It’s Advent, LORD, and we’re waiting … waiting as your people of old … we’ve counted the weeks … today is Advent 4 … the end is upon us … this week brings us to Christmas … and how our hearts sing with the ancient choir that greeted and startled the shepherds in the hills …
We, too, are startled by it all … that you, the Great God Almighty, set aside your robes of blue to be wrapped in simple blankets and laid in a manger … a simple setting to frighten no one … no pomp, no circumstance … a kindness beyond all measure … so that everyone, from shepherds to kings, from the common to the uncommon … from the powerful to the powerless … would all be welcomed … a place for everyone … no one intimidated, no one embarrassed for want of position or wealth …
We thank you for such grace … a place for each of us …
Help us all, we pray, to be Christmas people … to hear the sounds of angels … to see the guiding star … to bow the knee to the child of Bethlehem … to worship and adore … to follow his journey …
From Bethlehem to Nazareth … from Nazareth to the Jordan … and on to Jerusalem … to the cross … to the darkest regions of the heart … as far away as hell itself … to bring light and peace to every realm …
With Mary his mother, our souls magnify you, and we rejoice in our Savior … for he has looked with favor upon us …
O LORD our God, we are yours … though a thousand gods lay claim to our life, a thousand needs and a thousand dreams … we are yours … and we wouldn’t have it any other way …
In your goodness, we find our goodness …
In your light, we see light …
In your love, we become loving …
We pray today for your church … that her message be clear and her faith be strong … that your people be drawn together in a greater unity … that in these days of danger and opportunity, the gospel of hope may inspire us all …
Send us out from this high hour of worship to be fearless and faithful citizens of your kingdom … bearing witness to the grace of Christ our LORD …
Like the shepherds of old, O God,
Come and visit us we pray …
We’re ready and we’re needy …
And we’re ready to follow …
In the name of our LORD Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray, saying, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come,
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