Joy Comes Through Justice

And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord,⁴⁷and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,⁴⁸for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;⁴⁹for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.⁵⁰His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.⁵¹He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.⁵²He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly;⁵³he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.⁵⁴He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy,⁵⁵according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.” From Luke 1

Prayer of Confession: Gracious and Loving God, we acknowledge to you, to one another, and to ourselves that we are not what you have called us to be. We have stifled our gifts and wasted our time. We have avoided opportunities to offer kindness, but have been quick to take offense. We have pretended that we could make no contribution to peace and justice in our world and have excused ourselves from risk-taking in our own community. Have mercy on us, forgive us our sins, and help us to live our lives differently. We long for peace within and without, for harmony in our families, for the well-being of our neighbors, and the love for our enemies. Yet we have too often not made the hard choices that love requires. Show us how to walk in your path of faithfulness, hope, and love. Amen.
Words of Assurance: One fact remains that does not change: God loves all, for all time. This is the good news that brings new life. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Please share prayers and blessings, joys and sorrows

Now we join in saying the prayer Jesus taught for all those who would follow in his way of radical compassion, courage, conscience, and commitment.
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. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

Communion
Prayer: O God, in the loving and liberating spirit of Jesus, we gather at this welcoming table open to all, remembering how Jesus gathered people from all the walks of life, stranger and friend and enemies, gave thanks to you, offered all the bread of life and the cup of blessing and proclaimed a covenant of love for all in your name. We remember too the wonder of his life, as we remember the wonder of all of Creation given unto us and how all are One. We remember the agony of his death, and all the terrors and the tyrannies that oppress people today. And we remember the power of resurrection, the mystery of faith in the everlasting Spirit, the triumph over fear. Help us to remember to practice resurrection everyday, as we remember all those who have given Love the ultimate trust and the last word and who have worked to create the beloved community of renewed and abundant life. Help us to remember with this meal especially all those who are hungry, and may we treat all our meals as sacred and to be shared. Take us, bless us, so that even in and with our brokenness we may serve others. Amen.
Jesus said I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me. And they said, Lord, when did we do this? And he said, You did this for me when you did it for the least of these. Here is the bread of life, food for the spirit. Let all who hunger come and eat. Here is the fruit of the vine pressed and poured out for us. Let all who thirst now come and drink. We come to make peace. We come to be restored in the love of God. We come to be made new as an instrument of that love. All are worthy. All are welcome. ---Food For the Spirit, Rob Eller-Isaacs

Let us Break Bread Together

Passing the Bread of Life and the Cup of Hope

Benediction
Let us go out into the highways and byways. Let us give the people something of our new vision. We may possess a small light, but may we uncover it, and let it shine. May we use it to bring more light and understanding to the hearts and minds of men and women. May we give them not hell but hope and courage. May we preach and practice the kindness and everlasting love of God. Amen ---John Murray

Hymn #413” “Go Now in Peace, Go Now in Peace, May the Love of God surround you, everywhere, everywhere, you may go.”

Advent Sermon: Incarnation...of peace and justice in an abandoned place of the American Empire

 

Incarnation,

sermon to UU Church of Galveston, TX, Dec. 2, 2012, First Sunday of Advent Rev. Ron Robinson

Readings:

Ancient: “There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves.²⁶People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.²⁷Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in a cloud’ with power and great glory.²⁸Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

²⁹Then he told them a parable: “Look at the fig tree and all the trees;³⁰as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near.³¹So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near.³²Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place.³³Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.³⁴“Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day catch you unexpectedly,³⁵like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth.³⁶Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”

Contemporary: ‘So what does it take to make beloved community happen? I really believe that it begins with a place. I’ve preached relocation all my life because the communities I’ve been a part of have been abandoned. Everybody left, so I called them to come back. But my real concern is for the place. If the church is going to offer some real good news in broken communities, it has to be committed to making a good life possible for people in the place where we are. If you care about a place, you’ll care about the kids in that place. If you don’t care about the kids, they’ll knock out your windows. But the kids in our neighborhood don’t knock out our windows. If the church is going to offer some real good news in broken communities, it has to be committed to a place. One of the first things we did when we came here was to put in a sandbox and build a jungle gym. We made sure there was a field for kids to play ball.

“When you’re committed to a place, you also care about the beauty of the place. The flowers around our place are important. Every summer the children come running to ask me if they can take some flowers home with them. They don’t have pretty flowers at home…Shared beauty makes people want to share life together. You don’t have to tend your flowers in a neighborhood very long before you have something to talk to your neighbors about.

“It may sound simple but I think you’ve got to have neighbors you talk to and get to know before you can love your neighbor as yourself. That’s why community development has been so important to me all these years. The church can’t organize the perfect community. If people aren’t drawn by the cords of love to a vision of beloved community, you can’t force it on them. But we can organize for justice. We can develop a community so that there is a place for people to know one another. That’s the work God has given us to do. Only God can send the rain, but we can till the ground by committing to a place and making sure people can flourish there. That’s the first thing the church has to do if we’re going to interrupt the brokenness of society.

“As we commit to our communities, we also need to learn how to see them as economic places. It’s not enough to just move into a place, plant some flowers and be nice to your neighbors. All of that is good, but that won’t address the brokenness of people’s lives because the structures of the community are broken. People need work, good housing, education and health care. So the church has to invest its resources in developing the community. We also need to use our influence to get businesses and government to invest in the community. ..I wish churches spent more time thinking about how their members could love one another and share a common life by working together as a community. Part of the reason our churches are so individualistic is that we just accept the economic systems of our culture without question. We assume that the people who can get the good jobs should go wherever they have to and the people who can’t get the good jobs should just take what they can get. But churches that want to interrupt the brokenness of society ought to be about creating jobs in the community and giving neighbors an opportunity to work together. If we take our communities seriously as economic places, we’ll spend more time thinking about creating good work than we spend thinking about more relevant worship styles or bigger church buildings.”---John Perkins, “Welcome Justice”ood life possible for people in the place where we are. If you care about a place, you’ll care about the kids in that place. If you don’t care about the kids, they’ll knock out your windows. But the kids in our neighborhood don’t knock out our windows. If the church is going to offer some real good news in broken communities, it has to be committed to a place. One of the first things we did when we came here was to put in a sandbox and build a jungle gym. We made sure there was a field for kids to play ball.

“When you’re committed to a place, you also care about the beauty of the place. The flowers around our place are important. Every summer the children come running to ask me if they can take some flowers home with them. They don’t have pretty flowers at home…Shared beauty makes people want to share life together. You don’t have to tend your flowers in a neighborhood very long before you have something to talk to your neighbors about.

 Sermon:

ood life possible for people in the place where we are. If you care about a place, you’ll care about the kids in that place. If you don’t care about the kids, they’ll knock out your windows. But the kids in our neighborhood don’t knock out our windows. If the church is going to offer some real good news in broken communities, it has to be committed to a place. One of the first things we did when we came here was to put in a sandbox and build a jungle gym. We made sure there was a field for kids to play ball.

“When you’re committed to a place, you also care about the beauty of the place. The flowers around our place are important. Every summer the children come running to ask me if they can take some flowers home with them. They don’t have pretty flowers at home…Shared beauty makes people want to share life together. You don’t have to tend your flowers in a neighborhood very long before you have something to talk to your neighbors about.

“It may sound simple but I think you’ve got to have neighbors you talk to and get to know before you can love your neighbor as yourself. That’s why community development has been so important to me all these years. The church can’t organize the perfect community. If people aren’t drawn by the cords of love to a vision of beloved community, you can’t force it on them. But we can organize for justice. We can develop a community so that there is a place for people to know one another. That’s the work God has given us to do. Only God can send the rain, but we can till the ground by committing to a place and making sure people can flourish there. That’s the first thing the church has to do if we’re going to interrupt the brokenness of society.

“As we commit to our communities, we also need to learn how to see them as economic places. It’s not enough to just move into a place, plant some flowers and be nice to your neighbors. All of that is good, but that won’t address the brokenness of people’s lives because the structures of the community are broken. People need work, good housing, education and health care. So the church has to invest its resources in developing the community. We also need to use our influence to get businesses and government to invest in the community. ..I wish churches spent more time thinking about how their members could love one another and share a common life by working together as a community. Part of the reason our churches are so individualistic is that we just accept the economic systems of our culture without question. We assume that the people who can get the good jobs should go wherever they have to and the people who can’t get the good jobs should just take what they can get. But churches that want to interrupt the brokenness of society ought to be about creating jobs in the community and giving neighbors an opportunity to work together. If we take our communities seriously as economic places, we’ll spend more time thinking about creating good work than we spend thinking about more relevant worship styles or bigger church buildings."---John Perkins, "Welcome Justice"

I am glad to be here in this place, this beloved community, with you especially on this particular Sunday. First, selfishly, because it gave my family and I a chance to come to Dickens on the Strand, something that we have wanted to do since our daughters were very young. But, beyond that, I am glad to be here celebrating with you today because today is the First Sunday of the Advent Season, in the church universal’s traditional liturgical year.

The First Sunday of Advent is like the new year of and for the church. It is like living in a perpetually counter-cultural time zone. I know for many this is all strange. It gets stranger when you add in what’s called the lectionary, the way different parts of the Bible are connected to each week of the church year, in a rather thematic and seasonal way. These readings, like our ancient one today, are read and commented upon in churches across denominations as a way of also stressing the unity of the church. And before I get too heretical, this is not something completely foreign to Unitarian Universalism. Some of our churches have been following this liturgical year for hundreds of years, and a part of the core group that helped to create what is called the Revised Common Lectionary for the liturgical year was the UU Christian Fellowship, the national group founded in 1945 that employs me as Executive Director.

I will add that I think Advent has become somewhat more popular in culture and to others than just radical Christians in some respects, even especially as the culture has marginalized it. As the Consumer Christmas Season is started earlier and earlier, all because corporations can’t wait to push their markets on us, and we can’t wait to get started checking off our longer and longer to-do lists connected to Christmas, this ancient practice of commemorating Advent is being embraced anew, because it is a season precisely for and about Waiting, a season for Preparation, a season for lifting up the story of divine expectancy, pregnancy, a season of focusing on our vulnerabilities, our fears, our risky journeys and what is being born anew in surprising ways and places---there is something about it that keeps calling to us, even as the new holy holidays have emerged and begun to take hold of us, like Black Friday and now Gray Thursday and Cyber Monday and even Giving Tuesday.  Against all this, there is something intriguing and deeply soul-satisfying about this season of four Sundays beginning today that culminate in the really mind-blowing experience that the church’s Christmas Season begins, not ends, on Dec. 25, a phrase we put out each year on the portable sign in front of our community center and that confounds our neighbors and those passing by.

Let me say that this particular Advent the lectionary leads us to some strange places. More Mayan calendar December than Christmas December. That was a very apocalyptic reading from Luke for today, this start of the new church year; more reminiscent of endings than of births. It certainly isn’t very Christmasey as you will see reflected in holiday ads or made for television movies or even most Christmas songs and hymns. And maybe that is why it is really resonating with me this year, the year of waiting not for the birth of Messiah as much as the start of the Great Sale, as much as the PowerBall News, as much as the Fiscal Cliff. I think I am ready for a little “fainting from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.” Luke is trying to be reassuring though, that what others see or would see as the ending, the collapse of the Marketplace Empire and society, the ending of the way the world just is, should not frighten those for whom the Angels will appear and say Be Not Afraid, for a child is born unto you. Another way is possible and is here and is coming. Just like the parable of the fig tree; as soon as you see the first small sprouts it is as if summer in its full blown glory is already here, all it takes is a small act of love and creation; the bud on the tree is at its most vulnerable at that point, but have faith, for it is in that condition of being most fragile that the power of the Sacred is revealed most fully. What might seem to be everlasting, all the markings and making and truths of the Empire, will pass away, but not the words that bring hope to the hopeless, connection to the disconnected, though they are just words, fleeting, it is they and not the great statues and temples and palaces and armies, or our big box stores or big box churches, that will last. Beware which mission you are on. The more I contemplated that strange Advent message from scripture for today the more heartening it was. I think I am ready for Christmas to once again be a shocking spiritual message, now as it was on the first Christmas.

 But I didn’t set out to come here to preach about Advent, not directly. I was invited to preach about what we do in our missional community, our strange inside-out church, on the northside of Tulsa in its lowest income, lowest life expectancy area. But as it does, the Advent spirit kept breaking in, interrupting my lists of all we do, and how we do it, reminding me to bring you the story of what it is we really do, and what our mission really is.

Point one about missional church is that before you can talk about the church you have to talk about the world, the place, and how it shapes the mission which calls forth the church in the first place. And so let me talk about our place, which is one of those places John Perkins describes as an abandoned place, a left behind and left out place, just a few miles from the cool, trendy, popular, full of options, highest life expectancy places. We live in the 74126 zipcode right on the northern edge of Tulsa with part of our service area in the city of Tulsa and part of it in an unincorporated community called Turley. Our zipcode has a per capital income of about $13,000 a year, a life expectancy that is 14 years lower than the highest area just six miles from us, an area that has a majority of poor blacks and poor whites and an increasing percentage of poor hispanics, an area that white flight in the 60s and 70s caused the population to drop, caused us to have 40 percent of our currently vacant houses to be abandoned, not for sale or rent anymore, where just a few miles from downtown we can’t get pizza delivery, where several schools have been closed and if you take a neighborhood and look at where the children go to school you will find about ten different destinations, where the post office has been closed even though our residents do not have the computers and internet access that were blamed for causing the post offices to close, and who don’t have the transportation available to get to the remaining post offices, and there are no UPS or FedEx stores on our side of town, where 60 percent of folks say they can’t afford healthy food, and there are very few possibilities of buying healthy food even if they could, and 57 percent say they run out of food, where our food pantry we operate gives out some five tons of food each month to growing numbers, where our population is growing both older and younger at the same time, under 18 and over 60, getting more vulnerable, where property values keep going down even as you spend more and more on your house.

And yet, in part because it is where my wife and I grew up, meeting in kindergarden, we think it is a great place to live, a place whose spirit and strengths belie the statistics and the stereotypes that make people afraid to even come visit, even come work with us. Though we are getting people to move across the country to be with us. Harkening back to the Advent season and story, our place, and places like ours, are the new Nazareths, that part of the ancient Israel and Roman Empire of which it was said, “Nothing good comes from Nazareth.”

Advent is when we let the truth sink in that surprising love, peace, joy, and hope can come into the Nazareths of the world, of our lives. Nazareth was a small village living under the cruel oppression of the Roman Legion, with its farmland taken over and its peasants displaced by the Empire’s construction of the new larger cosmopolitan city of Sepphoris a few miles away. And yet how many today know of Sepphoris compared to Nazareth. This is the essence of the classic theological concept and scriptural story of Incarnation, of the embodiment of the Sacred, not only that Spirit and World transform one another, that the Word is made flesh, so to speak, but that the particular flesh, the place and people and condition into which God is born is the polar opposite of where the Caesers come from. As some of my missional church companions like to phrase it now: God pitches God’s tent in the neighborhood, the tent cities, the urban slums, and not the palaces and gated communities. The stories celebrated in Advent, in Christmas are stories of the powerless and helpless being lifted up as blessed and through which true wisdom and real strength come. Incarnation, moreover, means that the Ultimate Reality is not simply something of the mind or the heart or the spirit separate from the messy realities of existence, particularly not something separate from community, from relationships. Whatever Message we are interested in must find a home in the world, and our very Message must grow and be shaped from the World and its severe needs, and the stories of Advent and Christmas challenge us about where and with whom that home should be.

Just six years ago our small church was about to make a very big change, one that would result in a lot of change in our neighborhoods, although in the past five years conditions and outcomes where we are have gotten both better and worse at the same time. Six years ago we were celebrating Advent in our 1800 square foot rented building that proclaimed itself as a church space, having restarted there two years before after an initial start in a fast growing suburb, and in that space we sought to attract people to come to us, for worship and education and occasional meals and from where we then would go out into the neighborhoods to do clean up and help as we could interest people at the local school and in conjunction with the local community association. But then six years ago we were also in the process of moving across the street, our major thoroughfare, into a 4000 square foot rented space adjacent to a laundramat and the post office, a space that had been used as an African American nondenominational Christian church most recently but that like a lot of our commercial spaces had been vacant for more than a few years. But this time in our move we weren’t just going into a bigger space, we were going in to transform it into a community center with a library, computer center, clothing and used items space, food pantry, health clinic, and meeting space. Only in small print would you know that it was a church doing it. We became a guest in our own space given over to others, and our own worship gatherings became not our primary gatherings but something still important and that we did at times right in the space where at other times people sat and watched tv and read and waited to use the various ministries in the Center.

We made this missional move, this incarnational move, turning ourselves inside out with only a group of about 7 core people; we had no idea if we would be able to pay the increased rent and utilities, and in fact our worship attendance which had never been much over 15 or so went down as people stopped coming as regularly who were only coming for worship and social connection and not to help us live and discover our faith by mingling with and serving our neighbors. But as soon as we made the move we became connected with hundreds of our neighbors each month in ways we had never before. Our partnerships grew, we started a nonprofit with some of our neighbors to carry on the more organizational aspects and allow the church to become more organic and more in depth as a small group, always welcoming of others who wished to join with us in mission, in community, in discipleship, and in worship, but not putting as much energy into that incarnation of our mission and values and vision as we did into being the change agent and presence of hope in our abandoned place. And  then just two years ago we made another big move with our still small group: we had our eye on a block of abandoned homes and trash and debris filled yards in our area in a very otherwise scenic place overlooking downtown Tulsa, and a block that itself was on the edge bridging our incorporated and unincorporated areas, our predominantly black and predominantly white, though both predominantly poor areas. We wanted to buy the block, and transform it into a community space for gardens and orchard and outdoor events, and we did so at the same time our government was slashing funds and cutting parks and community centers. We also at the same time had our eye on what then was the largest abandoned building in our area, the oldest church building in our area that had been unused for several years except by squatters and drug users. It was in an area even more central to the poorest part of our area, surrounded also by abandoned or rundown houses, and it was 11,000 square foot and would allow us to expand all of our ministries and reclaim and repurpose what used to be a vital community asset. And we did so. And still we worship with about 4 to 12 people each Sunday.

And now our largest abandoned building in the area is the elementary school near us where my wife and I met, and which was closed two summers ago, where we had been coordinators for a summer feeding program for kids under 18 and that was stopped when the school was shut down. Now we have our eyes on it. We have a chance because of our track record in the community and local committment to buy the building for a quarter of its estimated appraised two million dollar value. We are wanting to expand our food programs, partner with others to create a healthy food hub, put in a senior citizens center that our area lacks, and use it as an event center and resource center for nonprofits and to offer G.E.D. classes which we don’t have in our area.

And we have taken lead roles in creating a school foundation for our struggling high school which was the only school in Tulsa without one to augment the shrinking funds, and we are leaders in efforts to boost our fire department, and to see if Turley can become incorporated. Pretty much every issue and project that someone wants to do in our area they now connect with us, including the Tulsa Health Department which built a new facility and clinic in our area replacing the one we had hosted for awhile in our space. And it has all been done primarily by volunteers; we need some paid staff, but so far haven’t been able to put together the funds to do so though we are working on it.

And yet, after describing all that, I want to bring Advent in again, let its spirit re-orient us and point out that all that I have mentioned is not really the best things we have done; filling in the gaps of healthy communal life is important, but it is not our mission and not what we seek to incarnate and spread among our neighborhoods so bruised and hurting and divided.

Point Two of missional church, besides place and people outside of your circle being primary, is that if you are needs-based, you will always be geared to meeting needs, and those needs will always be there. And you are apt to keep making things worse because if you forget your focus to love your neighbor, to relate to them, to let what you do emerge from your engagement first as neighbor then you will fall into the sin of destroying community in the name of community. And you will be incarnating the same kind of consumerist culture value that your ultimate value is in what you do, how many projects you have going, what your budget and grant levels are, and is not in the very sacredness of your own being as it forms relationships with the beingness of others.

And so we remind ourselves that we are not giving out food and clothes as much as community connections, as we are modeling and witnessing  a peaceful non-anxious presence, as a response of radical hospitality and abundance and mercy so that when people break in and vandalize and steal our things, we remind ourselves and our neighbors that we have no things that can’t be replaced, nothing that wasn’t given to us in the first place, and that we seek to find and be in relationship with those who have hurt us. Our task is to simply live in such a way that it will give people hope that they too can keep their hearts and hands and minds open even when their instinct and history is urging them to close them and to focus on what they don’t have or have lost.  Our success is when people stop saying “They need to…” and start saying “We can or should do…” We learn this from those without who teach us how to be more generous so we can by the way we live and respond to events help ourselves and others to grow deeper in love and in the truth that another way, another world is possible, and yes we have to wait, and prepare for it in our own lives, but it is also emerging all around us, and we must glimpse it and point it out for others.

Incarnation then is ultimately not about projects and programs and new organizations in different places; it is about creating space where people can live and work and play together deeply. There are a few movements taking root around the world where people do this intentionally and intensively. They are called new monastics and new friars. In the book, Living Mission, there are various stories of young people and families who are relocating or returning to the urban slums of the world and not starting churches or nonprofits as much as simply living and working there and modeling peace and health and hope in areas with very little of any of these. One of my favorite stories is about the Cambodian young woman whose mother had fled with her as a child during the worst days of the killing fields, but now as a young mother herself she has returned to Cambodia from the U.S. with her American husband as part of a group in the new friars movement, and their mission is to simply live among and love their neighbors and look for ways to serve; one of the most radical things this young woman did was simply to breastfeed her children there in the slums where the other moms had been sold the idea that breastfeeding wasn’t as good and progressive as using the formula marketed to them, and yet their water which they use for the formula is unhealthy and their children were becoming sick and dying because of it. As she simply breastfed and answered questions about it, and modeled it, and as her neighbors saw her children thriving, they began to also breastfeed more, and children were being saved because of it. But all the message sharing from the outside world, all the education from outsiders would have not had the impact that came from her being one of their neighbors, suffering along with them when the natural disasters come that hit them more. She, like my wife and I, are what are called returners; the book Living Mission and the work it describes from John Perkins lift up the model of connecting those people of peace who have remained in a poor area all their life, those who are returning to it, and those who are relocating intentionally to it; the gifts of these three journeys and the commitment to redistribution of goods and the Good, and to reconciliation among peoples of differences; that is the road to renewal.

The key there is people of peace, and that brings us back to this Sunday, the first week of Advent and the celebration of the first of our weeks to the incarnation of Peace. The remaining weeks of Advent we will lift up the incarnation of Joy, then Love, and finally right before Christmas Eve to Hope as what we prepare our hearts for each of these during Advent. In places of great scarcity and loss and change, finding and cultivating and connecting together people of peace is how we incarnate beloved community that John Perkins was talking about. It is what sustains us for the long haul of relationship building, of our covenant with the world, for promises made, broken, and remade, a community that knows it is not complete, cannot be called beloved, until it gives itself away to others, especially to others different from itself.

May this Advent Season take us into surprising places and to receive the blessings of peace, joy, love and hope from surprising people. May this Advent Season turn our communities into places of incarnation for the Spirit that continues to wait to be born, ready to shock the world with such simple acts of justice done with great love, acts of generosity and compassion that might not seem like much in the grand scheme of Empires but which carry in them the full vision of the changed world. May this Advent remind us that even we can be the bearers of such Surprise.

The opposite of both poverty and property is....

The ideology of “there is never enough for everyone” makes people lonely. It isolates them and robs them of relationships. The opposite of poverty isn’t property. The opposite of both poverty and property is community. For in community we become rich: rich in friends, in neighbours, in colleagues, in comrades, in brothers and sisters. Together, as a community, we can help ourselves in most of our difficulties. For after all, there are enough people and enough ideas, capabilities and energies to be had. They are only lying fallow, or are stunted and suppressed. So let us discover our wealth; let us discover our solidarity; let us build up communities; let us take our lives into our own hands and at long last out of the hands of the people who want to dominate and exploit us.

Theologian Jurgen Moltmann, "The Source of Life"