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Advent 2014 Worship and Discipleship Resource
Developed By The Chr is1an Educa1on Department
AME Z ion Church
B ishop Dennis V . Proctor Board Chairman
Rev. Kathryn G. Brown Genera l Secretary
Rev. Patr ick BarreE I I , Spec ia l Ass is tant for Program Development
And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. - Luke 1:31-32
The resources shared here are designed to be ideas for celebrating the four
Sundays of Advent. Interpretations of the Advent Sundays are varied.
However, this resource will outline the four Sundays as
Hope, Love, Joy, and Peace.
Feel free to adapt these worship ideas to your desired order. While these resources
are centered around the Advent Wreath Lighting every Sunday, many of the
readings, videos, songs, and dramas can be spread out throughout the worship
service to enhance the theme for that particular Sunday.
Each week also includes an Advent Challenge and Prayer Focus to help center us
during this Advent season.
Pastors, Christian educators, and worship planners are encouraged
to be creative and use these resources to best fit the
congregation(s) they serve.
As we prepare ourselves for the birth and second coming of our Lord, may this
Advent season fill you and your congregations with the hope, love, joy, and peace
that this holy season inspires in us!
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ADVENT November 30-‐December 24, 2014
Color – Purple
CHRISTMASTIDE December 25-‐ January 5, 2015
Color -‐ White
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1st Sunday in Advent: HOPE
In light of the recent events surrounding the Grand Jury’s decision in the death of Michael Brown, all churches are encouraged to make Nme to discuss these events with young people in the church and community. The purpose of the discussion(s) is 1) provide a safe place for young people to express their feelings, fears and thoughts; 2) empower them to address these issues in posiNve ways and 3) help them to understand that in Christ there is hope!
Recommended approaches:
• Facilitate a discussion with young people about MaXhew 2. Discuss how Herod’s decree and Jesus’ parents response gives insight into the shooNng of Michael Brown and other unarmed African-‐American men.
• Hold an intergeneraNonal dialogue about race issues and the role that faith Christ in has played (and conNnues to play) in mobilizing courageous, legal acNon.
• Have young people develop a message of hope that they will videotape and post of Facebook. Encourage them to develop other ways to use social media to promote messages of hope in the midst of racial tensions and injusNce.
• Ask adults share 1 sentence messages of hope to the young adults and adults within the congregaNon and community.
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1st Sunday in Advent: HOPE
Weekly Advent Challenge: Encourage the congregaNon to find 1-‐2 people that they can give an encouraging word to. Perhaps its someone who is having a bad day or someone who is going through a hard Nme. How can we bring hope to someone this week? Create a space during Sunday School, Bible study, or Sunday morning worship for members to share stories or debrief together. Prayer focus: God Almighty, grant us the courage to be bearers of hope in a world so full of darkness.
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1st Sunday in Advent: HOPE Advent Presenta6on and Candle Ligh6ng
Character 1 with shopping bags (enter from rear of sanctuary): This is a monologue in which
Character 1 is talking to and engaging the congrega6on.)
Whew! Did you see all of that Christmas shopping going on this weekend?? People running around trying to get the best deals! Been there done that! I used to be the first one in the stores on Black Friday! Trampling on anyone that gets in the way! [giggle]. I did a liXle shopping this year too, but I’ve decided to cut back a lot, parNally because as a ChrisNan I need to be a beXer steward of my finances, but mainly due to a new understanding of this season.
Haha! No. Not a new understanding of “winter”, but of the Advent season. The four weeks leading up to Christmas is called the Advent season in the ChrisNan calendar. As ChrisNans, we take this Nme to be expectant and to prepare ourselves for the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!
Oh, I almost forgot! It’s about Nme to light the Advent wreath. [walks up to the front of the Church, sits bags to the side, and stands to the side of the table] Every year we light the candles in the Advent wreath in preparaNon for Christ.
The Advent wreath is circular. It has no beginning or end. This reminds us that God is eternal and extends to us endless mercy. It’s green, which reminds us of the hope for renewal, newness and eternal life in Christ. (Places wreath on table and begins to hold up candles). We place candles in the wreath and light them each Sunday. The lit candles symbolize the light of God that is coming into the world through the birth of His Son, Jesus Christ.
The Advent season challenges us to get our minds off of material things that just don’t maXer and helps us to prepare our hearts for the transformaNon that God intends through Jesus Christ. He has come, He is present in the world today, and He is coming back for His church.
Hey friend (give Character 2 a name), can you help me light the Advent candle today?
Character 2: Sure thing. You know, Christmas is intended to be a transforming event, not a lovely interlude in business as usual. What we do in Advent in preparaNon for Christmas will be our means of gehng ready for a new way of looking at life -‐-‐ a new way of living. The Prophet Malachi speaks of a messenger: . . one who will prepare the way of the Lord . . .one who reminds us of the covenant of God . . . .one who refines and purifies us in faithfulness
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Character 1: How then do we prepare to be transformed by the coming of the Lord?
Character 2: By allowing the light of hope to awaken our spirits! By making room for the Lord to write the covenant on our hearts! By living in graNtude for what we receive in the Lord!
If we prepare ourselves by renewing our covenant with God, then we will be truly transformed as Christ comes again into our lives.
Character 1: Today, the first Sunday in Advent, we light the first candle, the Hope candle, in celebraNon of the hope we have in Christ. [lights dim]
As the candles are being lit, someone reads the following scripture:
Reader: Jeremiah 33:14-‐16 -‐ "The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that @me I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute jus@ce and righteousness in the land” In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. And this is the name by which it will be called: 'The Lord is our righteousness."
Video Sugges1on: hEps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-‐pZYNv8pRQ
Hymn Op1on: “O Come, O Come Emmanuel”
1st Sunday in Advent: HOPE Advent Presenta6on and Candle Ligh6ng (con’t)
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2nd Sunday in Advent: LOVE
Weekly Advent Challenge: Challenge the congregaNon to write a “love note” expressing thanks to someone who has blessed their life in a meaningful way. AddiNonally, have them pinpoint one person, perhaps someone they are at odds with, that they can make a real effort to show love to. Create a space during Sunday School, Bible study, or Sunday morning worship for members to share stories or to debrief together. Discuss how love should shape our response to injusNce. More specifically, discuss ways to demonstrate love to those who reject, persecute and mistreat you. IdenNfy specific ways to demonstrate God’s love in the midst of the current racial tensions in this country. Prayer focus: God of love, you are sending your Son to us because you love us and care enough to see us transformed. Help us to love you fiercely and to share your transforming love with the world.
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2nd Sunday in Advent: LOVE Advent Presenta6on and Candle Ligh6ng
Reader A:
“Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.
Reader B:
In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD. Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be liled up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.
Readers A & B:
Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.” (Isaiah 40:1-‐5 NRSV)
Candle Lighter 1: On last Sunday, the light of hope awakened our spirits (light the first candle). Today, we stand grateful that it is because of God’s great love for us that He sent his Son into our world and it is because of this same love that he shall come again for his church.
Children’s reading (Give each child a verse to recite, divide the children into groups to recite por@ons together, or have the children recite the en@re passage as a group):
1 John 4:7-‐12
7 Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.
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Candle Lighter 2: God of love, you created this world beauNful and good. Yet we know how hate, despair, and war have ravaged your good creaNon. You sent your Son, Jesus, to shine your light and your love into this world and to redeem us from ourselves. Thank you for your transforming love: love that brings light into the darkness of self-‐hate; love that brings hope into moments of despair; love that heals broken hearts and broken relaNonships; love that opens us up to live on purpose. Make us instruments of your love. Teach us to love you with our whole heart and soul and mind and strength and to love those we’d rather turn away from. Today, we give thanks for your love. Amen.
(light the second candle).
Music Op1ons:
“Love Divine, All Loves Excelling”
“Oh How I Love Jesus”
“Oh How He Loves Us” by New Breed
“Grateful for Your Love” by King James Version
“Love” by Kirk Franklin
2nd Sunday in Advent: LOVE Advent Presenta6on and Candle Ligh6ng (con’t)
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3rd Sunday in Advent: JOY
Weekly Advent Challenge: Life can be full of disappointments and challenges, but it is possible and important to have joy even when things are not going our way. Challenge the congregaNon to make room for laughter and to make a list of things for which they are grateful. This pracNce is parNcularly useful when we find ourselves complaining about the way things are or are not going for us. Discuss ways to experience joy in the midst of the loss of a loved one, financial challenges, sickness and heartache. Create a space during Sunday School, Bible study, or Sunday morning worship for members to share stories or to debrief together.
Prayer focus: Lord, help us to remember your greatness and be filled with your joy.
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3rd Sunday in Advent: JOY Advent Presenta6on and Candle Ligh6ng
(Young woman dressed as Mary would have been during Bible @mes, enters from the back
praising God and saying):
Young Woman:
"My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generaNons will call me blessed; for the mighty one has done great things for me, and holy is his name. His mercy is for those who fear him from generaNon to generaNon. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scaXered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and liled up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”
(Luke 1:47-‐55)
Reader A:
The lowly are liled up, and the hungry are saNsfied. We see the light of God shining over the land. Behold, our light has come. (Here relight the first candle)
Reader B:
God's mercy endures from generaNon to generaNon for those who are in awe of God. The proud, the rich, the mighty no longer have power over us. (Here relight the second candle)
Reader C:
The Mighty One has done great things! Holy is God's Name! The Light of the World is coming. With Mary, our spirits rejoice in God our Savior. (Here light the third candle-‐ the pink one)
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Music Op1ons:
“Come Thou Long, Expected Jesus”
“Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring”
“Joy” by Ricky Dillard
“I SNll Have Joy” by Joe Pace and the Colorado Mass Choir
“Joy” by Whitney Houston
Video Sugges1ons: hXps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLcTLCCpI5A (This link will take you to the preview. You will need to visit the SkitGuys website to purchase the video)
3rd Sunday in Advent: JOY Advent Presenta6on and Candle Ligh6ng (con’t)
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4th Sunday in Advent: PEACE
Weekly Advent Challenge: Blessed are the peacemakers! Challenge the congregaNon to idenNfy ways they can be peacemakers this week. How can we end or refuse to contribute to conflict between friends, on our jobs, in our families, and in school. Discuss the responses to the Grand Jury’s decision not to prosecute Darren Wilson. Establish intergeneraNonal “peace teams” who will idenNfy peaceful ways to stand against injusNce. Select one that your church can implement. Create a space during Sunday School, Bible study, or Sunday morning worship for members to share stories or to debrief together.
Prayer focus: Prince of Peace, our world and our lives need your peace. Empower us to be instruments of peace and bearers of your light.
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4th Sunday in Advent: PEACE Advent Presenta6on and Candle Ligh6ng
(This Sunday’s resource includes the ligh@ng of the Christ candle, which is tradi@onally lit
during the Christmas Eve or Christmas day service, but here offered as a part of the Advent service for the Sunday before Christmas. Churches that celebrate Christmas services should hold the Christ candle ligh@ng for then.)
[Young people enter from back holding candles, while scripture is read]
Youth Reading (Break this passage up among several young people in your church)
Isaiah 9:1-‐6
But there will be no gloom for those who were in anguish. In the former Nme he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the laXer Nme he will make glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the naNons.
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness-‐ on them light has shined.
You have mulNplied the naNon, you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as people exult when dividing plunder.
For as in the day of Midian’s defeat, you have shaXered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, and the rod of their oppressor.
For all the boots of the tramping warriors and all the garments rolled in blood shall be burned as fuel for the fire.
For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, EverlasNng Father, Prince of Peace.
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Litany for Peace by Joe Wadsworth. Framed within the Lord’s Prayer
Leader: Gracious God; Nmeless and Ageless God; you have commanded us to love our enemies. You yourself gave your life for those who were moNvated by hatred.
P: Our Father, who art in Heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name....
Leader: You have watched humanity fight and scrap. You have watched with sadness as your creaNon is hoarded and divided for spoil under the guise of dominion. Help us seek your will in our lives. Make us your ambassadors as well as your disciples.
P: ... Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven....
Leader: You sent your only Son so that your people; All your people, might truly know of your love and of your peace. That we might fully understand your AGAPE, your SHALOM. In a Nme of war, our hearts need your assurance and your presence confirmed. Our leaders need to sense your power is the strengths they employ.
P: ... Give us this day our Daily Bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors...
Leader: It is so easy to reap a harvest of anger and revenge. Our hearts so easily fill with rage and discord. When war rages, someNmes our patrioNsm supersedes our mandate for peace and reconciliaNon. Forgive us our anger and grant us hearts of renewing peace. Help us be mirrors of your life even in Nmes of discord.
P: ... For Thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory forever...
Leader: And so, Lord God of CreaNon, Savior of the World, we pray for a new chapter of peace to open. Before the momentum of hatred eclipses our strength to control it, grant us peace within. Create in us a clean heart and peaceful mind. This is the nature of your Kingdom; this is the basis of your power, and this is the joy of your Glory. Give us peace.
All: Amen
Reading and Ligh1ng of Candles (Need two readers and candle lighters)
Reader A: Today marks the final Sunday in Advent. For the last three Sundays we have been celebraNng and anNcipaNng the coming of our Messiah; Jesus, the light of the world; the Prince of Peace. The birth of Jesus and his death and resurrecNon will be the very thing that would make our salvaNon secure and would bring peace between God and humanity. Yet we are also reminded that we live in a world that is largely without peace. Wars, rumors of wars, fights, violence, injusNce, hunger, and tragedy are in too many places the order of the day. Today we lil our prayers and join our hearts to the millions in our world-‐ from PalesNne to Libya; from Central America to Sudan; from Chicago to Ferguson to DC; and even here in our church-‐ who live without peace.
On the first Sunday in Advent we lit the light of Hope (Relight hope candle). On the second Sunday in Advent we lit the light of Love (Relight love candle). Last Sunday we lit the light of Joy (Relight joy candle). And on today we light the candle of Peace (Light peace candle). We are reminded that in a world ravaged with violence and war, He is our Peace.
4th Sunday in Advent: PEACE Advent Presenta6on and Candle Ligh6ng (con’t)
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Reader B: God has brought light into our every darkness. He has brought hope to alleviate our every despair. 2,000 years ago, God renewed the world by sending us His Son so that through Him we may live in the Peace of God. Today, we also light the Candle of Christ. We are reminded that Jesus is the Light of the world and we are challenged to live in His light. May we forever behold the Son of God and allow his light to permeate our darkness and to change our very lives. (Here light the Christ Candle-‐ the white one) Now, behold the Lamb of God that has come to take away the sins of the world!
Music Op1ons:
“Jesus! The Light of the World (Walk In the Light)”
“Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”
“Now Behold the Lamb” by Kirk Franklin
4th Sunday in Advent: PEACE Advent Presenta6on and Candle Ligh6ng (con’t)
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LighNng of the Christ Candle for Christmas Eve or Christmas Day Service
Congrega1onal Hymn: “O Come All Ye Faithful”
Two “heralds” enter (one child and one youth) enter proclaiming:
Child: “For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, EverlasNng Father, Prince of Peace.
Youth: His authority shall grow conNnually, and there shall be endless peace for the throne of David and his kingdom. He will establish and uphold it with jusNce and with righteousness from this Nme onward and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.” Isaiah 9:6-‐7
Adult Reader: In Jesus Christ there is hope (re-‐lights the first candle). In Jesus Christ we find love (re-‐lights the second candle). In Jesus Christ we have peace (re-‐lights the third candle). In Jesus Christ we experience joy (re-‐lights the fourth candle). Today, we celebrate the birth of Christ and all that His birth represents (light the Christ candle). He is Emmanuel – God with us!
Choral SelecNon – Emmanuel (Norman Hutchins and JDI Christmas)
Young Adult: Prayer: Thank you God for becoming flesh and dwelling among us. Your presence with us gives us hope, engulfs us in love, provides us with peace and immeasurable joy. Our graNtude causes us to worship and serve you. We love you Jesus. Amen.
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Weekly Advent Readings
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hXp://lecNonary.library.vanderbilt.edu/lecNons.php?year=B&season=Advent
