Second Sunday of Advent Order of Service
We will gather together for worship service on Zoom using the following information:
MEETING ID: 5977365682
MEETING PASSWORD: 204934
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St. Peter’s Evangelical Lutheran Church
SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT Coronavirus
12-06-2020 10:00AM Worship
INTRODUCTORY WORDS TO TODAY’S WORSHIP:
Grace to you and peace from (+) God, our maker, our mercy, and our might.
As wild as the lonely desert wilderness he appears in, John the Baptist stands by the waters of baptism and calls people to repent. Repentance is a bold turnaround in our orientation to life, to values, to relationships, to God. Without God in our lives, our lives are both barren and anxious. But when God comes into our lives, we are born anew. The invitation to turn to God is right in front of you. The decision is yours. But don’t wait too long. CHRIST IS COMING! Don’t let your life be detoured or reach a dead end. Prepare the way of the Lord inside the wilderness of yourself. Help get others ready!
OPENING SONG: “Days of Elijah”
LIGHTING THE ADVENT WREATH AND PRAYER:
L In our homes and as a community of faith on Zoom, we gather to pray our lost hopes, our broken peace, our limited joys, and love so hard to find and to share in this season of coronavirus.
C The candles on the wreath mean that we claim the power to call this season ADVENT, because we believe that God’s light continues to COME into this troubled world, into a wounded heart, and into a seeking community of faith. And nothing can overcome it! Jesus Christ is still our true light!
L Last Sunday we lit the first candle, the CANDLE OF HOPE. We now light the CANDLE OF PEACE in spite of – too many deaths to gun violence… hate, anger, and racism… post-election unrest and threats… depression and addiction… dangerous homes… nations and tribes in constant conflict around the world.
C Even now the voice cries in the wilderness to both comfort and warn us.
Even now God is ready to be gentle, God is ready to judge.
If I’m not ready soon, it will soon be too late.
Thank God for God’s mercy! Thank God for Jesus Christ!
[The second candle, sometimes called the CANDLE OF PEACE, is lit.]
L God’s peace illuminates the possibility of reconciliation and healing, and it brightens the path to joy.
This morning we pray:
C Come, O Holy One, and stir our hearts to shine with your hope and your peace.
We want to be right and do right, that we might be ready and make others ready.
We renounce evil; we claim your love; we choose to be set free and made whole.
Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly! Hallelujah!
SUNG VERSE: “We need to hear from You, we need a word from You.
If we don’t hear from You, what will we do?
Wanting You more each day, show us Your perfect way.
There is no other way that we can live.”
FIRST READING: Isaiah 40:1-11 [Repentance that is encouraged by blessed assurance.]
SONG SELECTION
SECOND READING: 2 Peter 3:8-15a [Repentance that is motivated by holy fear.]
GOSPEL VERSE: “Come by here, my Lord, come by here;
come by here, my Lord, come by here;
Come by here, my Lord, come by here. O LORD, COME BY HERE!
(2) Someone needs You, Lord, come by here…
(3) Send a blessing, Lord, come by here… “
GOSPEL: Mark 1:1-8 [Repentance that is generated by fiery preaching.]
THE SERMON: Pastor Gwen or Pastor Neil
SONG RESPONSE: “Create in Me”
OFFERING PRAYER:
O Lord, we open our hearts and our lives to your presence, power, and promises!
Give us the spirit and the patience, we pray, to bear your light to all who sit in the shadows of darkness.
Help us shine upon lost hopes, broken peace, missing joy, and love too hard to find and to share.
May your Kingdom come soon – both to us and also through us. AMEN.
MUSIC SELECTION Dennis Fortune
THE PRAYERS… We pray for the world to be redeemed, the Church reformed, and all people restored!
(sung at beginning and end) “Oh… hear us. Oh, hear us. Oh… hear us, Lord. Hear us, Lord… hear us.”
(sung after each intercession) “Hear us, Lord… hear us.”
THE LORD’S PRAYER
SONG SELECTION:
THE BENEDICTION by one of the Pastors.