Advent Holy Communion gathers the church around Christ’s table in a season of expectant waiting, repentance, hope, and joy. It remembers Christ’s incarnation, death, resurrection, and promised return while inviting the congregation to receive the grace of God in bread and wine.
The service may include a call to worship, confession, assurance of pardon, the peace of Christ, the Great Thanksgiving, the Words of Institution, Communion, and a sending prayer. The following liturgy is designed for congregational worship and may be used as a complete service or adapted for a church gathering, a virtual service, a hybrid sanctuary, or communion shared at home.
Gathering for Advent Communion
In this season of expectant waiting, we are invited to Christ’s table here and now. Coming to Christ’s table is a way to experience the grace of God. Therefore it is open to all. The only requirement is a sincere heart. The only barriers to the table are created in our own heart.
We come together as a people to confess our sins to God. We confess as a people because we all fall short of God’s plan of perfect love. We do not confess to avoid punishment. We confess to free our own hearts and minds, so we may remove the barriers we build between ourselves, our God, and our brothers and sisters.
Call to Worship
Leader: Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
All: The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.
Leader: I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them.
All: Come, Lord Jesus, our light and our salvation. Let us walk in the light of the Lord.
Prayer of Invocation
We ask for the Holy Spirit to work powerfully among us.
Confession of Sin
One: We confess that we have not loved you with our whole heart. We go about our lives as if Christmas is an event to be celebrated, but not lived. We hear the good news, but do not heed it.
All: We turn away the holy family for there is no room in our hearts. We hear the cry of the expectant mother, desperate for care and a place to lie, but listen instead to the carols. We see the lowly children, born in mangers among the filth of the world, but we look instead to the decorations.
All: We hear the call of the Angels to come and worship the newborn King, but we bow down to the idols of our culture. Forgive us, we pray. Forgive us and free us for joyful obedience.
All: Remove the barriers that we construct, and empower us to be a people doing the real, gritty, holy, graceful, loving work of Christmas every day. In the name of the Holy Spirit, we pray. Amen.
Pause for silent confession and prayer.
Assurance of Pardon
One: Out of the wilderness a voice calls out. Prepare ye the way of the Lord. Prepare ye the way of love. Prepare ye the way of forgiveness.
The Christ child was born in the midst of darkness. The waiting is over. Christ may be born today in your heart. In the name of Jesus Christ, we are all forgiven.
All: Joy to the World. Amen.
God reminds us of his promise of forgiveness in Christ:
Remember these things, O Jacob, and Israel, for you are my servant; I formed you; you are my servant; O Israel, you will not be forgotten by me. I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you.
Giving of the Peace
Leader: Because our sins have been blotted out through the blood of Christ, we now have peace with God and with one another. May the peace of Christ be with you.
People: And also with you.
The Advent Story of God’s Saving Promise
One: It is good to give our thanks and praise. It is a good and joyful thing always and everywhere to give thanks to you, God Almighty, creator of heaven and earth.
You create the world from chaos. By simply speaking, you set the cosmos into motion, and create all things from the dust of stars.
All: Blessed are you, O God the Father, Creator of heaven and earth.
One: God of many blessings, you called out a family to be a blessing to all the families of the earth. You gave them a land, and promised to make of them a great nation so that all of the nations of the world could be blessed.
All: Blessed are you, God of Abraham and Sarah.
One: God of salvation, when the people were but slaves in Egypt you called upon your servant Moses. You gave him the power to speak salvation to the Pharoah, and led your people out of slavery.
You led them over the water, and helped them Passover into freedom. When the people were hungry, you gave them food from the sky. When the people were thirsty, you brought forth water from the rocks. When the people were no people, you gave them the Law.
All: Blessed are you, God of our salvation.
One: When the people asked for a King, you anointed David to be a just ruler. Though flawed, David united the people, and you promised to be with his line forever.
When the Kings rebelled, as you warned them they would, you anointed the prophets, who called the people back to obedience. The prophets spoke the truth to power, and called the people to remember who and whose they were.
The prophets warned the people of the consequences of injustice and false worship. When the people fell into exile, the prophets spoke words of hope and restoration when all around them, there was nothing but despair.
All: A voice is crying out: “Clear the Lord’s way in the desert! Make a level highway in the wilderness for our God!
One: You promised the coming of an anointed one, who would lead the people to peace and righteousness. You promised that the descendant of David would rule forever. You promised that out of Bethlehem would come the Prince of Peace.
You promised the coming of your Kingdom, when “swords would be beaten into plows, and spears into pruning hooks.”
All: “But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever flowing stream.”
One: John the Baptist came, telling the people to “Change your hearts and lives! Here comes the kingdom of heaven!” John wore clothes made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist. He ate locusts and wild honey.
People from Jerusalem, throughout Judea, and all around the Jordan River came to him. As they confessed their sins, he baptized them in the Jordan River.
And so now we come, having confessed our sins, searching for the Holy Spirit to come and fill us with expectant grace. We come to be transformed by what has already come, and waiting with hope for what is to come.
We deck our halls with joy, but it is our hearts that truly matter.
All: Prepare the way of the Lord in our world. Prepare the way of the Lord in our communities. Prepare the way of the Lord in our churches. Prepare the way of the Lord in our hearts.
The Great Thanksgiving
Leader: The Lord be with you.
All: And also with you.
Leader: Lift up your hearts.
All: We lift them up to the Lord.
Leader: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
All: It is right for us to give thanks and praise.
Leader: It is right, and a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere to give thanks to you, Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth.
You formed us in your image and breathed into us the breath of life. When we turned away, and our love failed, your love remained steadfast.
You delivered us from captivity, made covenant to be our sovereign God, and spoke to us through your prophets, who looked for that day when justice shall roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream, when nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.
You create the world from chaos. By simply speaking, you set the cosmos into motion, and create all things from the dust of stars. When humanity sinned, you promised that you would send a Savior, that one day the barren ground would burst forth with life, that the world would flourish again, and that death and decay would be no more.
This promise was passed on from generation to generation-attested to by the prophets, put into verse by the poets, and sung by the psalmists.
And so, with your people on earth and all the company of heaven, we praise your name and join their unending hymn.
Holy, Holy, Holy
All: Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest.
All: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.
All: Holy, Holy, Holy Lord. God of power and might adored, heaven and earth are shining bright with the glory of your light. Loud Hosannas now we sing. In the highest they may ring. Blessed is the coming one. Christ Emmanuel your son. Glory in the highest. Holy God, your name is blessed.
Christ, the Light of the World
Leader: Holy are you, and blessed is your Son Jesus Christ, whom you sent in the fullness of time to be a light to the nations.
You scatter the proud in the imagination of their hearts and have mercy on those who fear you from generation to generation. You put down the mighty from their thrones and exalt those of low degree. You fill the hungry with good things, and the rich you send empty away.
Your own Son came among us as a servant to be Emmanuel, your presence with us. He humbled himself in obedience to your will and freely accepted death on a cross.
By the baptism of his suffering, death, and resurrection you gave birth to your Church, delivered us from slavery to sin and death, and made with us a new covenant by water and the Spirit.
All: Holy are you, and Holy is your Son Jesus Christ.
Leader: Who is the one to whom John pointed in the wilderness.
All: Holy are you, and Holy is your Son Jesus Christ.
Leader: Who was born to us in a manger, for there was no room in the inn.
All: Holy are you, and Holy is your Son Jesus Christ.
Leader: Who came to show us the way to your love. He proclaimed good news to the poor. He restored the sight to the blind. He called the children to his side, taught the women, ate with sinners, and called out the religious leaders blinded by the letter of the Law.
All: Holy are you, and Holy is your Son Jesus Christ.
Leader: Who was betrayed by those who loved him. Who was persecuted by those who feared him. Who was crucified by those who thought that his death would be the end of him.
All: Holy are you, and Holy is your Son Jesus Christ.
Institution of the Lord’s Supper
From a dead stump a shoot grows. Out of chaos, life began. Out of a desert, a river flows. In the darkness, a light shines.
Christ is the Light of the world, bringing growth and life, nourishment and abundance.
On the night in which he gave himself up for us, he took bread, gave thanks to you, broke the bread, gave it to his disciples, and said:
Leader: “Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
And when the supper was over, he took the cup, gave thanks to you, gave it to his disciples and said:
Leader: “Drink from this, all of you. This is my blood of the new covenant, poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
Leader: And so, in remembrance of these your mighty acts in Jesus Christ, we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving as a holy and living sacrifice, in union with Christ’s offering for us, as we proclaim the mystery of faith.
All: Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.
Prayer of Consecration
Emmanuel, God with us, in our lonely nights, under our guiding stars, with the hopes and fears of all our years, we come for comfort, for peace of mind and peace on earth, for a blessing on our hands and the bread in them, on our lips and the cup we lift to it.
May this bread and cup be your holy Life, that we may ponder in our hearts, and pray in our community.
Leader: Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here, and on these gifts of bread and wine. Make them be for us the body and blood of Christ, that we may be for the world the body of Christ, redeemed by his blood.
Make us a Christmas people, secure in what has come, and hopeful for what is yet to be. By your Spirit make us one with Christ, one with each other, and one in ministry to all the world.
Keep us vigilant in our Advent waiting until Christ comes in final victory and we feast at his heavenly banquet.
Through your Son Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit in your holy Church, all honor and glory is yours, almighty Father, now and forever. Amen.
Invitation to the Table
Come now to the table and encounter the mystery that is our Lord and Savior.
Christ, “by whom all time was created, was made flesh and was born in time for us.” Christ, “became [human], that he, ruler of the stars, might be nurse[d] at his mother’s breast; that he, the Bread, might hunger; the Fountain, might thirst; the Light, might sleep; the Way, might be wearied by the journey; that he, the Foundation, might be suspended upon a cross; that Life might die.”
Christ, “who existed before all the cycles of ages; was born of an earthly mother.”
Leader: The gifts of God for the people of God!
All: Thanks be to God.
Who May Receive Communion
During the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, true believers who repent of their sins and desire to live as followers of Christ, who revealed himself to be fully God and man in one person, are invited to partake.
Children who have not been received by the Session into communing membership after a public confession of faith should refrain even though they may have personally received the Savior, because of the responsibility of the recipient to discern the Lord’s body.
Therefore it is open to all. The only requirement is a sincere heart. The only barriers to the table are created in our own heart.
Serving of the Bread and the Cup
Leader: The Holy Child of Bethlehem descends to us.
Unison: And is born in us in these days.
Leader: Let us share the bread.
Unison: We hear the Christmas angels their great glad tidings tell.
Leader: Let us drink deeply, Christ abides with us.
We remember Christ’s death, celebrate his resurrection, enjoy his presence, and anticipate his return.
For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
Advent Communion Prayer
Holy God, we give thanks for your creation, fragile, yet fruitful, enough for all.
We give thanks that you call us into community where love and justice may flourish, enough for all. We give thanks that you invite us on this Advent journey.
Awake, curious, longing to meet you, we set out for your table of grace. You light our path one step at a time, beckoning us onto a Way that offers us new eyes to explore the vision of the Promised One; new senses to feel the heartbeat of the Vulnerable One; new courage to share the urgency of the Ruler of Peace.
One more step, one more stretch, one more challenge takes us deeper into the mystery of your abundant life: a world healed, renewed; all nature, all people at peace.
Along the Way we join our voices with those of all created beings in Heaven, and on Earth singing.
Prayer After Communion
God, we give you thanks that you have come to us-in the child of Bethlehem, in this bread and cup, and in your answer to all of our hopes and your offer of peace, deeper than any truce, truer than the upheaval that surrounds us.
You have comforted us with your promise and your presence so that we too may spread the welcome wings of your good tidings. Amen.
May your Holy Spirit be present here in this feast that it may nourish our souls for the work that is before us.
And, having been nourished, may we go forth, spreading the gospel, bearing the good news of salvation, living lives of justice, and sowing acts of kindness, mercy, and love until the day all of creation is restored, and we join with all your people in eternal praise.
Sending
Christ is the Light of the world, bringing growth and life, nourishment and abundance.
We come to be transformed by what has already come, and waiting with hope for what is to come.
Prepare the way of the Lord in our world. Prepare the way of the Lord in our communities. Prepare the way of the Lord in our churches. Prepare the way of the Lord in our hearts.
Leader: May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
People: Amen. Thanks be to God. Alleluia!