Call to Worship: Purpose (Jeremiah 29:4,7,11-14a)

L: This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon:

C: Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.

L: For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

C: Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

A:  I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity

Call To Worship: The Potter and The Clay (Isaiah 29)

The Potter and the Clay

L: Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth—everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made. (Isaiah 43:6-7)

C: We turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, “You did not make me”? Can the pot say to the potter, “You know nothing” (Isaiah 29:16)

L: It is the Lord, who stretches out the heavens, who lays the foundation of the earth, and who forms the human spirit within a person (Zechariah 12:1b)

C: We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. (2 Corinthians 4:7)

A: Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.  Amen. (Isaiah 64:8)

Call to Worship: The Mind of the Lord (Romans 11:33-36)

The Mind of the Lord (Romans 11:33-36)

L: Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!

C: How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!

L: “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?”

C: “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them?”

L: For from him and through him and for him are all things. 

A: To him be the glory forever! Amen.

Call to Worship: Humility (Philippians 2)

Humility (Philippians 2)

L1: In your relationships
L2: In my relationships
C: In our relationships, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

L1: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;

L2: Rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.

C: And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death even death on a cross!

L1: Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place, and gave him the name that is above every
name,

L2: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

C: And every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,

ALL: To the glory of God the Father. Amen.

Call to Worship: Psalm 86:8-13

Psalm 86:8-13 (NIV)

L: Among the gods there is none like you, Lord; no deeds can compare with yours. All the nations you have made will come and worship before you, Lord; they will bring glory to your name.

C: For you are great and do marvelous deeds; you alone are God.

L: Teach me your way, Lord, that I may rely on your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.

C: I will praise you, Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever.

A: For great is your love toward me; you have delivered me from the depths, from the realm of the dead.

Call To Worship: We Are Listening (Eph. 1:18-19b, Col. 3:1-3)

We Are Listening – Ephesians 1:18-19b, Colossians 3:1-3

L: Lord, you are not silent.

C: Lord, we are listening.

L: Lord, we confess. We do not always hear. We do not always see. Worse, we do not always want to. We are disappointingly content with a heaven-less kingdom.

C: Open the eyes of our hearts, Lord, that we may know and want to know the hope to which you have called us-the glorious inheritance of your holy people and his incomparably great power for us who believe.

L: He raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms.

C: We have been raised with Christ, set our hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

L: God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way

C: Set our minds on things above, not on earthly things. For we died, and our life is now hidden with Christ in God.

L: Lord, you are not silent.

A: Lord, we are listening. Amen.

Luke 1: The Deceptive Cadence of Christmas

Deceptive cadence is when a deceptive resolution happens, in other words, the dominant is followed by any chord which not the tonic. This cadence has the “surprise effect” and not the conclusive. - www.simplifyingtheory.com

Recently I was returning from Taiwan and the long, tiring flight was about touch down in San Francisco when suddenly the jet's engines fired up and the plane accelerated and started to climb. After circling once or twice, the plane descended again and this time it landed and pulled into the gate.

The Christmas story feels a bit like that to me. Anticipation has been building in the people of Israel for 400 years. You only have to read Simeon's prayer "waiting for the consolation of Israel" (Luke 2:285-32) and Mary's song (Luke 1:54-55) to sense the unresolved tension and the expectations of resolution and restoration centered on Jesus' birth.

Then there's John the Baptist, whose father Zechariah is told that he will be the forerunner of God's next big move:

And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. - Luke 1:17

The shepherds hear that the Messiah had arrived. The Messiah is supposed to bring everything under his dominion and resolve everything, right? Everyone is amazed and rejoices at the good news.

The magi show up, stirring up Jerusalem with their star, dreams and expectations of finding a king. 

So much excitement generated but then things seem to go quiet. The magi find their toddler and go home/ Shepherds go back to work. Jesus and his family disappear into Egypt and then work as laborers in northern Israel. Elizabeth and Zechariah try to keep up with their precocious baptist baby in their old age.

The deceptive cadence of Christmas ratcheted up expectations. It seemed that the time was so close for seeing God's resolution of the whole kingdom situation. Then it didn't happen, the silence of God seemed to return and meanwhile the discordant melody returned to lead us on for another 30 years.

Suddenly, in the wilderness, John leads the reprisal of the redemption theme, reintroducing the Messiah theme, which builds and builds, driving us inexorably (it seems) towards a triumphant conclusion with Lazarus' resurrection and the Palm Sunday entrance. But again, on Good Friday, the deceptive cadence takes us to a dark, melancholy chord and, worse, it is followed by God's silence once again, leading us to think that it is all over and the tune has come to some sort of disturbing ending.

Sunday, the Messiah theme returns, triumphant, for forty days. Surely, these are the days when the kingdom will be established! Then Jesus leaves them! He has done it again! Resolved some but leaving vast, unanswered and unresolved questions. We live in the times of the deceptive cadence, awaiting Christ's resolution of all history.