First Presbyterian Church
Second Sunday of Advent
December 5, 2021
10:00 AM
Order of Worship
CALL
TO WORSHIP
See,
I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me,
and
the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple.
The
messenger of the covenant in whom you delight —
indeed, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.
Let
us worship the Living God!
Let
us worship the One who is coming!
*Hymn
of Praise: “The First Noel”
1.
The first Noel the angel did say was to certain poor shepherds in fields as
they lay; in fields where they lay keeping their sheep, on a cold winter's
night that was so deep.
Refrain: Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel, born is the King of Israel.
2.
They looked up and saw a star shining in the east, beyond them far; and to the
earth it gave great light, and so it continued both day and night. (Refrain)
PRAYER OF CONFESSION (In Unison) (from Luke 1:75 and Malachi 3:2)
Holy and righteous God, far too often we are a far cry from the
holiness you invite us into. And often we fail to live up to your righteous
standards for how we are called to live. Refine us with your righteous
refiner’s fire to remove all our sinful impulses and impurities. Cleanse us
with the fullers’ soap to make us pure and holy once again. Help us to live in
a way that would be pleasing to you, our Lord. Amen.
*SILENT PRAYERS
OF CONFESSION
ASSURANCE OF PARDON (from James 5: 15-16)
We are not perfect, but we do not need
to be. God in Christ is! And God in Christ has taken care of us and this world
once again: “Every valley shall be filled … and the rough ways made smooth.” In
the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven and freed! May your ears hear this
good news, and your eyes see the salvation of God!
*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”
LIGHTING OF THE ADVENT CANDLE
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’,
LESSON:
Joshua 2
2Then
Joshua son of Nun sent two men secretly from Shittim as spies, saying, ‘Go,
view the land, especially Jericho.’ So they went, and entered the house of a
prostitute whose name was Rahab, and spent the night there. 2The
king of Jericho was told, ‘Some Israelites have come here tonight to search out
the land.’ 3Then the king of Jericho sent orders to Rahab,
‘Bring out the men who have come to you, who entered your house, for they have
come only to search out the whole land.’ 4But the woman took
the two men and hid them. Then she said, ‘True, the men came to me, but I did
not know where they came from. 5And when it was time to close
the gate at dark, the men went out. Where the men went I do not know. Pursue
them quickly, for you can overtake them.’ 6She had, however,
brought them up to the roof and hidden them with the stalks of flax that she
had laid out on the roof. 7So the men pursued them on the way
to the Jordan as far as the fords. As soon as the pursuers had gone out, the
gate was shut.
8 Before
they went to sleep, she came up to them on the roof 9and said
to the men: ‘I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that
dread of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt in
fear before you. 10For we have heard how
the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you
came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites that were
beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. 11As
soon as we heard it, our hearts failed, and there was no courage left in any of
us because of you. The Lord your God is indeed God in heaven above
and on earth below. 12Now then, since I have dealt kindly with
you, swear to me by the Lord that you in turn will deal kindly with
my family. Give me a sign of good faith 13that you will spare
my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and
deliver our lives from death.’ 14The men said to her, ‘Our life
for yours! If you do not tell this business of ours, then we will deal kindly
and faithfully with you when the Lord gives us the land.’
15 Then
she let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was on the outer
side of the city wall and she resided within the wall itself. 16She
said to them, ‘Go towards the hill country, so that the pursuers may not come
upon you. Hide yourselves there for three days, until the pursuers have
returned; then afterwards you may go on your way.’ 17The men
said to her, ‘We will be released from this oath that you have made us swear to
you 18if we invade the land and you do not tie this crimson
cord in the window through which you let us down, and you do not gather into
your house your father and mother, your brothers, and all your family. 19If
any of you go out of the doors of your house into the street, they shall be responsible
for their own death, and we shall be innocent; but if a hand is laid upon any
who are with you in the house, we shall bear the responsibility for their
death. 20But if you tell this business of ours, then we shall
be released from this oath that you made us swear to you.’ 21She
said, ‘According to your words, so be it.’ She sent them away and they
departed. Then she tied the crimson cord in the window.
22 They
departed and went into the hill country and stayed there for three days, until
the pursuers returned. The pursuers had searched all along the way and found
nothing. 23Then the two men came down again from the hill
country. They crossed over, came to Joshua son of Nun, and told him all that
had happened to them. 24They said to Joshua, ‘Truly the Lord has
given all the land into our hands; moreover, all the inhabitants of the land
melt in fear before us.’
SERMON: “Just Gotta Have Faith, Faith,
Faith…” Rev. Peter Hofstra
When we
consider God and what makes a good believer in God, the Bible has a way of taking
our assumptions and dumping them out on the lawn like so many random sets of
Christmas lights. This string shines
brightly? I never would have figured
that. These ones over here? They look really nice but not a spark. How is that for a rather painful Christmas
parable?
So we
have Rahab. Growing up, a sermon about
her might have begun with something like, “And Rahab had three strikes against
her. She was a woman, she had a certain
kind of employment, and she was a Canaanite.”
So why would Matthew single her out for inclusion in a genealogy that
includes not only Jesus, our Lord and Savior, but the Royal Line of Judah
itself?
Why
don’t we take the middle one first? I do
not like talking about her type of employment from the pulpit. It was tough enough talking about Tamar last
week, when that was at the center of the story.
But it’s Biblical, and it has a point for its inclusion in God’s
Word-because if we are honest, there were so many other things that could have
been included but were not for the sake of space as a much smaller reason that
for what God inspired the authors of the Bible to include. So, we know what she did. We know how exploitative it is now, how
exploitative has been throughout history.
The more important point is not what her employment was but that God
chose her anyway.
Being a
woman. Again, we dealt with much of the
background of the sexism of the Bible.
But I want to clarify something.
It is not the Bible’s sexism, it is the sexism of the world. It is into that sinful world that the Bible
enters with words of hope from our God.
And it is not that the sexism of that time is some kind of archaic
sinfulness that has been driven to the margins in the present day. No, it exists as powerfully today as it ever
has.
Not
that there hasn’t been progress. Yet, as
we read the story of Rahab, let us be reminded that one of the most sexist
institutions in this country is to be found in many of our Christian churches. One of the most joyful reasons I have for
being in the Presbyterian Church (USA) is that, when I was in college, it was
one of these very churches that made me question that misogynist, sexist
upbringing that I’d been brought up with-founded on what I know now as shaky
Biblical interpretation.
Which
leaves us the third strike, that she was a Canaanite. Again, being so far from that time and place,
it may escape our understanding how radical it is that a Canaanite should be
welcomed into God’s people. Because her
family is the only one to receive that honor in the entire book of Joshua. And the book of Joshua is about the conquest
of the entire land of Canaan. To
understand the significance of that, we have to understand the significance of
this book as a whole.
Consider
where it falls in the Old Testament, just after the Torah, the five books of
Moses. The central event of the Torah is
the Exodus, the people of God coming out of slavery in Egypt. The Passover event is like the Declaration of
Independence, beating the British, and the adoption of the Constitution for our
country. What came before, from Adam to
Abraham to Jacob and the twelve sons moving to Egypt, is the prologue, the
preparation for what was to come. What
comes after, the second half of Exodus, in Leviticus, and Numbers, is the
history and legal foundation on which the people of God are transformed into
the Nation of Israel. The book of
Deuteronomy concludes the Torah and has been interpreted as a Treaty, based on
the format of treaties from that time period, between God and the God’s people.
At the
base of it all was the foundation of their relationship, which has not changed
to this day. The Lord will be our God,
and we will be God’s people, God’s nation.
If you are going to be a nation, you need a country. In Jesus, God’s people went from one country
to all the nations. But the Book of
Joshua records the events where the children of God, rebuilt into a nation
during the Exodus, receive their country, receive the Promised Land from the
Lord.
The
problem was that there were people on it.
It was the land of Canaan, filled, oddly enough, with Canaanites. So why that land? Why those people? That is the root of the conflict in Israel
today. For the Jews to have a nation,
somebody needed to be uprooted. In the
Torah, the reasons for this conquest are given.
The granting of the promised land is not simply a reward to God’s
people, it is a punishment upon the sins of the Canaanites. That history is set in motion way back at the
story of Noah. In the primordial history
when people lived eight or nine hundred years, when the whole world was
punished for its sins by the flood, when the people of the earth-when they
spoke one language-were in the process of building a tower to God before God
scattered them at Babel, in that time, the sins of the father were visited on
the son, from the Son of Noah to the grandson of Noah, setting the time when
they would be punished for their sins.
And their punishment would be Israel’s triumph.
Pastor,
we are here for a sermon, not a history lesson.
What has this to do with Christmas?
Simply this. Rahab was a
Canaanite. She and all her people were
condemned by God. And yet she makes it
into the genealogy of Jesus when the hero of the Conquest, Joshua himself, is
not even in the line of Jesus. Who she
was as a person, what she did, where she came from, they were all against
her. And Matthew certainly knew this, as
would the readers of his gospel. And he
was intentional in putting her name into this family tree, because Rahab is an
example of what is truly important to God.
It is
not who you are, it is not what you do, it is not where you came from. It is what you believe. And she believed in God. She said as much to the spies. “We know your God led you across the Red
Sea”, a Sea, practically an ocean. What
is the only natural defense the people of Jericho have? It is the Jordan River, sure, at flood stage,
but even so, what protection did it really offer? “We know that you have conquered the two
kings of the Amorites, Og and Sihon beyond the Jordan.”
Some
context, the region beyond the Jordan that the children of God have already
conquered, it is highly prosperous like the rest of the Promised Land and it
was ruled by two kings of great power and stature. Look at a map, that area is two thirds to
three quarters the size of the rest of the Promised Land. But the rest of the Promised land was ruled
very differently. Every city had its own
king. There are alliances of ten and
eleven kings who come up against the Israelites and are beaten under Joshua’s
leadership. The measure of the strength
of these kings was in the territory they ruled, so Og and Sihon were the major
leagues compared to the kings of Canaan between the Jordan and the Mediterranean.
Again,
pastor, we are here for a Christmas Sermon, but we are getting a history
lesson. True, but this history is
stacked up for a reason. Rahab was not
saved from the destruction of Jericho because of her history. She was the enemy, the bad guys, the ones to
be taken down and destroyed. And yet,
there is all this history that is packed behind the showdown at Jericho, all
the history of the development of the children of God, from creation itself to
Abraham, the father of the Jews, to their move to Egypt to avoid the famine,
where they were welcomed by Joseph, to their growth as an enslaved people to be
freed by their God under the leadership of Moses, to forty years in the
wilderness until they came to the gates of the Promised Land, to the very
conquest of the Promised Land under the blessed general Joshua.
All of
it means nothing without believing in God.
Rahab made a choice that every other Canaanite had open to them, but the
Bible tells us of none who made that choice.
Believe in God who has demonstrated such power on behalf of God’s
children. This is very pointed in the
book of Joshua when the children of God come up against the people of
Gibeon. The Gibeonites engage in a very
elaborate con to convince Joshua that they are not Canaanites at all, but have
traveled from a distant land-just like God’s children. At this point, Joshua’s hubris takes over and
he makes a treaty with them without consulting God-but in God’s name. And then they reveal the con. They are Canaanites but, literally, in God’s
name, what is Joshua going to do about it?
Joshua
does not battle with them but enslaves them instead, providing a Biblical
foundation for slavery that is a very hateful part of our own history as a
nation. But that is another sermon.
So she
makes a deal. She helps out the
spies. She is obedient to the plan of
God for the conquest of her land. To her
people, she is a traitor. But it was
faith in God that saved her, that overcame the sin of her existence, defined in
that time by who she was, what she did, and where she came from. Which is precisely what Jesus has come to do
for all of us.
It does
not matter who we are, what we do, or where we came from, or any action or
activity of this sinful world that we have done as a result of that, in Jesus
Christ, we are forgiven. We come to the
manger in faith, that faith will make us whole, that faith will save us. Unfortunately, for all of us, it is not
enough that we have the story of Rahab to demonstrate that faith in God
overcomes all. From the birth of Jesus,
we have the story of his life and all that Jesus taught, the example of
faithfulness of his death, and the salvation that comes at his rebirth-a death
and rebirth that we shall remember this morning as we celebrate the Lord’s
Supper.
When
Matthew was inspired by God to include Rahab’s name in his introduction to the
birth of Jesus, in his genealogy, it is like he is saying to anyone who reads
this, “Take everything that you think you know about what God wants from you,
about who you need to be and what kind of ‘proper’ code of behavior you think
you need to live by to be deserving of God’s love, and set it aside.” In the words of a modern prophet, you gotta
have faith.
Because
when it comes right down to it, it is not about what we can do for God. It was never about that. Because it’s God. There is, quite literally, nothing that God
needs. The truth of our religion is in
another place, that God loves us, loves us SO much that God sent God’s only Son
to save us. Do you ever wonder, why did
Jesus have to die? Why wasn’t the miracle
of his birth at Christmas enough? It
might very well be enough for some to believe.
But when someone is confronted by the sinfulness of their life, people
can be so convinced that they do not deserve any love, even that of God’s. That they should die for what they have
done. Jesus goes into death himself to
hold out his hand and bring back even those most desperate to believe. Like Rahab.
Rahab
knew conquest was coming. The news of
the Israelites had traveled ahead of them and put the fear of God into the
hearts and minds of the people of Jericho and all of Canaan. And yet all the rest of them did not choose
God. But about ten days after she made
her deal with the spies, Rahab would open her door, the door to a house built
upon the wall of Jericho, it was that big and that thick, and she would see the
destruction of the Lord’s hand on the city around her as God’s people came to
lead her and her family to safety.
This is
the promise of Christmas. This is the
promise of the birth of Jesus, that any who believe would know God’s love. That is why, I believe, Matthew put her name
down in Jesus’ genealogy, so all would know her story and know what it is that
God does for us to be saved that all we must do is accept the free gift of
salvation in Jesus. Amen.
AFFIRMATION OF FAITH (from The
Heidelberg Catechism)
Q. 61. Why do you say that you
are righteous by faith alone?
A. Not because I please God by virtue of the worthiness of my
faith, but because the satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ
alone are my righteousness before God, and because I can accept it and make it
mine in no other way than by faith alone.
PASSING OF THE
PEACE
THE OFFERING OF OUR TITHES & GIFTS (Luke
1:68)
“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for
he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them.” As blessed, redeemed,
and favored people, may we share what we have been given so generously at this
time.
*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 (from Philippians 1:4)
Holy God, I thank you for these people. I
thank you for this assembled body. And I thank you for their continued
faithfulness. I find myself constantly praying with joy in every one of my
prayers for each and every one of them because of their sharing in the gospel
from the first day until now. Bless these our gifts and multiply them into your
blessings! Amen.
INVITATION
All
are welcome at God's table - at Christ's table - at this table.
People from near and far. Neighbors and strangers. Young and old. Rich and
poor. In whatever way you know the Christ, know you are invited to eat and
drink with him... and with us. Alleluia!
God
be with you.
And
also with you.
Lift
up your hearts.
We
lift them up to God.
Let
us give thanks to God, our God.
It
is right to give God thanks and praise.
We do say thank you, loving
God. We thank you for creating the heavens and the earth. We thank you for
being the source of all life and all creation - for sharing with us the tiniest
seed and the grandest stars... for creating us - with our tears and our
laughter, with our joy and our sorrow, with our curiosity and our thinking...
with our life. We thank you for Jesus, the Christ - for all that he learned
from you and in you, for all that he taught, for all that he shared with the
disciples, and all that he shares with us. Thank you, loving God!
Therefore, we praise you,
wonderful God, joining our voices to sing out the glory of your name!
Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of Power, God of Might.
Heaven and Earth are full of your Glory!
Hosanna in the highest!
Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest!
Hosanna in the highest!
THANKSGIVING
We rejoice that, through Eve and Adam and all of their
children, You entered into relationship with us. We rejoice that, through Sarah
and Abraham and all of their children, You entered into covenant with us. But we also remember that the covenant and
relationship with You has been broken, many times by our ancestors - and by us.
Each
time the covenant was broken, You invited us back! Through prophets and pastors
and wise ones, You invited us back! And still we broke faith with You. But, at
the right time, You sent Jesus to live with us.
Given
life by the Holy Spirit, given life by the decision and action of your favored
one, Mary, He came to share our life - to bring us back to each other and to
our covenant with you! At the Jordan River Your Spirit came upon him, calling
Him to tell the world the good news of your love. He healed people who were
sick and fed people who were hungry. He cried with those who mourned and danced
with those who celebrated. He looked for people who were lost and alone... and
helped them to understand that they were welcome at your table! He lived out
the fullness of your grace. We saw his holy love.
INSTITUTION
On the night before he was put to death, Jesus gathered with
his friends for a special meal. He took bread and gave thanks to you, O Lord.
He broke the bread and offered it to those gathered around him, saying,
"Take this and eat; this is my body which is given for you, do this in
remembrance of me."
Taking a cup, he once again gave thanks to you, and shared
the cup with those gathered, saying: "This is the cup of the new covenant
in my blood. Drink from this, all of you. This is poured out for you and for
many, for the forgiveness of sins."
After the meal, Jesus was arrested. His disciples and friends
ran away. He was beaten for what people thought he had said. He stood
trial... and was put to death on a cross. He gave all of himself to your
people, O God. His life and his death. Then you raised him from that death,
holy God - that he might be one with you, now and forevermore!
As
we remember his death, proclaim his resurrection, and look for His coming
again, we offer to you, O God, this bread and this cup. Send your Holy Spirit
upon us and upon these gifts, so that everyone who eats and drinks at this
table might be one in Christ's body... your holy people.
Through
Christ, with Christ and in Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory
is yours, God most holy, now and forever more!
LORD’S PRAYER
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.
Jesus Christ, the
bread of life. Jesus Christ, the true vine. The gifts of God, for the people of
God. Thanks be to God! Come, for the table is prepared and our cup is
overflowing.
SHARING THE BREAD AND THE CUP
*CLOSING HYMN #513 “O Little
Town of Bethlehem”
1. O little town of Bethlehem,
how still we see thee lie; above thy deep and dreamless sleep the silent stars
go by. Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light; the hopes and
fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.
2. For Christ is born of Mary,
and gathered all above, while mortals sleep, the angels keep their watch of
wondering love. O morning stars together, proclaim the holy birth, and praises
sing to God the king, and peace to all on earth!
3. How silently, how silently,
the wondrous gift is given; so God imparts to human hearts the blessings of his
heaven. No ear may hear his coming, but in this world of sin, where meek souls
will receive him, still the dear Christ enters in.
4. O holy Child of Bethlehem,
descend to us, we pray; cast out our sin, and enter in, be born in us today. We
hear the Christmas angels the great glad tidings tell; o come to us, abide with
us, our Lord Emmanuel!
*BENEDICTION
*THREE FOLD AMEN
Portions of the Liturgy written by Brian Coulter, pastor
at First Presbyterian Church in Fort Worth, Texas
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