Advent 3




Prayers for Worship Advent 4 by Ron Gordon
Luke 1: 26-38
Collect:
Most Holy and Blessed God, creating the world from nothing and making yourself known to us through the Law and the Prophets; you became involved as a human being through Mary of Nazareth whose son lived and died a man and was raised and exalted through your vindication of him, his words and deeds. You show us that nothing is impossible with you and the power of your eternal love in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
Prayer:
Praise belongs to you Lord God, and robes you like a garment. Holy is your name, our Creator and Redeemer. You stand with your people against all the dehumanising forces in and around us and free us from their grasp. You have used great and famous people, bending them to your will; and you have been in the midst of the small and poor and given them hope. You showed grace to Mary that she should become the mother of our Lord. The simplicity of her response and trust resounds in our ears and we are ashamed that we do not respond in such a way to your Word. We confess, Father, to be proud of our learning in which we have no room for miracles or the inexplicable. We are fascinated by the process of reproduction but even there some of us acknowledge your creative power. However we hesitate about Mary and her son as your divine action, though we would like to keep the tinsel of Christmas. Lord, have mercy. We confess that you turn our view of the world upside down. Your hero is a teenager, is a girl, and is poor. Yet in your action you raise Mary to the heights as being blessed among women. When prejudice blinds us to the truth about people and we dismiss them from our minds: Christ, have mercy. We confess we hear the words which speak of you and your love for us, but our minds often do not take the words as personal invitations because we are preoccupied with many things. Help us form one mind to love you and to love and serve others. Lord, have mercy. You are the One who always shows us mercy. You fulfil your promises to men and women through the millennia and open your arms to receive us all into the Kingdom of your Son, who with you and the Holy Spirit is blessed forever and ever. Amen.
nothing will be impossible by Jenn Gordon
what sound is this that echoes bouncing off levelled hills running like rivers through valleys lifted by time and too many tears to Mary’s ears what sound is this that plants in her an incredulity unseasoned and raw unquenched by holy awe inflamed, untamed that frames her words and floats them so far out to sea they find their way to me “how can this be?” what sound is this that we hear ever after? Sarah’s laughter © Jennie Gordon 2008 (Comments to Jenn at jennieg@labyrinth.net.au.)