Theme: Peace Child

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” Matthew 5:9

Introit

AfriSCaD Choir Selection

“An Invitation For Advent (Arr. Douglas Nolan)” – Words and Music by Ruth Elaine Schram, incorporating “O Come, O Come Emmanuel”

Seminary Choir

Invocation

Dean Tanya Linn Bennett

Scripture Readings – Jeremiah 8:11 & Luke 19:41-42

Dr. Daniel Shin

Jeremiah 8:11 They have treated the wound of my people carelessly,
saying, ‘Peace, peace’,
when there is no peace.

Maeve Perrin

Luke 19:41-42 As Jesus came near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, ‘If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace!

Opening Song

“O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” UMH 211
Alternate Lyrics: adapted from Kimberly Debus

O come, O come, Emmanuel, and with your captive children dwell.
Give comfort to all exiles here, and to the aching heart bid cheer.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to us as Love to dwell.

O come, you Splendor very bright, as joy that never yields to might.
O come, and turn all hearts to peace, that greed and war at last shall cease.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to us as Truth to dwell.

O come, you Dayspring, come and cheer our spirits by your presence here.
Bring dawn to every broken soul, and vision that can see the whole.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to us as Hope to dwell.

O come, you Wisdom from on high, from depths that hide within a sigh,
to temper knowledge with our care, to render every act a prayer.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to us as Peace to dwell.

Reading

“The Diameter of the Bomb” by Yehuda Amichai

Vincent Yohanna

The diameter of the bomb was thirty centimeters
and the diameter of its effective range about seven meters,
with four dead and eleven wounded.
And around these, in a larger circle
of pain and time, two hospitals are scattered
and one graveyard. But the young woman
who was buried in the city she came from,
at a distance of more than a hundred kilometers,
enlarges the circle considerably,
and the solitary man mourning her death
at the distant shores of a country far across the sea
includes the entire world in the circle.
And I won’t even mention the crying of orphans
that reaches up to the throne of God and
beyond, making a circle with no end and no God.

Song

“O-So-So (Come Now, O Prince of Peace)”

Words: Geonyong Lee, English Paraphraser: Marion Pope

Soloist: Sooah Na

1 Come now, O Prince of peace, make us one body.
Come, O Lord Jesus, reconcile your people.

2 Come now, O God of love, make us one body.
Come, O Lord Jesus, reconcile your people.

3 Come now and set us free, O God, our Savior.
Come, O Lord Jesus, reconcile all nations.

4 Come, Hope of unity, make us one body.
Come, O Lord Jesus, reconcile all nations.

Scripture Readings – Isaiah 11:1-9 & Ecclesiasticus 13:15-20

Aung Lin

Isaiah 11:6-9
6 The wolf shall live with the lamb,
the leopard shall lie down with the kid,
the calf and the lion and the fatling together,
and a little child shall lead them.
7 The cow and the bear shall graze,
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
8 The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,
and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den.
9 They will not hurt or destroy
on all my holy mountain;
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.

Nyasha Jeche

Ecclesiasticus 13:15-20
15 Every creature loves its like,
and every person a neighbor.
16 All living beings associate with their own kind,
and people stick close to those like themselves.
17 What does a wolf have in common with a lamb?
No more has a sinner with the devout.
18 What peace is there between a hyena and a dog?
And what peace between the rich and the poor?
19 Wild asses in the wilderness are the prey of lions;
likewise the poor are feeding-grounds for the rich.
20 Humility is an abomination to the proud;
likewise the poor are an abomination to the rich.

Choral Anthem

“Creation of Peace” – Barbara Hope & Mark A. Miller

Seminary Choir, Soloist: Yeongrok Choi

Reading

“Please Send Me Flowers” by Jennifer Rahim

Dr. Traci West

What if, today, I write this line,
hesitant
as an indulgent hypothetical
in a dark time:
if ever I asked for anything,
it would be this: Please send me flowers.
Especially now,
when death storms down on a people
everyday robbed of ground;
when across the hemispheres screens flash
cratered earth, bloodied petals, snapped stems,
wailing roots, grotesque blossoms, someone’s beloved –
will it make me, too, colonial,
if colonizers write about flowers?

         Today, of all days,

I want no wreaths near,
none of those reluctant showpieces
that sit in hospitals.
Send me blossoms from my landscape,
uncut brilliance – ixora, heliconia, hibiscus,
bougainvillea fortified with sunlight.
Send hosts – ten thousand-thousand –
and if push comes to shove,
even those deserving of the metaphorical kick.

         What if in my geography

all flowers are roses
and I knew no litany of names?
I ask simply for roses,
any kind, from any soil,
every perfume and hue,
released from tyrannical histories.
I welcome each with a zillion thanks,
push aside my clutter: my grief, my rage, my fear,
all my abstractions, to make room
front and centre
just for them and, for a moment,
behold each fragile life,
let them all breathe, be light,
allow their glory to greet my shadowed corners
in this my world –
its betrayals, brutalities, murders.

I write about flowers now,
when a colonizer is flattening a country;
I want to have near what is beautiful
as flowers are beautiful and, like a new moon,
signal turning seasons.
Will I have done nothing for Gaza
to be a poet from a region, a history,
where remaking style has always been life – thunder
in a world, an Order
that tries but has failed
to make ghosts of us…?
Palestine, your flowers must be yours.

Song

“Peace Child” by Shirley Erena Murray

Soloist: Sooah Na, Liturgical Dancer: Simone Edwards

Scripture Readings Matthew 10:34-39 & Ephesians 2:14-19

Daekyung Ko

Matthew 10:34-39
34 ‘Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
35 For I have come to set a man against his father,
and a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
36 and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.
37Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; 38and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.

Dr. Terry Todd

Ephesians 2:14-19
14For Christ is our peace; in Christ’s flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. 15He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, so that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, 16and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it. 17So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; 18for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Creator. 19So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God.

Musical Response

AfriSCaD Choir Selection

Holy Communion

Beth Quick
Servers: Cody Beckett, Yajenlemla

A Sung Communion Liturgy for the Season of Advent/Lessons and Carols
(Tune: HYFRYDOL, 87.87 D, UMH #196)
Text: Beth Quick, 2019, 2023.
Incorporating phrases from “Come Thou Long-Expected Jesus,” Charles Wesley, 1744, and “Comfort, Comfort, O My People,” Johann Olearius, 1671, Catherine Winkworth, trans.

To the table, you’re invited.
Lift your hearts to God and sing.
Praise to God, who has created
All the earth, each living thing.
God, we lift our hearts in longing
as we trek the Advent road.
Seeking peace, yet still we struggle.
Crumbling under sorrow’s load.

Holy, Holy, you are Holy!
Blessed is the One who comes.
All your works are full of glory.
Join in the unending hymn:
Sing Hosanna! Sing Hosanna!
Now your gracious kin-dom bring.
Child of Peace shall come among us.
Let the earth with praises ring!

Come, oh long-expected Jesus.
Teach us how to work for peace.
From our fears and wars release us.
Let us now your justice seek.
You’re our strength and consolation;
Hope of all the earth you are.
Source of goodness, well of wisdom:
You’re the joy of every heart.

On the night he was arrested,
Jesus shared some bread and wine.
Thanking God, he blessed and gave it:
Grace for all of humankind.
“Bread – this is my body given.
Wine – My life, poured out for you.
Eat and remember that you are forgiven.
Reconciled, you are made new.”

Come, O Spirit, we call on you:
Be poured out upon these gifts
Take these signs and make them into
Body, spirit, life of Christ.
Send us out now to serve your people
Sharing in Christ’s gracious ways.
By your strength we work for justice,
God of peace, lead us always.

Sharing in Bread and Cup

Communion Song

“Make Peace Flow” by Mark Miller

Duet: Yeongrok Choi & Sooah Na

Blessing

Dean Edwin Aponte

Sending Song

“Canticle of the Turning” – Rory Cooney