sunday, December 19, 2021

Fruitland United Methodist Church
December 19, 2021 – 9:00 A.M.
4th Sunday of Advent

Prelude “Pat-a-Pan” by Bernard de la Monnoye

Welcome

Lighting Advent Candle and inviting the neighborhood to worship.

Interlude In the Bleak Midwinter” by Christina Rossetti and Gustav Holst, Iran Trenkel and Jim Schmid

*Call to Worship
Blessed be God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

Calling Song “While We Are Waiting, Come”
While we are waiting, come
While we are waiting, come
Jesus our Lord, Emmanuel,
While we are waiting, come

With pow'r and glory, come
With pow'r and glory, come
Jesus our Lord, Emmanuel
With pow'r and glory, come

Come, Savior, quickly come
Come, Savior, quickly come
Jesus our Lord, Emmanuel
Come, Savior, quickly come

Responsive Reading Mary’s Song – Luke 1:46-55
Leader: My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,  for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.
People: Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed: for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name!
Leader: His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.
People: He has shown great strength; he has scattered the proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly. 
Leader: He has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty.
All: He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as he promised. 

Unison Invocation
O God of Elizabeth and Mary, you visited your servants with news of the world’s redemption in the coming of the Savior. Make our hearts leap with joy, and fill our mouths with songs of praise, that we may announce glad tidings of peace, and welcome the Christ in our midst. Amen.

Carol “Angels, from the Realms of Glory” UMH #220
Angels from the realms of glory,
Wing your flight o'er all the earth;
Ye who sang creation's story
Now proclaim Messiah's birth

Shepherds, in the field abiding,
Watching o'er your flocks by night,
God with us is now residing;
Yonder shines the infant light

Come and worship, come and worship,
Come and worship, Christ the newborn king.
Come and worship, come and worship,
Come and worship, Christ the newborn king.

Choir “Children, Go Where I Send Thee”

New Testament Reading - Hebrews 10:5-10
Gospel Reading - Luke 1:39-45
God’s Word for God’s People. Thanks be to God!

Special Music “I Wonder as I Wander” by Aubrey Assad,  Jim Schmid and Iran Trenkel

Stewardship Thought, Prayer “ Joy To The World” UMH #246
Joy to the world! The Lord is come
Let earth receive her King!
Let every heart prepare Him room
And heaven and nature sing
And heaven and nature sing
And heaven, and heaven and nature sing

Joy to the world! The Savior reigns
Let men their songs employ
While fields and floods
Rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy
Repeat the sounding joy
Repeat, repeat the sounding joy

Message  "O Bethlehem"   Micah 5:2-5

Commitment Carol “O Little Town of Bethlehem” UMH #230
O little town of Bethlehem,
how still we see thee lie!
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
the silent stars go by;
yet in thy dark streets shineth
the everlasting light.
The hopes and fears of all the years
are met in thee tonight.

For Christ is born of Mary,
and, gathered all above
while mortals sleep, the angels keep
their watch of wond’ring love.
O morning stars, together
proclaim the holy birth,
and praises sing to God the King
and peace to all the earth.

How silently, how silently,
the wondrous gift is giv’n!
So God imparts to human hearts
the blessings of his heav’n.
No ear may hear his coming,
but in this world of sin,
where meek souls will receive him, still
the dear Christ enters in.

O holy Child of Bethlehem,
descend to us, we pray,
cast out our sin and enter in,
be born in us today.
We hear the Christmas angels
the great glad tidings tell;
O come to us, abide with us,
our Lord Immanuel!

Unison Benediction
May our Lord lead us now out of the familiar settings of doubt and fear, beyond our pride and
need to be secure, into a strange and graceful ease with this life, this time, these opportunities;
that in boundless silence we may grow strong enough to endure and flexible enough to share
the grace of God that is manifest in Jesus through whom we live and pray.

Postlude “Still, Still, Still” (a German lullaby arranged by Philip Keveren)
Thank you for Worshiping with us today!

(CCLI License #1552544)​