James C. Dekker

This is part of the worship series, "Amazing Love—An Advent Series Based on Hosea"Series Introduction Advent 1 | Advent 2 | Advent 3 | Advent 4Second Sunday of AdventAll in the FamilyScriptureHosea 11Song Suggestions for Week Two“My Soul in Stillness Waits” Haugen“How Bright Appears the Morning Star” Nicolai “My Faith Looks Up to Thee” Palmer“Comfort, Comfort, Now My People” Olearius“Our God Reigns” Smith “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence” Moultrie “Joy to the World” Watts Call to WorshipThe beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ.As it is written in the prophet Isaiah,“See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,   who will prepare your way,the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:   ‘Prepare the way of the Lord;   make his paths straight,’ ”so John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And the whole Judean region and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him and were baptized by him in the River Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the strap of his sandals. I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”—Mark 1:1–8 NRSVUEORLift up your heads, O gates!    and be lifted up, O ancient doors,    that the King of glory may come in!Who is the King of glory?    The Lord, strong and mighty,    the Lord, mighty in battle.Lift up your heads, O gates!    and be lifted up, O ancient doors,    that the King of glory may come in!Who is this King of glory?    The Lord of hosts,    he is the King of glory. —Psalm 24:7–10 NRSVUECall to ConfessionLord, you were favorable to your land;    you restored the fortunes of Jacob.You forgave the iniquity of your people;    you pardoned all their sin.Let me hear what God the Lord will speak,    for he will speak peace to his people,    to his faithful, to those who turn to him in their hearts.Surely his salvation is at hand for those who fear him,    that his glory may dwell in our land.Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet;    righteousness and peace will kiss each other.Faithfulness will spring up from the ground,    and righteousness will look down from the sky.The Lord will give what is good,    and our land will yield its increase.Righteousness will go before him    and will make a path for his steps.—Psalm 85:1–2, 8–13 NRSVUEPrayer of ConfessionLord, we confess that sometimes we do not feel your presence. We often live in distress and sorrow.O Lord, let your face shine on us again. Show your might and deliver us from evil, that we may experience your peace. Amen.Lighting the Advent WreathChild: Why do we light this second Advent candle?Parent: We light two candles today because the second candle points to the peace that God gave to us through Jesus.Child: Why do we light one more candle each Sunday in Advent?Parent: Because Jesus is coming again. Because light gradually pushes out darkness. Jesus, the light of the world has come to earth and will come again.Advent Candle Song “Light One Candle”(st. 1–2) Sleeth Sermon Helps: “All in the Family” This sermon opened with a true story of grieving parents who had raised their children lovingly, devotedly. Of the children, two ran off—hence the bulletin image—and broke contact with the family. Already suffering greatly, the parents’ devastation grew when one child died violently, and his body was never discovered.That story provided the link to God’s reminiscences in Hosea 11 about how God had cared for his children Israel, “teaching Ephraim to walk.” It gave ample room to review briefly God’s history with Israel—this time not in terms of a spouse, as in Hosea 1, but in terms of parents—thus the major difference from the sermon of the first Sunday in Advent.Parents do a lot of laughing as they teach their kids to walk, watching them tumble and get up. They also do a lot of rescuing. I recalled one occasion when my father pulled me from deep water. God did a lot of rescuing of his children—quails, manna, judges, and more. Kids rarely realize how deeply devoted parents are involved in their lives until they bear their own children.Though homiletically risky, this passage provides a way that is scripturally faithful to portray God’s profound emotional and spiritual devotion to his children. Preachers might as well make the risky leap to get that across; we’re only trying to retell what God has told and lived.While potentially a thoroughly dark sermon, this passage ends with an image of the lion-strong God roaring to call his children back. That is powerful mercy. The sermon too should end with a reminder of God’s faithful suffering and unexpected power. God is like a father whose son cracks up the car for the third time and is terribly injured in the accident; the father cries over the boy’s hospital bed in a combination of rejection, pain, and endless love. “Son, I begged you to drive carefully. Look what you’ve done to yourself. I don’t know now if you’ll ever walk again, much less drive. But I’m here anyway.” God’s presence is exactly what Advent recalls and promises.DismissalAs we anticipate Jesus’ birth with great excitement, may we also find peace in the knowledge of Christ’s salvation, who was the shepherd of his people Israel.Lord, shine in our hearts and lives, lead us in our way, and guide us in our walk. In this Advent season, we stand on tiptoe, awaiting your coming. Immanuel, invade our lives.In the name of Christ, whose birth we remember, whose coming we await, go in peace to love and serve the Lord.Revised Common LectionaryYear B: Advent—Second Sunday in Advent

This is part of the worship series, "Amazing Love—An Advent Series Based on Hosea"Series Introduction Advent 1 | Advent 2 | Advent 3 | Advent 4First Sunday of AdventGod’s Love RejectedScriptureHosea 1:1–2:1Song Suggestions for Week One“My Soul in Stillness Waits” HaugenNote: Of the various stanzas, choose two or three weekly to tie in with the sermon theme or the candle-lighting ceremony.“O Come, O Come Emmanuel,”(st. 1–3) Latin, 12th cent. “God, Be Merciful to Me” Psalter 1912“Comfort, Comfort, Now My People” Olearius “Hark, the Glad Sound! The Savior Comes” Doddridge“My Lord, I Did Not Choose You” Conder “Lord of All Hopefulness” Struther Call to Worship Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind—just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you—so that you are not lacking in any gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the partnership of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.—1 Corinthians 1:3–9 NRSVUE ORI was glad when they said to me,    “Let us go to the house of the Lord!”Our feet are standing    within your gates, O Jerusalem.—Psalm 122:1–2 NRSVUECall to Confession: Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel,    you who lead Joseph like a flock!You who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth     before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh.Stir up your might,    and come to save us!Restore us, O God;    let your face shine, that we may be saved.O Lord God of hosts,    how long will you be angry with your people’s prayers?You have fed them with the bread of tears    and given them tears to drink in full measure.You make us the scorn[a] of our neighbors;    our enemies laugh among themselves.Restore us, O God of hosts;    let your face shine, that we may be saved.But let your hand be upon the one at your right hand,    the one whom you made strong for yourself.Then we will never turn back from you;    give us life, and we will call on your name.Restore us, O Lord God of hosts;    let your face shine, that we may be saved.—Psalm 80:1–7, 17–19 NRSVUE ORAdvent Litany of ConfessionIn this Advent season of waiting on the Lord,we trust the Lord’s goodness. We rely on God’s mercy. We find shelter in God’s steadfast love.In this Advent season of waiting on the Lord,we walk in the Lord’s way. We follow God’s example of love. We keep our covenant promises.In this Advent season of waiting,Lord, forget our sins. Remember your love. Remember each one of us. Remember your people everywhere.In this Advent season of waiting,Lord, we wait for your salvation. We wait for your leading. We wait for your coming.—based on Psalm 25:1–10Prayer of ConfessionO Lord, forgive our sins, even though they are great. We come before you, knowing that we have failed to follow you. Lord, turn to us and be gracious to us, for without you we are lonely and distressed. We look to you for refuge, because our hope is in you.—based on Psalm 25:11–22Lighting the Advent WreathChild: Why do we light the first Advent candle?Parent: We light one candle today because this candle represents our time of waiting for the coming Savior. This first candle reminds us of the light of hope that the prophets promised to us in the Old Testament. Each Sunday in Advent we will light one more candle as the promise unfolds.Child: Who will bring this light of hope to the world?Parent: Jesus is coming! The promise of the prophets is coming true. Jesus, the light of the world, has come to earth and will come again.Advent Candle Song: “Light One Candle”(st. 1) Sleeth Note: This song is best used by adding one stanza each week and adapting the music where needed to end appropriately.Sermon Helps: “God’s Love Rejected” This sermon began with an illustration that attempted to evoke a sense of the vastness of the universe by describing what some writers have called “millions of sheets of galaxies layered one on top of the other.” Such sheets of galaxies are “hundreds of thousands of light years thick.” Christian belief says that the God who created sheets of galaxies is also intimately involved in the lives and history of human beings.That took us to one of those people, God’s prophet Hosea. Hosea took God’s disturbing message of Israel’s relationship with God as the motif of his marriage to the prostitute Gomer. Through marriage Hosea rescued Gomer from the streets, as God rescued (“elected”) Israel from a rebellious humanity. But Gomer returned to the streets, as Israel turned its back on God. The meanings of the sad names of Hosea and Gomer’s first two children emphasize God’s emotional and spiritual involvement with his people. God is not distant. God grieves, as does his servant Hosea. God is angry, as Hosea is angry.This provided opportunities to identify with ways God’s people today often lessen their devotion to God, throwing their wedding rings off and grieving the abandoned spouse. Yet the rest of the message is that God invites his people back—changing their names and their lives.DismissalMay our Lord Jesus Christ and God our Father and God’s Spirit, who have given us such encouragement and bright hope, strengthen us in every good word and deed.Lord, fill us with hope, enlarge our vision that we may trust and reflect your promises. Immanuel, come quickly.Revised Common LectionaryYear B: Advent—First Sunday of Advent

During Lent 2004, our church focused on its furnishings as a way of learning how God uses the ordinary things in our lives to make the common holy.

The temptations Jesus endured and withstood are archetypal of Satan’s diabolical work to trap humanity. Where we fall, Jesus stood, though not without struggle, as Hebrews 5:14 teaches: “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.” Facing Jesus’—and Preachers’—Temptations

How do our sisters and brothers live and worship in Cuba, a land stereotyped for decades as hostile to Christian worship and witness? What can we learn from those members of Christ’s family? The story of their interwoven life and worship challenges and inspires far beyond their borders.

Every year around Halloween, our worship committee strains brains and resources: How can we memorably, intelligently, and accurately place worship of God above “Trick or Treat” to our increasingly diverse congregation? We have many from various Protestant and Roman Catholic backgrounds, and some who claim no Christian heritage at all. Thus in 1999 our Reformation Day communion service tried graciously, seriously, yet somewhat lightheartedly, to present three main Reformation-era figures in a conversation imagined from eternity.

In past years Reformed Worship has offered churches a series of Advent resources that have often been based on Scripture lessons outlined by the Revised Common Lectionary. This year the resources take a different, though related, direction. Each year the lectionary follows a different gospel more or less sequentially. The gospels of Matthew and Luke (Years A and C respectively) contain enough narrative about Jesus’ birth or early life to make the direct focus on Jesus every week in Advent preaching natural and relatively easy.