NOVEMBER 27, 2022

Hymn Sing     

     Gray Psalter Hymnal

          # 345     Hark! The Herald Angels Sing                

          # 346     Once in Royal David’s City, vs 1, 2, 4

     Insert          Glorious Light

Call to Worship - Candle Lighting          Pelton Family

In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep. 

A wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light,” 

And there was light. And God saw that the light was good. 

God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. 

And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. 

—from Genesis 1:1-5     (NRSVUE)

Hymn     # 1     Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus          (Christmas Songbook)

Confession of Sin and Assurance of Pardon    

Confession of Sin

Merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart and mind and strength. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. In your mercy forgive what we have been, help us amend what we are, and direct what we shall be, so that we may delight in your will and walk in your ways, to the glory of your holy name. Through Christ, our Lord. Amen

Assurance of Pardon

1Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2For the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. 

— Romans 8:1-2

Psalter:     Psalm 122     (NRSVUE)          Ray Graham

1I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the LORD!”

2Our feet are standing within your gates, O Jerusalem.

3Jerusalem—built as a city that is bound firmly together.

4To it the tribes go up, the tribes of the LORD, as was decreed for Israel, to give thanks to the name of the LORD.

5For there the thrones for judgment were set up, the thrones of the house of David.

6Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: “May they prosper who love you.

7Peace be within your walls and security within your towers.”

8For the sake of my relatives and friends I will say, “Peace be within you.”

9For the sake of the house of the LORD our God, I will seek your good.

Prayer for Illumination

New Testament Reading     Revelation 3:7-13

       7“And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write:

       These are the words of the Holy One, the True One, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens:

       8“I know your works. Look, I have set before you an open door that no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. 9I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not but are lying—I will make them come and bow down before your feet, and they will learn that I have loved you. 10Because you have kept my word of endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth. 11I am coming soon; hold fast to what you have, so that no one takes away your crown. 12If you conquer, I will make you a pillar in the temple of my God; you will never go out of it. I will write on you the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem that comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name. 13Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.

Lector: This is the Word of the Lord.

Congregation: Thanks be to God for His Word.

Choral Anthem     We'll Welcome Him

In the silence and the darkness

We have wandered, wandered

Waiting for our Savior's birth

And our minds and hearts are longing

For the Savior, Savior

Waiting, waiting

When our Lord descends to earth

We'll welcome him, we'll welcome him

We'll welcome him

Let all mortal flesh keep silence

And with fear and trembling stand

Ponder nothing earthly minded

For with blessing in his hand

Christ our God to earth descendeth

Our full homage to demand

Christ our God to earth descendeth

We'll welcome him, we'll welcome him

We'll welcome him.

Children’s Sermon

Hymn     # 25     Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming          (Christmas Songbook)

Old Testament Reading     Isaiah 22:15-25

       15Thus says the Lord GOD of hosts: “Go to the steward Shebna, who is master of the household, and say to him: 16What right do you have here? Who are your relatives here, that you have cut out a tomb here for yourself, cutting a tomb on the height and carving a habitation for yourself in the rock? 17The LORD is about to hurl you away violently, my fellow. He will seize firm hold on you, 18whirl you round and round, and throw you like a ball into a wide land; there you shall die, and there your splendid chariots shall lie, O you disgrace to your master’s house! 19I will thrust you from your office, and you will be pulled down from your post.

       20“On that day I will call my servant Eliakim son of Hilkiah 21and will clothe him with your robe and bind your sash on him. I will commit your authority to his hand, and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. 22I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David; he shall open, and no one shall shut; he shall shut, and no one shall open. 23I will fasten him like a peg in a secure place, and he will become a throne of honor to his ancestral house. 24And they will hang on him the whole weight of his ancestral house, the offspring and issue, every small vessel, from the cups to all the flagons. 25On that day, says the LORD of hosts, the peg that was fastened in a secure place will give way; it will be cut down and fall, and the load that was on it will perish, for the LORD has spoken.”

Sermon     Hope and Longing          Reverand Andrew Morton