Sunday Pastoral Prayer (Dec. 2nd/Advent) Athens First UMC

[The theme for the 1st Sunday of Advent was “Light the Candle of Hope.” Click here for the sermon. One of the ways that our church lights the candle of hope is by serving others in our community. The video above is from this past weekend’s caroling at three area assisted-living/nursing facilities. We discovered that the more we sang about Christmas hope, the more we received it from the smiles of those who listened! It was also fun to have members of our Holy Hands Puppeteer ministry join us in singing. Let’s continue to light the candle of hope to the people we encounter this week.

O God, the first nine holes this past year have been really, really incredible. There have been new opportunities to grow in our faith, times of healing, goals achieved, milestones celebrated, and relationships restored. 

But not every shot during the front nine worked out the way we wanted. We had our share of disappointments, sicknesses, deaths, broken relationships, troubles at work, lingering illnesses, missed opportunities, and short-lived New Year’s resolutions. 

And now, on this 1st Sunday of the Advent Season we find ourselves ready to begin a new church year. Today marks a new beginning and a fresh start. We come today to light the Advent candle of hope.

We light this candle for a neighbor who’s husband recently passed away and who now feels alone. We light this candle for the people of Anchorage, Alaska who just experienced an earthquake. We light this candle for a woman’s father who is in need of a very risky surgery. We light this candle for the person who just came out, and now feels ostracized from his family and friends. We light this candle for the 1st grader whose mother recently died from a drug overdose. We light this candle for those in prison and for their children who are separated from their parents. We light this candle for all of those who are experiencing depression especially around the holidays. 

We light this candle of hope for anyone who is in need of a fresh start, a new beginning, and a reassurance that you not only love us, but promise to be with us through the good and the bad.

We light this candle of hope in the name of the hope of the world, Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together saying…

“Our Father, who art in heaven…”