Theme: “When my world falls down …”

Gathering Music

“People, Look East” Farjeon/Miller
“Like a Child” Dan Damon

1. Like a child love would send to reveal and to mend,
like a child and a friend, Jesus comes.
Like a child we may find claiming heart, soul, and mind,
like a child strong and kind, Jesus comes.

2. Like a child we will meet, ragged clothes, dirty feet,
like a child on the street, Jesus comes.
Like a child we once knew coming back into view,
like a child born anew, Jesus comes.

3. Like a child born to pray and to show us the way,
like a child here to stay, Jesus comes.
Like a child we receive all that love can conceive,
like a child we believe, Jesus comes.

Luke 21:5-7, 25-26

Dr. Arthur Pressley

5 When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, he said, 6‘As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.’

7 They asked him, ‘Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?

[Jesus said] 25 ‘There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. 26People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

Candle Lighting

“I Choose Love,” vs. 1 Thompson/Miller
In the midst of pain, I choose love.
In the midst of pain, sorrow falling down like rain,
I await the sun again, I choose love.

Candle Reading

Adrian Mendoza

(adapted from Isaiah 59)

With Isaiah we lament and we confess, “The way of peace we do not know, and there is no justice in our paths. The roads are made crooked; no one who walks in them knows peace. Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us; We all growl like bears; like doves we moan mournfully. We wait for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us. Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands at a distance; for truth stumbles in the public square, and uprightness cannot enter. God sees, and it grieves God that there is no justice.”

We light this candle with heavy hearts. Our world is falling apart. Our world is falling down. We long for your kin-dom God. What can we build from this rubble?

Song

“O Come, Emmanuel” [REVISED LYRICS]

Prayer

Lerato Pitso

(from Cole Arthur Riley, Black Liturgies, 250)

Silent God, There are seasons when your silence feels like a cruel act of abandonment. We mistakenly equate nearness with noise. Show us a different kind of divine intimacy. A silence born not of neglect, but of safety and rest. In a world that weaponizes silence against the vulnerable, it is difficult to believe in its virtue. This Advent, allow us to ask the question of whose voice is being centered and whose voice is missing. Let those whose voices historically have taken up far too much space fall quiet in this season, in a silence of solidarity. Grant the marginalized the agency to choose their silences – not a forced silencing but a sacred rest and defiance in a world whose noise does not relent. If we’re silent, let it be the quiet of Mary who kept her story close, allowing a small but sacred number to bear witness to her cosmic unfolding. If we’re silent, let it be the silence of the womb, a warmth we can finally rest in. Amen.

Candle Lighting

“I Choose Love,” vs. 2 Thompson/Miller
In the midst of war, I choose peace.
In the midst of war, hate and anger keeping score,
I will seek the good once more, I choose peace.

Candle Reading

Daesun Jang

(adapted from UMC Discipleship)

Jeremiah calls to us, “The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah.” Beloved, the days are surely coming when the yearning of the land; the longing of the sun, moon, and stars; the desperate need of the people of earth for flourishing and peace will receive their fulfillment.

We light this candle as a sign of our commitment to pay attention and prepare for the days that are surely coming and are already here—the days when God’s kin-dom of love, justice, and mercy will reign.

Anthem

“Of the Love of God Begotten”

Seminary Choir

Reading – Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Dean Rob Seesengood

“As much as the Christian would like to remain distant from political struggle, the commandment of love urges the Christian to stand up for their neighbor. Their faith must know whether the dictates of the state may lead them against their conscience.” (from a co-authored Lutheran catechism)

“There are thus three possibilities for action that the church can take vis-à-vis the state: first (as we have said), questioning the state as to the legitimate state character of its actions, that is, making the state responsible for what it does. Second is service to the victims of the state’s actions. The church has an unconditional obligation toward the victims of any societal order, even if they do not belong to the Christian community. “Let us work for the good of all”. These are both ways in which the church, in its freedom, conducts itself in the interest of a free state. In times when the laws are changing, the church may under no circumstances neglect either of these duties. The third possibility is not just to bind up the wounds of the victims beneath the wheel but to seize the wheel itself.” (“The Church and the Jewish Question”

Candle Lighting

“I Choose Love,” vs. 3 Thompson/Miller
When my world falls down, I will rise.
When my world falls down, explanations can’t be found,
I will climb to holy ground, I will rise.

Candle Reading

Dr. Terry Todd

The prophet Malachi calls us to watch for the messenger God will send us, a messenger who burns with a passion for God’s coming salvation. “For [the one who comes] is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap; [the one who comes] will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to God in righteousness.”

We light this candle as a sign of our commitment to passionately pursue the work of peace and justice in our hearts, our families, our communities, and throughout the earth until God’s kin-dom comes on earth as it is in heaven.

Anthem

“Come Now, O God” – Bjorlin/Miller

Seminary Choir

Psalm 27:13-14

Albarka Wakili

13 I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living.
14 Wait for the Lord;
be strong, and let your heart take courage;
wait for the Lord!

Song

“Only Love”
Violence only leads to violence
Hatred only leads to hate 2x

Only love, only love
Only love leads to love, only love. 2x

Reading – Rubem Alves

Yaheli Vargas-Ramos

What is hope?
It is the pre-sentiment that imagination
is more real and reality is less real than it looks.
It is the hunch that the overwhelming brutality
of facts that oppress and repress us
is not the last word.
It is the suspicion that reality is more complex
than the realists want us to believe.
That the frontiers of the possible
are not determined by the limits of the actual;
and in a miraculous and unexplained way
life is opening up creative events
which will open the way to freedom and resurrection–
but the two–suffering and hope
must live from each other.
Suffering without hope produces resentment and despair.
But, hope without suffering creates illusions, naivete
and drunkenness.
So let us plant dates
even though we who plant them will never eat them.
We must live by the love of what we will never see.
That is the secret discipline.
It is the refusal to let our creative act
be dissolved away by our need for immediate sense experience
and it a struggled commitment to the future of our grandchildren.
Such disciplined hope is what has given prophets,
revolutionaries and saints, the courage to die for the future they envisage.
They make their own bodies the seed of their highest hopes.

Candle Lighting

“I Choose Love,” vs. 4 Thompson/Miller
In the midst of pain, I choose love.
In the midst of pain, sorrow falling down like rain,
I await the sun again, I choose love.

Candle Reading

Dr. Gladson Jathanna

(adapted from Dr. Lisa Hancock, UMC Discipleship)

There’s a particular feeling evoked by the word almost. We’re almost on vacation. Dinner is almost done. Christmas is almost here. For me, almost brings this sense of leaning in, straining forward, holding out just a little longer. Depending on what I’m waiting for, almost can make me lean in with anxiety or hope or a mix of both. What is it about almost that makes us lean in? What’s on the other side that makes us hold out a little longer?

We light this candle as a sign of our commitment to lean in to the almost, to pursue, through the weary years and our silent tears, the fulfillment of God’s kin-dom of justice and joy, where the almost blooms into the actual.

Luke 21:28-31

Dr. Elaine Nogueira-Godsey

28Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.’
29 Then he told them a parable: ‘Look at the fig tree and all the trees; 30as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. 31So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near.

Lighting the Christ Candle

Dean Aponte

Sacrament of Holy Communion

Celebrant: Dean Aponte
Liturgy: Rae Guthrie
Servers: Dean Tanya Linn Bennett, Dr. Traci West, Rae Guthrie

In the midst of pain, the Holy One be with you.

And also with you.

Lift up your heavy hearts.

We lift them up to Love.

Let us give thanks to the One who lifts us up.

We rise and offer our gratitude and praise.

God, we give thanks through the pain and sorrow, through hate and anger, when our worlds fall down. We come to the One who has created us in their image, you breathed into us, and into this world, your very essence. Sometimes our actions cause pain and sorrow, and war, and hate, and anger. Still you remain. You show up and meet us as we climb to holy ground. Your steadfast covenant of love is a throughline and you never relent. And, so, we join together with all those who have come before us and acknowledge your presence:

Holy, holy, holy One, God
All of creation rises with your Glory
We await the One who comes in the name of Love and Peace.

Holy are you and blessed is Emmanuel. Through the life of Jesus, we have been given an example of ministry rooted in Love, guided by Spirit, and steadfast in Justice. His compassion was given to all people even if it meant breaking cultural norms to show up for the oppressed and alleviate their suffering. He showed us how to be present for people and all of creation. In the face of death and state violence, he experienced his world fall down. Love kept going.

On the night of his arrest, his most intimate friends gathered for a meal. Jesus took the gifts of grapes and grain and set the table.

He took the bread, gave thanks to you, broke the bread and shared it with his friends saying, “Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

When the meal was over, he took the cup of the new covenant, gave thanks to you, gave it to his friends, and said: “Drink from this, all of you; this is the cup of life. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
And so, in remembrance of Emmanuel, Christ with us, in assurance of your Love and Peace and offer our lives and ministries to the continuing work of healing in the world as we proclaim the mystery of our faith:

Christ has died; Christ has risen; Christ will come again.

Pour out your Spirit upon the community gathered here and the gifts of grape and grain. Make them a reminder for us that this meal is a glimpse of your kindom in the here and now. May we share in these gifts and rise from the table nourished by your love and grace and peace and still hungry for justice in the world.

Amen.

Benediction

Prof. Mark Miller

Sending Forth

“Jesus the Light of the World”

James Rufflin, soloist