29th November 2020 -

APC 29th Nov 2020                 Advent 1  “Hope”
 
PART 1
Welcome and Introduction          
Good morning everyone and welcome to our Sunday Morning worship.  Today is the first Sunday of Advent.
Advent means “Coming”.  The Advent season includes the 4 Sundays leading up to Christmas morning.  During these 4 weeks candles are lit to remind us of God’s promise to send Jesus, the light of the world.  This year we will be reflecting on the 4 traditional themes of Advent- Hope, Love, Joy and Peace.
On Christmas morning we will light a fifth candle to remind us of the wonderful day of Jesus’ birth- when God took on human flesh and lived among us.
As well as these things, traditionally Advent has also been a time to focus on another promise of God- the promise that His Son Jesus Christ will come to earth from heaven a Second time as the King and Judge of all the earth.  Therefore advent is a time for us to ask ourselves questions like- “If Jesus came today would I be ready?”  and “How can I be ready for Jesus’ Second coming?”
But first let’s take a moment to pause and to talk to our heavenly Father, let’s pray…
 
Opening Prayer
 
Father God, we praise you once more for this advent season, for its mood of expectation, its message of hope, its call to prepare ourselves, its spirit of confidence and trust.
God made flesh
Hear our prayer
We praise you for the way you have spoken in the fulfilment of ancient prophecies, in promises yet to be realized, and in the living presence of Christ made known through His Holy Spirit
God made flesh
Hear our prayer
Touch our lives again at this time, as we remember the coming of Jesus, as we anticipate His coming again, and as we strive to serve Him better here and now.
God made flesh
Hear our prayer
Grant that through this season we shall be renewed in hope and strengthened in faith, trusting more completely in the future you hold.  May our confidence be deepened in your eternal love and purpose, despite all that seems to work against it.  And may we be ready to welcome Christ in the assurance that as He came so shall He come again.
God made flesh
Hear our prayer
Join me as we say the Lord’s Prayer thoughtfully and sincerely together…
 
Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name,
Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day, our daily bread, And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive those who trespass against us,
And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil,
For Thine is the Kingdom, the power and the glory,
For ever and ever, AMEN.
 
Introduction to Kids Video / Candle Lighting
If you haven’t already got your children beside you then I’d like to give you a moment to pause the service and to invite them to join you as I show them our advent wreath and as we watch someone they know very well light our first Advent candle…
It’s great to see you boys and girls and I really hope to see you again in church very, very soon.  This year we’ve planned an amazing fun Advent program for you where you will get to watch some really cool animations about the Christmas story and you’ll get to do some colouring and cutting and sticking to make your very own Advent wreath.
Today is the beginning of a very special season in the Christian church.  We call this season Advent.  Advent means ‘coming’.  So each Sunday from now to Christmas we will be thinking about how God’s Son Jesus came from heaven to earth at Christmas.  We will also be remembering that one day Jesus will come back again to make the world perfect again.   To help us think about these things each Sunday we will light a special candle.  Today’s candle is a purple one.  Purple is the colour of a King’s robe.  It reminds us that Jesus is the King of the world.  This first candle is called the Prophet Candle because it reminds us how many years ago people called Prophets encouraged people with the Hope that one day God would send Jesus into the world…Watch this little video clip as Xander and his daddy Marcus tell us what the prophet said, and Xander will light our first candle….
 
 (END Part 1)
 
 
Video       Marcus and Xander read and light the Advent Candle
 
 
PART 2
 
Marcus and Xander thank you so much for that lovely reading and well done Xander for lighting the candle so well.  And look – as if by magic the candle behind me is now lit!
 
We look forward to hearing more readings and watching each of you, the youngest members of our church family lighting our candles each Sunday.  I’m really hoping I will be able to see you in church next week but I’ll have to wait and see what our Taoiseach says.  But don’t worry I’ll let you know in plenty of time.  You know this Christmas is going to be a bit different for all of us because of the Covid 19.  But we know that Santy will still be coming and we will still be able to see our family and have a lovely Christmas dinner.  Next week I’ll show you the first animation about the story of how God sent Jesus into the world on the very first Christmas.  For most of the people in that story Christmas was a very different time for them too.  In fact we will discover that all of the people in the story were not at home for Christmas that year.  Why did they have to leave their homes?  Where did they have to go in such a hurry?  And what amazing gift did they find when they got to where they were going?  You’ll have to tune in or come to church to find out!
 
I hope you have a really, really good week in school.  And if you haven’t already done so, don’t forget to get your letter or your email off to Santy.  Bye for now!
 
 
Bible Reading         Psalm 46
1 God is our refuge and strength,
    an ever-present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
    and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam
    and the mountains quake with their surging.[c]
4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
    the holy place where the Most High dwells.
5 God is within her, she will not fall;
    God will help her at break of day.
6 Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
    he lifts his voice, the earth melts.
7 The Lord Almighty is with us;
    the God of Jacob is our fortress.
8 Come and see what the Lord has done,
    the desolations he has brought on the earth.
9 He makes wars cease
    to the ends of the earth.
He breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
    he burns the shields[d] with fire.
10 He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
    I will be exalted among the nations,
    I will be exalted in the earth.”
11 The Lord Almighty is with us;
    the God of Jacob is our fortress.
 
 
 
Reflection       Advent-    “The light of Hope”
This last week has brought an array of mixed emotions, but none more so than the hesitant, yet exciting expectation that restrictions are going to be eased and we’re going to be able to enjoy some sort of Christmas.  For me personally, I just can’t wait to get back to church and see you all.  Speaking to you through a camera or even on the phone is just not the same.  I’m so looking forward to seeing my dad and Erin and the rest of our wider family circle up in Belfast.
We could describe these giddy feelings of anticipation in many ways but perhaps the best is “Hope.”  Having hope in life or something to look forward to, is one of the most essential parts of human existence.  Without it our souls simply shrivel up and eventually die. 
Advent is a season of Hope as we take time to reflect on the fulfilment of God’s promises in Jesus.  The theme of this Hope runs right throughout the bible from Genesis to Revelation.  In the Old Testament there are two Hebrew words for Hope.  The first is ‘Yakhal’ which means “to wait for.” It is used in story of Noah and the Ark.  As the floodwaters recede we are told that Noah had to ‘Yakhal’ – to ‘wait’ or ‘hope’ patiently for weeks. 
The waves of this pandemic will eventually subside.  Recent news of a vaccine has been like a rainbow on our horizon.  But in the meantime we too must wait and trust the Lord.
The other Hebrew word for Hope used in scripture is ‘Qavah’ which also means ‘to wait’.  It is related to the Hebrew word ‘Qav’ which means cord.  When you pull a cord tight you produce a state of tension and expectation until it is released.  This is what biblical hope is like.  The prophet Isaiah compares God to a farmer who plants a vineyard and then ‘Qavahs’ for good grapes.  So biblical hope is about waiting with tense expectation, but as Christians what are we waiting for?
During the period of Israel’s prophets, the nation was sinking into self-destruction.  At the time Isaiah said this,
“At this moment the Lord is hiding His face from Israel so I will ‘Qavah’ for Him.”
The only hope Isaiah had in those dark days was to Hope in God Himself.  This same word appears over 40 times in the Psalms and almost without exception what people are waiting for is God. For example in Psalm 33 the psalmist writes…
18 But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love. 20 We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. 21 In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. 22 May your unfailing love be with us, Lord, even as we put our hope in you.    Psalm 33:18, 20-22
So biblical hope is different from optimism.  We are all optimistic about the next few weeks because we are choosing to see how various government decisions will work out to give us more flexibility and freedom.  But the Hope we find in the bible isn’t focused on circumstances at all.  In fact people of faith in the bible often choose to have hope even when there is no evidence that things will improve. 
Hosea was a prophet who lived in a dark period when Israel was being oppressed by foreign Empires.  Hosea, could see the evidence of creation in the world around him.  He had grown up listening to stories and celebrating the festivals that commemorated the day when God had miraculously delivered His people out of slavery in Egypt.  Despite the circumstances Hosea’s faith enabled him to Hope in God when he said, “God can turn this valley of trouble into a door of Hope.”
So biblical Hope is very much about waiting for God and trusting in Him.  It focuses on His character, His promises, and the
evidence of what He has been able to achieve in the past.  This enables us to look forward and know that a better day is coming.
It was exactly the same for the earliest Christians.  When Jesus died on the cross they gave up Hope.  But when He rose from the dead this opened up a whole new door of hope.  In time they would understand what Jesus had been trying to teach them all along- that through His life, death and resurrection they could be set free from their slavery to sin in the present and be liberated from death in the future. 
The Greek word that they used to describe this tense expectation is the word, ‘Elpis’.  Peter says that Jesus’ resurrection opens up a living hope that enables us to become new and better human beings.  On several occasions St Paul describes the good news about Jesus as the ‘Hope of glory’.  So we see that in both the Old and New Testaments hope is based on a person – God, the Lord Jesus Christ.  Through His life, death and resurrection we are able to be set free and empowered to live in a better way now and when Christ returns we will be able to live perfectly forever.
But the last thing I want to mention is that interestingly this great hope in Jesus is not just for humans.  The apostles taught that what happened to Jesus at His resurrection is a foretaste of what God has planned for the entire universe.  In Paul’s words, “It’s a hope that creation itself will be liberated from slavery to corruption into the freedom when God’s children are glorified.”
You know if there’s one stark lesson from this terrible pandemic it’s that this world is broken.  It’s full of disease, conflict and suffering.  It’s crying out to be healed, to be rescued!  That’s why Christ came – not only to reconcile us to Himself but to set in motion the wheels of God’s rescue plan for the entire universe.
That’s what we look forward to this Advent.  Not only do we remember that Jesus came as a baby in a manger but we Hope with anticipation that He will come again as King to put everything right.  On that day we will have no more pain, no more suffering, no more death and no more pandemics.  We know that this will happen because history proves that He has risen form the dead.  We have also seen the evidence in our own lives of how He can change us and help us when we pray.  So despite the darkness and the restrictions today we choose to hope in Christ and pray, “Even so, come Lord Jesus, come….”
Let us pray…
 
Prayers
Lord Jesus Christ, at this time of goodwill among all, we pray for peace in our world – an end to division and discord, hatred and hostility, death and destruction.
Prince of Peace
Hear our Prayer
Lord Jesus, we speak of peace but in our hearts we do not believe it possible.  When we look at our world we see little hope of an end to its troubles.  We are sceptical, uncertain, filled with doubts, cautious about expressing any optimism.  Even where there are signs of hope and moves towards reconciliation, we know it will take many years before we dare believe it is really possible.  But we pray in this Advent Season, renew our ability to look forward, rekindle our belief in the future, and restore our capacity to hope for better things.
Prince of Peace
Hear our Prayer
Help us as we remember your coming, as we serve you now, and as we look forward to your coming again – to anticipate your Kingdom through the service we offer and the lives that we live.
Prince of Peace
Hear our Prayer
Teach us to work for that day when your throne will be established, your justice prevail, and the earth will be filled with the knowledge of you as the waters cover the sea.
Prince of Peace
Hear our Prayer
Take a moment now to bring your own prayers for one or two people to God…
All these prayers we offer in the name of Jesus Christ, the hope of all the nations, Amen.
 
Closing Words
It’s been a joy and privilege to share with you again today. Thanks again for logging on.  Do tune in again this Wednesday as we continue with our new Midweek series called, “Mind your head.”
 
For the purposes of giving Dave time to upload this recording to our website and Facebook page, I’m recording this on Friday morning.  As such, we still await government advice this evening as to what church services will be permitted in December.  As a leadership we met on Wednesday evening and put a few tentative plans in place. If all goes well, we hope to be open for church as soon as we are permitted.
 
We are hoping that will be Sunday 6th of December.  We are planning to have communion on the 13th December.  Then on Sunday 20th we will be having a Carol Service.  On Christmas Morning we will be having two services to facilitate as many people who wish to attend – one at 9.30am and one at 10.45.  This will allow for deep cleaning in between the services.  Then there will be a Sunday service on the 27th December led by Aleida.  We’ll be sending you out a request to let us know if you hope to attend a service on Christmas morning and if you have friends or family members who will be joining you.  Once we have done that we will allocate everyone a time and space so that we are all socially distanced.  Don’t forget as always, once church services do start up again, they will be at our normal time of 10am and you need to book your place by Friday evening at the latest.
 
Alison and the choir have been busy behind the scenes preparing some beautiful advent and Christmas carols which we will be sharing online and there will be some live solos and duets in our services.  We’ll have a number of families lighting our advent candles and all ages sharing in our readings.  It promises to be a very special time for our whole church family so do please plan to attend if you feel able.
 
Arklow Presbyterian Church has a longstanding relationship with Springboard.  This year because of Covid restrictions Springboard are unable to receive and deliver the Christmas hampers that we provide for struggling families.  But we would still like to support them as a church by giving them a donation.  I know there are many good causes that we have been announcing in recent weeks.  Please don’t feel guilty or pressurized that you have to support all of these.  But if you have supported Springboard in the past and would like to do so again, then you can transfer a donation directly into the church bank account using the details on our website. Simply mark it for the “Springboard Appeal”.  Alternatively you can contact our treasurer Aleida van der Flier to arrange a payment mechanism that is more suitable for you.
 
If you haven’t already seen it, I also want to bring your attention to our Moderator’s call to pray this weekend on our Facebook page.  Let me encourage you to watch that short video clip and above all to take some time today to pray.
 
In a moment I will lead you in a Benediction after which I will invite you as always, to say the grace together…
 
Benediction   

Be people of hope.
Let hope live in your heart and share the hope of Christ with all you meet.
Share hope by noticing someone else’s humanity.
Share hope by listening to someone’s story.
Share hope by praying for our world.
In this Advent season, we need to see, feel, and share hope.
As you go out into the wonder of God’s creations, share hope with those you meet. And…
 
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all now and for evermore, Amen.”