Sunday, December 9, 2012
Advent Reflections
Christian Formation Commission
Greetings!

Thank you for continuing to journey with us through the season of Advent. You are now journeying together with members of over 60 different congregations in multiple dioceses and over 350 people in all. As we come together in reflection and prayer, we join our voices in praise as we await the joyful coming.
  
Christian Formation Commission

                                                   Scripture                                                   

 

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John, son of Zechariah, in the wilderness.  He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah, 'The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:


"Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.
Every valley shall be filled,
and every mountain and hill shall be made low,
and the crooked shall be made straight,
and the rough ways made smooth;
and all flesh shall see the salvation of God."'

 

Luke 3:1-6 

 
Prayer
  
As John "went into all the region around Jordan" to do the work that God had called him to do, we also are called to prepare our ourselves so that we may welcome Christ in our lives and in our world.
 
O God, whose will is justice for the poor and peace for the afflicted,
let your herald's urgent voice pierce our hardened hearts
and announce the dawn of your kingdom.
Before the advent of the One who baptizes with the fire of the Holy Spirit,
 let our complacency give way to conversion,
oppression to justice, and conflict to acceptance of one another in Christ.
 We ask this through the One whose coming is certain,
whose day draws near: your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God,
for ever and ever. Amen.
 
United Methodist Book of Worship
  

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