The members and friends of Cove gathered to worship on Sunday, December 8. Our worship is intended to be a free expression of our love for God and the joy we feel when we accept that love. Of course, there are many ways for us to express that love and joy.This morning we started a series of messages entitled "We Light the Advent Candles". During the Sundays before Christmas, we'll consider meaning found in the four verses of the song we sing as we light the Advent candles. The specific topics are below:
- December 1 – The first one remind us that Christ will soon return...
- December 8 – We light the second candle, and hear God's holy Word...
- December 15 – Three candles now are gleaming and show us the true way...
- December 22 – Four candles burning brightly announce that Christ has come...
After the announcements, we listened to a flute trio from Weir High and the Cove Bells. We started the service with the announcements and lighting the second candle in the Advent wreath.
Instrumental and vocal music are important to our worship. Songs give us the chance to praise God and to help focus our attention on the theme of the service. During the service, we’ll have the opportunity to sing songs that reflect different musical styles. Since God has called into his church as individuals with a variety of tastes, this offers us the chance to display our sensitivity for our fellow worshipers and to grow in our knowledge of how we might praise God. Our first song was "Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus."
Our prayers represent our communication with God. Of course, as Paul wrote, the Holy Spirit “...intercedes for us with groans too deep for words”; therefore, God already knows our needs. Still it’s important that we put them into words, as well as the regret we feel for our sins and our thanks for all God has done for us.
During this service, there were two times when we prayed together. During the Our Congregational Prayer, we confessed our sins and hear the assurance that we're forgiven. We also have the opportunity to lift our concerns and needs to God. We closed this prayer with The Lord’s Prayer. After we collected the offering, we praised and thanked God for his presence in our church and within our lives. The Weir Flute Trio played while we collected the offering.
After our prayer of thanks, Pastor Rudiger shared a message. For the last ten years, we've sung all or part of "We Light the Advent Candles" during our Advent worship services. You see, as we go through the four weeks, we sing the verses sung during the prior weeks, and we add a new verse recognizing the candles that have been and are being lit on that particular Sunday. During this Advent season, we're going to focus on the meaning of each verse, as expressed in the song. The second message will deal with "We light the second candle, and hear God's holy Word..."
We closed the service by singing "I Wonder as I Wander."
A podcast of the entire service is below.
Next week, we'll continue the series entitled We Light the Advent Candles. During the third message, we'll consider the message of John the Baptist.
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