This is part of the worship series,
"Amazing Love—An Advent Series Based on Hosea"
Series Introduction
Advent 1 | Advent 2 | Advent 3 | Advent 4
Third Sunday of Advent
A Second Honeymoon
Scripture
Hosea 3
Song Suggestions for Week Three
“My Soul in Stillness Waits” Haugen
“Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus” Wesley
“Lord, I Pray” Keegstra- De Boer
“Comfort, Comfort, Now My People” Olearius
“Angels from the Realms of Glory” Montgomery
“Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” Wesley
Call to Worship
When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,
we were like those who dream.
Then our mouth was filled with laughter
and our tongue with shouts of joy;
then it was said among the nations,
“The Lord has done great things for them.”
The Lord has done great things for us,
and we rejoiced.
Restore our fortunes, O Lord,
like the watercourses in the Negeb.
May those who sow in tears
reap with shouts of joy.
Those who go out weeping,
bearing the seed for sowing,
shall come home with shouts of joy,
carrying their sheaves.
—Psalm 126 NRSVUE
OR the following reading.
Prepare the way for the Lord.
Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low.
Crooked roads will become straight, the rough ways smooth.
All the people will see God’s salvation.
—based on Isaiah 40:3–5
Prayer of Confession
Lord, we confess that so often we have not shared the love that you gave us through Jesus.
O Lord, grant us a loving spirit. Fill us with abundance and teach us to share your love with others.
Lighting the Advent Wreath
Child: What does this third Advent candle mean?
Parent: We light three candles today because the third candle means love, which God gave to us through Jesus. Jesus’ birth and the coming of God’s love was first told to Mary and has since been spread through all the world. We too must share Jesus’ love with each other.
Child: Why do we light one more candle each Sunday in Advent?
Parent: Because Jesus is coming again. Because as light gradually pushes out darkness, love gradually pushes out hate. Jesus, the light of the world has come to earth and will come again.
Advent Candle Song
“Light One Candle”(st. 1–3) Sleeth
Sermon Helps: “God’s Love Returned: The Second Honeymoon”
The theme of Hosea 3 returned us to the marriage motif. This very brief chapter recalls the conditions of reconciliation between Hosea and Gomer—in other words, between God and his “spouse” Israel.
Both for review purposes and because the vein of marriage issues is so rich to mine, this passage provided an opportunity to explore ways that we break our vows with God. The emphasis in this sermon differed significantly from that of the first Sunday in Advent by looking beyond individual examples of unfaithfulness to broader societal issues. Imagine, for example, how an invisible God feels when we ignore him in our age of visible technology and power, in an age of powerful laptops and one hundred channels. We often are tempted to think God is not much of a god.
In such a situation of betrayal and abandonment, though, God doesn’t let things lie. God’s Word comes again, as in the living parable of Hosea and Gomer’s marriage. Hosea takes the first step towards reconciliation—as God does with erring people at any time, as God did with Israel in her history, time and again.
Here the compelling image of a second honeymoon—both from the bulletin cover/banner and in a description—can show ways to keep our relationship with God in shape. Good and honorable relationships in life can grow from that root. For a relationship to revive or grow in a place where there’s deep betrayal or merely normal daily friction—be that a marriage, a friendship, a church, a committee, a business, or a job—somebody has to make the start. God did and does that in history, in Christ, so people can do that on a human scale.
Dismissal
Peace to all, and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Lord, send the living waters of your Spirit to enliven us, to bring forth new love and life. Immanuel, come quickly.
In the name of Christ, whose birth we remember, whose coming we await, go in peace to love and serve the Lord.
Revised Common Lectionary
Year B: Advent—Third Sunday of Advent
