MUSIC
Hello, I'm Deb Phelps, and I'd like to welcome you personally to our worship this week.
This is the third Sunday in Advent, and wherever you're watching from, whatever your situation
is, we're so glad that you're here, and hope these few minutes together will be a special
blessing to you and speak to your heart.
This Advent at Disciples Net, we've taken a slightly different tactic in looking the
first week at the Prophecy of Hope with the birth of Christ, and last week the joy that
came from the birth and life of Christ on earth, and this week we're looking at the
Disciples as they've gone out into the world.
All this in preparation to once again celebrate the spirit of the coming of Christ in our
own lives and in the world.
Why don't you join us now as we worship?
Jesus, born to set your people free, from our fears and sins release us, Christ in
whom our rest shall be, you our strength and consolation, conservation to impart, dear
desire of many a nation, joy of many a longing heart, born your people to deliver, born
a child and yet a king, born to reign in us forever, born your gracious realm to bring,
by your own eternal spirit ruling all our hearts alone, by your own sufficient merit
raise us to your glorious throne.
Will you join me in prayer?
Loving gracious holy God, God who is the giver of all great gifts, we come to you today first
of all with prayers of thanksgiving.
We come reminding ourselves of the gifts that you have given, even the gift of life itself.
We come to you reminding ourselves of the things that we take for granted, what it means
to simply have the privilege of being your children, living in this world that you have
created.
We are thankful, dear God, that we stand in a long line of your precious service.
We thank you for the people who have listened to your word.
We thank you for those who have carried your word, who have done your will, who have made
it possible for us today to still hear and understand the story of your saving history.
Most of all, as we continue during this season of Advent, dear God, we thank you for the
sending of your Son, Jesus Christ, into the world.
We thank you for that every day, and yet even that marvelous gift is one we sometimes forget,
sometimes take for granted.
May we have it ever at the very forefront of our minds and deep in our hearts.
God, we thank you for what it means to be servants of Jesus Christ, and we ask that
you would help us not only see and understand what it means, help us also to have the courage
to act and to serve.
That we too might be the ones who carry the message, who share the good news.
God, we ask now that you also would touch us at the point of our greatest need, whether
it is our own troubled emotion or spirit, whether it is physical health, whether it
is grief over the loss of a loved one, whether it is the concern that we always have about
war and poverty and hatred in the world.
God we pray that your holy love might be felt where it is most needed, and we also again
ask that you would help us to be part of the answer to these very prayers that we pray.
Ask us wisdom and courage to do your will, to act on your behalf, to reach out in love
to those around us.
We pray now, dear God, that you would hear us as we join together and pray the prayer
that Jesus prayed.
Our Father, who art in heaven, I will be thy King, thy kingdom come, thy building come,
this is the day of our daily prayer, and every good is in our debts, and as a deed we forgive
our debts, and every good is a sign of temptation, but I will never rust from evil, for my mind
is a kingdom, and I have power, and I have the glory of the Lord ever upon you.
The feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation,
who says to Zion, your God reigns.
Listen, your sentinels lift up their voices, together they sing for joy, for in plain sight
they see the return of the Lord to Zion.
Break forth together into singing, you ruins of Jerusalem, for the Lord has comforted his
people, he has redeemed Jerusalem.
The Lord has buried his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends
of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.
Go tell Him on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere, go tell Him on the mountain,
Jesus Christ is born.
When I was a seeker, I sought both night and day, I asked the Lord to help me, and He showed
me the way.
Go tell Him on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere, go tell Him on the mountain,
Jesus Christ is born.
Down in a lonely manger, the humble Christ was born, and God sent us salvation, that blessed
Christmas move on.
Go tell Him on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere, go tell Him on the mountain,
Jesus Christ is born.
Go tell Him on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere, go tell Him on the mountain,
Jesus Christ is born.
It was a time before email and Facebook.
It was even a time before telegraph and radio.
And so when a nation was at war, a messenger had to be sent from the battlefield to announce
whether the war was won or lost.
The watchman standing atop the city walls would strain to see the coming messenger to
find out whether the news was good or bad.
As soon as they heard, they would shout the news of praise or lament for all to hear.
This is the scene that Isaiah sets before us, but with a few interesting distinctives.
Unlike those announcements in history that announce the triumph of one nation over another,
this victory does not belong to one king or any earthly power at all.
This message announces the victory of God in which all nations are redeemed.
In the battle that encompasses all of history, your God reigns.
And God's reign brings true salvation and true peace.
True salvation is more than just one people saved from one oppressor.
The good news means that God rules over all the forces, all the powers, and all the idols
that enslave.
The good news means freedom for all who are oppressed anywhere.
True peace is more than simply an end to a war.
War itself is now over, once and for all.
The good news means that all reasons for battle, all reasons for warfare, all reasons for hatred,
pride, self-justification are eliminated.
This peace is the peace of God for all creation and all expressions of human life.
The watchers that see the messengers of good news approach say to themselves that this news
is so good, that travel worn and dusty as they may be, even the feet of the one who brings
such news must be beautiful.
This good news also resounds far beyond its original hearers in exile in Babylon.
Their good news was that they could return to their homeland.
But this good news spoke in a baby's cry that announced that the good news incarnate had
come to live among us.
It burst forth in that same voice from plain and mountain, from sea shore to temple itself,
bringing the realm of God closer.
It thundered from heaven, saying, this is my beloved son.
And it rumbled in the sound of a stone rolling away from a tomb.
It crackled in the tongues of fire that fell at Pentecost and birthed the church.
That good news sent beautiful feet out of Jerusalem into Judea and into the farthest
reaches of the earth.
That good news took root in the hearts of the early church in spite of all the persecution
and hardship Rome could bear against it.
And yet there were times when the message became garbled.
Constantine saw the Christian faith as the glue to hold the Roman Empire together for
a little while longer, and so the church became in part a tool of that government.
Later governments used crusades to prevent revolution by keeping men busy with so-called
holy wars far away from home.
Rome also used Inquisition as a tool for eliminating potential political and economic rivals, turning
neighbor against neighbor.
The church was sometimes deceived, but all too often complicit in these actions, and
the divisiveness of human institutions became echoed within the church itself.
Instead of bringing peace, the church was involved in its own inner conflicts and complicit
in outer conflicts.
During these times factions split the church into smaller and smaller pieces, first Orthodox
and Catholic split, then Protestants split off of that, only to later divide themselves
into each new system.
Christians were ever-increasingly long names to differentiate themselves from those heretic
others who they summarily consigned to hell.
The good news became less good, and the feet of those who carried those garbled versions
of the message were not so beautiful anymore.
Yet, the good news was not lost amid that noise.
Each time the messengers faltered, there were others who stepped up with reformation
and restoration.
Each time the message got garbled and intertwined with politics and human failings, the one
who sent the message spoke in the hearts of those who would hear that clear message of
true salvation and true peace.
For every Constantine who made the church a political tool, there arose Benedict and
Patrick's who encouraged careful judgment and critique of the politics and cultures
of their time.
For every faction that split the church, there arose leaders who would hear God's promise
that the church is one fold under one shepherd.
And so we come to today.
We are keenly aware of not only actual armed conflicts, but the inability of neighbor to
be at peace with neighbor, and our lack of care and concern for those outside our immediate
circle of friends and family.
And yet, the good news that comes to us still calls out, your God reigns.
We hear the watchman call, and our hearts swell to hear that our God is still present
with us, forgiving our waywardness, drawing us back into right relationship.
God is still working within us to open our ears and our hearts to the true message, the
good news of salvation and peace.
And like Isaiah, we strain to see it breaking into our world.
We know the realm and rule of God is not yet fully come.
But the good news tells us that the war itself has already been won.
Ultimately, in response to this amazingly great good news, we are called.
As the writer of Hebrews tells us to cast off the sin that weighs us down and hampers
our forward movement and run that race set before us, becoming those swift and beautiful
footed messengers who bring good news and an out salvation even as we go about our daily
life.
Thanks to the good news incarnate, the bruised become the healed, the wounded become the
healers, and yes, people who are without physical feet and without speech can still be beautiful
and swift messengers.
In our day, good news no longer has to be physically carried from place to place and
spoken.
The feet of the messengers can be any means of carrying that message.
We here at Disciples Net carry the message by means of wires and light beams and routers
and modems over the Internet.
Everyone has a means of carrying the message to those around them, and each one of us has
the privilege and responsibility to respond to God's good news by carrying it onward
in worship, outreach, and witness.
Someday may it be soon.
Isaiah's prophecy will come to fullness, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation
of our God.
Glory to God in the highest, and peace to God's people on earth.
And let dreams begin with healing, let merry peace honor the peace that was meant to be
with God as our Father, Mother of all of me.
Let me walk with my brother in perfect harmony, let peace begin with me, let peace be the
home of Christ now, with every step I take, let this be my solemn vow to take each moment
and let each moment and peace eternally, let merry peace honor and let it begin with
me, let merry peace honor and let it begin with me.
What a beautiful thing it is to receive good news, what a beautiful thing it is to receive
gifts, as the scripture said to us, how beautiful are the feet of those who proclaim good news,
who say to us that our God reigns, who remind us that we are not alone, how beautiful it
is to hear those things, how beautiful it is to know that it's that messenger in Jesus
the Christ who invites us to this table, who reminds us that we are not alone, and that
we come around this table, uniting with Christians around the world and throughout history, realizing
that our God reigns and that we serve.
Let us pray.
Gracious God, we give you thanks that you have given us good news in your son, Jesus
the Christ, and that we can remember and celebrate that good news when we gather around this
table.
We pray now that you would pour out your Holy Spirit on these elements of bread and cup.
Let them become for us the spiritual food that we need, that we might go into our daily
lives as your people and as your witnesses, serving in your name, amen.
We remember that it was on the night that he was betrayed that Jesus took bread, and
when he'd given thanks, he broke it, and he gave it to his disciples, and he said, Take
and eat all of you, for this is my body, which is broken for you.
And in the same way after supper, he took the cup.
He gave thanks, and he gave it to his disciples, and he said, Drink from this, all of you,
for this cup is a new covenant in my blood, poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness
of sins.
Do this as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.
For as often as we eat this bread and drink this cup, we proclaim the Lord's death until
he comes.
And now, dear friends, you have heard the good news.
Your God reigns.
So go into that world where there is oppression, turn over the soil of freedom, where there
is division, plant the seeds of unity, where there is conflict, pour out the life-giving
water of peace, where there is hatred and indifference, shine the warm light of love.
Remember the poor and the hungry, and with this good news in your hearts and in the work
of your hands, go into the world that desperately longs to hear it and to see it.
Those who do will say, How beautiful are the feet of them, Amen.
The humble Christ was born, and God's signal salvation, that blessed Christmas morn.
Don't tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere, don't tell it on the mountain.
Jesus Christ is born.
Don't tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere, don't tell it on the mountain.
Jesus Christ is born.
