Wonderful Counselor

 WE GATHER 

PRELUDE 

BRINGING IN THE LIGHT OF CHRIST 

WELCOME & ANNOUNCEMENTS 

*HYMN O Come, O Come, Emmanuel UMH# 211 v 1, 2, 4 

*CALL TO WORSHIP 

L: Children of God, pay attention! The days are coming when God’s peace will reign and all creation will flourish under the reign of our Creator. 

P: The days are surely coming! 

L: Children of God, prepare your hearts! The days are coming and are already here when God will come near and show us how to recognize God’s reign among 

us. 

P: The days are surely coming and are already here! 

L: Children of God, be alert and listen! God has come near to build the kin-dom on the earth here and now. Will you join in? 

P: The days are surely coming and are already here! We come to prepare our hearts to pay attention, to listen, and to follow God’s call to build the kin-dom of earth as it is in heaven. Amen. 

*OPENING PRAYER (IN UNISON) 

God of our Expectations, we praise you for the days that are surely coming, the days where your counsel will outweigh our stubbornness. In those surely-coming days, our weapons will be beaten into gardening tools, we'll no longer fear disease, disaster, and violence, and every human being will be treasured and loved. Even if that day isn't here yet, God, help us to imagine it into existence. Amen. 

*HYMN I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light UMH# 206 

WE PROCLAIM GOD'S WORD 

CHILDREN’S CHAT 

ADVENT CANDLE LIGHTING 

Reader One: From deep in the past, Jeremiah calls to us, “The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah” (Jeremiah 33:14). Beloved, the days are surely coming when the yearning of the land; the longing of the sun, moon, and stars; the desperate need of the people of earth for flourishing and peace will receive their fulfillment. 

Congregation: While fear, anxiety, misinformation, and suspicion surround us on every side, we choose to watch and wait in hope, preparing our hearts to notice and cooperate with God’s grace already at work in our midst. 

Reader Two: We light this candle of hope as a sign of our commitment to pay attention and prepare for the days that are surely coming and are already here—the days when God’s kin-dom of love, justice, and mercy will reign.

OLD TESTAMENT READING 

Jeremiah 33: 14-16 

The Righteous Branch and the Covenant with David

14 The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 15 In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David, and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 16 In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will live in safety. And this is the name by which it will be called: “The Lord is our righteousness.”

MUSICAL INTERLUDE AND OFFERING 

NEW TESTAMENT READING 

Luke 21: 25-36 

The Coming of the Son of Man

25 “There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. 26 People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 27 Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in a cloud’ with power and great glory. 28 Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”[a]

The Lesson of the Fig Tree

29 Then he told them a parable: “Look at the fig tree and all the trees; 30 as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. 31 So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. 32 Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place. 33 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

Exhortation to Watch

34 “Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life and that day does not catch you unexpectedly, 35 like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. 36 Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place and to stand before the Son of Man.”

MESSAGE “Wonderful Counselor”

Happy New Year!

Friends, like I told you all last week, even though we still have another month of 2024 to go, the Church calendar year begins not in January, but today, on the first Sunday in Advent. A blessed Lectionary Year C to all!

From now until Christmas Eve, I’m going to be referring to an Advent prayer and devotional book titled Names for the Messiah. This book was composed by UCC pastor and beloved Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann, which means this is the very first time y’all are hearing me reference his work, but by no means the last. In this book, Names for the Messiah, Brueggemann draws from the book of Isaiah, chapter 9, verse 6–words that most of us are very familiar with because we tend to hear them every year on Christmas Eve:

“For a child has been born for us,
    a son given to us;
authority rests upon his shoulders,
    and he is named
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

At the time that these words were penned, theorizes Brueggemann, they more than likely were in reference to the coronation of King Hezekiah. This sentiment will hit us, in America in 2024, especially hard: the people of Israel, particularly prophets like Isaiah, put huge amounts of hope in the coronation of a new national leader, and especially this one. No amount of pomp and circumstance would be spared on this occasion. And in this era the Israelites were sandwiched between their recent conflicts with the Assyrian Empire, and an enormous national trauma in the form of a war with the Babylonian Empire that would dominate the majority of Isaiah’s writings. 

Stretched to their limits by two different wars, disillusioned by previous leaders, poor, sick, and scared…gee, why does this sound so familiar? Oh, right. There’s nothing new under the sun, is there?

Just like we’re lifting up our hopes, fears, and anxieties about a new President swearing in on January 20th, Isaiah was working through his feelings about a new king. He cited four names that he hoped he would be able to call King Hezekiah, based on his leadership: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace. But, just like most of us are at some point in the administration of any American President, Isaiah frequently felt deeply disappointed in King Hezekiah, and not at all like he lived up to his hopes. Hezekiah had a host of problems all of his own, but Isaiah also learned over time that no mortal could save his people. Only the Divine could do that.

Thus, instead of taking these beautiful, hope-filled names and attempting to use them to describe any past, present, or future occupant of the Oval Office, we learn from Isaiah’s early mistakes and instead use the ideals of our own minds to learn more about who Jesus is. And that brings us to today’s Messianic Name: Wonderful Counselor.

In addition to hearing this verse at Christmas Eve, these words may also sound familiar to the musically inclined among us, thanks to Handel’s Messiah. If we look at the phrase “wonderful counselor” at face value, we might interpret that Isaiah was predicting a Messiah who would give the very best guidance, advice, and governance. But Brueggemann reminds us of another wrinkle to this moniker: in the earliest versions of Messiah, Handel put a comma in the wrong place. So instead of the chorus proclaiming “wonderful counselor”, they sang “wonderful, counselor”. Of course, the audience still heard the same words in the same order, so maybe that comma didn’t really matter. But I’ve found that the greatest spiritual gifts scripture has to offer are hiding in the small details. 

So does it make a difference to you? “For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders, and he is named Wonderful.” We can think of “wonderful” as a synonym for “great, fantastic, awesome, super”. Or we can break that word down as “full of wonder”.

In this morning’s Gospel reading from Luke, Jesus makes several attempts in a row to warn his disciples that the world around them isn’t going to keep looking “wonderful” in the sense of “dandy, superb, sublime, delightful”. The world will become terrifying, overwhelming, disastrous, dark, and unsurvivable. Yet he also urges them not to lose hope, because the guiding hand of the Divine will never fail to be “wonderful” among them in the other sense of the word: Majestic, awe-inspiring, and powerful to the point of being kind of scary at times. The sky will be falling, Chicken Little style. The sun, moon, and stars will blow up, and that’ll be followed by a tsunami. And right in that moment when we most need comfort and hope, Jesus will come surfing down from heaven on a black cloud. And that image won’t make a drop more sense than anything else going on, but it’ll sure get our attention.

That, I argue, is what Jesus actually delivers in response to Isaiah’s prophesy of a “wonderful counselor”: the Divine Fingers snapping us into awareness when we need the jolt. It’s the most salient counsel that Jesus provides in this morning’s Gospel pericope: don’t get comfortable and complacent. We don’t find salvation when we sit around and wait for the perfect ruler to do all the work for us. We find salvation when we listen closely to Sacred wisdom and apply it to everything our own hands touch.

Because until that day that Jesus surfs to our door on a storm cloud, he is, and will continue to be, wonderful. And whenever we need it, He taps us to attention by putting us in moments of awe. Feel those moments, soak them in, and know that those are glimpses of Emmanuel, God with us.

Amen.

*HYMN Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming UMH# 216 v 1, 2 

WE RESPOND 

APOSTLES CREED (UNISON) UMH# 882 

COMMUNION 

THE 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 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. 

JOYS & CONCERNS 

PASTORAL PRAYER 

Lord of time and hope, we are rushing headlong into the holidays to come. We look at our calendars and our day planners and wonder how we will get everything done in the time allotted to us before the "big Day" arrives. We begin to panic at the thought of projects still to be finished, contacts that need to be made, preparations for festivities that have only just begun. And the darkness of obsessive holiday planning overtakes us and clouds our minds and spirits.

But you are a God of time and Light. You bring hope to us, as you always have through the voices of the great prophets, and now through the One who is to come, Jesus Christ. Remind us again what this season is truly about......love, hope, peace and joy. Calm us down. Slow us down. Help us remember that it is in loving relationship that you gave your Son to us and it is in loving relationship that your Word is carried into the hearts of the people. No tinsel, ribbons, tape, cards and convey the eternal message adequately. You have given us the Light, to shine in our path and cut through our darkness.

Shine in the hearts of your people today. Bless those dear ones whom we have named before you today with your healing, reconciling, comforting presence and love. Give strength to all who face difficult situations and let your compassionate light shine on them guiding their decisions and their steps. Bring us at last to your presence, where the light of hope and love continually pour out on us.

These prayers and hopes we offer in confidence and gratitude for your love and presence. Amen.

— written by Nancy Townley, and posted on the Worship Connection page of the Ministry Matters website.  

*HYMN People, Look East UMH# 202 v 1, 2, 3 

SENDING FORTH WITH BLESSING 

POSTLUDE