Tuesday, December 1, 2020

The Regent community gathers for Chapel through Zoom on Tuesdays at 11 am (PDT). You can find Zoom login details in the Weekly Announcements email. If you don’t currently receive our Weekly Announcements email, you can subscribe by clicking the 'Subscribe’ button on this page.

If you are unable to join us at that time the recording of Chapel will be available on Moodle.

In preparation for today’s Chapel, you are invited to do two things: Try to make your space as dark as you can, and bring three unlit candles (with matches) to your computer.

Announcements

Welcome & Introduction to Advent

Our Three Fold Hope

Father Gabriel of Saint Mary Magdalen

He came with love to Bethlehem;
He comes with grace into our souls;
He will come with justice at the end of the world.
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!

O Come O Come Emmanuel

Public Domain | Henry Sloane Coffin, John Mason Neale, and Thomas Helmore.
Verse selection arrangement by Corey Janz.

O come, O come great Adonai
Who to thy tribes on Sinai's height
In ancient times didst give the law
In cloud and majesty and awe
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee O Israel

O come thou Root of Jesse's tree
An ensign of thy people be
Before thee rulers silent fall
All peoples on Thy mercy call
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee O Israel

O come thou Key of David, come
And open wide our heav'nly home
Make safe the way that leads on high
And close the path to misery
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee O Israel

O come, O come Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until The Son Of God appear
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee O Israel

O come, Desire of Nations, bind
In one the hearts of humankind
Bid thou our sad divisions cease
And be thyself our King of Peace
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee O Israel

Poem | O Emmanuel

Malcolm Guite | From Sounding the Seasons: Seventy Sonnets for the Christian Year

O come, O come, and be our God-with-us
O long-sought With-ness for a world without,
O secret seed, O hidden spring of light.
Come to us Wisdom, come unspoken Name
Come Root, and Key, and King, and holy Flame,
O quickened little wick so tightly curled,
Be folded with us into time and place,
Unfold for us the mystery of grace
And make a womb of all this wounded world.
O heart of heaven beating in the earth,
O tiny hope within our hopelessness
Come to be born, to bear us to our birth,
To touch a dying world with new-made hands
And make these rags of time our swaddling bands.

Come Thou Long Expected Jesus

Public Domain | Music: 2002 Choristers Guild | Music and Words by Charles Wesley
Additional verses by: Vicki Hancock Wright.

Come Thou long expected Jesus
Born to set Thy people free
From our fears and sins release us
Let us find our rest in Thee
Israel’s strength and consolation
Hope of all the earth Thou art
Dear desire of ev’ry nation
Joy of every longing heart

Joy to those who long to see Thee
Dayspring from on high appear
Come Thou promised Rod of Jesse
Of Thy birth we long to hear!
O’er the hills the angels singing
News, glad tidings of a birth
“Go to Him, your praises bringing
Christ the Lord has come to earth!

Come to earth to taste our sadness
He whose glories knew no end
By His life He brings us gladness
Our Redeemer, Shepherd, Friend
Leaving riches without number
Born within a cattle stall
This the everlasting wonder
Christ was born the Lord of all!

Born Thy people to deliver
Born a child and yet a king
Born to reign in us forever
Now Thy gracious kingdom bring
By Thine own eternal spirit
Rule in all our hearts alone
By Thine all sufficient merit
Raise us to Thy glorious throne

Scripture | The Oracles of Isaiah (2:2-3b, 2:4, 7:14, 11:4a, 11:6) (NRSV)

In days to come the mountain of the LORD’s house
shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
and shall be raised above the hills;
all the nations shall stream to it.
Many peoples shall come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways
and that we may walk in his paths.”

For out of Zion shall go forth instruction,
and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations,
and shall arbitrate for many peoples;
they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more.

The Lord himself will give you a sign.
Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.
With righteousness he shall judge the poor,
and decide with equity for the meek of the earth…
The wolf shall live with the lamb,
the leopard shall lie down with the kid,
the calf and the lion and the fatling together,
and a little child shall lead them.

Our Hope in History (The 1st Candle)

He came with love to Bethlehem
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!

Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence

Paraphraser: Gerard Moultrie | Tune (“Picardy”): 17th C. French Carol Source: Liturgy of St. James

Let all mortal flesh keep silence,
and with fear and trembling stand
Ponder nothing worldly minded,
for with blessing in his hand
Christ our God to earth descendeth,
our full homage to demand

King of kings yet born of Mary,
as of old on earth he stood
Lord of lords in human vesture,
in the body and the blood
He will give to all the faithful
his own self for heav'nly food

At his feet the six winged seraph.
cherubim with sleepless eye
Veil their faces to the Presence,
as with ceaseless voice they cry
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia, Lord most high

Rank on rank the host of heaven
spreads its vanguard on the way
As the Light of light descendeth
from the realms of endless day
That the pow'rs of hell may vanish,
as the darkness clears away

Let all mortal flesh keep silence (Repeat)

Meditation Song | Northern Star

Oh Sweet Jesus come
Make these two frayed threads one
Light the dim northern star
The frozen plains of my heart

How long until Peace is with us
And sorrow a faded memory?
How long until Peace is with us?
And sorrow a faded memory?

Oh soul don’t give up hope
See the doors open to your home
For though war and violence are all around
My ears hear the angel’s trumpet sounds

Now will ever Peace be with us?
And sorrow a faded memory?
Now will ever Peace be with us?
And sorrow a faded memory?

How long until Peace comes again?
How long until Peace comes again?
How long until Peace comes again?
Peace comes again
Oh Sweet Jesus come
Make these two frayed threads one
Light the dim northern star
The frozen plains of my heart

How long until Peace is with us
And sorrow a faded memory?
How long until Peace is with us?
And sorrow a faded memory?

Silence

Our Present Hope (The 2nd Candle)

He comes with grace into our souls.
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!

Prayers of the People | The Grace and the Impatience to Wait

Walter Bruggeman | Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth, p.148 (revised)

In our secret yearnings
     we wait for your coming,
    and in our grinding despair
    we doubt that you will.
And in this privileged place we are surrounded by witnesses who yearn more than do we
  and by those who despair more deeply than do we...
Give us the grace and the impatience
    to wait for your coming to the bottom of our toes,
    to the edges of our fingertips.
We do not want our several worlds to end.
Come in your power
    and come in your weakness
    in any case
    and make all things new.
Amen.

Abide With Me

Abide with me fast falls the eventide
The darkness deepens Lord with me abide
When other helpers fail and comforts flee
Help of the helpless, abide with me

I need Thy presence ev'ry passing hour
What but Thy grace can foil the tempter's pow'r?
Who like Thyself my Guide and Stay can be?
Through cloud and sunshine, abide with me

I fear no foe with Thee at hand to bless
Ills have no weight and tears no bitterness
Where is death's sting, where grave thy victory
I triumph still if Thou abide with me

Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes
Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies
As morning breaks and earth's vain shadows flee
In life in death, Lord, abide with me

Poem | The Glance

Written by George Herbert | From The Temple

   When first thy sweet and gracious eye
Vouchsaf'd ev'n in the midst of youth and night
To look upon me, who before did lie
    Weltring in sinne;
  I felt a sugred strange delight,
Passing all cordials made by any art,
Bedew, embalme, and overrunne my heart,
  And take it in.

  Since that time many a bitter storm
My soul hath felt, ev'n able to destroy,
Had the malicious and ill-meaning harm
   His swing and sway:
  But still thy sweet originall joy
Sprung from thine eye, did work within my soul,
And surging griefs, when they grew bold, controll,
  And got the day.

  If thy first glance so powerfull be,
A mirth but open'd and seal'd up again;
What wonders shall we feel, when we shall see
   Thy full-ey'd love!
  When thou shalt look us out of pain,
And one aspect of thine spend in delight
More then a thousand sunnes disburse in light,
  In heav'n above.

Our Future Hope (The 3rd Candle)

He will come with justice at the end of the world.
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!

A Prayer of Lament and Longing

May You Find A Light

Lost and weary traveler
Searching for the way to go
Pilgrim, heavy-hearted
Longing deeply to be known
May you find a light
May you find a light
May you find a light to guide you home

Scripture | Luke 2:35-38 (NRSV)

Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit;
be like those who are waiting
for their master to return from the wedding banquet,
so that they may open the door for him
as soon as he comes and knocks.
Blessed are those slaves
whom the master finds alert when he comes;
truly I tell you, he will fasten his belt
and have them sit down to eat,
and he will come and serve them.
If he comes during the middle of the night,
or near dawn, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves.

Come Light Our Hearts

For you, O Lord, our souls in stillness wait
For you, O Lord, our souls in stillness wait
Truly our hope is in you, truly our hope is in you

O Lord of life, our only hope
Your radiance shines on all who look
to you in the dark, Emmanuel come,
come light our hearts

Oh joy above, all other loves
In you we find, more than enough
We come as we are,
O heal and restore, come light our hearts

Our Three Fold Hope

Father Gabriel of Saint Mary Magdalen

He came with love to Bethlehem;
He comes with grace into our souls;
He will come with justice at the end of the world.
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!

After the benediction, volunteers are available to pray with you. If you would like someone to join you in prayer, send a private chat message to Claire Perini.

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