Advent Great Thanksgiving

The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
Lift up your hearts.
We lift them up to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.

It is right to give you thanks and praise,
Great God of the Coming Dawn,
for in each new day you surprise the earth with splendor.
Your Spirit moves across the face of the waters
and brings forth life.

At the dawn of all things
in a garden you worked the earth.
Elbow deep in mud you fashioned us,
gifted us,
gave us work to do.

Made from the earth,
Made by your hand,
We forgot who we were
We forgot who you were
and we tried to remake ourselves.
We rejected your love and fell into sin and death.

Yet even in our darkness you continued to speak light and life.
When we were slaves in a foreign land,
You brought us out of our oppression,
led us through the waters,
and washed us up on the shores of a new life as a chosen people.

As your people,
we sometimes sought you and often strayed
But you were faithful to your promise and to us,
and called yourself by our name.
The God of Israel did not abandon the people Israel
And you spoke of a day to come
when you would come once more to save.

And so we who live on the edge of this land
Look across the waters to the horizon.
We come to live on the edge
Of your new and promised day.
And we raise our voices with all the saints as we proclaim,

Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord, God of power and might
Heaven and earth are filled with your glory
Hosanna in the highest!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest!

Blessed are you, and blessed in your Son Jesus Christ our Lord,
Whose coming was announced by wilderness prophets
and who arrived to the song of angels
in the choir stall of a manger.

In Jesus you not only took our name but our flesh.
He was the One promised
He announced the new day and the acceptable year
When blind folks would see
And poor folks would rejoice
When captives would be set free
And the oppressed would once more walk upright in liberty.

In stories he spoke of waiting bridesmaids and prodigal sons,
With tears and compassion he brought a dead man to life
and gave a woman at a well the living water she sought.
With anger he overturned tables and challenged the powerful.
On the cross he revealed the power of weakness
and in the emptiness of the tomb
he gave us a glimpse of your tomorrow
that does not end in death.

On the night when he was betrayed
he sat at a table with his friends.
He took bread,
blessed it,
broke it,
served it to them, and said,
"Take this. Eat it.
It is my body, given for you.
Do this to remember me."

In the same way he took the cup,
Blessed it, served it to them, and said,
"Drink from this every one of you.
This is my blood
poured out for you and for many
for the forgiveness of sin.
Do this to remember me."

And so we remember.
And so we offer our praise and thanks
and our very selves
As a holy and living sacrifice
in union with Christ's offering for us.
As we proclaim the mystery of faith:

Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.

So we await your new day.
So we call on you to send your Holy Spirit on us once more
And on this parched and thirsty land
And on these elements of bread and wine.
Let them be for us once more Christ's body
and let us be for you once more Christ's body
redeemed by his blood.

Make us one with Christ,
one with each other,
and one in ministry to all the world,
until Christ comes again and we feast at his table.

With all the saints who share your name and our flesh,
we raise this song,
until we hear in fullness the harmony of heaven.
God of the Dawn,
Christ of the new Day Coming,
Spirit who is Ever Present,
we wait for you this day,
your day.

Amen.

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Alex Joyner, at the timeof this writing, wasthe pastor of Franktown United Methodist Church, Franktown, VA. He is the author of Restless Hearts: Where Do I Go Now, God? (Abingdon Press, 2007).

Copyright 2008 Alex Joyner. Published by the Discipleship Ministries.