Third Sunday of Advent
Third of Advent
Welcome!
We know not everyone who is part of Westwood Church is able to be in church on Sunday morning however, we thought it would be good to offer some excerpts from the Sunday morning service. Where we can, we offer parts of the service in text and audio, whichever works best for you. If you want to plug in headphones to your computer, tablet or mobile phone now is a good time to do it ! If you want to offer some comment or feedback just use the comment box at the end of this post.
Your Weekly Church Notices
Scripture
Isaiah 35: 1 – 10
Matthew 11: 2 – 11
Praise – It came upon the midnight clear
Prayers
We gather, joyfully lifting our hearts in praise because the Lord is here to walk among us, to make a home in every heart. As we prepare our hearts to make room for the Christ, we join with all the angels of heaven to sing your praise. Our joy is repeated across the heavens.
We come to freely exchange our sorrows for blessings. Let truth and grace be celebrated through all the world; may the wonder of Love incarnate touch every human heart and the soul of nature itself.
Our hope is in the Lord our God who seeks justice for the oppressed. We regret the times we have forgotten to feed the hungry; those who seek food for both body and soul.
Our hope is in the Lord our God, who sets the prisoners free. We turn from the ways where we have built up walls and excluded others favouring our own comfort over our neighbours.
Our hope is in the Lord our God, who lifts up the lowly. Forgive us for missing your invitation to heal and restore wholeness. Teach us again to love the right and to do right by others.
Our hope is in the Lord our God, who watches over strangers. We confess the ways we have failed to uphold the vulnerable in society; all those who have been pushed to the margins, for whom You are Good News. You show your strength by sending your favour upon the humble. You fill us with the good things of life reminding us that riches alone are not enough.
Yet, of those riches with which you have blessed us we gladly give our share back to you. Lord Jesus, receive our gifts of possessions, of time and of talents that we might bring glory to you name in all we do and say and think.
Hear us as we join in the words of the Lord’s Prayer saying…
Our Father who 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 debts as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil, for thine is the Kingdom, the Power and the Glory forever. Amen.
Address
All that time preparing in the wilderness, contemplating, thinking, praying, discerning God’s will; and still there were questions. Didn’t John’s parents tell him about his cousin Jesus, and the time when Mary rushed over to tell them she’d been visited by the angel Gabriel. And when Elizabeth heard that news, the yet unborn baby, John, leapt for joy in his mother’s womb.
And that day John spotted Jesus in the distance and said: “There is the Lamb of God. The reason why I came, baptising in water, was that he might be revealed to Israel.” (John 1:29,35)
And aren’t we told that when John baptised Jesus in the Jordan that he saw God’s spirit descend upon Jesus in the form of a dove, and heard a voice from heaven saying: “This is my beloved Son.” (Matt. 3:13-17) There can’t have been many spiritual experiences more powerful than these.
It seems odd, that after so many spiritual experiences, John should seem so uncertain whether or not Jesus was the Messiah. John sends some of his friends to Jesus to say: “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to expect some other?”
John was a man with a message. He preached religion in a new way. He proclaimed that the expected Messiah would appear at any time. John wanted to make people’s hearts open and receptive.
Life for those who carry a message is seldom simple. They are nearly always ridiculed, despised, dismissed, and sometimes, tortured and imprisoned. Or even put to death. It’s difficult to sustain belief when you’re despised and hated for those beliefs. John was suffering. He was in prison where life was harsh and his spirits were evidently at a very low ebb. The seed of doubt had entered his mind – Is he the one? Is he really the Messiah? Or have I got it shockingly wrong?
John never got a straight answer to his question; “Are you the one?”. Jesus refused to say conclusively that he was, or is, the promised Messiah. Instead, he sent John’s disciples back with what sounded remarkably like a rebuke. “Go back and tell John what you are hearing and seeing: the blind can see, the lame can walk, those who suffer dreaded skin diseases are made clean, the deaf hear, the dead are brought back to life and the Good News is preached to the poor. How happy are those who have no doubts about me!”
John thought he’d been preparing the way. Making the path straight for the coming Messiah. Fulfilling the scriptures. Obeying God. But now, frightened and alone and in some dreadful pit of a jail, he wasn’t so sure.
John preached fiery judgement. “Repent! The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” And when some of the Pharisees and Sadducees came to him for baptism: “You viper’s brood! Who warned you to escape from the wrath that is to come?” John was all for a bit of righteous vengeance and he expected the satisfaction of seeing some just punishment meted out by the new Messiah.
Jesus came with peace and love and forgiveness. He wasn’t anything like the Messiah John thought he should be. Could Jesus be the Messiah, or should he expect another?
So often in life and in faith things are not as we expect them to be. There are disappointments, frustrations, doubts, a re-organising and realigning of our expectations. I say this because Christmas is filled with all kinds of expectations; the child who expects their entire Amazon wish list to appear in their Christmas stocking, the overworked mum who looks forward to the whole family descending upon her but expects it to be exhausting. Those who expect it to be much like any other day of the week because they have nothing to celebrate and no one to share it with anyway. Where there are expectations there will be, almost undoubtedly, just as many disappointments, frustrations and doubts.
As for us… we have disappointments in faith too; unanswered prayers, uncertainty about God’s very existence, uncertainty about the meaning of Christ’s life and death and resurrection. It is human to have doubts; we all have doubts. Yet one thing will rise above all of this – that God has called you. Not because we are perfect or somehow better than others but simply because He has put his hand upon us, he has chosen us to carry the Good News. And just as importantly we have discerned that voice calling to us amidst the doubts and frustrations and disappointments of life and faith.
John the Baptist prepared a way for the Messiah. He opened hearts and equally decried established religion where it had closed the door to people. And those who in the tangle of faith and doubt and uncertainty still hear the call of Christ, will work together to prepare hearts for His coming.
Praise – Beauty for brokenness
Prayers for Others
Lord Jesus Christ, in these moments of prayer we recognise that we all bring our own lives and personal circumstances into this space. We may feel joyful in our hearts, we may be excited for the coming festivities, we may be mourning a loss, or down hearted at unmet expectations as another year draws near to a close. We could be any of these things or none; yet, we all seek to open our hearts to You for You know us exactly as we are….
Father in Heaven, who loves us as His own children, we thank you for the gift of loving relationships, we thank you for community and the broader relationships of life in and through which your love is expressed. We hold before You in our prayers our relationships with others. May we be open to loving not just our own but to loving the stranger, loving the unlovable, and loving our enemy. Lord hear our thanksgivings for relationships…
Heavenly Father, God of righteousness, we offer our concerns for those who long for justice, fairness and dignity. Your Son came to set the oppressed free and give liberty to captives; may the heart of His ministry still be at the heart of ours as we pray for the systems at the centre of government today that mould our day-to-day lives. We lament the places where these have fallen short, and ask that You would save us from being complicit in injustice. Hear our prayers…
We have brought these concerns to You, Lord God, knowing that You call us not to lose hope, but to lean on Your strength, to seek light in the darkness and hope in Christ even in the midst of our despair. Amen.
Praise – Love came down at Christmas
The Grace
And now… May the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God and the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you and all whom you love, now and for evermore. AMEN.