Liturgy Lessons, December 4 – Second Sunday of Advent (Root of Jesse)
Welcome/Announcements
Musical Introit – O Come, O Come Emmanuel (vs. 3)
CTW: Isaiah 42: 1-10a
Opening Hymn: Lift up Your Heads (#198, vs. 1-4); O Come, All Ye Faithful (#208, vs. 1-3)
Confession of Sin: Micah 6: 6-8 and “Come Lord, Jesus”
Assurance of Pardon: Luke 1:68-79
Song of Response: All My Heart Today Rejoices
Advent Reading: Jeremiah 33:14-16
Congregational Prayers
Tithes & Offerings: Kids Choir – “Sing a song of Christmas”
Advent Doxology: The First Noel (last verse)
Sermon: Eric Irwin
Meditation
Supper: O Come, O Come, Emmanuel (#194); Lift up Your Heads (#208, vs. 5-6)
Closing Hymn: Good Christian Men, Rejoice (#207)
Benediction
Sung response: “Gloria in excelsis deo”
“Good liturgy is drama. We are drawn into the STORY of God’s saving action in the world in much the same way that we are drawn into the story of a drama offered in the theater. We are there with the actors. We experience the power of their lives. If the play is a powerful one, we leave the theater with a full range of emotions and commonly shared experiences. We may find ourselves feeling very much at one with the stranger sitting beside us because we both know that we have been deeply touched and moved. The drama of liturgy can be far more powerful, for it directly touches the total experience of a person.
We are the actors in this drama … we are personally called (in) by God….”
(Joseph Russell, “The Bible and Religious Education,” Homegrown Christian Education, p. 10)
O Come, All Ye Faithful
Text: John Francis Wade (ca. 1740) Tune: ADESTE FIDELES, John Francis Wade
“When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.'”
Luke 2:15
If there is one prayer to sum up the season of Advent, it would be the desperate plea “Come, Lord Jesus!” During these weeks, we echo the yearning of Israel as it longed for the first coming of the Messiah at Christmas. And while we await the second coming, we invite Christ to be born in our hearts anew through his Spirit. But in this beloved hymn, there is another sort of invitation that demands an RSVP.
“O Come, All Ye Faithful,” is one of the most celebrated Christmas hymns of all time. It is essentially a musical Christmas card, inviting us to the party at the manger! Not once, not twice, but three times in the opening verse alone, we are invited to “come ye, o come ye to Bethlehem.” And, how shall we come? “Joyful and triumphant,” for the Christ child is the answer to our desperate plea. We celebrate and adore him who is the “Word of the father, now in flesh appearing.” As the verses continue on, it’s as if the hymn itself sprouts legs, runs ahead of us toward the Bethlehem Star, shouting “Come on, guys, you gotta’ see this!” After each verse, there is a fugal refrain, meaning one voice sings the tuneful invitation, and the others echo, as if caught up in the fervor, joy, and unbridled anticipation. I imagine that as we sing this, we become the shepherds in the Christmas story from Luke 2. Of course, we cannot literally visit Jesus in the manger. But, each Sunday as we gather at church, we can come to Bethlehem in a sense. As we are called in by God to worship, our hearts and imaginations are rekindled by Him and the re-telling of his salvation story. We come to worship during the Advent season to reflect on the central figure in that story, the miracle of Jesus, “Light of light, begotten not created.” And in our worship service, we come to adore the infant king, who, for us and our salvation was born in a manger, walked the earth, suffered on a cross, and was raised from the dead on Easter. So, come, fellow suburban shepherds, let us adore him, who now reigns in heaven, welcomes us into his presence, and equips us for every good work as we await His imminent return.
“O Come, All Ye Faithful” is a translation of a Latin hymn Adeste Fidelis. There is debate about the origins, but the hymn most likely was written by John Francis Wade in the middle of the eighteenth century. The most popular English translation, which is quite faithful to the original Latin, was written by Frederick Oakeley in 1852.
Sheet music: https://www.hymnary.org/media/fetch/100383
Good Christian Men (and women and children), Rejoice
Text: Medieval Latin Carol Tune: IN DULCI JUBILO, German Melody (14th cent.)
Did you know that the word “carol” comes from a French word for “dancing and spinning”? Well, here we have a carol that embodies that definition. Sadly, there is not a rich history of dancing in the Presbyterian Church. However, if a closeted Calvinist suddenly felt an urge to let loose a Presbyterian Pirouette, a Jig for Jehovah, or an all-out Hallelujah Hoedown, this lively and rhythmic carol would be a great musical choice for accompaniment. IN DULCI JUBILO (“In sweet joy”), was an old German folk dance from the 14th century, and it may be older than that. Judging by its exuberant nature and childlike simplicity of form, it could have existed in fragments for centuries. Here’s a challenge: Hum it and try to sit still! Does not your head start bopping, or foot start tapping? I can easily imagine this was played on wooden flute and drum as the shepherds skipped along towards the manger. And that is precisely the right spirit for a medieval carol that celebrates the accessibility of Christmas story for all men.
In the late medieval period, there was a tradition of using folk songs to teach illiterate church-goers the Gospel story. With that purpose in mind, this hymn was written in an original combination of Latin and German, so it would be familiar in both the vernacular and the language of the Church. When set to a familiar folk tune, the people would be able to sing along with ease, and would understand the story.
Over the centuries, this hymn has been translated into many different languages. A missionary diary claims that on September 14, 1745, at the Moravian mission in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, this hymn was simultaneously sung in thirteen different languages. What a marvelous prelude to heaven that must have been, all languages joined in universal celebration of the story that began all our own stories.
John M. Neale translated the hymn and paraphrased it rather loosely, but his translation is the most commonly used today. Most modern hymnals include almost the same text, but in a day of “inclusive” language, some hymnals have replaced “men” with “friends” or “all.”
Sheet music: http://www.hymnary.org/page/fetch/TH1990/218/high
Instrumental Celtic Dance version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xiHvbXZ75M
Early Renaissance version for cathedral choir and orchestra: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3p6nAaOmyU