Fourth Sunday in Advent:

Note:

As this is the fourth Sunday in Advent, and the last one of the cycle of services based on the idea of peace, the service is celebratory in style.

Resources for the service:

• Various items of fruit and vegetables, fruit juices
• Several baskets for the offerings
• A mosaic, or jigsaw puzzle cut out from a tile, wood, cardboard or any other similar material, comprising all the colours of the rainbow. Each piece should have a small hole in it so that a thread can be passed through it to turn it into a pendant.
• Enough thread for all the pieces of the jigsaw
• Light-coloured tablecloth

In preparation:

• Pews or chairs forming a circle
• The central table should be empty and will be decorated when participants enter the worship area.
• The star on the wall used on the first Sunday in Advent is displayed, as well as the stones and the manger used in the second and third Sundays in Advent.
• Drawings by children on Isaiah 11 (which can have been produced the previous Sunday or in an Advent/ Christmas workshop).

Further possibilities:

• You can organize a communal meal for the participants after the service, using the fruit, juice, etc. on the table.
• Instead of using the jigsaw puzzle, participants can exchange the items of fruit on the table with one another. Or you can turn it into a gesture of solidarity by preparing baskets of fruit to be given to families in need.

Before the service, participants wait outside the worship area; the doors are shut.

Reading

Ephesians 2:17-18 (in a loud voice)

So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father. 

Greeting

(Participants are invited to greet each other by saying:)

"Through Christ we have access, because he is our peace".

(Then the door opens and participants enter singing. A group carries in all the resources to be used in worship for decorating the table.)

• Song: Él es nuestra paz (He is our peace)

Decorating the table

In Christ, our peace, we gather as a community,
a community that acknowledges that we depend on the generous hand of God,
who makes abundant provision for us.

We invite you to decorate this table with some of the beautiful things
that the Lord of life has provided for us.
And let us join together and use our abilities to create a symbol of God's peace.

(Participants are invited to decorate the table with the fruit of the earth in a lavish and colourful way. Four people representing the different generations in the community form the jigsaw puzzle. They take the jigsaw pieces from a basket and put them together to form the colours of the rainbow. While that is being done, the following hymn is sung.)

• Song: La mesa de la paz (The table of peace)

Psalm 100 (paraphrase)

Come before the Lord with joyful songs,
because he is good,
because he is generous,
because we lack nothing.

Let us enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise.

Serve the Lord with gladness,
because of his greatness and justice,
because he puts an end to war,
and to all forms of violence.

Let us enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise.

Come before the Lord with joy
because he is faithful to his promises,
because his Word is eternal.

Let us enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise.

Know that the Lord is God,
and we are his people,
his community, his family.

Let us enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise.

It is he who has made us to the praise of his name,
and therefore today, in the same spirit,
we have a festival to celebrate his peace.

Let us enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise.

• Song: ¡Gracias, Señor por la vida! (Thank you, O God, for our lives!)

Confession

(A group of the community - children, young people or any others with dramatic skills - is encouraged to produce a short sketch representing the opposite of Isaiah 11. Where the text speaks of harmony, encounter, living together, sharing, they act out the complete opposite - discord, conflict, intolerance, discrimination. It can be a short dramatic piece, a silent dramatization, a shadow show, mime, puppets or anything produced by the creativity of the local group.)

Silence (A long silence, which then gradually gives way to instrumental music.)

Reading

Ephesians 2:14-22 (read slowly, like a prayer)

For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, so that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it. So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling-place for God.

(The instrumental music continues for a short time leading to the following song.)

• Song: ¡Escucha, Señor, a tu pueblo! (Now, listen, o God to your people)

Affirmation of faith

We believe that there will not always be darkness
for the people who live in pain and sorrow,
through injustice, marginalization, discrimination or the stigma of HIV/Aids,
because Christ is light.

We believe that people will not always live apart hostile to one another,
separated by hatred or bitterness, by cultural or ideological differences,
by their social or economic situation, by creed, race or sexual orientation,
because Christ is reconciliation.

We believe that the doors will not always be shut to life,
that the walls restricting freedom and dignity will fall down
and that all forms of violence and oppression will be overcome,
because Christ is peace.

We believe that there will not always be tables that are empty while others are laden with food,
because the table of creation is for all,
because the fruits of the earth are for everybody to be fairly shared,
because Christ is the sun of justice.

We believe that water will no longer be polluted,
and that there will be enough so that no one will be thirsty.
We believe that rivers will not be private property and nobody will fence off springs,
and that ice will still be eternal and rain a sacred blessing,
because Christ is pure and transparent.

We believe that one day the wolf will no longer want to kill the lamb
and that the creatures will be able to play without fearing the serpents of abuse,
of deceit, of neglect, of kidnapping, of malnutrition and of indifference,
because Christ entered into creation.

We believe that a free and just earth,
where it is possible to live together in harmony,
where everyone will have space and opportunity,
is not a distant dream but a near reality.
We believe that another world is possible
because Christ has come to the world to make it new.

Bible reading

(It can be the lectionary readings for the day, but we suggest reading only what will be used for the sermon.) 

Sermon

(Could be based on Isaiah 11, using the children's drawings.)

Offering

Let us turn our eyes to the table. Let us acknowledge God's generosity,
and let us respond to God's generosity with our commitment in solidarity.

(The leader invites participants to bring their offerings in procession to the central table and place them in the baskets provided.)

• Song: Caminando hacia ti, oh Dios (We are walking unto you, O God)

Act of commitment

(Each person is invited to take one piece of the rainbow-coloured jigsaw. They are invited to put it on a thread to form a pendant. They are then invited to exchange their pendant with someone they have not yet greeted or do not know well, as a sign of encounter, of harmony, of the intention that people should live together in love and respect. They take on a commitment to follow up this gesture by praying for each other in the future.)

(Music is played softly as this takes place.)

Dismissal

Let our world be a place of celebration, let our world be a meeting place.
Let justice spring from our earth, and let the fruits of love flourish.
Let us make it possible
by respecting our diversity, by sharing in solidarity,
by uniting hands and hearts, by living together in harmony with creation.
And then peace will be reborn!

Blessing

Let us go in peace, and, in the course of this coming Christian year,
may the Star of Peace continue to light our path;
may we continue to find signs of peace in the faces of all - men, women, adults, young people and children, wherever we are - at home, work, school or church, in town or country,
so as to turn our dreams into reality,
and bring violence to an end, "that there may be peace on earth and glory in heaven". Amen