Children's Choir Leading Advent Worship

This Sunday, November 30, the children's choir will be leading all three worship services. This will be a very special Sunday as we kick off the Advent season. The children will be leading the responsive readings as well as teaching the congregation two new songs for the season.

As we begin our service, we will spend some time meditating on a quote from Martin Luther:

Truly it is marvelous in our eyes that God should place a little child in the lap of a virgin and that all our blessedness should lie in Him. And this Child belongs to all mankind. God feeds the whole world through this nursing Babe. This must be our daily exercise: to be transformed into Christ, being nourished by this food. Then will the heart be suffused with all joy and will be strong and confident against every assault.

The children will lead us through a call to worship that invites us all to come to Christ as children and to rejoice that "His power establishes His rule."

One of the new songs that we will be learning is called "Glory Be to God." There is a line in that song that I find absolutely astounding! The text is adapted from Charles Wesley, and in the second verse he writes, "Emptied of His majesty, He comes in human form. Being's source begins to be, and God is born." What an amazing thought, that the source of all existence condescends to have a beginning with us.

We will also be singing a traditional Christmas favorite, "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing," but the third verse may not be as familiar as some of the others:

Come, Desire of nations come,
Fix in us Thy humble home;
Rise, the Woman's conquering Seed,
Bruise in us the Serpent's head.
Adam's likeness now efface:
Stamp Thine image in its place;
Second Adam, from above,
Reinstate us in Thy love.

That is the great expectation that Advent brings, that the great Desire of nations will come to the nations, conquer the power of the Serpent, and begin to restore the image of God in us!

The last song that the children will sing is called, "Rejoice." It is a call to all creation, all the world, and all the church to rejoice together in all that it means for Messiah to come.

Pray for the children as they sing and lead worship for all three services, and pray for the Church as she anticipates the celebration of the birth of Jesus the Messiah. May God continue to shape us and mold us by the power of the Word, to stamp His image in us.