Heart of Mansfield

Worship December 4, 2011



Advent Prayer

All: Loving God, in this time of preparation and planning, 
We thank you for the hope and peace you unfailingly offer us. 
Show us the creative power of hope.
Teach us the peace that comes from justice. 
Prepare our hearts to be transformed by you,
That we may walk in the light of Christ.

Morning Prayers


Isaiah 40:1-11
Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
[2] Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended,
that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the LORD's hand
double for all her sins.
[3] A voice cries:
"In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
[4] Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.
[5] And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed,
and all flesh shall see it together,
for the mouth of the LORD has spoken."
[6] A voice says, "Cry!"
And I said, "What shall I cry?"
All flesh is grass,
and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.
[7] The grass withers, the flower fades,
when the breath of the LORD blows upon it;
surely the people is grass.
[8] The grass withers, the flower fades;
but the word of our God will stand for ever.
[9] Get you up to a high mountain,
O Zion, herald of good tidings;
lift up your voice with strength,
O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings,
lift it up, fear not;
say to the cities of Judah,
"Behold your God!"
[10] Behold, the Lord GOD comes with might,
and his arm rules for him;
behold, his reward is with him,
and his recompense before him.
[11] He will feed his flock like a shepherd,
he will gather the lambs in his arms,
he will carry them in his bosom,
and gently lead those that are with young. (RSV)
The Candle of Peace

I was listening to the radio the other day, when a song came on I had never heard before. I knew the artist--Dr. John--also from New Orleans, but I didn’t know the song. The title of it is “Hello God” and it is a lengthy prayer. In the first verse were words that shook me to the core of my being. In the midst of this prayer, he asks, “Are you tired of my prayers, or something, God?”
Are you tired of my prayers, or something, God?
I’m betting that at sometime in your life, every one of you could have prayed that prayer.
Those words made me flash back through my life and through my ministry and remember the times of desperation.
I remembered what remains the worst night of my life, when I was doing a favor for a hospital chaplain who needed a weekend off. I did this from time to time, and most of the time, I never got a call.
But on that Sunday night, I got called to the ER and asked to be with a family there. There were police cars outside and officers behind the nursing station. One of the nurses took me aside and told me that a five-year-old boy had taken his father’s gun from a locked cabinet and killed his two-year-old brother. The body was in one bed in the ER and the five-year-old was in the next bed because the gun recoil had opened a large wound on his forehead.
The hours that followed were horrible. The police interviewed the mom, then the son. And they stitched up his head so he could go. One of the police officers was so upset by it all that he went in the bathroom and vomited. Another officer gave the mother a card of a cleaning service that specialized in cleaning up after shootings.
As things were winding down, I offered to pray with the family. The mother looked at me and said, “We have nothing more to pray about.”
Are you tired of my prayers, or something, God?
Read the prayer Requests that our breakfast guests turn in every month. It would not surprise me that every one of them comes from someone who has wondered if God had just stopped listening.
Are you tired of my prayers, or something, God?
The passage before us today is written to a people in exile. Their nation had been overrun and destroyed by the Babylonians, who then dragged them off to Babylon where they lived in captivity.
One of my favorite Psalms is one of lament--Psalm 137, which begins, “By the waters of Babylon we sat and wept as we remembered Jerusalem,” and continues “…How can we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?”
This passage was written to people who were in the depths of despair --so desperate that they had no hope to cling to. They were so down that they couldn’t even sing. William Congreve wrote that “music hath charms to soothe the savage breast,” but nothing could soothe the misery of the people of God as they sat for 60 years without hope.
When I was reading Psalm 137 this week and read, “how can we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land,” what I heard in my head was Dr. John’s voice: “Are you tired of my prayers, or something, God?”
In the middle of this hopelessness and despondency comes forth a prophet. And remember, a prophet is not one who predicts the future but one who challenges the present.
This prophet, whom we identify as the second Isaiah, speaks words of comfort and hope.
Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
Speak tenderly to the people,
and cry to them
that their warfare is ended,
that their iniquity is pardoned,
that they have received from the LORD's hand
double for all their sins.
And how is this accomplished? Their Lord is coming. And the prophet announces this comfort and peace as if it is already accomplished, even though the exile lasted more than 60years.
Somehow, this glimmer of hope--assurance that war had ended, when they knew better, assurance that all was well, even though they lived in despondency--somehow this hope carried them through the awful experience of being strangers in a strange land.
And then there’s us. Here we are, strangers in our own land. Having church in a neighborhood that is no longer our own. Immersed in a culture that associates Christmas with Santa Clause and not the Christ child. Trying to preach Christ to a world which on its best days is indifferent to the Gospel. Trying hard to do ministry with resources that get more and more scarce each day.
It’s enough to make you look up and ask, “Are you tired of my prayers or something, God?”
This week, I buried the eighteenth person this year. The most I’ve had in previous years is eight in one year. It’s a good thing I believe the things I say at their funerals, or I would sink into the depths of gloom. I sometimes have to fight the gloom, and there are times when I have heard myself ask, “Are you tired of my prayers, or something, God?” I think that’s why that song so affected me.
But today, the prophets words come fresh to me and say, “Comfort my people, speak words of peace and forgiveness to them. Tell them from the highest mountain that our GOD comes with strength and might--but also, He will feed his flock like a shepherd he will gather the lambs in his arms, he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.”
Advent is the assurance that God has not grown tired of our prayers. Advent is the promise that comes again and again that God loves us and has a purpose for us.
We have a tendency to idolize the past, and that leads us to think that our best days are behind us. My beloved, God has a purpose for First Christian Church which we may not yet have seen, but Advent is the promise that God is not done with us yet!
Advent is the assurance that God has not grown tired of our prayers.
My God, I love Advent. How about you?

Offering Invitation and Prayer
“He will feed his flock like a shepherd” (Isa. 40:11). What a peaceful image Isaiah portrays of God’s love and care! Our gifts promote God’s peace by feeding the bodies and spirits of the many who are wanting. Let us give generously!

O God, we live amidst abundance that can only be imagined by many. With our heartfelt thanks, may these gifts be used to further the cause of peace in the world. Amen.

Benediction/Commission and Blessing
Take your encouragement from Christ, 
that your joy may be complete.
We will share in the Spirit;
We will find consolation in love.
Practice a ministry of humility and compassion
For God is at work in you, empowering you
We will welcome Christ into our hearts.
We will live worthy of the Gospel. 
We will go forth in hope and in peace.