Please note that recordings of this service have been added to each section and may be listened to as well as read.

Welcome & Intimations

Call to Worship (from Psalm 80: 1-23)
Hear us, Shepherd of Israel,
you who lead Joseph like a flock.
You who sit enthroned between the cherubim,
shine forth before Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseh.
Awaken your might;
come and save us.

Restore us, O God;
make your face shine on us,
that we may be saved.

HYMN 273 O come, O come, Emmanuel

Prayer

O come, O come, we pray our God.
we call upon Your name,
seeking to know your truth,
seeking to know your touch,
seeking to know Your love.

O come, O come, we pray our God.
Reveal Yourself to us
that we may know Your presence,
that we may know your touch,
that we may praise Your Holy Name.

O come, O come, we pray our God.
As we begin our journey toward Christmas
may we open our hearts,
may we open our minds,
may we open our arms
to embrace the Good News of Your coming among us.

Ransome us, we pray, our God.
As we call on You, so too do we turn away.
As the world cries out for help,
so do we turn deaf.
As the world reaches out for love,
so to do we close our hearts.

Ransome us, we pray, our God.
Claim us once more as Your own.
Restore us once more as Your people.
Open us up to the needs of our neighbour.
show us how to love,
even as You have loved us.

Amen

The Lord’s Prayer

Scriptures

Isaiah 64: 1-9
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down,
that the mountains would tremble before you!
As when fire sets twigs ablaze
and causes water to boil,
come down to make your name known to your enemies
and cause the nations to quake before you!
For when you did awesome things that we did not expect,
you came down, and the mountains trembled before you.
Since ancient times no one has heard,
no ear has perceived,
no eye has seen any God besides you,
who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.
You come to the help of those who gladly do right,
who remember your ways.
But when we continued to sin against them,
you were angry.
How then can we be saved?
All of us have become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;
we all shrivel up like a leaf,
and like the wind our sins sweep us away.
No one calls on your name
or strives to lay hold of you;
for you have hidden your face from us
and have given us over to our sins.

Yet you, Lord, are our Father.
We are the clay, you are the potter;
we are all the work of your hand.
Do not be angry beyond measure, Lord;
do not remember our sins for ever.
Oh, look upon us we pray,
for we are all your people.

Mark 13: 24-37
‘But in those days, following that distress,

‘“the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light;
the stars will fall from the sky,
and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.”

‘At that time people will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens.

‘Now learn this lesson from the fig-tree: as soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that it[b] is near, right at the door. Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

‘But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come. It’s like a man going away: he leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with their assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch.

‘Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back – whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the cock crows, or at dawn. If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to everyone: “Watch!”’

HYMN 472 Come though long expected Jesus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkZFhzNbp8k

Reflection

What do you want for Christmas? Depending on who you ask you will get a variety of answers; you may even get a list. It is a question that comes up every year in so many households and families. Sometimes the question is put subtly before the rush to buy presents takes over the local shopping centre. Other times the question could be quite blunt. If you ask it of your loved ones will the answer be straight or will they try to avoid the question so as not to seem presumptuous or greedy. Perhaps the answer may be that all you want for Christmas is your two front teeth! Whatever you want for Christmas I imagine that, like most folk in the world, your desire is not the same as that of the people of God as they approached what would become the first Christmas. What were they doing on that first Christmas? What were they hoping for?

One thing is for sure, they were not waiting for anything similar to what we look for each year. The people of God were waiting for many things; they wanted freedom from a despotic ruler; they wanted to come back to the halcyon days of the time of King David; they wanted peace. Some were waiting for a coming King like David who would restore the nation. They were not waiting for presents wrapped and lying under an evergreen tree; they were not awaiting the birth of a child who was wondrous; they were not awaiting mysterious strangers and scholars from afar. Theirs was a grounded expectation. Theirs was a hope that sometimes seemed as if it would never be fulfilled.

As they waited to be set free from all that kept them apart form God they turned to ancient stories and prophecies that warned them to prepare for a coming day. It was to be a day of God’s favour, but it was also to be a day of God’s wrath. That, perhaps, helps to explain the two readings set for today. The people were awaiting a time of judgment. Yet they were also awaiting a day that would see judgement turn to wonder, grace, and mercy. Some continue to await that coming King from David’s line. As Christians we believe that these hopes were fulfilled in the birth of Jesus, son of Joseph, in Bethlehem. That birth was not into the sanitised crib scene we so often see in our churches. That birth was not into the sentimental scene that we have created that is palatable and inoffensive. The truth is far different. That birth was into a stable full of dirt and smells that have to be experienced to be understood. That birth was marked by strange signs. The visitors from nearby were shepherds, a group often regarded as untrustworthy, who had just been terrified by angels. The visitors from afar brought strange gifts that hinted at sacrifice and death, and whose presence hinted at prophecies of last days.

What do you want for Christmas? Do you want the safety of the tame and manageable? Want do you want for Christmas? Do you want the sanitised version that causes no offence? Want do you want for Christmas? Do you want the real story in all its messiness and grim reality? It is this, latter, story that changed the world and has the power to continue to do so. If you want the real story of Christmas then it is a story of hopes and fears rolled up in the promise of a coming King. If you want the real story of Christmas then it is the story of the God who forsook heavenly glory to be at one with His people in the flesh and blood of the one we know as Jesus. If you want the real Christmas then you are opening yourself up to be transformed and transfigured into the image of God.

So tell me, what do you want for Christmas?

Amen.

Prayer for the World

Listening God,
we thank You that You are God with us,
that we can glimpse Your Kingdom around us,
that we can see signs of You in our world,
that we can be part of Your story.
God, we wait and we listen;
we hope for what is not seen.
Shine the light of Your kingdom
into the darkness of our world.

Listening God,
will You come into the darkness of today’s world?
To the places where once You walked among us
but are now places of despair, conflict and occupation.
Be with those whose stories we have heard
and the countless others whose voices are silenced.

Help us to be a voice of peace,
to speak out against oppression
to share the real Bethlehem with others this Advent.
Bring Your wisdom to a situation which seems to have no end.
God, we wait and we listen;
we hope for what is not seen.
Shine the light of Your kingdom
into the darkness of our world.

Listening God,
will You come into the darkness of our community?
To the people living with fear and worry,
to the people whose Advent is not full of joy,
to the people needing support.
Open our eyes to the situations all around us that we do not see
and open our minds to the ways we can respond.
God, we wait and we listen,
we hope for what is not seen.
Shine the light of Your kingdom
into the darkness of our world.

Listening God,
will You come into the darkness of our lives?
To our human doubts and failings,
the times we do not live out our faith,
the situations we have not used our power to change.
Help us to be as open to you as You were to us
when You were as vulnerable as a baby
trusting in the world for Your safety.
Show us glimpses of Your Kingdom.
Help us to hear Your story.
Reveal to us our part in Your Advent Hope.
God, we wait and we listen.
We hope for what is not seen.
Shine the light of Your kingdom
into the darkness of our world.
Amen.

HYMN 279 Make way, make way, for Christ the King

Benediction

Go from this time
in the name of God
whose promises are ‘Yes’ and ‘Amen’.

Go from this time
in hope and expectation,
of promises fulfilled.

And as you go
may the blessing of God,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
go with you, evermore,.
Amen.

Acknowledgements
Holy Bible, New International Version® Anglicized, NIV®
Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission.
All rights reserved worldwide.
Prayer for the World adapted from Church of Scotland Weekly Worship.

Please note that recordings of this service have been added to each section and may be listened to at any time.

Welcome & Intimations

Call to Worship (from Psalm 95)
Come, let us bow down in worship,
let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;
for he is our God
and we are the people of his pasture,
the flock under his care.

HYMN 458 At the name of Jesus

Prayer

Let us worship the Lord with gladness
as we come into his presence.
Let us remember that the Lord is God.
It is God who made us, and we belong to Him;
we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.
Let us enter His presence with thanksgiving,
giving thanks to God,
blessing the name of God.
Let us give thanks to God for His goodness,
for His steadfast love which endures for ever,
for His faithfulness to all generations.

You, God, are our one and only King.
We seek Your forgiveness for when we turn from you,
and seek to serve other “kings” and false gods of our own making:
the false gods of wealth, influence, and position.
We seek Your forgiveness, we who are broken
by our own choices and actions.
Guide us that we may be the sheep of Your pasture.
Lead us to trust in You as our King and Shepherd.
Show us how to walk once more
in the name of Jesus, Your Son,
and in the power of Your Holy Spirit.
Amen.

The Lord’s Prayer

Scriptures

Ezekiel 34:11-24
‘“For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land. I will pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in all the settlements in the land. I will tend them in a good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel will be their grazing land. There they will lie down in good grazing land, and there they will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I myself will tend my sheep and make them lie down, declares the Sovereign Lord. I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice.

‘“As for you, my flock, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will judge between one sheep and another, and between rams and goats. Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture? Must you also trample the rest of your pasture with your feet? Is it not enough for you to drink clear water? Must you also muddy the rest with your feet? Must my flock feed on what you have trampled and drink what you have muddied with your feet?

‘“Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says to them: see, I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. Because you shove with flank and shoulder, butting all the weak sheep with your horns until you have driven them away, I will save my flock, and they will no longer be plundered. I will judge between one sheep and another. I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will tend them; he will tend them and be their shepherd. I the Lord will be their God, and my servant David will be prince among them. I the Lord have spoken.

Matthew 25:31-46
‘When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

‘Then the King will say to those on his right, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was ill and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.”

‘Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison and go to visit you?”

‘The King will reply, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”

‘Then he will say to those on his left, “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was ill and in prison and you did not look after me.”

‘They also will answer, “Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or ill or in prison, and did not help you?”

‘He will reply, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.”

‘Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.’

HYMN 360 Jesus Christ is waiting

Reflection

This Sunday is sometimes known as ‘Christ the King’; it marks the end of the church’s year and prepares us for the countdown to Christmas that commences next Sunday. It is also a celebration that is relatively new having originated shortly after the end of the First World War. It arose out of the sense that humanity had abandoned the teachings of Christ and had again followed the desires of man. Against a growing move toward totalitarian rule in Europe the feast was meant to point us back towards our true and rightful King, Christ Jesus.

This week’s readings tie in with those of recent weeks as they give rise to questions of eternity, judgement, and loyalty. They are designed to provoke us to ask, ‘who’s side are we one’ or ‘who is it that we follow’. They provide us with glimpses of both wonder and judgement; the former for those on the side of Christ with the latter for those who prefer to choose the ways of humanity. Since these writings, both by prophet and evangelist, were written for the faith community we must also face another question: why are we being warned?

Ezekiel was called to be a messenger from God to His disobedient people. The people were in exile, sent there because they had made foolish alliances and worshipped false gods. Time and again the people had been warned of the consequences; time and again they had ignored the prophets or messengers of God. The consequence was punishment, in this case exile. Yet even in exile God did not fully abandon his people. Just as we may chastise one of our children for their wrongdoing so, too, does God chastise his children for theirs. Just as we do not stop loving our children neither does God stop loving His, even in exile. Ezekiel is sent to both warn the people concerning their continued foolishness, and to guide them back toward God.

As we look at the Gospel we see the warnings laid out more clearly, more starkly. Here we have a simple division of the people into the faithful and the unfaithful, the saved and the judged. We must, though, note an important point; belief is not enough! Remember, it is believers that are being judged. Our faith in Christ, in God, must lead to changed perspectives and changed actions. In the reading Jesus warns that it is those who fed the hungry, clothed the naked, or visited the prisoner who were saved. Note, too, that this is not some form of what the Reformers entitled ‘works salvation’. The good works of which Jesus refers are not the cause of being right with God but an outworking of it. In other words, the love of God for us transforms us in ways that see us love God and then show this through the love of our neighbour.

This Sunday is about judgement, yet it is also about transformation and renewal. It is about turning away from false gods and idols of our own making. It is not about seeing yourself as the sheep in the parable and breathing a sigh of relief. It is about following the example of the sheep and reaching out to our neighbour, whoever he or she may be. It is about bringing compassion and grace to bear in world that truly hurts. It is also about doing this not to make oneself feel safe and secure but to be faithful and obedient to our Lord.

In our world faith is often seen as something personal; it’s rarely seen as something to be shared. This can see our faith become nothing more than a series of propositions with little to no impact on the remainder of creation. That is not how it is meant to be. The love of God for us is meant to transform us from inward looking and selfish to outward looking and generous. The love of God is meant to transform us ‘creatures of wrath’ to become channels of grace and mercy. The love of God is meant to transform us from ‘goats’ to ‘sheep’.

Prayers for the world

Lord, you sent Your Son to set us free,
to bring good news to the poor,
to bring sight to the blind,
to bring freedom to captives
to usher in Your Kingdom.
Lord, may Your Kingdom come,
on earth as it is in heaven.

Lord, send us to bring help to the poor
and freedom to the oppressed.
Send us to proclaim Your truth
working for justice in the world.
Send us to tell the world of Your love,
spreading the Good News of Your Kingdom.
Lord, may Your Kingdom come,
on earth as it is in heaven.

Lord, may we tend us to those who mourn,
to bring light and hope to those who grieve.
Send us that we may a healing presence
to all who struggle in body, heart, or mind.
Send us to proclaim that the time is here
for You to save Your people.
Lord, may Your Kingdom come,
on earth as it is in heaven.

Lord of the Church,
hear our prayer.
Make us one in heart and mind
to serve You in Christ our Lord.
Make us to work from Your kingdom
where grace and mercy flow.
Lord, may Your Kingdom come,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Amen

HYMN 804 You shall go out with joy

The Blessing

Go into the world from this time of worship
knowing Christ Jesus as your Lord and King.
Go from this time to work for the coming
of His Kingdom on earth as in heaven.

And as you go,
may the blessing of God,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
go with you
now and evermore.
Amen.

Acknowldegements
Holy Bible, New International Version® Anglicized, NIV®
Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission.
All rights reserved worldwide.