The Remembrance of Christmas Past (Ashtabula)

Ashtabula First UMC Order of Worship

Second Sunday of Advent (December 7)Theme: Hope (The Remembrance of Christmas Past)

I. THE GATHERING

Welcome & Announcements

Good morning, and welcome to Ashtabula First United Methodist Church.

Last week, we began our Advent journey by confronting the chains of the present. Today, on this Second Sunday of Advent, we take a step back to look at our past. Following our theme, "The Redemption of Scrooge," we encounter the Ghost of Christmas Past. We are inviting God to walk with us through our memories—the joyful ones and the painful ones—to find the Hope that redeems our history.

I encourage you to join us for our Bible Study this Tuesday at 5:00 PM as we dive deeper into these themes.

Now, I invite you to stand as you are able as Jeff, our Acolyte, brings forth the symbolic Light of Christ to our Altar, and we begin our worship.

Prelude

Call to Worship

Leader: In the shadows of our memory, we hear the echoes of the past.

People: We remember the days of old and the stories of our faith.

Leader: Sometimes our past brings us joy, and sometimes it brings us pain.

People: But we do not walk backward; we walk forward in Hope.

Leader: The Lord says, "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing!"

All: We come to worship the God who redeems our history and holds our future.

Opening Hymn Lift Up Your Head (UMH 213)

Opening Prayer

Almighty God, to whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hidden: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit. We bring to you the broken pieces of our past—the mistakes we’ve made, the hurts we’ve suffered, and the dreams we’ve lost. Wash them in your grace. Restore to us the joy of your salvation, and grant us the Hope that anchors our souls. Amen.

Lighting of the Advent Candle ADVENT WEEK 2: HOPE

Reader: The week of Advent we light the candle of Hope. Hebrews 11:1 says, “Faith is the reality of what we hope for, the proof of what we don’t see.” Hope is the destination of our faith. It is not enough to be faithful, trusting in what your eyes do not see. I might believe I can fly, but leaping from a tall building without a parachute is still a bad idea.

A hopeless faith is like getting in the car for a weekend trip, not knowing where you are going. You trust that the trip will go well and that you will return safely, but without a destination, you will wander aimlessly. Hope is what keeps us from following a blind faith. Hope is the destination.

Before lighting the candles of Love and Joy, we must begin with Hope. The Old Testament offers prophetic words of a time when God will rescue God’s people. In Isaiah we find, “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. . . . For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders” (Isaiah 9:2, 6).

These and many other Old Testament teachings guide our faith during the Advent season for a time in which God will reconcile all things. Our hope is reconciliation, forgiveness, grace, and salvation, and that hope grounds our faith.

(Light the first and second purple candles)

Prayer: Gracious God, ground our faith in the hope of salvation. Let us not walk aimlessly in darkness, but let us see the light that Christ will bring into the world. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

II. THE WORD

Scripture Reading 1: Psalm 51:10-12 (NIV)

Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

Hymn of Response In the Bleak Midwinter (UMH 221)

Scripture Reading 2: Matthew 4:18-22 (NIV)

As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” At once they left their nets and followed him. Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

Sermon: "The Remembrance of Christmas Past"

Prayer of Illumination Lord, may the words we have read take root in our hearts. Silence all voices but your own, that we might see past our own histories and limitations, and catch a glimpse of the Hope you have calling our names. Amen.

Sermon

Friends, last week we lit the candle of Peace, speaking of the courage to break free from the transactional chains of Ebenezer Scrooge. We realized that true peace allows us to stop counting our worth and start accepting God's extravagant grace.

This week, we light the second candle: Hope.

Hope is more than a wish for good weather or a short sermon. In Advent, Hope is the destination of our faith. As Hebrews tells us, faith is the proof of what we don’t yet see. Hope is the vision that guides our feet when the path is dark. It is the promise that what God started, God will surely finish.

To bring us toward this hope, Scrooge is visited by a new spirit: The Ghost of Christmas Past.

Dickens describes this spirit's voice as "soft and gentle," sounding as if it were "at a distance." This perfectly captures the nature of memory. Our memories feel incredibly close—shaping our identity—yet they are also at a distance, often incomplete or subjective.

This week, we look at how our memories—our past—shape our capacity for hope. Like Scrooge, we must journey back, not to wallow in regret, but to find the moments where Prevenient Grace was already at work. The Spirit shows Scrooge the person he forgot he was, challenging him to reconcile the man he became with the child God created.

The Subjective Chains of Memory

Our memory establishes our defaults. It tells us what "normal" looks like. But our memories are often unreliable narrators, particularly when it comes to pain. We combine the pleasant with the painful into a single story that sometimes only serves to justify the cynical people we have become.

Scrooge’s earliest visions of his lonely childhood fill him with a mixture of joy and deep sadness. He sees the joy of the past, but he cannot touch it. This is the tragic isolation of a broken memory.

We often do this to ourselves. We hold onto the painful parts of memory—a deep grief, a betrayal, a failure—and use that pain as a defensive barrier. We fear that if we allow ourselves to be truly happy, we are somehow betraying the memory of the past hurt.

I recall a "Christmas Healing Service" where the stories shared were raw: a father lost on Christmas morning, a child estranged. These people felt that being happy was a betrayal of their loss. This is a profound type of bondage. The chain here isn’t forged of money, but of grief.

But the Gospel tells us the story doesn’t linger in the tomb. Christ died and was raised so that our brokenness could be redeemed. When we gather around the Communion table, we do this "in remembrance" of Him—remembering not a faultless life, but a broken body offered for us. Our painful memories are incorporated into the larger narrative of God’s grace. We are called to forgive the person we used to be, gaining permission to pursue the hope that awaits.

Redemption through Brokenness

As Scrooge witnesses his past, we see the first flicker of redemption. After seeing his own loneliness as a boy, he is moved to compassion. He laments a missed opportunity to be kind to a caroler the night before. This is revolutionary: instead of a dismissive "Humbug," he feels a desire to change.

This touches the heart of our Wesleyan tradition: Christian Perfection. It doesn't mean being flawless; it means having a heart perfected in love. It means our core motivation is aligned with God's.

Think of the fishermen Jesus called in Matthew 4. He didn't ask Peter and Andrew for resumes or theological degrees. He simply said, "Follow me." He didn't see them as simple laborers defined by their past; he saw them as fishers of people defined by their potential. The miracle wasn't what they saw in Jesus, but what Jesus saw in them.

We are not called because we are perfect, but because through Christ, we are being perfected in love. This hope—the assurance that we are perfectly loved and known—allows us to change our direction. It frees us to confess our missed opportunities not with anger, but with a sincere desire to love better next time.

The Vulnerable Incarnation

If memory sets the stage, the Advent season fills it with meaning. Scrooge’s senses are flooded by the sights and smells of the past. All of this seasonal change is a subconscious cultural memory of the Incarnation: the moment God put on flesh and entered the world.

This mystery centers on vulnerability. We light candles to dispel darkness, but the real miracle is that the infinite God became a human baby.

Think about that: God entrusted the Savior of the world to a young woman and a carpenter. God trusted humanity more than humanity has ever trusted itself. Jesus, in his full humanity, refused to forego the vulnerability that would ultimately climax on the cross.

What does it mean for God to trust in broken, imperfect people? It means that if God can trust his creation, we can trust in God's ability to redeem us. St. Gregory of Nazianzus taught, “What has not been assumed has not been healed.” In other words, if Jesus hadn't taken on a specific part of our humanity, he couldn't have saved it. But God assumed our full humanity—our tears, our hunger, our scars, and our anxiety—so that all of it could be healed.

Joy from the Abyss

The final lesson of the Past comes from Mr. Fezziwig's party. It is a scene of pure joy, music, and dancing. Scrooge defends Fezziwig against the Spirit's critique that the party was cheap. Scrooge declares: "He has the power to render us happy or unhappy; to make our service light or burdensome... The happiness he gives, is quite as great as if it cost a fortune.”

This is the realization that money cannot count what truly matters: relationship and grace.

This moment points us toward Joy. Joy isn't something we earn; it is a gift we receive. It is the steadfast assurance that God is with us. The shepherds were terrified when the angels appeared, but the angel said, "Do not be afraid! I bring you good news of great joy."

The line between fear and joy is thin. It is in the moment when we choose to remain present in our fear, rather than retreating into the isolation of our past, that the angel can speak the good news.

Conclusion: A Future Forged by Hope

Scrooge was ultimately shown a memory of lost love. His fiancée, Belle, saw clearly that his heart had changed. She told him that the fear of the world—the fear of poverty—had consumed him, leaving no room for the love they once shared. He had chosen fear over love.

This Advent, the candle of Hope challenges us to make a different choice.

Do not let the pain or the rigidity of your past hold you hostage. Do not let the shame of what you have done, or the hurt of what was done to you, define your present capacity for grace. God has assumed your humanity, your entire story, to heal it.

This week, let us choose to trust God's extravagant love. Let us turn our past pain into present compassion. As we come to this Table today, bring your memories—the good and the bad—and lay them down. Receive the bread and the cup as the fuel for a new future. Let the light of this second candle remind us that Christ is the destination, and He promises a joy that makes us want to leap.

Amen.

Anthem How Far is it to Bethlehem

III. RESPONSE AND INTERCESSION

Transition to Prayer As the echoes of the anthem fade, let us allow the music to settle into our souls. The music reminds us of the beauty of God's presence. In this quiet moment that follows, let us bring our own memories—our joys and our heartaches—to God in silence.

Silent Intercession

Pastoral Prayer

God of our yesterdays, our todays, and our tomorrows, we come to you. We thank you that you are the God of second chances. We pray for those among us who are haunted by the "Ghost of Christmas Past"—those grieving a loss that hits hard this time of year, those regretting broken relationships, those wishing they could go back and do it differently.

Lord, bring your healing Hope. Remind us that we are being perfected in your love. We pray for our community of Ashtabula—for the families struggling, for the lonely, and for the sick. Bind us together in love, that we might be a people who look forward with anticipation to the coming of your Son. We offer this prayer in hope, and we now turn our hearts to your Table.

Offering & Doxology "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" (UMH 211 Verse 2)

Prayer of Dedication

Lord of all Hope, we offer these gifts as a sign of our trust in you. We ask you to take our time, our talents, and our resources, and use them to build a future of hope for this community. Redeem our past mistakes and multiply these gifts for your Kingdom. Amen.

IV. THE SACRAMENT OF HOLY COMMUNION

Invitation to the Table

Christ our Lord invites to his table all who love him, who earnestly repent of their sin and seek to live in peace with one another. Therefore, let us confess our sin before God and one another.

Confession and Pardon Pastor: Merciful God, we confess that we have not loved you with our whole heart. We have failed to be an obedient church. We have not done your will, we have broken your law, we have rebelled against your love, we have not loved our neighbors, and we have not heard the cry of the needy. Forgive us, we pray. Free us for joyful obedience, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

(Silence for personal confession)

Pastor: Hear the good news: Christ died for us while we were yet sinners; that proves God's love toward us. In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven!

People: In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven!

All: Glory to God. Amen.

The Great Thanksgiving

Pastor: The Lord be with you.

People: And also with you.

Pastor: Lift up your hearts.

People: We lift them up to the Lord.

Pastor: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

People: It is right to give our thanks and praise.

Pastor: It is right, and a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere to give thanks to you, Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. You formed us in your image and breathed into us the breath of life. When we turned away, and our love failed, your love remained steadfast. You delivered us from captivity, made covenant to be our sovereign God, and spoke to us through the prophets. And so, with your people on earth and all the company of heaven, we praise your name and join their unending hymn:

All: Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and 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.

Pastor: Holy are you, and blessed is your Son Jesus Christ. Your Spirit anointed him to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, and to announce that the time had come when you would save your people. He healed the sick, fed the hungry, and ate with sinners. By the baptism of his suffering, death, and resurrection you gave birth to your Church, delivered us from slavery to sin and death, and made with us a new covenant by water and the Spirit.

On the night in which he gave himself up for us, he took bread, gave thanks to you, broke the bread, gave it to his disciples, and said: "Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me."

When the supper was over, he took the cup, gave thanks to you, gave it to his disciples, and said: "Drink from this, all of you; this is my blood of the new covenant, poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me."

And so, in remembrance of these your mighty acts in Jesus Christ, we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving as a holy and living sacrifice, in union with Christ's offering for us, as we proclaim the mystery of faith.

All: Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.

Pastor: Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here, and on these gifts of bread and wine. Make them be for us the body and blood of Christ, that we may be for the world the body of Christ, redeemed by his blood. By your Spirit make us one with Christ, one with each other, and one in ministry to all the world, until Christ comes in final victory and we feast at his heavenly banquet. Through your Son Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit in your holy Church, all honor and glory is yours, almighty Father, now and forever.

All: Amen.

The Lord’s Prayer

And now, with the confidence of children of God, let us pray:

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 trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.

Breaking the Bread

Giving the Bread and Cup(The congregation is invited to come forward to receive the elements)

Prayer After Communion

Eternal God, we give you thanks for this holy mystery in which you have given yourself to us. Grant that we may go into the world in the strength of your Spirit, to give ourselves for others, in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

V. SENDING FORTH

Closing Hymn While Shepherds Watched their Flocks (UMH #236)

Benediction

Go now in Hope. Remember that your past does not define you; God’s grace defines you. May the God who called the fishermen call you into a new future this week. Go in peace. Amen.

Postlude(Music Director Selection)