• Who We Are
    • Who We Are
    • Mission
    • History
    • General Synod
    • Leadership and Ministry
    • Staff
    • United Church of Christ Board
  • What We Believe
    • What We Believe
    • Worship Ways
    • Daily Devotional
  • What We Do
    • What We Do
    • Office of the General Minister & President
    • Justice & Local Church Ministries
    • Wider Church Ministries
  • News
  • Church Finder
  • Donate Now
  • Search
UCC Logo United Church of Christ
  • Church Finder
  • Events
  • Contact
  • Store
  • Frontline Faith Portal
  • Donate Now
  • Search
  • Who We Are
    • Column
      • About
        • Mission
        • Constitution and Bylaws
        • History
          • UCC Archives
        • UCC Brand Guidelines
        • General Synod
          • Synod 33 Worship Videos
          • Past General Synods
        • Abuse Prevention
    • Column
      • Structure
        • Conferences
        • Affiliated Ministries
          • The Pension Boards
          • Cornerstone Fund
          • Insurance Board
          • The Council for Health and Human Services Ministries
          • Church Building & Loan Fund
          • Convergence
    • Column
      • Team
        • Elected Officers
        • Staff
        • United Church of Christ Board
          • Board Minutes
        • Office of General Counsel
        • UCCOSSN
    • Column
      • Career Opportunities
      • Annual Reports
  • What We Believe
    • Column
      • Worship
        • Statement of Faith of the United Church of Christ – La Declaración de Fe de la Iglesia Unida de Cristo
        • Worship Ways
        • Daily Devotional
        • Sermon Seeds
  • How We Serve
    • Column
      • Office of the General Minister & President
        • Welcome to Human Resources
          • Employee Relations Resources
        • Center for Analytics, Research & Development and Data (CARDD)
          • General CARDD FAQs
          • About The Center for Analytics, Research & Development, and Data (CARDD)
          • Authorized Minister Opt Out
          • Access UCC
          • Archived Reports
          • Assessment Resources
          • Information Policies and Requests
          • Faith Communities Today (FACT) Survey
          • MissionInsite
          • Statistics and Reports
          • Vital Signs and Statistics Blog
          • Data Hub FAQs
          • Data Hub
          • Yearbook and Directory
    • Column
      • Justice & Local Church Ministries
        • Justice
          • Faithful Action Ministries
            • Environmental Justice Ministries
            • Economic Justice
            • Racial Justice
          • Office of Public Policy & Advocacy in Washington D.C.
            • Justice and Peace Action Network
            • Our Faith Our Vote
            • Justice Training Resources
            • Action Center
          • Health and Wholeness Advocacy
            • Disabilities and Mental Health Justice
            • Encuentros Latinx
            • UCC HIV & AIDS Network-UCAN
            • LGBTQ Ministries
            • Our Whole Lives
            • Overdose and Drug Use Ministries
            • Scouting
            • Wellness Ministries
          • The Pilgrim Press & Stillspeaking Publications
    • Column
      • Justice & Local Church Ministries
        • Local Church
          • The Faith Education, Innovation and Formation (Faith INFO)Team
            • Weekly Seeds
            • Youth & Young Adults
          • Worship Resources
            • Worship Ways
            • Sermon Seeds
            • Synod 33 Worship Videos
            • Music and Liturgical Arts
          • Stewardship & Generosity Resources
          • Ministerial Excellence, Support & Authorization (MESA)
            • History, Polity, and Theology
            • Search and Call
            • Ministerial Profiles
            • Ministry Opportunities
            • Manual on Ministry
    • Column
      • Wider Church Ministries
        • Global Ministries
        • Global H.O.P.E.
          • Volunteer Ministries
          • Refugee and Migration Ministries
          • Disaster Ministries
          • Recovering Hope
        • Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations
  • Resources
  • News
    • Column
      • News
        • United Church of Christ News
    • Column
      • Columns
        • Witness for Justice
        • Into the Mystic
        • Getting to the Root of It
        • The Pollinator: UCC Environmental Justice Blog
        • UCC Roots
        • Encounters at the Well
        • Reflexiones
    • Column
      • Upcoming Events
        • Webinars
      • Subscriptions at the United Church of Christ
      • Changes & Deaths
  • Giving
    • Column
      • Donate Now
      • Ways to Give
        • Giving Tuesday
        • General Synod 2021 Thursday in Black Offering
        • General Synod 2021 Racial Justice Offering
        • Disaster Ministries: How to Give
        • Our Church’s Wider Mission
          • Our Church’s Wider Mission Basic Support
          • Strengthen the Church
          • One Great Hour of Sharing
          • Neighbors in Need
          • Christmas Fund
          • 5 for 5
    • Column
      • Ways We Give
        • Scholarships & Grants

  • Home
  • Worship Ways
  • Blain, Susan
  • Advent 4 – December 20

Advent 4 – December 20

Service Prayers
for the  Fourth Sunday of Advent, Year B
December 20, 2020

2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16  •  Luke 1:46b-55 •  Romans 16:25-27   •  Luke 1:26-38

Since Congregations are returning to “in-person” services at different paces, Worship Ways for will be edited for online use.  “Rubrics” for virtual services will be noted in red;  take and adapt as you need!

Leader should speak the lines of the people, along with the Leader’s lines

Meditation on Community Life: The Advent Wreath

The Advent Wreath, which in recent years has been adopted enthusiastically as a congregational ritual during public worship, actually began as an at-home devotional practice. So if your church is worshipping virtually, encourage your members to create an Advent Wreath in their households. 

An Advent wreath has 5 candles arranged in a circle.  Candles may be tapers, or pillars:
           3 blue or purple, lit on 1st, 2nd and 4th Sundays
           1 rose or pink, lit on 3rd Sunday
           1 white or gold, placed in the center, to be lit on Christmas Eve.
           Surround the candles with evergreen boughs, or other decorative elements that speak to the season of the year. You may want to hold off on the reds and greens of Christmas; Advent is a celebration of anticipation, waiting, getting ready.

          Each week of Advent you may invite a household to share their Advent wreath, and take the lead in lighting the appropriate candles.                    

          The Advent Candle Lighting time may be used at the start of worship, or perhaps during the Sermon time, as an interactive devotional time, or a simple Bible study.  It may be a moment to help the community reflect on the year past, with its trauma and displacements, in light of the scriptures that call us to faithfully get ready for a new moment in the coming of Christ

 

           Week Four     The readings this week tell the beginning of the almost-too-familiar story of Incarnation.  2 Samuel 7 reveals  God longing to be among the people. At long last “at rest from their enemies”,  King David worries that the Presence of God with Israel dwells in temporary shelter.  David wants to honor God with a more permanent tabernacle.  But God’s Prophet Nathan challenges him:  “Are you the one to build God a house?” Since the time of  Exodus, God has been content to “move about” with the people in their midst, in tent and shelter, intimately engaged with them as they make their precarious  way in the world.  God’s desire is to “plant” the weary  people in a place of safety with wise leadership, and access to God’s own Presence.

Although in another generation Israel will build a Temple with a space set apart for the Holy One, in this moment God desires to  live life “on the ground” with the people. David’s descendants, however,  will have a different kind of house:  a dynasty formed from the family of the humble shepherd, called into leadership by God.

The Gospel of Luke tells the story of God again seeking  dwelling place amidst the people, in Mary’s womb.  Mary, who is part of a poor branch of David’s house, will offer the Holy One  shelter and nourishment to  grow into the fulness of human life.

One of Mary’s ancient titles in the Church is Theotokos, “God-Bearer”. Her dialogue with the Angel sets the stage for the Holy One to continue the direct and intimate involvement of  the Divine with humanity—incarnation as one of us—Divine love and presence becoming flesh of our flesh, bone of our bone. Her song of joy in the Magnificat declares the promise  of such Love, to change the world from within to become a place of justice and peace.

           Invite someone to read aloud  2 Samuel 7: 1-9a.
           Why would God choose to be at work in the world from the inside out?
           How does it feel to know God longs to be with us?

 

           Light four candles:

O Holy One, we light this fourth candle,
And marvel at your desire to be one with us.
Let its flame summon hearts grown cold
Into the warmth of a people living in         
The Light of Love.   
Fill our lives with Love,
making room there for friends and strangers,
all who desire to know you, God with us,
As we work for justice and peace in the service of Hope.

People:        Out loud, but muted
                     God be with us  in this Light of Love.

Call to Worship    

                     Sing out, my soul! 
                     Sing of the holiness of God:
People:         Out loud, but muted
                      Who has delighted in humanity;
                      lifted up the poor, satisfied the hungry,
                      given voice to the silent,
                      and grounded the oppressor.

                     God has blessed the full-bellied with emptiness,
                     And given the gift of tears
                     To those who have never wept;
People:         Out loud, but muted
                      God has desired the darkness of the womb,
                      and inhabited our flesh–

                     Sing of the longing of God:
People:         Out loud, but muted
                      Sing out, my soul!                        

 ©1992 Janet Morley, All Desires Known, adapted
                                           Reproduced with permission

 

Invocation

O Wondrous God,
send your Messenger to us today with a word of grace
         if we are fearful, move us to Confidence.
         If we are weary, offer us Rest.
         If we are empty, fill us with Hope.
We have been searching for you far away;
Let us find you at home in our midst,
Changing hearts and minds
Urging us to join your work of Love.
          We pray in the name of the One who is coming,
          Jesus, the Christ.
Amen.

 

Prayer of Confession

Do not be afraid, said Gabriel,
surprising Mary
and confronting her with the decision of her life.
Do not be afraid, God is with you.
2020 has confronted many of us
with life-changing circumstances and decisions.
We know fear from the inside out.

          In this moment, ponder that fear. Name it, if you can, at least to yourself.

Silence
          Continue to ponder, and if you can,
          try to name where  you may hear God calling:
          Do not be afraid.

Silence; if it seems appropriate, the leader may invite people to share their experiences.

Assurance of Grace

Our God, who has been with the people since the beginning,
is with us now
offering grace that is more than we can ask or imagine.
God’s love frees us from the past,
and helps us move forward into a new future.
Let us thank God-with-Us, Emmanuel, for faithful love.         

Scripture, Sermon, Prayers of the People

 

Notes for the worship planners in 2020:

Consider a simple message or even an  interactive Bible Study that engages people with the Scriptures for today.  For the Prayers of the People, you might use a bidding prayer (“God, we pray today for those who are sick, including ….”) and encourage folk to type in their prayers using Zoom chat or Facebook Live; allow for more time in silence for those prayers to be typed and read. Consider a collective response at the end of each bidding prayer.

  • A caution regarding prayers of the People online: Folks gathered in-person often recount a lot of detail in their prayers concerning other members or family (“Elderly Name, living alone, experiencing isolation…”  In  a private, in-person gathering, this information may be safe, but online, it can expose vulnerable people to harm, since we can’t control who will join the gathering or access it later online.  Invite people to be prudent in offering prayers:  “For First name only, in need of healing”; “For First name only, comfort in grief”  etc. 

Encourage people to contact the pastor directly with news of those needed extra pastoral care

 

Call To Offering

In struggle and in joy, God is faithful to us.
We bring forth our offerings – our tithes, our treasures, our least coins –
to demonstrate our faithfulness to God.

Dedication

People:         Out loud, but muted
                     O Faithful One,
                      accept these gifts of our hearts and hands.
                      May they be multiplied and magnified
                      as the living presence of Christ  in the world. Amen.

Benediction    

Let us go forth
without fear,
creating in our lives a space for
the One who longs to dwell with us,
to share our lives,
and  bless our world,
and lead us into the Kin-dom of Justice and Peace.
      Amen.

 

Service Prayers for  Advent 4 Year B 2020 are written by the Rev. Susan A. Blain, Minister for Worship and Gospel Arts, Faith INFO Ministry Team, UCC.

Copyright 2020 Local Church Ministries, Faith  INFO Ministry Team, United Church of Christ, 700 Prospect Avenue, Cleveland, OH  44115-1100.  Permission granted to reproduce or adapt this material for use in services of worship or church education.  All publishing rights reserved.

Click to download RTF

  • Column
    • Local Church and Conference Resource Directory
    • Mission
    • Justice & Local Church Ministries
    • Wider Church Ministries
    • General Synod Resolutions
  • Column
    • Contact
    • News
    • Store

Content on ucc.org is copyrighted by the National Setting of the United Church of Christ and may be only shared according to the guidelines outlined here.

1300 E. 9th Street, Suite 1100
Cleveland, Ohio 44114

  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Follow us on Instagram
  • Subscribe on YouTube

Donate Now


UCC Crest
© United Church of Christ 2023. Privacy Policy.
Crafted by Cornershop Creative