Younger Children’s
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Older Children’s
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Good morning! This page is intended to both serve as a continuing worship option for those participating in our worship service from home, and to serve in place of print resources during our in-person worship. Following the worship service on Sunday, one or more video recordings from the service will be placed on this page, including the sermon. This may take several hours, due to the time needed to process the videos. We will email the congregation when the recordings have been posted. If you would like to be added to our congregational email list, please contact pvcob.alive@gmail.com.
Notes and Reminders
• This week marks the third Sunday in Advent, and we will continue to hold a Vespers service at 5:30 PM out in the pavilion, to be a time in which we can read scripture, sing carols, and pray together. We hope you will come and join us!
• This year’s Christmas Eve celebrations will include a video for you to enjoy at home. We invite you and your family to join us on our website to view and listen to the wonderful message of Christ through word and song. We will also be holding an outdoor Christmas Eve service at 7:00 PM in the pavilion.
• The past couple of years we have collected items for Valley Mission during the month of December. We are continuing the tradition this year, but the need has shifted. Valley Mission has seen cases of Covid-19 among its residents, so we have a new list for donations, instead of the usual coats, hats, and winter-wear. Please be praying for the Mission staff and residents also, that God would provide them with healing and protection.
• Our final board meeting for 2020 will be this Sunday, December 13th, at 6:30 p.m. in the church fellowship hall. We will be meeting to make decisions regarding monies to be donated and to welcome our new focus team members!
• Please keep those at Middle River Jail in your prayers as they and their families continue to struggle with rising cases of COVID-19.
Advent Reflection
This third Sunday of advent, we celebrate joy. The first Sunday of Advent, we talked about how hope is grounded in our experience of God, and the strength of God’s promise. Christian joy is similar. No matter what challenges face us, we know that we do not face them alone. God is with us, and holds us secure. Our joy is found in the knowledge that God loves us and blesses us. So when we see a flower, we know that God wants us to know beauty. And when we are ill, we know that God wants us to know healing. And even when we approach death, we know that Christ entered death for our sake, and has conquered it, so that we too will come out the other side of death with him.
So we rejoice this season. We rejoice in lights and in gifts, and in all the good things that share God’s blessing. And we rejoice in the greatest thing, which is God coming into the world to be with us. We rejoice in the child born for this.
From Isaiah 35
The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom;
like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice with joy and singing.
They shall see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God.
Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees.
Say to those who are of a fearful heart, ‘Be strong, do not fear!
Here is your God. He will come and save you.’
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped;
then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy.
Joy and gladness shall overtake them, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
Oh Come All Ye Faithful
Yea, Lord, we greet Thee, born this happy morning
Jesus, to Thee be glory given
Word of the Father
Now in flesh appearing
O come, let us adore Him
O come, let us adore Him
O come, let us adore Him
Christ the Lord!
O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant!
O come ye, O come ye, to Bethlehem
Come and behold Him
Born the King of Angels
O come, let us adore Him
O come, let us adore Him
O come, let us adore Him
Christ the Lord!
Sing, choirs of angels, sing in exultation
Sing, all ye citizens of heaven above!
Glory to God
All glory in the highest
O come, let us adore Him
O come, let us adore Him
O come, let us adore Him
Christ the Lord!
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God of our creation and redemption,
We awaken to receive this day as a gift from you.
Help us to receive every moment knowing your presence with us,
May we take none of it for granted;
May we never have to despair.
Awaken us to the face of Jesus around us.
Remind us that we are brothers and sisters in your love.
Help us to hear and know your glory
Until our own lives hum with compassion, praise and thanksgiving.
In the celebration of Christ we pray, Amen.
Luke 1:26-38 NRSV
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, ‘Greetings, favoured one! The Lord is with you.’
But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.’
Mary said to the angel, ‘How can this be, since I am a virgin?’ The angel said to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.’ Then Mary said, ‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.’ Then the angel departed from her.
The Angel Gabriel from Heaven Came
Verse 1
The angel Gabriel from heaven came,
With wings as drifted snow, his eyes as flame.
“All hail,” said he, “O lowly maiden Mary,
Most highly favored lady.” Gloria!
Verse 2
“How blest among all women you shall be,
Whom ev’ry age will praise continally.
Your Son shall be Emmanuel, by seers foretold,
“Most highly favored lady.” Gloria!
Verse 3
Then gentle Mary meekly bowed her head.
“To me be as it pleases God,” she said.
“My soul shall laud and magnify God’s holy name.”
Most highly favored lady. Gloria!
Verse 4
Of her, Emmanuel, the Christ, was born
In Bethlehem, all on a Christmas morn.
And Christian folk throughout the world will ever say:
“Most highly favored lady.” Gloria!
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From John 1: 1-18
What came into being through the Word was life, and the life was the light for all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness doesn’t extinguish the light… The Word became flesh and made his home among us. We have seen his glory, glory like that of [an] only son, full of grace and truth… From his fullness we have all received grace upon grace…
-www.sacredise.com, adapted
Lord Jesus
You were born in a forgotten corner of the empire;
No crib, no house, but still joy.
And you remind us that the powers of this world do not know everything.
The greatest blessings appear on no balance page or stock index.
You invite us to sing and dance to a different tune.
You have come, Jesus,
to bring joy into our grief,
light into our darkness,
singing into our mourning;
and it is an act of healing and proclamation
to believe and embrace the joy you offer.
Receive us, our gifts of service, thanksgiving, and love,
in celebration of what you bring to us. Amen.
-www.sacredise.com, adapted
Holy Spirit, with lights twinkling around us,
with carols in our ears and candy canes hanging from branches,
We confess that we are a broken people.
We are disconnected from one another,
disconnected from the grace and love that you taught your disciples,
disconnected from the new way that angels sang, and you lived, on the earth.
Help your fractured church to be of one heart and soul,
that your proclamation will be heard, and great grace may be upon us all.
Set our minds on heavenly things. Fill us with your joy.
Word of Life, eternal life,
make our joy complete with the God of light,
in whom there is no darkness at all.
Set our minds on heavenly things. Fill us with your joy.
Heavenly Father, forgiver of our every sin,
help us look to Jesus Christ, your beloved Son,
as our advocate and redeemer, not only for ourselves,
but for your whole world.
Set our minds on heavenly things. Fill us with your joy.
Lord Jesus Christ, when we behave like Thomas,
letting ourselves be filled with doubt,
give us strength to constantly return to your church,
with our doubt, until we confess
“My Lord and My God” on the day of your visitation.
Set our minds on heavenly things. Fill us with your joy.
Give us the faith of Mary,
that when Gabriel told her that her world would be turned upside down,
she said,
“Let it be with me according to your word.”
We bring before you people we know with special needs…
burdens too heavy to bear alone,
disease that will not be healed on this earth,
and afflictions that can be healed by your precious touch.
Set our minds on heavenly things. Fill us with your joy. Amen.
Adapted from a prayer by Paul Sauer. https://re-worship.blogspot.com
Angel Carol
Hear the bells of Christmas ringing, allelu, alleluia;
Swift the wings of Angels, singing alleluia.
Angels singing, noels ringing, gladsome tidings bringing:
Christ is Lord of all.
Infant holy, infant lowly, for His bed a cattle stall;
Oxen lowing, little knowing Christ the Babe is Lord of all.
Swift are winging Angels singing,
Noels ringing, tidings bringing:
Christ the Babe is Lord of all.
Flocks were sleeping, shepherds keeping vigil till the morning new;
Saw the glory, heard the story, tidings of a gospel true.
Thus rejoicing free from sorrow, praises voicing greet the morrow:
Christ the Babe was born for you.
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And now, may you know Christ’s joy.
May it fill your heart, like it did Mary.
May it overcome your hesitations,
like it did Joseph.
May it ring through the skies,
like it did for the shepherds.
And in you,
like it was in the disciples,
may it be made complete.
Amen.
