FULL MEASURE 2021 ADVENT CELEBRATION DAY 24
©© by Pastor Jennifer Rousseau Cumberbatch (proprietary)
MODERATOR: Pastor jen Cumberbatch
ADVENT CELEBRATION Day 24 Tuesday, December 21, 2021
Welcome Friends to The Full Measure 2021 Advent Celebration
SCRIPTURE: Psalm 80:1-7
READER: GInger Geyer and Ms. E. Henry
THEME: LOVE
LIGHTING OF THE CANDLES: Light 2 purple and one pink candles, and the last purple candle for each reading this Week 4 of Advent. The HOPE Candle from Week 1 and The PEACE candle for Week 2 and the JOY Candle for Week 3, and now the LOVE Candle for Week 4, the final week of Advent,
Scripture
PSALMS 80:1-7 NIV
Hear us, Shepherd of Israel,
you who lead Joseph like a flock.
You who sit enthroned between the cherubim, shine forth before Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseh.
Awaken your might;
come and save us.
Restore us, O God;
make your face shine on us
that we may be saved.
How long, Lord God Almighty,
will your anger smolder
against the prayers of your people?
You have fed them with the bread of tears;
you have made them drink tears by the bowlful.
You have made us an object of derision[b] to our neighbors,
and our enemies mock us.
Restore us, God Almighty, make your face shine on us,
that we may be saved.
Reading
The collective and individual human suffering, grief and violence experienced in 2020 and 2021 certainly creates in us empathy for the people of God in the times when, Psalm 80, the scripture for Day 23, 2021 Advent Celebration was written. Their lament is our lament. We join them in asking, Lord, how long will this suffering continue?
But, what we can also take from their lament is that God’s people recognized in the midst of their suffering, that the Lord Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth, is the source for their restoration.
We, the Church of Jesus, God’s Christ, can now rest in the assurance that the wrath of God is no longer operative in the lives of those who put their trust in the work of Jesus at the cross and in his resurrection. We are the righteousness of Christ. Christ has made us right with God, and in Christ we have peace with God and peace with others.
The Great Love of God, demonstrated in the life, death and resurrection of Christ, gives us the hope, which is the foundation of our faith, that trouble don’t last always.
We are assured that our Enemy, the accuser of God's people, the devil, will not triumph over us and that God’s favor will shine upon us.
God has and will strengthen us with God’s power and might, through God’s Holy Spirit, and our inner person. We are being renewed daily to take on each day’s challenges, while we experience the mercies of God, which are new every morning.
God shepherds, God’s people into everlasting green pastures and still waters,
Yea, though we walk through the valley of the shadow of Death we will fear no evil
It is only a shadow.
Life abundant and life eternal is still our future inheritance in Jesus, God’s Christ.
Jesus is with us even until the end of this age and the world’s end.
Jesus, the good shepherd rescues us from danger, guides, directs, disciplines, and comforts us with his rod and his staff.
Christ anoints us with the oil of gladness, with the fruit of God’s spirit and empowers us, fills us to overflow,
We are witnesses to God’s faithfulness and declare it with our lips and our lives.
God, Lord Sabbaoth, fights our battles for us and prepares a bountiful feast of his word and his presence, directly in the presence of our enemies.
God’s goodness and mercy shall pursue us all our days on the earth. And, we will make our hearts God’s dwelling place, his abode forever, even as we commune with him in heaven forever and ever.
Prayer
Lord, you are our source. You are our source for pure, unconditional, unadulterated, unperverted Love.
Thank you God for your Love
Lord, thank you for hearing our prayers and our laments.
Lord, thank-you that your eyes go to and fro throughout all the earth to see on whose behalf you might show yourself mighty.
Thank you, Lord, for being our defender, against the enemy of our souls,
Lord, you are the light of our countenance.
Thank you for making your face to shine upon us and for your giving us your presence to bring us peace and fullness of joy.
Lord, in you we are restored
Thank you, Lord, for restoring our Hope and subsequently our faith, in you and you alone, who are Faithful and true from everlasting to everlasting.
Lord we seek your face, yield to your will, ask for your healing and refreshing and thank you for the privilege to come before your throne of grace boldly to ask for grace in time of our need. Your throne room is accessible, because of the advocacy and sacrifice of Jesus your Christ and we thank you.
Thank you, Lord, for the advent of your Christ.
In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.