Sermon Tone Analysis

*Theme                 *

As we wait patiently for God’s presence and power, we are reminded that God’s power is all about timing.

Prelude

Welcome

Call to Worship          

*One: *Comfort, O comfort, my people.

*All:    *We find comfort in the midst of daily struggle.

*One: *Comfort, O comfort, my people.

*All:    *We find comfort in the promise of daily blessing.

*One: *Comfort, O comfort, my people.

*All:    *We find comfort in the grace of daily service.

*One: *Comfort, O comfort, my people.

*All:    *We find comfort in God’s perfect timing.

*One:* Comfort, O comfort, my people.

*All:*    We find comfort in the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

~*Hymn of Praise          # 49          Surely Goodness and Mercy

Invocation  (the Lord’s Prayer)

Gloria Patri

Advent Hymn                      We Light the Advent Candles      insert(175)

Advent Wreath            Advent is our time to prepare for the birth of Jesus.

We are called to prepare our hearts.

(relight first candle)  We light the second Advent candle as a reminder that Christ is our hope.

One way we can prepare our hearts is to remember how people throughout time have looked with hope for the coming of the Savior.

Another way we can prepare our hearts is to reflect on the areas of our lives which are still “rough places,” places where we need to repent and seek forgiveness.

Special Music

Our  Offering to God

Doxology

Prayer of Dedication    Bountiful God, you provide us with all we need to accomplish your will.

Thank you for pouring your grace into our lives on a daily basis to sustain us and empower us.

Thank you for giving us patience to seek out your blessings with diligence and to await your blessings with anticipation.

We come before you today to share of ourselves – our souls, our bodies, our money, and our material things.

Consecrate these things for your use in your good time.

As we share who we are and what we have, continue to bless us and to release us to encourage others and, through grace, to enable them to share in your goodness.

We ask this through Jesus Christ, who gave his all to you and for you, and who gave himself for us.

Amen.

Scripture Reading                Mark 1:1–8

Mark’s gospel begins in a rush of words and the urgency of John the Baptizer’s preaching.

This section is “the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God,” and John stresses that a new baptism of the Holy Spirit will release a rush of renewal.

~*Hymn of Prayer          On Jordan’s Bank the Baptist’s Cry          insert (156)

is one of Charles Coffin’s more than 100 Latin hymns.

One needs look no farther to see that traditional church music “rocks” with the best of “contemporary”; Praetorius’ tune makes Coffin’s text dance, bringing to life the Voice in the Wilderness.

Pastoral Prayer 

Advent is a season of waiting — a waiting that is anything but passive.

As we prepare to make room for Christ to dwell within us, we acknowledge our own sin, which stands in the way of living the fullness of life God promises in Christ.

Let us be truthful with God, in the presence of one another.

Let us give God the gift of our honest and humble confession.

Let us pray: \\ Loving God, we come before you today with the burden of sin as we fall short of your call and commission in our lives.

We confess to you the impatience of our lives: the impulses causing us to do those things we ought not to do, and to fail at those things we ought to do.

We confess the impertinence that causes us to think and say those things that hurt others and shatter relationships.

We confess the impiousness that causes us to turn away from you and exalt ourselves.

We pray for your forgiveness to fill our lives with peace and renewal.

We pray for patience for your will to be done, for perspective to strengthen relationships, and for your holiness to fill every part of our lives.

Release your healing grace in our lives every day.

Draw us nearer to you, through Jesus Christ our Savior.

Almighty God, we rejoice in your power, which you extend in grace, and your might, which you use to bless and sustain those in need.

We thank you for your perfect timing in our lives, and in this world.

Increase in us patience and anticipation, as we bring to you our needs and the needs of others.

We pray for our national and international leaders, for patience and forbearance as they handle matters of vital importance to world peace.

We pray for this church, for the patience and discernment of perfect timing to accomplish your will and work in ministry.

We pray for those in special need, those known to us and those unknown to us, and pray for sustenance for them.

We ask these things in the name of our Servant Savior, Jesus the Christ.

Amen.

~*Hymn of Praise          # 128                One Day

Scripture Reading                2 Peter 3:8–15a

The writer of 2 Peter balances two seemingly contradictory topics: the imminent return of the Lord to redeem the faithful, and the patience that the faithful must demonstrate as they wait.

The writer stresses that God will come at just the right time.

8But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day.

9The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance.

10But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed.

11Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, what sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, 12waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire?

13But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home.14Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish; 15and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation.

Message                    *The Power of Patience, the Miracle of Timing   *In an “instant” world, we struggle with impatience that causes us to say things and to take action at the wrong time.

The Lord works things out in perfect timing and calls us to wait patiently for God’s will to be done.

We live in an instant world.

All of us feel the pressures, but also enjoy the pleasures, of the instant and the immediate.

Some of us can remember when the world was not instant.

When you ordered something, it came in a couple of weeks, which was pretty good time.

Dinner took hours to cook.

Restaurants served promptly, but not fast.

Time was measured in hours.

Many of us can remember the arrival of “instant coffee” in the 1960s and fast food service in the 1970s.

We started to expect that answers to our questions would come more quickly, and services would be delivered more promptly.

The microwave arrived, and dinner was ready in minutes.

Restaurants turned out lunches in two minutes or less.

Time was measured in minutes.

In the 1990s, with the arrival of personal computers and the explosion of the Internet, we began to measure time in seconds.

Through computing and Internet access, we get what we need in the virtual world in seconds.

News networks bring information immediately from everywhere on the globe, 24 hours a day.

Culturally, we promote “instant gratification.”

When we want something, we expect our wants to be fulfilled right now.

While technology has changed our expectations about time, we find that relationships do not work in seconds.

Love and compassion are not achieved in an instant.

The same thing is true in our walk with God.

From our side, building an intimate relationship with God takes time, probably a lifetime.

We have to confront our unhappiness when God does not answer our requests or fulfill our needs (at least as we understand them) immediately.

The prayer of the modern American is, “Dear God, grant me patience.

And I want it right now!” Perhaps it always has been a part of human nature to be impatient with the passage of time.

It was so in the early church.

Jesus had died, risen from the dead, and ascended into the presence of God.

The persistent promise that people in the early church heard was that Jesus was coming again in power and great triumph to judge the living and the dead, and to claim his people for all eternity.