Worship Leader: Mauricio Palacio
Speaker: Michele Rizoli
Song Leader: Geoff Wichert
Pianist: Audrey Wichert
Ushers: Tobi and Harold Thiessen
Tech Team (In-Person / Online): Bob Loewen/ Ben Thiessen
Coffee: Elizabeth and Dennis Giesbrecht
Activity Period: Laura Giesbrecht
Processional entry: # Come Light of the World
Song # 281 Joyful is the Dark
Song of the Month: # 808 Between Darkness and Light
Welcome and land acknowledgement
PRAYER (Advent)
Holy Darkness, Hold Us
Amanda Udis-Kessler
Leader: Holy darkness, hold us.
All: Gentle darkness, sooth us.
Leader: Peaceful darkness, heal us.
All: Hopeful darkness free us.
Leader: Creative Darkness, birth us.
All: Tender darkness, embrace us.
Leader: Wondrous darkness, nurture us.
All: Blessed darkness, grant us rest.
Leader: Gracious darkness, comfort us.
All: Humble darkness, soften us.
Leader: Refreshing darkness, restore us.
All: Sacred darkness, renew us. We give thanks for the darkness from which we emerge and to which we return, the darkness from which light is born, the darkness which is born from light. Amen.
Announcements
Song # 658 Nearer my God to Thee
Call to Worship
Leader: O God, tear open the heavens and come down
so that the mountains would quake at your presence!
Left side of the church: No one has heard,
Right side of the church: No ear has perceived,
All: no eye has seen any God besides you, who works for
those who wait for you.
Leader: No one knows when the time will come.
All: How long must we wait?
(pause)
All: Together we wait.
Giving with Gratitude
Song # 588 We walk by faith (first 3 verses)
Candle Light (Advent Wreath Lighting)
Leader: Together we wait.
Candle lighter: How long must we wait?
All: No one knows when the time will come. So, go! Keep alert, strengthened by God’s faithfulness.
Children’s Time
Church Membership
Song #163 Obey My Voice
Parent-Child Dedication
Scripture Reading (Psalm 139: 1-12) Sadie Martin (online)
Congregational Prayer
Song #200 Darkness is not Dark to you God
Scripture Reading (Genesis 28:10-12) Haven Klassen
Sermon (Darkness and Light)
Communion
Benediction
Closing Music
Ending Song – #228 – Wait for the Lord
Scripture
Psalm 139: 1-12
139 Lord, you have examined me.
You know me.
2 You know when I sit down and when I stand up.
Even from far away, you comprehend my plans.
3 You study my traveling and resting.
You are thoroughly familiar with all my ways.
4 There isn’t a word on my tongue, Lord,
that you don’t already know completely.
5 You surround me—front and back.
You put your hand on me.
6 That kind of knowledge is too much for me;
it’s so high above me that I can’t reach it.
7 Where could I go to get away from your spirit?
Where could I go to escape your presence?
8 If I went up to heaven, you would be there.
If I went down to the grave, you would be there too!
9 If I could fly on the wings of dawn,
stopping to rest only on the far side of the ocean—
10 even there your hand would guide me;
even there your strong hand would hold me tight!
11 If I said, “The darkness will definitely hide me;
the light will become night around me,”
12 even then the darkness isn’t too dark for you!
Nighttime would shine bright as day,
because darkness is the same as light to you!
Genesis 28:10-12
10 Jacob left Beer-sheba and set out for Haran. 11 He reached a certain place and spent the night there. When the sun had set, he took one of the stones at that place and put it near his head. Then he lay down there. 12 He dreamed and saw a raised staircase, its foundation on earth and its top touching the sky, and God’s messengers were ascending and descending on it.
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