First Sunday of Advent - November 27, 2022

Trinity Episcopal Church PROGRESSIVE  INCLUSIVE  CREATIVE  DOWNTOWN Trinity @ 316  Holy Eucharist: Rite II  First Sunday of Advent    November 27, 2022 10:00 am

Welcome to Trinity Episcopal Church

Good morning and “welcome home” to Trinity! Whether you are new to our community or have found yourself coming back again and again, we want you to know you are both welcome and wanted here among us. For some, church is as comfortable and familiar as a good pair of jeans, or like coming back to your childhood home (if it is one filled with good memories). For others, church might be like visiting a foreign country where you experience unfamiliar language or customs. And then, sadly, for some, church has become equated with feelings of hurt, shame or rejection. We get all of that and believe church can be different. We are a diverse community of seekers, believers, and doubters held together by the hope that together we are better, kinder, and more courageous when we stand side by side and face into the challenges of our lives and in the world together.

We challenge the practices of our tradition that have at times kept others out and instead embrace Jesus’ mandate to welcome all, no exceptions, as a core value. And, we get that if people are brave enough to walk through the doors of a big gothic looking church in downtown Toledo we better be serious about being explicitly progressive, inclusive and creative in all we say and do.

We love our Episcopal tradition, AND we love people from all walks of life even more! It is our hope and prayer that together we will navigate our way through each gathering, worship service, opportunity to serve, class, meal and social time together with humility, grace and laughter all infused with radical hospitality.

So thank you for being here today; for trusting the yearning that brought you through those ancient doors. May we all find our way into the heart of God’s love as we make room for each other at the Table of love set for us week after week.

Welcome Home!

May you never forget you are loved, Lisa Tucker Gray

Notes about Trinity at Advent

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2022

THE FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT

The Christian calendar begins its new year not on January 1, but on the first Sunday of Advent which is always four Sundays before Christmas (December 25) and the Sunday closest to St. Andrew’s Day (November 30). Our word “Advent” derives from the Latin Adventus, which means “coming,” and originally referred just to the coming of the feast of Christmas. But over time the season of Advent took on a double meaning. Today it refers both to the “first coming” of Jesus Christ in his birth at Christmas and to his “second coming” at the end of time.

It is important to remember that Advent is not just a season in which we recall an event of the past Jesus’ birth but also a time in which we look to the present and the future. When will Jesus come again? When will we see the kingdom of God on earth, as it is in heaven? Of course, no one knows. And so, the more important questions are: What can we do as the Church, Christ’s body here on earth, to welcome God’s reign of justice and peace today? What can we do as individuals to reorder our lives in the light of God’s love? What would it mean to live as a people who believe in Jesus as the Savior of all the earth and who expect him to come again at the fulfillment of time? Each Advent we turn to these questions anew.

(Excerpt from: Daily Prayer for All Seasons, Church Publishing, 2014)

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 liturgy of the word 

Prelude A Change is Gonna Come Sam Cooke (Tajj Crowder and Grace Mauk)

Welcome The Rev. Dr. Lisa Tucker Gray

Candle Lighting People Get Ready Curtis Mayfield

People get ready, there a train a-coming You don’t need no baggage, you just get on board. All you need is faith to hear diesels a-hummin’, You don’t need no ticket, you just thank the Lord.

Celebrant: We light this candle as a sign of the coming light of Christ. People: In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

Gathering Song Rise Up, Shepherd, and Follow LEVAS #24

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Collect of the Day

Celebrant: The Lord be with you.

People: And also with you.

Celebrant: Let us pray.

(Prayers for the Inclusive Church)

Holy Thief, stealing away our false securities and idle vanity: awaken us from the dull sleep that clings to empty fear and vacant routine; unfold on us the time of crisis when love of truth floods a thirsty world; through Jesus Christ, the one who is to come. Amen. (Please be seated for the Lessons.)

The First Lesson Isaiah 2: 1-5

Reader: A reading from Isaiah.

The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

In days to come the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it. Many peoples shall come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.’ For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the LORD!

Reader: Hear what the Spirit is saying to God’s People. People: Thanks be to God.

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(Psalms for Praying)

All are invited to sing the refrain, and the choir will offer the verses

REFRAIN

My spirit soared when a Voice spoke to me: “Come, come to the Heart of Love!” How long I had stood within the house of fear yearning to enter the gates of Love!

The New Jerusalem, the Holy City, is bound firmly together; All who seek the Heart of Love, those who have faced their fears, Enter the gates in peace and with great joy, singing songs of thanksgiving.

REFRAIN

There, in harmony with the cosmos, the community gathers united in love. Pray for the peace of the world! May all nations prosper as one! May peace reign among all peoples, and integrity dwell within every heart!

Then will friends and neighbours, and former enemies as well, cry out, “Peace be within you!” For the good of the universe and in gratitude to the Beloved, Let us serve the Holy One, of all nations with glad hearts.

REFRAIN

The second Lesson

Reader: A reading from Romans.

Romans 13:11 14

You know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy.

Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

Reader: The Word of the Lord People: Thanks be to God.

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Psalm

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Gradual Thy Word is a Lamp Augsburg Hymns for Worship

All are invited to join on the refrain. Verses offered by a soloist.

All: Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Soloist: When I feel afraid, think I’ve lost my way, still you’re right there beside me, And nothing will I fear as long as you are near

All: Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.

The Gospel Matthew 24:36-44

Celebrant: The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew. People: Glory to you, Lord Christ.

Jesus said to the disciples, “But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so too will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left. Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.

But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.”

Celebrant: The Gospel of the Lord. People: Praise to You, Lord Christ.

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Sermon The Rev. Dr. Lisa Tucker Gray

The Affirmation of Faith

(Please stand as you are able.)

We are not alone, we live in God's world.

We believe in God: who has created and is creating, who has come in Jesus, the Word made flesh, to reconcile and make new, who works in us and others by the Spirit.

We trust in God.

We are called to be the Church: to celebrate God's presence, to live with respect in Creation, to love and serve others, to seek justice and resist evil, to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen, our judge and our hope.

In life, in death, in life beyond death, God is with us.

We are not alone.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

Prayers of the People

From the United Church of Canada

Intercessor: Walking in the light of the coming Savior, let us pray for the church, the world, and all who await God’s justice (a brief silence). Like a potter working clay, shape and mold our church leaders into vessels fit to serve your people and the world according to your purpose.