{"id":11105,"date":"2023-12-05T10:37:53","date_gmt":"2023-12-05T15:37:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/?p=11105"},"modified":"2023-12-05T10:37:54","modified_gmt":"2023-12-05T15:37:54","slug":"december-3-2023-first-advent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/?p=11105","title":{"rendered":"December 3, 2023 First Advent"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Worship Leader: <\/strong>Mauricio Palacio
Speaker:<\/strong> Michele Rizoli
Song Leader:<\/strong> Geoff Wichert
Pianist:<\/strong> Audrey Wichert
Ushers:<\/strong> Tobi and Harold Thiessen
Tech Team (In-Person \/ Online):<\/strong> Bob Loewen\/ Ben Thiessen
Coffee:<\/strong> Elizabeth and Dennis Giesbrecht
Activity Period:<\/strong> Laura Giesbrecht<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Processional entry: # Come Light of the World<\/strong>
Song # 281<\/strong> Joyful is the Dark
Song of the Month: # 808<\/strong> Between Darkness and Light
Welcome and land acknowledgement<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

PRAYER (Advent)<\/strong>
Holy Darkness, Hold Us
Amanda Udis-Kessler<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leader:<\/strong> Holy darkness, hold us.
All: <\/strong>Gentle darkness, sooth us.
Leader: <\/strong>Peaceful darkness, heal us.
All:<\/strong> Hopeful darkness free us.
Leader: <\/strong>Creative Darkness, birth us.
All: <\/strong>Tender darkness, embrace us.
Leader:<\/strong> Wondrous darkness, nurture us.
All: <\/strong>Blessed darkness, grant us rest.
Leader:<\/strong> Gracious darkness, comfort us.
All:<\/strong> Humble darkness, soften us.
Leader:<\/strong> Refreshing darkness, restore us.
All: <\/strong>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<\/strong>
Song # 658<\/strong> Nearer my God to Thee<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Call to Worship<\/strong>
Leader:<\/strong> O God, tear open the heavens and come down
so that the mountains would quake at your presence!
Left side of the church:<\/strong> No one has heard,
Right side of the church:<\/strong> No ear has perceived,
All: <\/strong>no eye has seen any God besides you, who works for
those who wait for you.
Leader:<\/strong> No one knows when the time will come.
All:<\/strong> How long must we wait?
(pause)
All:<\/strong> Together we wait.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Giving with Gratitude<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Song # 588<\/strong> We walk by faith (first 3 verses)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Candle Light (Advent Wreath Lighting)<\/strong>
Leader:<\/strong> Together we wait.
Candle lighter: <\/strong>How long must we wait?
All: <\/strong>No one knows when the time will come. So, go! Keep alert, strengthened by God\u2019s faithfulness.
Children\u2019s Time<\/strong>
Church Membership<\/strong>
Song #163<\/strong> Obey My Voice
Parent-Child Dedication<\/strong>
Scripture Reading <\/strong>(Psalm 139: 1-12) Sadie Martin (online)
Congregational Prayer<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Song #200 <\/strong>Darkness is not Dark to you God<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scripture Reading<\/strong> (Genesis 28:10-12) Haven Klassen
Sermon <\/strong>(Darkness and Light)
Communion<\/strong>
Benediction<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Closing Music<\/strong>
Ending Song – #228 <\/strong>– Wait for the Lord
Scripture<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Psalm 139: 1-12<\/strong>
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\u2019t a word on my tongue, Lord,
that you don\u2019t already know completely.
5 You surround me\u2014front and back.
You put your hand on me.
6 That kind of knowledge is too much for me;
it\u2019s so high above me that I can\u2019t reach it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2014
10 even there your hand would guide me;
even there your strong hand would hold me tight!
11 If I said, \u201cThe darkness will definitely hide me;
the light will become night around me,\u201d
12 even then the darkness isn\u2019t too dark for you!
Nighttime would shine bright as day,
because darkness is the same as light to you!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Genesis 28:10-12<\/strong>
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\u2019s messengers were ascending and descending on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Listen to the service here<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Listen to the sermon here<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read the sermon here<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is our first Advent service, where we start to explore the meaning of dark and light. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons-a-worship-audio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11105"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11107,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11105\/revisions\/11107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}