Prayers for Advent, 2025

Wednesday in 4 Advent, December 24, 2024

God of anticipating eves, for newness to come from what has been; we ponder tonight the co-existence of complete vulnerability in the midst of empires with oft cruel actors, and we bemoan the truth of when champions of the vulnerable came to power they too partook of its corruption; give us the wisdom to find the golden mean of power caring for the vulnerable in the oft frightening world of what can happen.  Amen.

Tuesday in 4 Advent, December 23, 2025

God, forgive our power mongering selves who wish for our empires to be your kingdom; help our lives to mirror your devotion and submission to the states of vulnerability, even to the infancy which demand that we be empires of care rather than empires of oppression.  Amen.

Monday in 4 Advent, December 22, 2025

God with us, you have given us the wisdom insight that we are altogether with everything always already, and this massive impinging upon our existence though only locally mediated in very limited and anthropomorphic ways give us the grace to accept our merely being human in the middle of all that is more than us.  Forgive us for using our modes of reducing your immensity to not practice love and justice with the many other merely human.  Amen.

Fourth Sunday of Advent, December 21, 2025

God, we want to be overshadowed by great wonder in oceanic ways, but our language forces us to live on contextual surface rafts to navigate the oft complicate morass of probabilities in what may happen; give us meditative grace to access our source of Wonder even as we have to be committed to the concrete particulars required in the tasks of love and justice.  Amen.

Saturday in 3 Advent, December 20, 2025

Overshadow our lives, O Holy Spirit, that the Christ nature might rise to be known in us as our original blessing of being made in the divine image and always already a member of the great family of God.  Give us grace to be good and caring family members with each other.  Amen.

Friday in 3 Advent, December 19, 2025

Eternal Word of God, we are born into worded lives and we always already qualify previous worded states with new worded states within the worded conditions we have inherited which code our existence; within the many determinations of our lives by our inherited word condition, give us wisdom to become playwrights with freedom to determine future deeds for better love and justice.  Amen.

Thursday in 3 Advent, December 18, 2025

God, you as the Mystery of All, bring us to admit that we live in a cloud of unknowing as we like sugar cubes are dissolving in the ocean honor the effect of your dissolving greatness and confess the limits of our influence; but yet let our sweet but small influence be the winsome flavors of love and justice.  Amen.

Wednesday in 3 Advent, December 17, 2025

God, we don't profess you being with us to reduce the mystery of the greatness that we cannot know except in the unavoidable connection we have with everything; we confess Jesus as the One who was with us in the necessary humility that happens because the particular co-existing with you as the great omni-General ALL.  Amen.

Tuesday in 3 Advent, December 16, 2025

God, who has been and is and will be with us, through the mystery of pre-existence of languageless statehood, infancy, adulthood, death and beyond; give us grace to live in the Withness of the All with the All all the time.  Amen.

Monday in 3 Advent, December 15, 2025

God, your immanence through the incarnation of Jesus Christ stands to us as our acceptance of our human experience as language users as having valid ways to access the beyondness to our human experience to project upon a Zone of Being what is best and greatest for what is good and just.  Give us confidence to access the  realm of hope rather than the realm of despair which is linked to what can go wrong in human experience.  Amen.

Third Sunday of Advent, December 14, 2025

God of health and salvation, the screaming outcomes of horrendous happenings in the free conditions cause us to doubt that health and salvation are truly statistically normal; give us the grace and the courage to exercise our freedom to do good things as the most hopeful way to live within a universe of freedom.  Amen.

Saturday in 2 Advent, December 13, 2025

God of the continuing Messiah and the messianic; give us the values of the Messiah of the Good News for the poor and healing for the afflicted, and let us in courage work to implement those values in our Christly practice.  Amen.

Friday in 2 Advent, December 12, 2025

God, by virtue of being persons who are language users, to use language is to project personal tones upon all that we bring to language in our primary mode of anthropomorphism and we project personality, even greatest Personhood upon You, because of the way in which personhood defines our reality; give us grace to do justice to our language use and our personhood as it is best expressed in love and justice which express superior harmonic connection.  Amen.

Thursday in 2 Advent, December 11, 2025

Help us, Good God, when we fear that goodness is losing or will lose in our world especially when godly representatives of goodness die or are silenced; give us faith to believe in the spontaneous replication of goodness even in environments of the apparent success of evil.  Amen.

Wednesday in 2 Advent, December 10, 2025

Jesus, who proclaimed the good news, forgive us if we claim a Gospel which does not bring actual good news to people who are poor for whom the toleration of their poverty cannot qualify as good news.  Give us honesty about the Christly application of the Gospel principles in action.  Amen.

Tuesday in 2 Advent, December 9, 2025

Blessed Mary, we await for the hungry to be filled with good things, even as the rich are sent away empty; let your mothering nurture be also a firm rebuke to those who amass so much of the goods of the world while so many are left with so little.  Amen.

Monday in 2 Advent, December 8, 2025

God of patience who inspires patience because we cannot have everything we want exactly when we want it; let not our patience be in support of the delay of justice and give us courage to work to persuade all who was delay justice for reasons of past traditions.  Amen.

Second Sunday of Advent, December 7, 2025

God, we mourn continuously the awful use of freedom for people of power to oppress people for their own greedy ends; give survival freedom to the oppressed as we await the end of oppression when justice might be evenly distributed for all.  Amen.

Saturday in 1 Advent, December 6, 2025

God the unknowable, known by your continual emanations in and through the eternal Word; your sustaining energies are so vast we can but create word funnels to reduce and categorize and teach your vastness in cyclic curricula as in the season of Advent which is about your Coming which surely is an abstraction from your everlasting emanations.  Give us receptive hearts for your comings.  Amen.

Friday in 1 Advent, December 5, 2025

God, we confess Jesus as the One for us who best represented being bilingual in the ways of the divine and the human; give us grace to instantiate in our frail humanity things divine, the things of love and justice that we might be part of healing and saving our world.  Amen.

Thursday in 1 Advent, December 4, 2025

Gracious God who is as vulnerable and weak to the free conditions of the world as we are because the permissive conditions of probabilities; give us the lure of your love to use best our freedom for goodness and love and prove the value of morality and justice because of unavoidable freedom.  Amen.

Wednesday in 1 Advent, December 3, 2025

God, we stand before you as a humanity which has been incapable of fasting from war as personal egotism constantly swells to nationalisms which compete for the resources of the world as if there were not enough for all; give us wisdom and grace to learn from the horrors of war and to fast from freedom to be greedy and to promote the basic health of all having enough to eat.  Amen.

Tuesday in 1 Advent, December 2, 2025

God of John the Baptist, the supporting mentor and promoter of Jesus Christ, give us grace but to be the outward and visible signs of the inward and invisible graceful presence of the Christ nature, who gives us an identity beyond our own limited egos.  Amen.

Monday in 1 Advent, December 1, 2025

God, whose Spirit empowers self control, you have given us volitional on-off interior switches for attaining regulation of our lives in excellence; give us courage to fast from things that threaten to enslave us and initiative to use our energies for the alternative creative advance in what is good, lovely, and kind.  Amen.

First Sunday of Advent, November 30, 2025

God of vision, as language users we can have hopeful scenarios of better futures for us and all people; give us grace not to literalize future visions but literalize the hard work of justice and love now in a world which is often unloving and unjust.  Amen.

Almah to Parthenos as Mode of Mystagogy

4 Advent A, December 21, 2025
Isaiah 7:10-16 Psalm 80:1-7, 16-18
Romans 1:1-7 Matthew 1:18-25

Lectionary Link

The formation of "good news" clubs or guilds were occurring in cities throughout the Roman Empire for many, many decades in the first and second century.  The Greek word synagogue was the word for gatherings of Jewish worshippers, and synagogue would be a word that might also be called "proto-church" for followers of Jesus who still maintained their ritual adherence to Judaism.  As Gentile followers of Jesus became a more common happening, and as tension grew in the Jesus Movement regarding whether ritual adherence to Jewish practice would be required of the Gentiles, the context of Greco-Roman meant that the gatherings became designated as ekklesia, or churches.  And these churches became social realities, clubs, or guilds which paralleled such guilds for Greco-Roman local gatherings which had patron deities and gathering places and ritual meals.

The ekklesia or church or churches incorporated Greco-Roman contextual available practices with the scribal and rabbinical traditions of Judaism.  How does one generate a teaching program to express the values of these arising "good news" guilds as a way to validate the seeming spontaneous even ecstatic experiential events which were occurring within these effervescent communities?  The New Testament writings are evidence of the institutional process of these arising communities of "esprit d'corp" people.  They are evidence of scribal people, or people with the wealth and privilege of literacy generating literature.  This meant they had the means of production of texts, which was no mean or easy feat of the time.  We cannot impose our more widespread notion of literacy and textual production upon the times where literacy was uncommon.

The ekklesia or churches produced texts which might be called mystagogy or mythogogy.  Myth and mystery go together and express a deep appreciation of awe and wonder about great truths in which we are over-shadowed because we cannot control them by our limited understanding.  The story traditions of the Gospel were generated by scribal people who were committed to teach their mystagogy and mythogogy within communities of people who were energized by their personal enthusiastic experience to the point of wanting to share this enthusiasm with as many as might happen onto the serendipity of such a grace event.

The Gospel scribes were writers in lingua franca of the day which lingered because of the conquering of the world by Alexander the Great, even one who was said to have been a king born with a divinely miraculous birth.  Alexander was called the son of god.  The Gospel scribes knew about Homer and the Greek literary traditions as it had been received and altered by Virgil and others.  The Gospel scribes also knew the scribal and rabbinical traditions and practices of Judaism.  The palette of literary models which they had were quite expansive, but they each had their own literary genius to add unique flavors to how they would write their discipleship manual in Christian paideia, Christian education.

The Gospel of Matthew story about the origin of Jesus Christ is an example of the elements of Christian paideia, Christian Education, or being given orientation or catechesis into the mythogogy or mystagogy of the Christian church.

The Matthew story of the origin of Jesus is derived in part from the Hebrew prophet Isaiah but not before being mediated through the Greek language which provided a way to teach the mystagogy of the church regarding the experience of the Christ nature within oneself.

How so?  The New Revised Standard Version of the Bible correctly translates the Hebrew word, "almah" as the "young woman with child."  However, the Matthew scribe read the Book of Isaiah in the Greek translation, the version known as the Septuagint.  The Septuagint Greek word for "almah" was "parthenos," and this word could mean young woman, but it could also mean "virgin."  The Matthean scribe used the Greek "word" parthenos to mean exclusively "virgin."

Why was this use important for Matthean mystagogy?  The members of the various Christ communities believed that their lives were "over-shadowed" by the experience of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, whereby the life of Christ was known to be within them in a mysterious way, so mysterious, that it was an experience of the extra-human, an experience of the life of the divine within oneself.

Throughout the Gospels, Jesus is the parable speaker, meaning that the Gospels were written in plain stories which encoded the spiritual meaning for the members of the community who had come to know this new birth.  One of the main messages through the oracle Jesus of the Gospel of John, is "don't take words literally, but understand them spiritually."

As we arrive at Christmas this week, we know that we have inherited the infantization or childification of Christmas as many read the story literally rather than literarily.  We read for the sheer delight of the plain words of the story, rather than for the mystagogy which the story encodes.

And the story is a great story, but it is the invitation to the mystagogy of the church, as it was stated in Pauline terms, "Christ in you, the hope of glory."

The Advent warning for us is this: Don't throw out the new birth experience, with the story of the birth of the Christ child, or you might miss the point.  Amen.

Sunday School, December 21, 2025 4 Advent, A

 Sunday School, December 21, 2025   4 Advent, A

Themes:

Immanuel was one of the names for Jesus.  Immanuel means, "God with us."

What does amphibian mean?  It is an animal that can live on land and in the water, like frogs and turtles.

How is Jesus like an amphibian?  Jesus was both God and human.  He knew how to be God and how to be human.  He was God becoming known as a human being so that people could know and understand God.

What does bi-lingual mean?  It means someone can speak two languages.  Some people can speak both English and Spanish.  That means that they understand people is better way because they know two languages.  That means that they can go to Mexico and they can understand the menus at the restaurants so they can order from the menu.

One way to understand Jesus as Immanuel or God with us, is Jesus is bi-lingual.  He understands the language of God and he understand the language of people.  It means that he can really tell us about who God is and what God wants for us as people.  And what did Jesus teach us about God?  God is love.  God forgives.  And God wants us to learn the language of God so that some day we can live with God in heave.

Jesus in the Hall of Fame

In sports and in many other areas of human achievement we create Halls of Fame.  We compare great people with ourselves and with each other.

We say, “records are to be broken.”  When someone does something great in the past we always look to that greatness to compare ourselves and the importance of what is great.  But when something great happens then people look for the next great thing to happen or they look for someone to break the record.

We can always make a prediction about the future, that the records will be broken.

The first part of our Christian Bible is what we call the Old Testament.  People of the Jewish Faith call it the Hebrew Scriptures since it is still current for them and not “old.”

In the Hebrew Scriptures there are stories about many heroes, people like Abraham, Moses, David and Elijah.  But when things were really hard for the people of Israel, they hoped and prayed and wrote about a new hero to come and to make their land like it was during the time of King David, only better because in the future there was hope for someone who was in David’s family and line who might be born.

Who would have David as ancestor and who would come and do something so important that such a person could even have a name like Emmanuel, which means “God with us?”

When Jesus died and rose again and when many people came to know Jesus throughout the cities of Roman Empire, they began to write about how important he was.  They believed that he was greater than David and they believed that he was greater than the Roman Emperor.  Afterall, if a person can reappear after he dies and then begin to have many people have spiritual experiences to change their lives, isn’t this person a great person like the King David?  How was it that Jesus had changed so many people’s lives and even when they couldn’t see him?  How could this happen?

The Gospel stories were written to compare Jesus with David and with the Emperor.  The Gospel writers believed that Jesus was more important than David and than the Emperor and so they wrote about why they believed that Jesus was the one who was written about by the prophets in the Hebrew Scripture.  Jesus was the most important person in the Hall of Fame which included, Abraham, Moses, David and Elijah.

Sermon:

In American baseball there was a famous batter named Babe Ruth.  Babe Ruth was famous because he could hit homeruns in baseball.  And for many many years he held the record for the most homeruns hit in one season.  He hit 60 homeruns in one season.  And many people did not ever think this record could ever be broken.  But everyone always wondered about a baseball player who in the future would hit more hormeruns than Babe Ruth.

Well, someone did finally break the homerun records of Babe Ruth, but it does not mean that Babe Ruth was not great.  And it does not mean that in the future someone will break the new homerun records.  We remember famous people in life and we are always looking for people in the future who will do really great things.

When Jesus came and lived, he did many wonderful things.  He lived and he died but then he reappeared after his death to his friends.  And he sent the Spirit to continue to let people know that Jesus was with them.  Since Jesus was so popular, people began to write about why he was popular.  They said that he was proof that “God was with us.”  The prophet Isaiah had written many years before Jesus about someone named “God with us.”  And Jesus was so important to so many people that they believed that he was the one who was great enough to claim the name “Emmanuel” which means “God is with us.”

The followers of Jesus wrote the story of how Jesus was born and how he became the special proof that God is with us.

In the Hall of Fame, Christians believe that Jesus was more important than Abraham, Moses, David and Elijah. 

We see today that billions of people have come to know Jesus Christ and because of this we can say that he is still the leader in our Hall of Fame.  And as we love Christ and serve Him, we can know that “God is with us.”  In Jesus, we like Mary and Joseph have become people who know that  “God with Us.”

Family Service with Holy Eucharist

December 21, 2025: The Fourth Sunday of Advent

Gathering Songs: Light a Candle,  Peace Before Us; Thy Word,  When the Saints

             

Liturgist: Blessed be God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

People: And blessed be God’s kingdom, now and for ever.  Amen.

Liturgist:  Oh God, Our hearts are open to you.

And you know us and we can hide nothing from you.

Prepare our hearts and our minds to love you and worship you.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Lighting of the Advent Candle:   Light a Candle

Light a candle for hope today, Light a candle for hope today, light a candle for hope today.           Advent time is here.

Light a candle for peace today..3. Love…4. Joy

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation, that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming, may find in us a mansion prepared for himself; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen..

Litany Phrase: Alleluia (chanted)

O God, you are Great!  Alleluia

O God, you have made us! Alleluia

O God, you have made yourself known to us!  Alleluia

O God, you have provided us with us a Savior!  Alleluia

O God, you have given us a Christian family!  Alleluia

O God, you have forgiven our sins!  Alleluia

O God, you brought your Son Jesus back from the dead!  Alleluia

A reading from the Prophet Isaiah

Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, saying, Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven. But Ahaz said, I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test. Then Isaiah said: “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary mortals, that you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel. He shall eat curds and honey by the time he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. For before the child knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land before whose two kings you are in dread will be deserted.”

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

 

Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 80

1 Hear, O Shepherd of Israel, leading Joseph like a flock; *shine forth, you that are enthroned upon the cherubim.

2 In the presence of Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh, *stir up your strength and come to help us.

3 Restore us, O God of hosts; *show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.

Litany Phrase: Thanks be to God! (chanted)

Litanist:

For the good earth, for our food and clothing. Thanks be to God!

For our families and friends. Thanks be to God!

For the talents and gifts that you have given to us. Thanks be to God!

For this day of worship. Thanks be to God!

For health and for a good night’s sleep. Thanks be to God!

For work and for play. Thanks be to God!

For teaching and for learning. Thanks be to God!

For the happy events of our lives. Thanks be to God!

For the celebration of the birthdays and anniversaries of our friends and parish family. Thanks be to God!

Liturgist:         The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew

People:            Glory to you, Lord Christ.

Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:

“Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,”

which means, “God is with us.” When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.

Liturgist:         The Gospel of the Lord.

People:            Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Sermon:  Fr. Phil

Children’s Creed

We did not make ourselves, so we believe that God the Father is the maker of the world.

Since God is so great and we are so small,

We believe God came into our world and was born as Jesus, son of the Virgin Mary.

We need God’s help and we believe that God saved us by the life, death and

     resurrection of Jesus Christ.

We believe that God is present with us now as the Holy Spirit.

We believe that we are baptized into God’s family the Church where everyone is

     welcome.

We believe that Christ is kind and fair.

We believe that we have a future in knowing Jesus Christ.

And since we all must die, we believe that God will preserve us forever.  Amen.

Litany Phrase: Christ, have mercy. (chanted)

For fighting and war to cease in our world. Christ, have mercy.

For peace on earth and good will towards all. Christ, have mercy.

For the safety of all who travel. Christ, have mercy.

For jobs for all who need them. Christ, have mercy.

For care of those who are growing old. Christ, have mercy.

For the safety, health and nutrition of all the children in our world. Christ, have mercy.

For the well-being of our families and friends. Christ, have mercy.

For the good health of those we know to be ill. Christ, have mercy.

For the remembrance of those who have died. Christ, have mercy.

For the forgiveness of all of our sins. Christ, have mercy.

Liturgist:         The Peace of the Lord be always with you.

People:            And also with you.

Song during the preparation of the Altar and the receiving of an offering.

Song: Peace Before Us (Wonder, Love and Praise,  # 791)

Peace before us.  Peace behind us.  Peace under our feet.  Peace within us.  Peace over us.  Let all around us be Peace.  Love,  Light, Christ

Doxology

Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below.

Praise Him above, ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Prologue to the Eucharist

Jesus said, “Let the children come to me, for to them belong the kingdom of heaven.”

All become members of a family by birth or adoption.

Baptism is a celebration of birth into the family of God.

A family meal gathers and sustains each human family.

The Holy Eucharist is the special meal that Jesus gave to his friends to keep us together as the family of Christ.

The Lord be with you

And also with you.

Lift up your hearts

We lift them to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to God.

It is right to give God thanks and praise.

It is very good and right to give thanks, because God made us, Jesus redeemed us and the Holy Spirit dwells in our hearts.  Therefore with Angels and Archangels and all of the world that we see and don’t see, we forever sing this hymn of praise:

Holy, Holy, Holy (Intoned)

Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of Power and Might.  Heav’n and earth are full of your glory.

Hosanna in the highest.  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. 

Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna in the Highest.

All may gather around the altar

Our grateful praise we offer to you God, our Creator;

You have made us in your image

And you gave us many men and women of faith to help us to live by faith:

Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Rachael.

And then you gave us your Son, Jesus, born of Mary, nurtured by Joseph

And he called us to be sons and daughters of God.

Your Son called us to live better lives and he gave us this Holy Meal so that when we eat

  the bread and drink the wine, we can  know that the Presence of Christ is as near to us as  

  this food and drink  that becomes a part of us.

And so, Father, we bring you these gifts of bread and wine. Bless and sanctify them by your Holy Spirit to be for your people the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ our Lord.  Bless and sanctify us by your Holy Spirit so that we may love God and our neighbor.

On the night when Jesus was betrayed he took bread, said the blessing, broke the bread, and gave it to his friends, and said, "Take, eat: This is my Body, which is given for you. Do this for the remembrance of me."

After supper, Jesus took the cup of wine, gave thanks, and said, "Drink this, all of you. This is my Blood of the new Covenant, which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you drink it, do this for the remembrance of me."

Father, we now celebrate the memorial of your Son. When we eat this holy Meal of Bread and Wine, we are telling the entire world about the life, death and resurrection of Christ and that his presence will be with us in our future.

Let this holy meal keep us together as friends who share a special relationship because of your Son Jesus Christ.  May we forever live with praise to God to whom we belong as sons and daughters.

By Christ, and with Christ, and in Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit all honor and glory

 is yours, Almighty Father, now and for ever. Amen.

And now as our Savior Christ has taught us, we now sing,

Our Father: (Renew # 180, West Indian Lord’s Prayer)

Our Father who art in heaven:  Hallowed be thy name.

Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done: Hallowed be thy name.

Done on earth as it is in heaven: Hallowed be thy name.

Give us this day our daily bread: Hallowed be thy name.

And forgive us all our debts: Hallowed be thy name.

As we forgive our debtors: Hallowed be thy name.

Lead us not into temptation: Hallowed be thy name.

But deliver us from evil: Hallowed be thy name.

Thine is the kingdom, power, and glory: Hallowed be thy name.

Forever and ever: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

Breaking of the Bread

Celebrant:       Alleluia! Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.

People:            Therefore let us keep the feast.  Alleluia!

Words of Administration

Communion Song: Thy Word, (Renew! #94)

Refrain: Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and light unto my path

1-When I feel afraid, think I’ve lost my way, still you’re right beside me.  And nothing will I fear as long as you are near.  Please be near me to the end.  Refrain.

2-I will not forget your love for me, and yet my heart forever is wandering.  Jesus, be my guide and hold me to your side; and I will love you to the end.  Refrain

Post-Communion Prayer

Everlasting God, we have gathered for the meal that Jesus asked us to keep;

We have remembered his words of blessing on the bread and the wine.

And His Presence has been known to us.

We have remembered that we are sons and daughters of God and brothers

    and sisters in Christ.

Send us forth now into our everyday lives remembering that the blessing in the

     bread and wine spreads into each time, place and person in our lives,

As we are ever blessed by you, O Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Closing Song: O When the Saints, (The Christian Children’s Songbook, # 248)

O when those saints, go marching in, Oh, when those saints go marching in, Lord I want to be in that number when the saint go marching in.

Boys….. 3.  Girls  4.  Saints

Dismissal:   

Liturgist: Let us go forth in the Name of Christ. 

People: Thanks be to God! 

  

Utopia and Messiah: Freeze Framed Event or Process?

3 Advent A December 14, 2025
Is.35:1-10 Ps. 146: 4-9
James 5:7-10 Matt. 11:2-11

Lectionary Link

The Bible is literature and as such it must be appraised as such.  Literature is writing art, one of the language products that has developed because of human beings are language users.  Written language is a technology of memory; it has allowed ancient language events to be remembered and then repeated in successive communities for many years.  For many people, for so long, the Bible was the dominant public language event and it is written in so many different discursive styles because the writers were trying to represent in language the modes of being human before God.

The Bible had to be for many the omni-competent language event onto which many people could project the oracle words of God.  The Bible as artistic literature is written in accessible story forms and it was meant to be read by the literate for the mostly illiterate public for whom it was to be an oracle of God's words.  One of the main units of language which helps the memory retain information is the "story."  The Bible includes many stories, written, brought to language to teach communities and to inculcate communal identities.

Biblical stories contain features of literature that are repeated because the goal is to promote recommended behaviors for the people for whom the teachings are devised.

Two stories modes are the use of the utopian and the ideal person.  A hero is one who does great things to build the best of all possible worlds.  Eden, utopia, paradise, and heaven are language forms to promote best of all possible worlds.  Prophets, wisdom sages, and messiahs are the ideal persons, the heroes who are to exemplify ideal people who are doing the work of building better worlds.   The Bible stories contrast the worst world of sin, death, and hell with the best worlds of love, everlasting life, and heaven.   The Bible stories contrast the worst people of hatred, idolatry, and cruelty with the very best people of love, kindness, and healing.

We live by and through the stories which have come to code our lives with the social identities which we have taken on.

What kind of stories might be told to people who were conquered and carried in exile to distant lands to serve the captors?  You might tell dream stories of returning to one's homeland just as the Isaian writer wrote about in the 35th chapter.  Even if the return is not imminent, it still has the truth of the comfort of hope.   Discourse of of hope is true to the need of comfort even if not a certain impending empirical reality.

What kind of poetry would you write about the one, about whom none greater could be conceived?  Like the Psalmist of Psalm 146, you would expound upon one who was kind to the the weak and vulnerable.  Why would you expound upon the greatest as being anything less than loving and kind?

And what if you lived in religious minority communities that were suffering and without the freedom to live openly your values because of an oppressing cult of the Caesar?  You might envision the end of oppression where a greater One comes to bring the very conditions of what a truly great one would do for love and justice among people.  The writer of James used the metaphor of a farmer waiting patiently for the time of harvest while enduring the hardships of preparation for the same.

And what if one is like John the Baptist, thrown in prison tempted to be in despair about the value and effectiveness of one's preaching and message.  "I thought that I was preparing for the messianic; is that going to be defeated?  Will my mission be completed by the surpassing and succeeding one?"  Jesus told the messengers to go and tell John that the values of the Isaian messiah were being accomplished, good news for the poor, and the prisoners, and health to the afflicted, and sight for the blind.

What we need to appreciate about a story is the sense of final closure it gives in terms of human comfort.  Why do people like hero and action adventure in the cinema?  In less than two hours the hero can with great endurance and effort, defeat evil and bring a dilemma to some final resolution.  And even though the process of life means that across the vast earth human dilemma is on-going and never ceasing, we can get a sense of some final closure in the moment of resolution in the story of the hero.  Such stories give us the sense that justice can be actual in our lives, and it is a moment of comfort for us in faith, and the worthwhileness of believing in goodness and justice.

How do stories of the heroic messiah and the better worlds of the future function for us?  Rather than thinking of heaven or utopia or of some utopian ideal hero or messiah in the singular freeze frame final mode which stories fool us to believe; we should understand these stories as providing inspiration for the process of the ideal and the messianic.  For us it means that in our churchly practice, we are to live the values of love and justice.  And it means in our personal lives we are to live and manifest the messianic values of realized love and justice. Such conditions and actions are not some final freeze frame stop the world attainment but inspiration for surfing the passage of time by being in the process of becoming more heavenly in our communal living and becoming more messianic or Christly in our life actions.  May God continue to lead us on the heavenly and the messianic path today.  Amen.