December 13, 2020
Below, you’ll find the song lyrics and scripture readings for the live stream on December 13th (in the order they are needed).
Brightest
o come, o come, emmanuel
and ranson captive israel
who mourns in lonely exile here
until the son of god appears
rejoice, rejoice
Emmanuel
shall come to thee
o israel
o come thou dayspring
come and cheer
our spirits by thine advent here
disperse the gloomy clouds of night
and death’s dark shadow put to flight
rejoice, rejoice
Emmanuel
shall come to thee
o israel
o come desire of nations, bind
in one the hearts of all human kind
bid thou our sad divisions cease
and be thyself our king of peace
rejoice, rejoice
Emmanuel
shall come to thee
o israel
Call to Worship
we have gathered to worship
the Eternal One
the One who brings good news
to the oppressed and broken-hearted
of the world
to enter the story of God
and find our own stories reimagined
that the Spirit of God might infuse our hearts and minds with joy
transforming the way we relate to our neighbors
and setting us among the realm of what-could-be
Amen
Brightest
is this fear or joy, and what is the difference?
there’s a change coming on the wind
my god, it’s electric
and the skin on the back of my neck is needles and stitches
like there’s a new light among the stars
just out of my vision
what joy could come from darkness
and not destroy the place we’ve made
like if the candle we called brightest
suddenly fell in the hay
is this love or death, and what is the difference?
there’s a change coming to the scales
my god, it’s infectious
and the veins on the back of my eyes
are straining and pulsing
like there’s a new light among the stars
that I can’t behold yet
what joy could come from darkness
and not destroy the place we’ve made
like if the candle we called brightest
suddenly fell in the hay
this is the moment where everything changes
and all of our fears find the peace they’ve been chasing
and all of our comforts shatter like mirrors
caught in a light like has never been seen here
and the mountains, they crumble
chasms, they shade them
and all of our answers grow into questions
when the feeble like lions are freed from their cages
and the mighty are pulled from the places they’re saving
this is joy
Where God Has Always Been
praise be the Lord of all with their backs against the wall
hands above their heads, and eyes lifted up
to that impossible line where the hill meets the sky
who wonder if the distance is at trick
of the earth, or a trick of the mind
and if help will arrive
before they slip away
praise be the Lord of all who wrestle until dawn
who wear their scars like names
yet find heaven and earth strangely aligned
like water in the sour wine:
hidden in plain sight
for God is now where God has always been:
bunkered down with those in the ditch
raising fountains from the cracking dirt
and raising a feast for the hollow, unheard
while the powerful who reign dissolve into the grave
the Eternal one will shade the ones they cast away
’til the coming of the day when all this is remade
so praise be the Lord of all who’ve nowhere to belong
for the Kingdom is drawing near
Old Testament Reading
Today’s Old Testament reading, and Josh’s sermon text, is 2 Samuel 11:
In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab with his officers and all Israel with him; they ravaged the Ammonites, and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.
It happened, late one afternoon, when David rose from his couch and was walking about on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; the woman was very beautiful. David sent someone to inquire about the woman. It was reported, “This is Bathsheba daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” So David sent messengers to get her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she was purifying herself after her period.) Then she returned to her house. The woman conceived; and she sent and told David, “I am pregnant.”
So David sent word to Joab, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent Uriah to David. When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab and the people fared, and how the war was going. Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house, and wash your feet.” Uriah went out of the king’s house, and there followed him a present from the king. But Uriah slept at the entrance of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house. When they told David, “Uriah did not go down to his house,” David said to Uriah, “You have just come from a journey. Why did you not go down to your house?” Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah remain in booths; and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field; shall I then go to my house, to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do such a thing.” Then David said to Uriah, “Remain here today also, and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day. On the next day, David invited him to eat and drink in his presence and made him drunk; and in the evening he went out to lie on his couch with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house.
In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah. In the letter he wrote, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, so that he may be struck down and die.” As Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew there were valiant warriors. The men of the city came out and fought with Joab; and some of the servants of David among the people fell. Uriah the Hittite was killed as well. Then Joab sent and told David all the news about the fighting; and he instructed the messenger, “When you have finished telling the king all the news about the fighting, then, if the king’s anger rises, and if he says to you, ‘Why did you go so near the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall? Who killed Abimelech son of Jerubbaal? Did not a woman throw an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died at Thebez? Why did you go so near the wall?’ then you shall say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead too.’”
So the messenger went, and came and told David all that Joab had sent him to tell. The messenger said to David, “The men gained an advantage over us, and came out against us in the field; but we drove them back to the entrance of the gate. Then the archers shot at your servants from the wall; some of the king’s servants are dead; and your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.” David said to the messenger, “Thus you shall say to Joab, ‘Do not let this matter trouble you, for the sword devours now one and now another; press your attack on the city, and overthrow it.’ And encourage him.”
When the wife of Uriah heard that her husband was dead, she made lamentation for him. When the mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife, and bore him a son.
But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord,
New Testament Reading
Today’s New Testament reading is Matthew 1:1-6:
An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Aram, and Aram the father of Aminadab, and Aminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of King David. And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah…
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What the Dry Years Took Away
eternal, uncreated
who traced the frame
before there was a frame
and never did forget it
though the shape
was mired along the way
would you now yet speak it?
reassert the vision of the Name
write it on our longing
like a pillar of fire and cloud, the same
with urgency and grace
would you restore
what the dry years took away?
o god of life, may your mercy shine
upon the painted world
with power benign
and raise our hearts to sing
like the moon-pull to the tide
’til every riven thing
is found whole yet in plain sight
out here in the distance
among the fences
we build around our dreams
there’s a numbing of the senses
abject indifference
and ubiquitous fatigue
would you now yet speak it
holy beacon
the vision of the Name
write it on our longing
like a pillar of fire and cloud, the same
with urgency and grace
would you restore
what the dry years took away?
o god of life, may your mercy shine
upon the painted world
with power benign
and raise our hearts to sing
like the moon-pull to the tide
’til every riven thing
is found whole yet in plain sight
Doxology
Praise God from whom all blessings flow
Praise him all creatures here below
Praise him above, ye heavenly host
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost
Amen
Benediction
As we approach this week
May we love God
Embrace Beauty
and Live Life to the fullest
Amen