THE SECOND SUNDAYOF ADVENT

OH COME, EMMANUEL

Advent means “coming toward.”  Advent also marks the time of the beginning of a new Church year.  Advent is the coming of Jesus the Messiah who is, who was, and who is to come.  In Advent we begin to  see Jesus not only as the baby born of Mary, nor only as the one who will come again in the final judgment and fulfillment of all things, but as the one active in our lives here and now.  Christ stirs up those powerful promises from the past and offers us hope from the future so that he may begin his gracious rule in our lives and in our community of faith.  Our Advent worship is a time when we again remember that in Christ-who-comes-to-us we are always encircled by the love of God.

CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION

WE REMEMBER OUR BAPTISMS, CONFESS OUR FAITHLESSNESS, 

AND HEAR GOD’S FAITHFUL PROMISE OF FORGIVENESS

Pastor:  The Sun of Righteousness shall rise with shining beams of healing.       From the one who was, who is, and who is to come:                                Grace and peace be with you all.

People:  Amen. 

Pastor: A voice cries in the wilderness:

“Prepare the way of the Lord,

make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

Every valley shall be lifted up,

and every mountain and hill made low;

the uneven ground shall become level,

and the rough places a plain.

And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,

and all flesh shall see it together.”

People: A voice says, “Cry!”

And I said, “What shall I cry ?”

All flesh is grass,

and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.

The grass withers,

the flower fades,

when the breath of the Lord blows upon it.

Pastor: The grass withers,

the flower fades;

but the word of our God will stand forever.

Therefore, let us confidently draw near

and confess our sins before God.

(Pause for silent confession.)

Pastor: Have you not known?

Have you not heard?

God is the everlasting God,

the Creator of the ends of the earth.

God does not faint or grow weary;

God’s understanding is unsearchable;

God gives power to the faint,

and to you who have no might,

strength shall be given.

People: And we who wait upon the Lord shall renew our strength,

we shall mount up with wings like eagles,

we shall run and not be weary,

we shall walk and not faint.

GATHERING

WE RESPOND TO GOD’S CALL WITH PRAISE AND PRAYER,
AND PREPARE TO HEAR GOD’S WORD OF LIFE

PRAYER OF THE DAY

Pastor:  The Lord be with you. 

People:  And also with you. 

Pastor: Let us pray together.

People:  Stir up our hearts, Lord God, to prepare the way of your only Son.  By his     coming give to all the people of the world knowledge of your salvation;        through Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord, who lives and reigns with you       and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

WORD

THE CHURCH HEARS THE GOOD NEWS OF GOD ACTING
IN THIS AND EVERY TIME AND PLACE

BLESSING OF THE ADVENT WREATH

First Sunday in Advent

Pastor: Blessed are you, O Lord our God, ruler of the universe.

You call all nations to walk in your light

and to seek your ways of justice and peace,

for the night is past, and the dawn of your coming is near.

People: Bless us as we light the first candle of this wreath.

Rouse us from sleep,

that we may be ready to greet our Lord when he comes

and welcome him into our hearts and homes,

for he is our light and our salvation.

Blessed be God forever.

Amen.

Lighting of the Advent Wreath

[click on the link below]

Second Sunday in Advent

Pastor: Blessed are you, O Lord our God, ruler of the universe.

John the Baptist calls all people to prepare the Lord’s way

for the kingdom of heaven is near.

People: Bless us as we light the candles on this wreath.

Baptize us with the fire of your Spirit,

that we may be a light shining in the darkness

welcoming others as Christ has welcomed us,

for he is our light and our salvation.

Blessed be God forever.

Amen.

Third Sunday in Advent

Pastor: Blessed are you, O Lord our God, ruler of the universe.

Your prophets spoke of a day when the desert would blossom

and waters would break forth in the wilderness.

People: Bless us as we light the candles on this wreath.

Strengthen our hearts

as we prepare for the coming of the Lord.

May he give water to all who thirst,

for he is our light and our salvation.

Blessed be God forever.

Amen.

Fourth Sunday in Advent

Pastor: Blessed are you, O Lord our God, ruler of the universe.

In your Son, Emmanuel,

you have shown us your light

and saved us from the power of sin.

People: Bless us as we light the candles on this wreath.

Increase our longing for your presence,

that at the celebration of your Son’s birth

his Spirit might dwell anew in our midst,

for he is our light and our salvation.

Blessed be God forever.

Amen.

SONG DURING THE LIGHTING OF THE ADVENT WREATH

“He Came Down ”

[click on the link below]

FIRST READING

Malachi 3:1-4

See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight—indeed, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?

For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap; he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the Lord in righteousness. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years. 

SECOND READING

Philippians 1:3-11

I thank my God every time I remember you, constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now. I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to think this way about all of you, because you hold me in your heart, for all of you share in God’s grace with me, both in my imprisonment and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I long for all of you with the compassion of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what is best, so that on the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God. 

GOSPEL READING                                                                                                                  Luke 3:1-6      In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah,
‘The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
“Prepare the way of the Lord,
   make his paths straight.
Every valley shall be filled,
   and every mountain and hill shall be made low,
and the crooked shall be made straight,
   and the rough ways made smooth;
and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” ’                                                                                                                              

SERMON

[click on the link below]

HYMN OF THE DAY

“On Jordan’s Bank the Baptist’s Cry”

TODAY IN OUR PRAYERS

Bill, Carol, Curtis, and Christine Buchkowsky, Teri Peterson, Wayne Turner, Janet Gregory, Marge McMillan, Kyrie Parimi, John Beaven, Doris Turner, Hilda Anderson, Linda Wolfe, Naomi, Bev Gregory, Dale Robinson, Bryan Matschke, Audrey Hedlin, Liz Sand, Robin Stamm and baby Constantine, Mona Neher, Carl Rausch, Joanne, Bill, and Jocelyn Adams, Oma Ywo, Joan Schock, Jennipher Karst, Jody Giesbrecht, Hannah, Wendell and baby Russell Francis, Helen Neher, the family of Norm Gregory, the family of Mary Anderson (Evelyn Robson’s mother), the family of Joel Zimmerman, the family of Roger Nostbakken, the family of baby Maverick Gallant (Bev Gregory’s great-grandson), the family of Ray Johnson (the brother of Doris Turner), and the family of Katherine Meger (Joshua Bratvold’s great grandmother).

We remember the missing and murdered indigenous women in Canada, the children and people buried in unmarked graves at residential schools and First Nation lands, and all those who have suffered the trauma of residential schools, the people of Syria, Iraq, Iran, Ukraine, the coup in Sudan, South Sudan, Afghanistan, Yemen, Venezuela, Somalia, Libya, Mozambique, Hong Kong, the Palestinians and Israelis, the civil war in Ethiopia, Myanmar, Belarus, Lebanon, the Rohingya Muslim refugees and the ethnic Karen of Myanmar, all at the Mexico/United States border seeking refuge, the people of Haiti suffering from earthquake, hurricane, and political disasters and the 15 kidnapped persons, the people of Iqaluit dealing with contaminated drinking water, those in northwestern Washington, southern B.C., especially the communities of Abbotsford, Chilliwack, Merritt, and Princeton, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland devastated by torrential rains and flooding, those in the United States, Canada, and throughout the world caught up in racism and injustice and the resulting violence, and those throughout the world, in Canada, in our province, and in our community still threatened by the coronavirus and fearful of the omicron variant.

THE PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE OF FAITH

 [The congregational response after each petition is:  “REVEAL YOUR MERCY.”]

Pastor:   Who has measured the waters in the hollow of her hand and marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed with dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance?  It is to this God we offer our prayers longing for the fullness of redemption, saying, “God of all hopefulness,” and responding, “Reveal your mercy.”

Petitioner:  O Wisdom, come! Deliver your people, captive to sin, in an exodus more magnificent than the exodus from Egypt and a homecoming from exile more filled with hope than the return from Babylon.  With patience and gentleness guide your people into lives of faithfulness and lead them out into the world with lives of love and service.  God of all hopefulness …

Petitioner:  O Ruler of nations, come! Stir up the leaders of the world and open their eyes to the hungry, poor, diseased, and oppressed everywhere, that they might work for peace, health, nourishment, and the good of all.  Keep this hopeful vision in the hearts of all people and strengthen all toward its fulfillment.  God of all hopefulness …

Petitioner:  O Branch of Jesse, come!  We wait and hope for what we already have. In this season of Advent remind us that your Word stands forever, even though the things of this world fade like the grass.  Shape this community into a place of welcome and support for all people.  Feed and strengthen us by your gifts of grace, that we may share them with others.  God of all hopefulness…

Pastor:  O Dayspring, come!  Come to those whose reason for hoping has given out, whose brokenness and sorrow accentuate a sense of incompleteness and abandonment: the suffering, ill, lonely, depressed, abused, addicted, and those caught in conflict, loss, or grief. We remember especially before you ….   Send your Spirit of love that all might walk in the light and life of your presence.  God of all hopefulness …

Petitioner:  O Key of David, come!  In this season of Advent we remember that you are the giver of new beginnings.  Your forgiveness authors for us new life.  In our waiting and watching show us signs of your work in and among us of a world redeemed, a Church reformed, and lives restored through the gracious coming of Jesus, the Word made flesh.  God of all hopefulness …

Petitioner:  O Lord of might,come!  Stir up all the people in this world work for ways to renew and to sustain the world you have made.  Where pollution disrupts our air and water and land give us the wisdom and the will to care for the abundant gifts and resources your creation bestows upon us.   God of all hopefulness…

Petitioner:  O Emmanuel, come!  Send your Spirit and make this a community of faith that breathes hope, sings, prays, feeds the hungry, feasts on the messianic meal, points to the Light of the world, witnesses, loves, practices the mercy of God, turns away from the temptations of consumerism, and so confounds all who would deny your grace or diminish your love.  God of all hopefulness … 

Pastor:  Into your hands, O God, we commend all for whom we pray, trusting in your mercy; through your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord whose coming is certain and whose day draws near.

People:  Amen

THANKSGIVING

THE COMMUNITY PRAISES GOD FOR THE GRACIOUS GIFTS OF
 CREATION AND THE SAVING DEEDS OF JESUS CHRIST

THE GREETING AND SHARING OF PEACE

Pastor: Since we are forgiven and renewed by God’s Spirit, let us also be reconciled with one another and share the Peace of Christ.  

The peace of Christ be with you always.

People: And also with you.

THE OFFERING

(We worship God with the offering of our selves, our time, our talents, and our possessions.)

OFFERTORY PRAYER

Leader: Let us pray.
Gracious God,

People: you have done great things for us,

and holy is your name.

Bless all we offer you —

our selves, our time, and our possessions.

Teach us patience and hope as we care for all those in need

until the coming of your Son,

Jesus Christ, our Redeemer and Lord.  Amen.  

THE LORD’S PRAYER

Pastor: Let us pray with confidence in the words our Saviour gave us:

People: 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 forever. Amen.

SENDING

ALL RECEIVE THE BLESSING OF GOD, LEAVE IN PEACE,
AND ARE SENT OUT TO SERVE

BENEDICTION

Pastor: The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding

keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

The God of hope strengthen your hearts 

as you await the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

The God of love break in upon you with the Spirit of light and healing

to be among you and remain with you always.

People: Amen.

CLOSING HYMN

“Hark, the Glad Sound!”

DISMISSAL

Pastor: As the rain and snow come down from heaven,

and return not but water the earth,

so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth.

It shall not return to me empty.

And you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace;

the mountains and the hills shall break forth into singing,

and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

Go in peace.  Serve our God.

People: Thanks be to God.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

TODAY AT KOG 

THIS WEEK AT KOG

COMING UP AT KOG

 Sunday, December 12, Congregational Budget meeting after the service

-Sunday, December 19, Blue Christmas service

 Tuesday, December 21, Church Council meeting at 7:30 p.m. via Zoom

 Friday, December 24, Christmas Eve service

 Sunday, December 26, no in-person service, but an on-line service 

King of Glory will hold our regular in-person worship services—following the provincial protocols recommended—on a weekly basis at the regular time 6:30 p.m.  Of course, should there be any significant changes with regard to the pandemic situation the Church Council will revisit the issue.

October, November, and Year-to-Date Budget and Contribution Report for KOG

2021 Budget:  $49,536       Monthly Budget:  $4,180.50     Weekly Budget:  $964.73

2021income/expenses: –$3,517.11

October income/expenses: –$2,212.24

Weekly contributions for October:  October 3: $520  October 10: $0

October 17: $320    October 24: $0  October 31: $370

Weekly contributions for November:  November 7: $ 1,540   November 14: $100

November 21: $70   November 28: $420

Thank you to everyone for your support of the Alzheimer’s Society. $226 has been contributed.  Thank you for your generosity.

On Eagle’s Wings Advent Reflections are available at the back of the church.

Massive floods and landslides have devastated parts of British Columbia. CLWR is accepting donations now on its website at clwr.org/BCfloods. Donations can also be made by phoning our office at 1.800.661.2597 (Monday to Thursday, 9:00 – 16:00 CDT) or by mailing a cheque to 600-177 Lombard Avenue, Winnipeg, MB R3B 0W5.

During the Sundays in Advent (December 5,12,19) King of Glory will again be collecting food items for Christmas Hampers.  Our goal is food items for 10 hampers.   A list of suggested food items is included.  Thank you for your generosity.

Congratulations and God’s richest blessings to Jennipher Karst, Jody Giesbrecht, Hannah, and Wendell on the birth of Russell Francis.  God’s spirit of health, well-being, and joy be with you all.

The website  for all seven ELCIC congregations in Saskatoon is now up and the address is https://saskatoonelcic.com/   It will be used now mainly for sharing information during the pandemic.

We acknowledge the officers and members of the Church Council:  Wayne Turner, Chairperson, Jennipher Karst, Vice-chairperson.  Lauren Sarich, Secretary, Pat Sarich, Co-treasurer, Karen McKenzie, Financial Secretary and Evelyn Robson, Kyle Sarich, Karen Larson and Don Sanders as Council members at large.  We keep these people and their ministry of servant-leadership in our prayers asking the Spirit to send them wisdom, guidance, and understanding.

Co-Treasurer position for King of Glory 

King of Glory is looking for a co-treasurer primarily responsible for documenting and filling out the forms for the province, the Canada Revenue Agency and the ELCiC.  They will work Pat Sarich whose primary responsibility is oversight of the budget and the bookkeeping with respect of receipts and expenditures.  Please contact Pastor Michael about this position.

Christmas Hampers

Suggested food donation items

peanut butter

jam/jelly

margarine

processed cheese spread

coffee and tea

macaroni and cheese dinner

flavoured rice and noodle mixes

spaghetti/pasta and sauces

soups, soup base, soup mix

dried beans and lentils

dry cereal

powdered milk

flour 

sugar

stuffing mix

cranberry sauce

ready-to-eat and condensed soups

canned meats

tuna

salmon

brown beans

hot chocolate

canned vegetables

potatoes

carrots 

onions

Checklist and Guidelines for Re-opening Worship Services

Disinfect/sanitize worship space and entrance etc before the service

One person preps worship materials [pastor]

Six feet distancing  recommended

No sharing of pencils, pens, etc.

No serving of food or beverages

Try not to use the washrooms

Open doors and windows if possible

Use/wear face masks, but you may sing quietly recommended

Hand sanitizer available

No physical contact (e.g. sharing of the peace, no passing of offering plate)

Communion procedure: distribution in a way that maintains physical distancing

Disinfect/sanitize worship space and entrance etc after the service