The Service in PDF format is at: November 27, 2022 Service
Video of service is at: YouTube
Peace Lutheran Church
We welcome you in the name of the Lord Jesus. We are honored with your presence. If you do not have a church home, you are invited to join us regularly. Please introduce yourself to Pastor Jeremy Lucke or one of the Ushers as you leave today and sign the guest book in the entryway. We continue to observe the guidelines for health safety. If you have any questions, please see an usher. Everyone is welcome.
The ringing of the bell and the lighting of the Christ candle mark the beginning of our service and a time for quiet meditation, prayer and inward reflection as we begin our worship.
Children are welcome at our worship services. If you prefer, Peace Lutheran has a playroom equipped for children three years old and younger. The room is unstaffed and can be accessed in the fellowship hall where the service is also being live streamed for your convenience and enjoyment.
Holy Communion is celebrated every first and third Sunday and will follow the order of service in the bulletin. If you are a baptized Christian and share our faith in Jesus as Savior and have been instructed in the meaning and use of the Lord’s Supper, you are invited to partake. We have pre-wrapped communion wine or juice and wafers. We also have gluten-free wafers available. If you desire a gluten-free wafer, ask the server. May the body and blood of Jesus, present in the bread and wine, be a blessing to you.
There are times during the service when you will be asked to stand if you are able. Please feel free to remain seated if standing is difficult.
Offering. Peace Lutheran Church understands and teaches that Offerings are voluntary and to be from the heart. Whether we give or do not give does not determine our salvation. Whether we give much or little does not determine our standing before God. Sharing an Offering is an opportunity to quietly practice generosity with our neighbors. Offerings may be placed in the plates by the doors as we exit the sanctuary.
Serving You
Pastor Pastor Jeremy Lucke
Music Director Colleen Schulze
Choir Director Diane Crocker
Supt. Of Sunday School Brandy Stokes & Karyn Stanley
Admin Assistant Daniel Dusek
Parish Nurse Kathy Durling
Webmaster Jim Holroyd
Audio-Visual Johnathon Holroyd, George Abele, Nicholas Abele, Merv Munster, Callie Santora, Caleb Santora, Joyce Long, Oscar Gutbrod, Sam Worth, Rick Durling, Jim Holroyd, Nora Stanley, Debbi Weiler, Daniel Dusek
THEME: Welcome to a new church year and the season of Advent. The purpose of Advent is to better prepare us for the gift of Jesus on Christmas. Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said, “The celebration of Advent is possible only to those who are troubled in soul, who know themselves to be poor and imperfect, and who look forward to something greater to come.” In our worship today we are encouraged to empty ourselves and make room for Jesus!
CHORAL ANTHEM “Prepare the Way”
Prepare, prepare the way of the Lord.
Prepare the way of the Lord.
Prepare, prepare, prepare
the way of the Lord.
Prepare the way of the Lord.
Prepare the way of the Lord.
Prepare, prepare, prepare
the way of the Lord.
.
Make straight in the desert a royal way;
Gather the people to sing and pray;
lift up your voices with joyful praise.
Prepare the way of the Lord.
.
Let all of creation with song rejoice.
Sing every nation with heart and voice.
Sharing the promise with joyful noise.
Prepare the way of the Lord.
Alleluia. Alleluia.
.
Keep awake, be ready,
dawn will soon be here.
Light will shine upon us,
grace will dry each tear.
Hope, peace and love will
fall from heaven above!
.
Joy will come with morning.
Prepare, the time is near.
.
Prepare, prepare the way of the Lord.
Prepare the way of the Lord.
Prepare, prepare, prepare
the way of the Lord.
.
Prepare the way of the Lord.
Prepare the way of the Lord.
Prepare, prepare, prepare
The way of the Lord.
Prepare the way of the Lord.
Prepare.
INVOCATION AND CALL TO WORSHIP
Leader: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
People: Amen.
LIGHTING OF THE ADVENT WREATH
Leader: On the four Sundays in Advent, we light a new candle each week. We mark the four candles with these four words: hope, peace, joy, and love. Jesus Christ is the hope of all nations.
People: We wait for the Lord, and in His Word do we hope.
The first candle is lit during the Advent Song
ADVENT SONG: “My Soul in Stillness Waits”
♪ People: For you, O Lord, my soul in stillness waits, truly my hope is in you.
♪Leader: O Lord of Light, our only hope of glory, your radiance shines in all who look to you, come, light the hearts of all in dark and shadow.
♪ People: For you, O Lord, my soul in stillness waits, truly my hope is in you.
Leader: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.
People: If we claim to have fellowship with him, yet walk in the darkness,
Leader: We lie and do not live by the truth.
People: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light,
Leader: We have fellowship with one another,
People: And the blood of Jesus his Son purifies us from sin.
Leader: Let us confess our sins to God, our merciful Father.
~~~~~ Silence for reflection ~~~~~
Leader: Heavenly Father,
People we have sinned against you by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart and we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We have run from your ways and embraced the darkness of this present evil age. Forgive us for the sake of Jesus your only Son and our only Savior.
…HEARING GOD’S FORGIVENESS
Leader: Friends in Christ, if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. In Jesus’ name, you are forgiven and loved with an everlasting love!
People: Amen.
THE SCRIPTURE LESSONS
The First Lesson: Isaiah 2:1-5
The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
2 It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it,
3 and many peoples shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
4 He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.
5 O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.
Reader: This is the Word of the Lord.
People: Thanks be to God.
The Gospel Lesson: John 1:1-14
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. 6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
7He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.
9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.
11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,
13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Pastor: This is the Gospel of the Lord.
People: Praise to You O Christ.
SERMON SONG: “Oh, Come, Oh, Come, Emmanuel”
Text: Psalteriolum Cantionum Catholicarum, Koln, 1710; tr. John M. Neale, 1818-1866, alt. Tune: French processional, 15th cent.
Oh, come, oh, come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here,
Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to you, O Israel.
.
Oh, come oh come, great Lord of might,
Who to your tribes on Sinai’s height
In ancient times once gave the law
In cloud, and majesty, and awe.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to you, O Israel.
.
Oh, come, strong Branch of Jesse, free
Your own from Satan’s tyranny;
From depths of hell your people save
And give them vict’ry o’er the grave.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to you, O Israel.
.
Oh, come, blest Dayspring, come and cheer
Our spirits by your advent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to you, O Israel.
SERMON
“Picturing God”
People: I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth.
And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord,
Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
Born of the virgin Mary,
Suffered under Pontius Pilate,
Was crucified, died and was buried.
He descended into hell.
The third day He rose again from the dead.
He ascended into heaven
And sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.
From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
The holy Christian Church,
The communion of saints,
The forgiveness of sins,
The resurrection of the body,
And the life + everlasting. Amen.
Leader: Thankful for the unfading Light of Christ who has come to save us, let us pray for the Church in all places, for the world, and for the confession of the Gospel, that by his light we may go into all the world saying,
People: “The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not overcome it.”
Leader: Lord of Light, you know that we lose heart, we dwell in the darkness and live in the valley of the shadow of death. Point us to Jesus, whose resurrection announces that,
People: “The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not overcome it.”
Leader: Lord of Light, give us your Holy Spirit, that by him we may be strengthened in our praying, encouraged by his wisdom and sustained in faithful supplication for those who stand in need our prayers (especially………). May these people, too, confess that,
People: “The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?”
Leader: Lord of Light, you healed the sick, cured the lame, gave sight to the blind, restored hearing to the deaf and delivered those who were held in bondage by the devil. Give to our church the zeal and boldness to reach out into our world and say,
People: “The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?”
Leader: Lord of Light, you were born among us as the Light of the world. Shine in our hearts during this Advent season. Savior, Light of the world, we entrust to you all for whom we pray, commending them to you, for you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
People: Amen.
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 and ever. Amen
CLOSING BLESSING
Leader: The Lord is my light and my salvation—
People: Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?
CLOSING SONG: “Let All Things Now Living”
Katherine Kennicott Davis; 1939. Renewed 1966 E.C. Schirmer Music Company (Admin. by ECS Publishing Corporation)
Let all things now living
A song of thanksgiving
To God the Creator triumphantly raise,
Who fashioned and made us,
Protected and stayed us,
Who still guides us on to the end of our days.
.
God’s banners are o’er us,
His light goes before us,
A pillar of fire shining forth in the night,
Till shadows have vanished
And darkness is banished,
As forward we travel from light into light
.
His law He enforces,
The stars in their courses
And sun in its orbit obediently shine;
The hills and the mountains,
The rivers and fountains,
The deeps of the ocean proclaim Him divine.
.
We too should be voicing
Our love and rejoicing;
With glad adoration a song let us raise
Till all things now living
Unite in thanksgiving:
“To God in the highest Hosanna and praise!”
Leader: Go in Peace! Serve the Lord!
People: Thanks be to God!
Announcements
Advent Midweek Services. The Advent Midweek services will be held on November 30, December 7, and December 14 at 5:00pm. We will be following the Holden Evening Prayer format. You are very welcome to attend.
Decorating the Christmas Tree. We will be decorating the Christmas tree in the sanctuary after worship service on December 4. This will be part of the fellowship time and pizza and other goodies will be provided. Please stay a few minutes after the service to help decorate the tree.
Vina Moses. The Vina Moses Center provides relief and builds resilience in underserved communities in Benton County. We have placed the Vina Moses tags on the side windows of the front door that contain the Christmas gift wishes of children from financially challenged families in Benton County. We hope that you will take a tag or two.
Please bring the toy, game, book, or puzzle (unwrapped) to the worship service on Sunday, December 4th. Nicholas Abele will collect them in the Narthex.
If you are unable to bring the toy to the service, please contact George Abele at 541-730-0476 or [email protected] to make arrangements to pick up the toy.
Bring Some Holiday Cheer to Those in Need. Philomath Community Services is again collecting baskets of hygiene items for people in need in the Philomath area this holiday season. Please bring whatever you can to support our community. Items need to be brought to the church not later than Friday, December 2. Thank you for helping support this mission.
Looking for a CHurch cleaner. Peace is looking to hire a cleaner for the inside of our building. The position is about 30 hours a month. If you are interested or know someone that is interested, please let Dan know! The application window will close on December 2nd and a decision will be made shortly thereafter.
