OPENING PRAYER
You are the image of the invisible God
and the epitome of grace.
In times of doubt and suffering,
we pray for your guidance as we, your followers,
strive to spread grace everywhere we go.
Please help us to reclaim and instill your kind of grace
in spaces where it has been lost.
May we work towards restoring our culture
with transformative concepts, unconditional hospitality,
attentive listening, and respectful questioning.
We humbly ask for your grace
to define us as your people,
so that we can authentically embody grace
in our society during this time.
Amen.
SERMON
QUESTION: What do we do when it feels like God is silent or not answering our prayers the way we hope?
POINT: Ancient cry to God in the scriptures: “O that you would tear open the heavens and come down!”
Isaiah 64:1-12 NRSV
O that you would tear open the heavens and come down,
so that the mountains would quake at your presence—
as when fire kindles brushwood
and the fire causes water to boil—
to make your name known to your adversaries,
so that the nations might tremble at your presence!
When you did awesome deeds that we did not expect,
you came down; the mountains quaked at your presence.
From ages past, no one has heard,
no ear has perceived,
no eye has seen any God besides you,
who works for those who wait for him.
You meet those who gladly do right,
those who remember you in your ways.
But you were angry, and we sinned;
because you hid yourself, we transgressed.
We have all become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth.
We all fade like a leaf,
and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
There is no one who calls on your name,
or attempts to take hold of you;
for you have hidden your face from us,
and have delivered us into the hand of our iniquity.
Yet, O Lord, you are our Father;
we are the clay, and you are our potter;
we are all the work of your hand.
Do not be exceedingly angry, O Lord,
and do not remember iniquity forever.
Now, consider we are all your people.
Our holy and glorious temple, where our ancestors praised you,
has been burned with fire,
and all that we treasured lies in ruins.
After all this, Lord, will you hold yourself back?
Will you keep silent and punish us beyond measure?
POINT: The cycle of
“In me, there is darkness,
But with You, there is light;
I am lonely, but You do not leave me;
I am feeble in heart, but with You, there is help;
I am restless, but with You, there is peace.
In me, there is bitterness, but with You, there is patience;
I do not understand Your ways,
But You know the way for me.Lord Jesus Christ,
You were poor
And in distress, a captive and forsaken as I am.
You know all man’s troubles;
You abide with me
When all men fail me,
You remember and seek me;
It is Your will that I should know You
And turn to You.
Lord, I hear Your call and follow;
Help me.” —Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison
POINT: Advent is a time when we embrace the anticipation of God entering into the
Matthew 1:23 NRSV - “Look, the virgin shall become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means, “God is with us.”