First Presbyterian Church
Fourth Sunday of Advent
December 19, 2021
10:00 AM
Order of Worship
CALL
TO WORSHIP (Luke 1:46)
“My
soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.”
With
Mary, our spirits rejoice and we sing God’s praise.
Let
us honor God with our worship this fourth Sunday of Advent
Let
us worship the Living God.
*Hymn
of Praise: “O Come, All Ye Faithful”
1.
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;
Refrain: O come let us adore him, O come let us adore him, O come let us adore
him, Christ the Lord.
2. Yea, Lord, we greet thee, born this happy
morning, Jesus, to thee be all glory given. Word of the Father, now in flesh
appearing: (Refrain)
3.
Sing, choirs of angels, sing in exultation; O sing, all ye citizens of heaven
above! Glory to God, all glory in the highest; (Refrain)
PRAYER OF CONFESSION (In Unison)
Soon we will celebrate the Prince of Peace, but we are not a
people at peace. We glorify violence and dismiss the pacifist as weak. We
dominate and demean in our conversations and relationships. We wage war with
our enemies and invest in self-defense without careful regard of the
consequences or exhausting non-violent strategies. Lord, forgive us. Help us
work towards your peaceable kingdom, where swords will be beaten into plowshares
and spears into pruning hooks. Amen.
*SILENT PRAYERS
OF CONFESSION
ASSURANCE OF
PARDON (Micah 5:4-5)
“And he will stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord … And
they shall live secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth; and
he shall be the one of peace.” In the name of Jesus Christ, we are forgiven.
*THE GLORIA
PATRI
Glory be to the
Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; As it was in the beginning, is
now, and ever shall be, world without end.
Amen.
INVITATION: “Dear Lord, I
need You, please come into my life today.
Amen”
LESSON: Matthew 1: 1-6; 16-23
1An account of the genealogy of
Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
2 Abraham was the father of Isaac,
and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his
brothers, 3and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar,
and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Aram, 4and
Aram the father of Aminadab, and Aminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon
the father of Salmon, 5and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab,
and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, 6and
Jesse the father of King David.
And David was the father of Solomon by
the wife of Uriah…16and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of
Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah. 17 So all the
generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David to
the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations; and from the deportation to
Babylon to the Messiah, fourteen generations.
18 Now the birth of Jesus the
Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to
Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the
Holy Spirit. 19Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and
unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her
quietly. 20But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel
of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not
be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the
Holy Spirit. 21She will bear a son, and you are to name him
Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.’ 22All this
took place to fulfil what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:
23 ‘Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel’,
1 Kings 1: 1-18
King David was old and advanced in
years; and although they covered him with clothes, he could not get warm. 2So
his servants said to him, ‘Let a young virgin be sought for my lord the king,
and let her wait on the king, and be his attendant; let her lie in your bosom,
so that my lord the king may be warm.’ 3So they searched for a
beautiful girl throughout all the territory of Israel, and found Abishag the
Shunammite, and brought her to the king. 4The girl was very
beautiful. She became the king’s attendant and served him, but the king did not
know her sexually.
5 Now Adonijah son of Haggith
exalted himself, saying, ‘I will be king’; he prepared for himself chariots and
horsemen, and fifty men to run before him. 6His father had
never at any time displeased him by asking, ‘Why have you done that?’ He was
also a very handsome man, and he was born next after Absalom. 7He
conferred with Joab son of Zeruiah and with the priest Abiathar, and they
supported Adonijah. 8But the priest Zadok, and Benaiah son of
Jehoiada, and the prophet Nathan, and Shimei, and Rei, and David’s own warriors
did not side with Adonijah.
9 Adonijah sacrificed sheep, oxen,
and fatted cattle by the stone Zoheleth, which is beside En-rogel, and he
invited all his brothers, the king’s sons, and all the royal officials of
Judah, 10but he did not invite the prophet Nathan or Benaiah or
the warriors or his brother Solomon.
11 Then Nathan said to Bathsheba,
Solomon’s mother, ‘Have you not heard that Adonijah son of Haggith has become
king and our lord David does not know it? 12Now therefore come,
let me give you advice, so that you may save your own life and the life of your
son Solomon. 13Go in at once to King David, and say to him,
“Did you not, my lord the king, swear to your servant, saying: Your son Solomon
shall succeed me as king, and he shall sit on my throne? Why then is Adonijah
king?” 14Then while you are still there speaking with the king,
I will come in after you and confirm your words.’
15 So Bathsheba went to the king in
his room. The king was very old; Abishag the Shunammite was attending the
king. 16Bathsheba bowed and did obeisance to the king, and the
king said, ‘What do you wish?’ 17She said to him, ‘My lord, you
swore to your servant by the Lord your God, saying: Your son Solomon
shall succeed me as king, and he shall sit on my throne. 18But
now suddenly Adonijah has become king, though you, my lord the king, do not
know it. 19He has sacrificed oxen, fatted cattle, and sheep in
abundance, and has invited all the children of the king, the priest Abiathar,
and Joab the commander of the army; but your servant Solomon he has not
invited. 20But you, my lord the king—the eyes of all Israel are
on you to tell them who shall sit on the throne of my lord the king after
him. 21Otherwise it will come to pass, when my lord the king
sleeps with his ancestors, that my son Solomon and I will be counted
offenders.’
28 King David answered, ‘Summon Bathsheba
to me.’ So she came into the king’s presence, and stood before the king. 29The
king swore, saying, ‘As the Lord lives, who has saved my life from
every adversity, 30as I swore to you by the Lord, the God
of Israel, “Your son Solomon shall succeed me as king, and he shall sit on my
throne in my place”, so will I do this day.’ 31Then Bathsheba
bowed with her face to the ground, and did obeisance to the king, and said,
‘May my lord King David live for ever!’
SERMON: “The
Story of God’s Promise Kept” Rev.
Peter Hofstra
2021, 1219 Sermon Rev. Peter Hofstra
1 Kings 1
There is a
great line in the movie “1776” that goes “Don’t worry, the history books will
clean it up…” It considers the mess that
was the creation of the Declaration of Independence. That plays into another cliché, “There are
two things that you do not want to know how they are made, laws and
sausages.” There is great truth in that
statement.
The history
books certainly clean up the reign of King David. He is THE king, the warrior extraordinaire
who established Israel as a ‘real nation’ with conquests and everything. That is why Jesus’ pedigree in the line of
David is so important. Connect the
Messiah to the Warrior King. It is done
throughout the prophetic history of the Messiah through the Old Testament.
Yet there is
a downside to ‘cleaning up’ history. How
much history never gets written, or accepted, in the mainstream because the
dominant political voices are the ones that get to clean things up? That is certainly true about King David. He is ‘the man’. But he too has a history.
Matthew gets
at the history in the reference to the fourth woman in his genealogy of Jesus,
to ‘the wife of Uriah’. She had a name,
Bathsheba. She has a story that is told
to us in Scripture. But in the sexism of
that time, her name was pushed into the background for another reason, to name
Uriah.
Because Uriah
is the stain on David’s kingship. The
story, in brief, goes like this, when Israel was at war, David was home in
Jerusalem. H e noticed Bathsheba-who thought she had privacy-bathing on the
roof of her home. He used his power to
seduce her and got her pregnant. She was
married to one of his war chiefs, Uriah.
In an effort to cover up his illicit affair, he called Uriah home, got
him drunk, hoped to get him to sleep with Bathsheba so David had plausible
deniability of fatherhood. But Uriah
would not even go home, he stayed in the palace, still on duty, because the
army was at war.
So David did
something else. He sent Uriah back to
the war with sealed orders for his own murder.
Put Uriah in the frontlines, the orders read, then pull back from him,
leave him vulnerable to the enemy. Uriah
had no idea what he was carrying. But the plan worked. Uriah was killed which cleared the way for
David to take Bathsheba as his wife.
The Lord’s
punishment upon David was that the son Bathsheba bore died in childbirth. There is NO mention of what Bathsheba went
through-one place where ‘cleaning up’ the history took place. But Bathsheba’s story does not end
there. She bears David a second son,
whose name is Solomon, who does become the king after David dies. He was the king of the peacetime empire that
David and his armies won in war.
Recollection
of this story from the live and times of King David is mentioned in historic
shorthand by telling us of ‘the wife of Uriah’.
Bathsheba is treated as little more than an object in that whole
telling. So, this is the story that
those who wrote the history books did NOT clean up, not until later. It is told in 2 Samuel 11 and 12, but is not
mentioned again in the legacy of King David’s ‘greatness’ until Matthew’s
genealogy.
Why would
Matthew refer to the incident that most tarnishes David’s shiny kingship in
this way? Step back from the question of
history to one that is more fundamental.
How could God so use and raise up the figure of King David as the
‘brand’ of divine acceptance, premiere example of divine, royal obedience? I mean, David versus Goliath, that fits the
brand. Obedient David whom God protects
from King Saul, whom God has abandoned for his sins, that also fits the
brand. The conquest of an empire fits
the brand. David had lots of wives and
lots of kids. Not something that we take
into account today, but it was part of the ‘brand’ of kingship and kingly
virility back then.
What is it in
David that God saw worthy of making him the face of this ‘brand’? It is not about what David did, but what God
did. What we see in the conclusion of
the story of David and Bathsheba is the forgiveness of God at work. David humbled himself before the Lord, he was
forgiven for his sins, and it is in that forgiveness that the true root of his
power is to be found, in his love and service to God. That Bathsheba then bore to David the royal
heir, in it we can see a sign of God’s favor to her as well. Because this is how the history books clean
things up. Women were portrayed as
property in the popular culture. The
measure of their worth in that world of sin was in their ability to bring forth
sons. It is out of that sinful world
that Jesus was born. It was into this
sinful world that Jesus brought God’s forgiveness and salvation to the
world. It is a sign of the reversal of
that entire historic narrative of sexist behavior that in all four gospels, the
first to come to Jesus’ tomb at his resurrection was a woman, was one Mary
Magdalene.
But that is
not the story of Bathsheba that we shared today. Instead, we are at the death of King David,
at the moment of succession. David had
many sons by a variety of mothers. I am
surprised that Netflix or one of the other streaming services has not picked up
on the very complicated family of King David, where there seemed to be
competition between the sons of different mothers. David’s two oldest sons Amnon and Absalom,
are both dead as a result of this interfamily conflict that led to Civil War.
Now,
Adonijah, “next up in the batting order” after Absalom, is essentially running
the country in his father’s old age. He
begins the ceremonies that will lead to him becoming king at his father’s
impending death. So Bathsheba comes to
the king, and with her Nathan, the prophet of the Lord, to let him know. It seems that David was so old at this point,
so out of the loop, he did not know what was going on in his own capital. Bathsheba saw it. If Adonijah became king, what was he going to
do with this half brother of his who had some half-remembered promise from
Solomon’s birth that Solomon should be king?
What Adonijah might call removing a political rival, Bathsheba saw as
the assassination of her son and, most likely, herself as well.
But she came
to King David, as did the prophet Nathan, and Zadok, the priest, and while the
army supported Adonijah, David’s own personal bodyguard, the elite forces, were
also behind them. At the king’s command,
the promised succession was begun, the right and true coronation of Solomon as
the next king was put on track. Things
were as God intended them to be.
So, as we
have had to ask a number of times throughout this series of sermons, what has
this to do with Christmas? What is
Matthew trying to tell us about the birth of Jesus when he puts down ‘the wife
of Uriah’, what in Bathsheba is here for us take note of?
Consider how
this story of Bathsheba and David might apply to our own lives. What if we were to put on the shoes of
Bathsheba? Life has promise to go in a
certain direction by the Lord’s own promise.
God is good, God is just, God has sent us the Messiah, all of those
things are in the gospels for us. But
the popular culture, the world around us, it is still governed by sin. And we can look at life going on around us,
and we can make assumptions of what God’s promises to us are going to look
like, only to find all of it turned upside down. Bathsheba was watching her life being turned
so far upside down that she could predict the end of her son’s life and her
own.
If we are
Bathsheba in this story, in King David, we find our Lord God. There is something of a bitter irony here if
we push this metaphor too hard. David is
old, infirmed, apparently disconnected from what is going on in life around
him, at first glance it might be justified to think that there is nothing he
can do to change the situation for Solomon and Bathsheba.
I truly
believe that one of the greatest failings of Christianity today is that we too
have fallen into the mindset of many that God is far away, that God is
uncaring, that God is unable or uninterested in intervening in the sinful world
of today. God’s churches are wracked
with controversy or they take the name of God to justify their own political
and social agendas or they seem to be so lukewarm in their proclamation of the
faith that it is unpalatable.
But when
Bathsheba came to David, he had not forgotten, he was not too weak, he was not
checked out with no consideration as to what would happen next. There were promises that were made and there
were promises that were kept. The King
was faithful.
In our
metaphor, to come to God as Bathsheba came to David, is to receive the
assurances that God’s plan truly is in control, that God does, in fact, love
and care about us, and that God’s will is GOING to be done.
Here is my
jump to Christmas. God does not wait
around for us to come to the throne of grace to be reminded that God is truly good,
kind, and faithful. If God waited for
us, we, as sinners, might never get there.
So God reminds us, every year. At
Christmas, each year, we begin again.
Each year, we come to the manger once again. We walk with the shepherds, we hear the
promises of the angels, we sing and we rejoice.
And the whole world lights up to celebrate (even if they do not all
understand just how wonderful this season is).
The feeling
of peace, the assurance of the future, the joy of knowing that the King was
faithful, what Bathsheba came away with after her husband’s promises were
fulfilled, there is the most direct line I see to Christmas. This is the season of goodwill, this is the
season of God’s love, this is the season where the plan of God to save all
humanity became reality for us all.
This is the
light of Christ breaking in to a sinful world.
That is the light the wise men followed to Bethlehem. That is the light of the angels that appeared
to the shepherds. That is the light that
enters our own lives when the hard things, the unpredicted things, the
overwhelming things, suddenly open up to some way forward that we never even
imagined.
I think that
is part of what Matthew is doing in his genealogy of Jesus. None of them, Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, nor
Bathsheba have an easy time of it. Mary
herself did not. But Christmas is not an
‘easy time’, the gift giving and all the hoopla that has grown up around
Christmas is not because it is a blip of good will in the calendar of sin of
life. No, Christmas is the beginning of
real change in this world of sin, it is the beginning of the life of our
Messiah, through whom we have forgiveness, salvation, love, hope, and the
promise of eternity. We should have the
tough stories that demonstrate God’s power.
We should have those moments in life where God breaks through. Because peace on earth and goodwill toward
all humanity is all fine and wonderful, but it is not going to happen without
the loving power of God.
We are not
going to achieve the purity, the world truly transformed by love, the real
descent of the Christmas Spirit all the year long, except by the grace of
God. Except by that little baby whose
birth we are celebrating. Except by our
Lord Jesus Christ. Except for the one
about whom the prophets shared and the angels sing. Amen.
AFFIRMATION OF FAITH (from the “Book of Common Worship”)
Jesus Christ is the image
of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; in him all things in
heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible. All things have
been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in
him all things hold together. He is head of the body, the church; he is the
beginning, the firstborn of the dead, so that he might come to have first place
in everything. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and
through him God was pleased to reconcile all things, whether on earth or in
heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross. Amen.
PASSING OF THE PEACE
THE OFFERING OF OUR TITHES & GIFTS
In this
season of generosity, let us remember from whom all our blessings flow. Let us
present our tithes and offerings to the Lord.
*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.
*PRAYER OF DEDICATION
Holy God,
with Mary we seek to magnify you in our worship and in our deeds. Accept these
gifts and bless them for Christ’s ministry. May they lift the lowly and fill
the hungry. May they reveal your glory present with us today and still yet to
come. Amen.
JOYS
AND CONCERNS
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
Come, O Come, Emmanuel… Come
to bring peace to those at war with themselves, their families, their enemies.
May those who govern do so with good will and justice, breaking down barriers,
fostering understanding, and drawing our communities and our nations together
in peace. Come, O Come, Emmanuel… Come to bring comfort to those in pain, those
who grieve, those in need of healing and restoration. May those who suffer be
assured of your extravagant grace and comforted by the hope that nothing shall
separate them from your love. Come, O Come, Emmanuel… Come to bring compassion
to those who are weak and weary, those who stumble through their days unable to
recognize the beauty and meaning of life. May those who are unemployed, those
who are struggling financially, those suffering under the crushing weight of
debt, find your way out of no way. Grant them options, God. Grant them hope.
Come, O Key of David, O Radiant Dawn, O Root of Jesse, O Emmanuel. Come to us
again this Christmas. Fill the world with your grace and peace. Finally, hear
us now, as we pray the prayer Christ taught us by saying together,
Our
Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come; Thy will be
done on earth as it is in heaven. Give
us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our
debtors. Lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil; for Thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory
forever. Amen.
*CLOSING HYMN “Once In Royal
David’s City”
1. Once
in royal David's city stood a lowly cattle shed, where a mother laid her baby
in a manger for his bed; Mary, loving mother mild, Jesus Christ, her little
child.
2. He
came down to earth from heaven who is God and Lord of all, and his shelter was
a stable, and his cradle was a stall. With the poor, the scorned, the lowly
lived on earth our Savior holy.
3. Jesus
is our childhood's pattern; day by day, like us he grew; he was little, weak,
and helpless, tears and smiles like us he knew; and he feeleth for our sadness,
and he shareth in our gladness.
4. And
our eyes at last shall see him, through his own redeeming love; for that child
so dear and gentle is our Lord in heaven above; and he leads his children on to
the place where he is gone.
*BENEDICTION
*THREE FOLD AMEN
Elements of Order of Worship Liturgy written by Teri McDowell Ott,
courtesy of the Presbyterian Outlook
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