Kingdom Come Week 2 Sermon

Pastoral Welcome

Touch base about “Kingdom Come”

Call to Worship

The kingdom of God is here, and coming.

A mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field;

it is the smallest of all the seeds,

but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree,

so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.

The kingdom of God is here, and coming.

Yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour

until all was leavened.

The kingdom of God is here, and coming.

Treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid;

then joyfully sells all he has and buys the field.

The kingdom of God is here, and coming.

A merchant in search of fine pearls;

on finding one of great value,

sells all of his possessions and buys the pearl.

The kingdom of God is here, and coming.

Let all who have ears, hear.Pastoral Prayer

Advent Candle Reading

This advent season, we desire the gift of Jesus and for God’s Kingdom to come. This week, in anticipation of Jesus’ birth, we light 2 advent candles - the candle of hope and the candle of Love.

Love is defined as a feeling of strong affection. As the One who made us, God’s love for us knows no limits and has no end. God’s desire is to be close to us and to share perfect love with us. We confess together as we approach Christmas that it is we who so often choose to love other things or to worship other Gods.

But God keeps God’s promises. And so, in an act of humility and sacrifice, incarnational love is expressed. Jesus, the Light of the world, becomes like us and is born to show us more clearly how much God truly desires to be near us.

Jesus’ love for us is expressed as a gift of forgiveness and grace. When we share sacrificial or selfless love with one another, we take our place in the advent story and in welcoming God’s Kingdom into our world.

(if you want, interject a short story about experiencing LOVE in your family/traditions/memories/life/etc, or about how Christmas reminds you of LOVE.)

LET US PRAY

God - in a season where it feels natural to express love, we ask that you help us remember the perfect love you offer to us. Forgive us when we go astray, welcome us again in perfect grace, and set us back on a path toward loving others as you have loved us. Thank you for Jesus, for Christmas, and we pray that your kingdom come. Amen.

Pastoral Prayer

Lord let your light shine through us, so that others can know you.

Lord, we wait with eager expectation for the coming of Your kingdom

when the humble will be exalted and the hungry fed.

Where we participate with you in doing what is right in our midst.

Lord in your Mercy; Hear our prayer

Lord, we prepare for Your advent with searching minds and contrite hearts,

trusting in Your healing spirit and redemptive love.

Lord in your Mercy; Hear our prayer

Lord, we watch with those who wait and weep,

longing for a kingdom that makes sense in light of the grief that we feel

In the moments of questioning and uncertainty guide our paths.

Connect us with you and with each other once again

Lord in your Mercy; Hear our prayer

Lord, we seek You among the despised and rejected,

knowing that there we will find Your light shining in the dark.

When we have felt outcast comfort us in our loneliness,

And convict us in our complacency

Lord in your Mercy; Hear our prayer

Lord, we proclaim sight to the blind and liberty to the oppressed,

trusting in Your tender mercy and passion for justice.

Lord in your Mercy; Hear our prayer

Lord, we work with others to proclaim Your truth,

challenging the mighty and raising the meek.

Seeking what is right both for ourself, and for our community

Lord in your Mercy; Hear our prayer

Lord, we wrestle with our hopes and our fears, our struggles and our joys

laboring with creation to come to new birth.

And we bring them before you today in this moment of silent worship.

Lord in your Mercy; Hear our prayer

We pray all of these things in your name and in the name of the one who has taught us to pray saying....

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 and ever.

Amen.

Celebration

Fitness food drive for Impact

2nd Service Only Announcement

In addition to that celebration, I do come today with some other news as well that is less celebratory. Our church has decided that the best way to live out our mission as a church while using the resources that we have as a church is to cancel this contemporary worship service at Faith. With that comes a lot of grief. And I will be the first to admit from the pulpit that this is hard, and it is hard because we have witnessed to the pressence of God in this place and to one another. It is hard because we have sung of God’s praises in this place, and this has been a meaningful place to connect with God for I imagine most of you hearing this. And there is certainly much to grieve. And there is certainly much to celebrate. I celebrate the ways that I have sensed God’s pressence in this worship service. And although this worship is not the best use of our church resources right now, I have hope for our future together. I want to outline some of the practical details for you all.

I know this was a lot of information to dump on you so in the coming days and weeks please do not hesitate to reach out to me to one another.

Specifically next week - the 12th - I would love to make some space after our normal worship service here in the room just to grieve together as a community. To remember and celebrate some of the moments in worship that have been meaningful, and to have an open and honest conversation about what your hopes for our church are for the future. That’s next Sunday immediately following worship.

The 19th - two Sundays from now will be our final worship service.

We will have one unified Christmas Eve worship service at Faith Chapel

Announcing Offering

Bidwell Riverside Video

Maybe think about a short announcement for that

Sermon

Me Section

reading the book vs. watching the film

We

maybe we have read the Christmas story and we think we have an image of who Jesus is for us on Christmas morning, but I wonder if we are ready to be surprised.

Malachi 3:1–4 NRSV

1 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. 2 But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap; 3 he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the Lord in righteousness. 4 Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.

To do what is right requires admitting what is wrong

* unclear confession = unclear refining

Who can endure who can keep standing?

they will have to stop and reflect

would it be easier to wipe the slate

The fear of judgement that comes with embracing a new king/kingdom

Being refined shapes us into the image of God

Freeing ourselves

get the stuff out of the way that was in the way

To refine really comes down to freeing us from the impurities

In the kingdom we are free from impurities

refining - make fine again

We can’t accept Matthew until we have lived Malachai

We can’t accept hope until we have lived lament

Last week we started talking about making things right

One way to make things right is to wipe people out

* Particular king makes things right through refining

Not through throwing some out and keeping some in

silver smith knows when they are done refining because they can see their own reflection in the silver itself

The Kingdom is not just about righteousness or about being good, it is about embodying the sacred divine

It is about living the image of God for ourselves and for others

When we free ourselves of the bad stuff in the metal others see the reflection of God

God let your light shine through us so that others can know you

Matthew 26:26–30 NRSV

26 While they were eating, Jesus took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” 27 Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you; 28 for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. 29 I tell you, I will never again drink of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.” 30 When they had sung the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

The King Comes to Refine and Forgive

But this is not the king we were expecting in Malachai

If you read the first passage independent of the second you really wouldn’t not had imagined the second was what it was

It is like reading a book and seeing the movie

forgiveness really letting go - letting go of anger etc. - it is to free ourselves

Refining is purifying but it is also destructive - often when we think about getting rid of the things that trip us up we think about the destructive components of that.

Forgiveness doesn’t come in power of judgement

Forgiveness in the kingdom comes through ultimate sacrifice that Christ demonstrates for us.

fulling the wool - made cloth thicker

If you scrubbed away my bad stuff nothing would be left

You section

Where do I need to free myself?

Words - freedom, letting go, getting rid of

Where do I need to let Go?

Communion

THE GREAT THANKSGIVING

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

Lift up your hearts.

We lift them up to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

It is right to give our thanks and praise.

And so, with your people on earth and all the company of heaven we praise your name and join their unending hymn:

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.

Holy are you, and blessed is your Son Jesus Christ. 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."

(Pastor speaks.) 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.

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

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.

Through your Son Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit in your holy Church, all honor and glory is yours, almighty Father, now and forever. Amen.

Benediction

Know that by the sacrifice of Jesus that we are forgiven people. Go out into the world to remind others of that same thing. Go now in peace to love and to serve