Service Sheet: Sunday 5th December 2021

ST. MICHAEL & ALL ANGELS’ CHURCH,

Charity Registered in Scotland SC006468 

Second Sunday of Advent

INTROIT HYMN 451 Long ago, prophets knew

COLLECT

Stir up our hearts, Lord, to prepare the way of your only­begotten Son: that, in his coming, we might serve you with our hearts made pure; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end.

APOCRYPHA

Baruch 5. 1­ – 9
Take off the garment of your sorrow and affliction, O Jerusalem, and put on for ever the beauty of the glory from God. 2Put on the robe of the righteousness that comes from God; put on your head the diadem of the glory of the Everlasting; 3for God will show your splendour everywhere under heaven. 4For God will give you evermore the name, ‘Righteous Peace, Godly Glory’. 5Arise, O Jerusalem, stand upon the height; look towards the east, and see your children gathered from west and east at the word of the Holy One, rejoicing that God has remembered them. 6For they went out from you on foot, led away by their enemies; but God will bring them back to you, carried in glory, as on a royal throne. 7For God has ordered that every high mountain and the everlasting hills be made low and the valleys filled up, to make level ground, so that Israel may walk safely in the glory of God. 8The woods and every fragrant tree have shaded Israel at God’s command. 9For God will lead Israel with joy, in the light of his glory, with the mercy and righteousness that come from him.

BENEDICTUS

Luke 1. 68­ – 79

R. He has raised up for us a mighty Saviour.
Blessed be the Lord the God of Israel, who has come to his people and set them free. He has raised up for us a mighty Saviour, born of the house of his servant David. R
Through his holy prophets God promised of old, to save us from our enemies, from the hands of all that hate us, to show mercy to our ancestors, and to remember his holy covenant. R
This was the oath God swore to our father Abraham, to set us free from the hands of our enemies, free to worship him without fear, holy and righteous in his sight all the days of our life. R
And you, child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way, to give people knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of all their sins. R
In the tender compassion of our God the dawn from on high shall break upon us, to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace. R

EPISTLE

Philippians 1. 3 – ­11

Paul’s Prayer for the Philippians

GRADUAL HYMN 326 (omit v4) I bind unto myself today

GOSPEL

Luke 3. 1 – ­6

The Proclamation of John the Baptist

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.”’

OFFERTORY HYMN 491 Love divine, all loves excelling

COMMUNION HYMN 91 Brother, sister, let me serve you

PRAYER AFTER COMMUNION

Faithful God, we thank you for feeding us with this heavenly banquet. Help us always to hear the prophet’s call to turn our hearts to you; in the name of Jesus Christ the Lord.

RECESSIONAL HYMN 639 Restore, O Lord

BLESSING

Christ the Sun of Righteousness shine upon you and scatter the darkness from before your path; and the blessing of God almighty, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, be among you and remain with you always.

Scripture quotations from New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA amended according to the Revised Common Lectionary in NRSV. Psalm from the Book of Common Worship of the Church of England. Collect, Prayer after Communion and Blessing from Scottish Liturgy 1982 with Propers and Revised Common Lectionary published by the General Synod of the Scottish Episcopal Church, Edinburgh 2006.