Worship Service at Church of the Dawntreader Thursday November 28, 2013 10:00 a.m. SLT
Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.
    Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc.™ 
    Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.
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Invocation:
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God, and the Communion of the Holy Spirit be with us all. Amen
Confession and Absolution
We come before you, our Loving Father, Mother God, confessing most of all our need of you.
We confess that we have not always acknowledged just how much we depend on you.
We confess that we have not always loved you with all our heart, soul and mind.
We have not always loved our neighbors as ourselves.
We ask that you will forgive us and grant us your strength to conform more fully to your loving will for us.
We pray in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Amen.
In obedience to the command of our Lord Jesus Christ, it is my privilege to declare to you and to myself, the entire
forgiveness of all our sins.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen

Prayer of the Day
Let us pray.
Stir up your power, Lord Christ, and come.
By your merciful protection save us from the threatening dangers of our sins,
and enlighten our walk in the way of your salvation,
for you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen

First Lesson: Isaiah 2:1-5 (NIV)
1 This is what Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem:
 2 In the last days
   the mountain of the LORD’s temple will be established
   as the highest of the mountains;
it will be exalted above the hills,
   and all nations will stream to it.
 3 Many peoples will come and say,
   “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
   to the temple of the God of Jacob.
He will teach us his ways,
   so that we may walk in his paths.”
The law will go out from Zion,
   the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
4 He will judge between the nations
   and will settle disputes for many peoples.
They will beat their swords into plowshares
   and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
   nor will they train for war anymore.
 5 Come, descendants of Jacob,
   let us walk in the light of the LORD.
Here ends the First Lesson

a brief comment:
These are some of my favorite verses from all of Scripture.
Here we learn of God's ultimate plan for our world,
a plan that we human beings are terribly adept at thwarting.
God will make an end to war all over the world.
"They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore."
These words are engraved upon the floor at the entrance to the United Nations building.
They enshrine the hopes of people all over the world,
that the incredible waste and stupidity of war
will one day come to a final end,
and all people can at last learn to live in peace.
This will bring the Messianic age
for which we prepare our hearts
in all our times of worship and prayer
in all our practice of faith
and in this holy season of Advent.
In light of these verses, I want us to think together about the final verse of the great Christmas hymn,
"It Came upon the Midnight Clear"
For lo! The days are hastening on, by prophets seen of old,
when with the ever-circling years shall come the time foretold,
when peace shall over all the earth its ancient splendors fling,
and all the world give back the song which now the angels sing.
Amen!

Psalm: 122 (NIV)  
 1 I rejoiced with those who said to me,
   “Let us go to the house of the LORD.”
2 Our feet are standing
   in your gates, Jerusalem.
 3 Jerusalem is built like a city
   that is closely compacted together.
4 That is where the tribes go up—
   the tribes of the LORD—
to praise the name of the LORD
   according to the statute given to Israel.
5 There stand the thrones for judgment,
   the thrones of the house of David.
 6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:
   “May those who love you be secure.
7 May there be peace within your walls
   and security within your citadels.”
8 For the sake of my family and friends,
   I will say, “Peace be within you.”
9 For the sake of the house of the LORD our God,
   I will seek your prosperity.
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.

Second Lesson: Romans 13:11-14 (NIV)
 11 And do this, understanding the present time:
The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber,
because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.
12 The night is nearly over; the day is almost here.
So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.
13 Let us behave decently, as in the daytime,
not in carousing and drunkenness,
not in sexual immorality and debauchery,
not in dissension and jealousy.
14 Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ,
and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.
Here ends the Second Lesson.

Gospel Lesson: Matthew 24:36-44 (NIV)
    36 “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.
37 As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.
38 For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage,
up to the day Noah entered the ark;
39 and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away.
That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.
40 Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left.
41 Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.
   42 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.
43 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming,
he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into.
44 So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.
Here end the Readings from Holy Scripture.

 - Sermon -

For those of us in the U.S. I want to wish a Happy Thanksgiving.
Today is Thanksgiving Day for the U.S.
It's a day set aside to remember all the things we are thankful for.
For everyone, I want to wish a Happy New Year!
No, I'm not early with that wish.
This week marks the beginning of a new Church Year.
The liturgical churches in the West mark the calendar with seasons that celebrate events in the life of our Lord.
The season that begins this Saturday at sundown is Advent, a time of preparation for Christmas.
Advent means coming, and in this season we prepare for the coming of Christ.
We prepare to celebrate His coming in His birth at Bethlehem.
We remember with joy His having come to dwell among us as He lives in our hearts,
and we prepare to receive Him more deeply, more fully, and better.
And also we prepare for His coming again.
All three of those forms of preparation are important during Advent.
Our lessons all through this season will touch on those three themes.
It's all about preparations - being ready.
As we prepare to celebrate Christmas, our inner, personal and spiritual preparations are much more important
than the preparations of decorations and presents, meals and parties.
Invariably, the outward celebrations will disappoint us.
The celebrations of the heart will satisfy us much more.
The more we think about the birth of Christ, the more we will get from the seasons of Advent and Christmas.
The more we try to please others and have the best parties or give the best gifts,
the more we set ourselves up for disappointment.
Even more importantly, no matter the season, we can remember the coming of Christ to live in our hearts.
Christ is God in us, Emmanuel, and as the great Advent hymn says, we call upon Him to come and dwell with us:
"Rejoice, Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to you, Oh Israel!"
Our lessons for today are all about the second coming of Christ.
The Gospel lesson has one of the most important Biblical teachings about the second coming:
"The Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect Him."
No one will know the time.
It could be really difficult to find a time that no one has predicted, `
so how can Christ return, if at any moment someone thinks he is about to come?
I suppose if there were any given time that no one thought would be the time for Christ's return,
then that would be the time!
But as soon as someone realized that no one had predicted it,
then he or she would begin to think that was the time, and they would know it,
so that could not be the time, either!
This does not mean, of course, that Christ cannot come back.
It only means that it is impossible for us to know when His return will happen.
There is a lot of emphasis on the expectation of His return,
and some whole church movements have been based on the concept of his imminent return,
even to the point of predicting an exact date,
but that is always a mistake.
No one will know it.
No one will be expecting Him when He actually returns,
so it is useless to speculate.
And any of our concepts of what it all means are pure fantasy.
Fantasy can be lots of fun.
After all, here we are gathered in Second Life, and what is this Second Life but an elaborate fantasy for us to share?
But our faith is not fantasy.
We believe in a living Lord Who is very real.
We know His presence in our hearts, minds, and lives every day.
His coming again is as much a fact of history as any event that has already taken place.
By knowing that He is going to return,
we have a profound assurance that history will reach a full and meaningful resolution someday.
We don't have to look at the events of the day with fear.
We can have hope, no matter what.
We don't know what the second coming of Christ will look like.
When the time comes, we will say, "Oh! That's what it all meant!"
The fulfillment of prophecy is best known and understood in hindsight.
But we know that it will be fulfilled.
Every word we have read or believed about the second coming of Christ
will be filled full of new meaning
 - and that is fulfillment -
when we see Him coming back into history.
He has invaded human history once with His birth at Bethlehem.
He will invade history once again
when He returns to rule as the glorious and gentle King of all the world.
This is the King Who is also known as the Prince of Peace,
Who will bring to fruition all our hopes and prayers for real and lasting peace on earth. 
In the Christmas Season, on this very day,
we are beginning our celebration of the Holy Days with the festival of light of our Jewish sisters and brothers.
They are celebrating Hanukkah, the eight days commemorating the miracle of Providence,
when God gave enough oil for the purification of the Temple in Jerusalem at the time of the Hasmonean Restoration.
The temple had been desecrated by the Greek king,
and the rites of purification required that a lamp filled with holy oil burn for eight days.
There was not nearly enough oil,
but God provided:
The oil they had on hand did burn for the eight days, and the purity of the Temple was restored.
To this day, the miracle is celebrated in this holy time of Hanukkah,
and the light of the candles in the sacred candelabra called the Menorah
corresponds to Christians having lights on their homes and their Christmas trees.
I've had Jewish friends who had Christmas trees in their homes,
and they were often careful to point out to me that those lighted trees were "Hanukkah Bushes."
There is so much more that we share in common with the Jews than there is that separates us.
As we think of the second coming of Christ, even then, this is true:
I have a favorite story about the second coming that illustrates the truth,
just how much Christians and Jews share in common.
A Jew and a Christian were walking together on the day of Christ's return.
Both of them met Him face to face,
and both were filled with great joy.
The Jew said, "The Messiah! You've come!"
The Christian said, "Lord Jesus! You've come back!"
And Jesus said to them both,
"No comment!"
Amen.

Prayer of the People
Please type your spontaneous petitions in chat.
Each prepared petition is intended to remind us of the things we need to pray about,
so a brief pause will be provided for us to pray our own petitions,
either sharing them in the chat window
or praying them in our own hearts.

Loving God, we pray for each other, for those who depend upon us for prayer, and for all people according to their needs.
We ask that your healing power may prevail in our lives.
We pray that those in positions of public trust may be worthy of that trust as they act as stewards of power and wealth
for the benefit of all.
We pray that conflicts may be resolved in the context of relationships,
so that violence of thought word and deed may be diminished all through our world.
We ask your blessing for all who bear witness to the Gospel, so that relationships with you may be deepened for all people.
All these things, and whatever else you see that we need, we ask that you will grant for the sake of your Son,
our Lord Jesus Christ, in Whose name we pray.
Amen.

Our 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 sins as we forgive those who sin 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.

Benediction
May the Lord bless us and keep us.
May the Lord make His face to shine upon us and be gracious to us.
May the Lord lift up His countenance upon us, and give us peace.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,
Amen +