1st Sunday of Advent
What follows is a worship service which, I pray, you can participate in at a time(s) that are convenient to you. This 'service' will take about forty five (45) minutes.
I pray that you will feel called to ACTIVELY PARTICIPATE in this service.
The text that is in regular typeface (that is what you are reading at the moment) is to be read quietly, while the text that is in bold face (like you are reading right now) is meant to be read aloud.
Opening Hymn:
Let us continue by watching, and please do feel free to sing or read aloud the lyrics, as we commence our praise and thanksgiving.
When you are ready - click the "play" button on the video window, below:
A Call To Worship:
We meet in the name of God,
Creator of the universe,
source of true humanity,
mother and father of all. Amen.
An Assurance of Forgiveness:
(click the 'play' button below to listen)
The Sentence For Today (let us say aloud):
Let us walk in the light of the Lord
The Special Prayer For Today (let us pray aloud):
Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Our first reading for today:
(click the 'play' button below to listen)
Our second reading for today:
(click the 'play' button below to listen)
Gradual Hymn:
Let us continue by watching, and please do feel free to sing or read aloud the lyrics, as we raise out voices in praise and thanksgiving.
When you are ready - click the "play" button on the video window, below:
Listen to David speak to this gospel
or, if you prefer, you can read the sermon, below:
Sermon for Advent 1, 30th Nov 2025
Welcome sisters and brothers and peace be with you. Take my lips O God and speak through them, take our minds O God and think through them, take our hearts O God and love through them this day. <Amen>
Life is filled with periods of waiting. We wait for family and friends to visit, for food to be cooked, for mail to be delivered. We wait for school and college terms to end, for Christmas to come, and … we wait in lines at shops, petrol stations, post office - just about everywhere.
In lines, some of us wait patiently. Some of us do not. Many adults don't wait quietly. Some adults stand straight as an arrow, staring straight ahead, hardly aware of their surroundings. Some people shift from one foot to the other and back again. They sigh and shift their weight. Some people strike up conversations with perfect strangers – not wanting to endure the waiting experience alone. <PAUSE>
Yet, eventually the waiting ends, holidays begin, family and friends arrive, the meals are cooked, the traffic lights change, we get served :) <PAUSE>
Today, once again, we find ourselves at the first Sunday in Advent. Advent is a time of waiting. Waiting for Jesus as a babe in a manger and also reminding us to be waiting, looking ahead, FULL OF HOPE, ready for His second coming.
Readiness is the key concept of our gospel lesson this morning. BE READY.
Our gospel lesson says very plainly "Therefore you also must be ready; for the Son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect."
OKAY - so what can we be doing to help us get ready while we wait ?
As I pointed out at the beginning of this message, we are already well experienced in waiting, we do it daily.
As we prepare for the second coming of Christ our SPIRITUAL WAITING & PREPARATION SHOULD BE THE SAME - IT SHOULD DAILY TOO.
That is, I believe, what Jesus is talking about for the season of Advent. Advent is a time of waiting and preparation. It focus us on how we should wait and the preparations we can make. <PAUSE>
Martin Luther talks about this as he tells us to “drown our old self daily in the waters of our Baptism and then rise up again as a new, forgiven person living in the grace of God.” These DAILY acts of prayer, Scripture reading, turning away from sin, and asking for the forgiveness that we as frail humans need are an absolutely critical part of our “readiness”.
These daily acts help us to live a new life in Christ, and so, NO MATTER AT WHAT DAY OR HOUR THE SON OF MAN RETURNS, God will see us as our new, daily selves, cleansed by the blood of Christ. God will recognise us because he made us clean through Jesus’ sacrifice. <PAUSE>
C.S. Lewis says: “A Christian is not one who never goes wrong, but one who is enabled to repent and begin over again after each stumble - because of the inner working of Christ.”
Because of Christ we can repent and begin over again. <PAUSE>
These personal, often private, daily actions are vital … BUT … PUBLIC ACTION, as we wait and get ready, are just as vital.
Have you ever pondered the fact that - It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark. He too was waiting. Waiting for the deluge to start - but he WAS NOT IDLE. Waiting and idleness are two totally different things. Noah had been given the gift of boat-building. He waited, yes, but he wasn’t idle. He was active - Noah’s faith was a DOING faith :)
Ours is also a “doing” faith. A DAILY, doing faith. Prophecy, ministry, mission, teaching, exhorting, giving, compassion, cheerfulness, tolerance, respect, love, understanding, music, song, searching for knowledge, supporting others etc etc.
I never ceased to be amazed at the grace poured into the people that contact me every week. So many people have been given such wonderful gifts. They have abilities to do things that I can only dream about.
MY GIFT, is that I have been given the grace to support them in whatever way I can whenever I can - helping them further their playing, their singing, their mission work, their teaching, their leadership … whatever.
You and I may not have been given certain gifts but you and I most certainly have been given some gifts that we can use to SUPPORT those people that have been given the gifts that we don’t have.
That is a challenge of Advent - to recognise our God-given gifts, to not allow them to go unfulfilled, to use them in the support of others so that they, and we, will be prepared. <PAUSE>
Are we going to start today? Are we ready to confess your daily faults to Christ and allow him to clean us so that we are “READY AND WAITING” for his second coming?
Are we going to use our God-given gifts more fully to help others and ourselves become a “READY AND WAITING” or be idle and out on the edges?
So, for the glory of Christ let us show His life, His truth, His way to others by daily drowning ourselves in the waters of Baptism AND by using God’s gifts to be ACTIVE IN OUR READINESS AND OUR WAITING.
COME LORD JESUS, COME - BECAUSE WE WILL BE READY.
I runga e te Ingoa o te Atua, te Matua, te Tama me te Wairua Tapu. <AMINE>
Pause and Reflect
Just take a moment now to pause. Bow your head, close your eyes.
Allow these words of Holy Scripture and this interpretation of them today to speak to you.
An Affirmation of Our Faith
Let us affirm our faith by saying aloud, and together, "The Apostles Creed":
... and now let us pray for the Church, the World, and Ourselves, giving thanks for God's goodness.
Let us pray aloud, and together:
Almighty God, as the new day dawns on this Advent Sunday, we give thanks for the first glimmers of the light which remind us of the coming of Your Son Jesus Christ and our need to prepare and be ready.
We believe that Your light has the power to overcome all our darkness and pray that throughout the Season of Advent we may share in the mystery of Your coming into the world.
(LONGER pause for silent, personal reflection)
In response to the call today “Lord, in Your mercy” Our response is, “hear our prayer!”
(Short Silence) Lord, in Your mercy: hear our prayer
Loving God, we dedicate to you all of the activities organised by faith communities during Advent and pray for all who will attend. Let it be that through prayer, praise and music they may make their own preparations for the coming of The Son of Man.
(Short Silence) Lord, in Your mercy: hear our prayer
Today our hopes for our troubled world are for an end to the wars still raging throughout the world, an end to terrorism, an end to poverty and hunger, a resolution to the migrant crisis and a positive outcome to Climate Change negotiations. Come to Your world as King of the Nations and before You human rulers will stand in silence.
(Short Silence) Lord, in Your mercy: hear our prayer
Father God, although we are sometimes separated by language and culture from the people we live amongst, our hope for our communities is to see Your will be done here on earth as it is in heaven. We pray for our neighbours, not only with words, but day by day, that through our actions we might demonstrate our Christian faith in a very real sense.
(Short Silence) Lord, in Your mercy: hear our prayer
We especially raise before You now all those who have asked for our prayers from around the world … those we know in New Zealand, in Singapore, in Argentina, in France, in Australia, in the US, in Canada, in Austria, in Ukraine, in China, in Germany, in the Czech Republic, in Syria and any others we now name aloud, or in the silence of our hearts, and those who are known only by You.
In Your goodness and mercy, grant them health of body, soundness of mind and peace of heart.
We thank You for those who have come through illness and are on the road to recovery and also for those facing the reality that there is little light at the end of their earthly tunnel.
(Short Silence) Lord, in Your mercy: hear our prayer
Merciful God, you know our hearts and share our sorrows. When parting from those whom we loved hurts; when the loss we have sustained turns to anger; when we find words of comfort hard to hear, surround us with Your love and turn our grief to hope.
We pray now for the recently departed and those whose anniversary falls at this time.
We especially raise before you at this time our recently departed brothers, Robert (England), James, (Australia) and Martin (South Africa).
May all the faithful departed now rest in peace as they most surely have risen in glory.
(Short Silence) Lord, in Your Mercy: Hear our prayer
In a moment of silence we pray for ourselves, our families, friends, for all whom we love and for our personal ministries. Make the things that we choose to do worthy of the life, death, and rising again of Your Son.
(Short Silence) Lord, in Your mercy: hear our prayer
Loving God, as we go into our Advent journey in faith, we ask you in hope to minister to our needs.
O come, O Come, Emmanuel and fill the hearts of Your faithful people and kindle in them the fire of Your love.
(Short Silence) Lord, in Your mercy: hear our prayer
Forth in the peace of Christ we go; Christ to the world with joy we bring; Christ in our minds, Christ on our lips, Christ in our hearts, the world’s true King.
Merciful father: accept these prayers for the sake of Your Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ. AMEN.
Remembering that we are confident to pray this day, and every day, because Jesus Christ continues to teach us:
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us from the time of trial
and deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours
now and for ever. Amen.
Let us conclude our prayers by praying together and aloud:
God of mercy,
you have given us grace to pray with one heart and one voice,
and have promised to hear the prayers
of two or three who agree in your name,
fulfil now, we pray,
the prayers and longings of your people
as may be best for us and for your kingdom.
Grant us in this world to know your truth,
and in the world to come to see your glory. Amen.
The Blessing
May The Risen Lord Christ turn His face towards each and every one of you.
May He cause His light to shine upon you, and
may He grant you His peace, and
The blessing of Almighty God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
be with you and all of those whom you love,
on this day and forever more.
A Closing Hymn:
Let us conclude our worship today by watching, and please do feel free to sing or read aloud the lyrics, as we unite in another hymn our praise and thanksgiving.
When you are ready - click the "play" button on the video window, below:
The Dismissal
Go now, go out into the world
to love and serve The Lord.
Go in peace.
AMEN, we go in the name of Christ.
