Welcome

Church Staff: Rev. Gene Aiken Pastor Alicia Miller, Interim 9:00am Worship Leader Katie Jeter, Children’s Ministries Director Ranessa Fernander, 11:00am Worship Leader Jimmy Davis, Business Manager Founded 1882 Don Shabkie, 11:00am Pianist/Organist Marne Dumas, Office Manager Leanna Hunter, Connection & Youth Director Elizabeth Spurling, CEP Director 201 North Main Street, Greer, SC 29650 Edward Hunter, Youth Director Rev. George Strait, Pastor Emeritus Office: 864.877.0956 | E-mail: [email protected] Rev. John Rush, Pastor Emeritus Pastoral Care Emergency Phone: 864.256.0975 Staff may be reached with the email (first name)@memorialgreer.com 9:ooam Order of Worship- FLC November 29, 2020 Opening song & Greeting Hanging of the Greens Welcome to Memorial United Methodist Church! Scripture Sermon We are so glad you are here! Welcome booklets are available. Kids Offering & Closing song worship bags are also available to enhance their Sunday morning time! All worship elements will be provided on screen 11:00am Order of Worship- If you have an immediate pastoral need or a prayer request, please call or text Chiming of Trinity 864-256-0975 and leave a clear message regarding your situation. Prelude- Come Thou Long Expected Jesus Appalachian Introit- Make Way Kendrick Welcome Hanging of the Greens Thank you to all who are participating in our Hanging of the Greens services: Introduction 9:00am: Betsy Fore; Kevin, Allison, Tom and Graham Duncan; Robbie, Lauren, Annie and Jack How shall we prepare this house for the coming of the King: With branches of cedar, the tree of royalty Septon How shall we prepare this house for the coming of the eternal Christ? A big thank you to Tyler, Marsha, Davis and B Mays for decorating the tree in the FLC! With garlands of pine and fir, whose leaves are ever living, evergreen. 11:00am: Ralph & Harriet Johnson; David & Susan Mayberry; Marney & Freddie Hannon; Margie How shall we prepare this house for the coming of our Savior? Crowley & Sheila Moore; Ann Hammond; Lee, Marne, Anna and Harold Dumas; Lauren & Emily With wreaths and holly and ivy, telling of his passion, death, and resurrection. Major How shall we prepare our hearts for the coming of the Son of God? By hearing again the words of the prophets, who foretold the saving work of God. A big thank you to David & Kenna Owens; Charlotte & Carter Owens; Thomas, Caitlin and Sonny For God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might Owens; Brett, Catherine and Owen Claycamp for decorating the tree in the sanctuary! be saved. Glory to God in the highest!

First Reading- Jeremiah 23: 5-6 Pew Bible #1210 Serving this Week: *Hymn #196- Come Thou Long-Expected Jesus HYFRYDOL Second Reading- Isaiah 9:2,6-7 Pew Bible # 1072 9:00am- Set up: Chris & Cindy Miller Hymn #211- O Come, O Come Emmanuel, v. 1-2 VENI EMMANUEL Greeter: Libby Fowler Third Reading- Isaiah 61:1-3 Pew Bible # 1157 Hymn #211- O Come, O Come Emmanuel, v. 3-4 VENI EMMANUEL 11:00am- Offering team: Peggy Smith & Allen Lee Trustee: Wayne Morris Fourth Reading- Isaiah 53:1-6 Pew Bible #1145 Sound/Video: Adam Wickliffe *Hymn #203- Hail To The Lord’s Anointed, v. 1 & 4 ELLACOMBE

Ushers/Greeters: Marne Dumas, Tiffany Catafygiotu, Fifth Reading- John 1:1-5,9-14 Pew Bible # 1645 Megan Howard, Allison Duncan, Katie Jeter Hymn # 206- I Want To Walk As A Child of the Light HOUSTON Blessing of the Chrismon Tree Offertory- Lo How a Rose E'er Blooming Praetorius/Shabkie *Doxology #95 The color of blue for Advent has been used since the 12th century. Blue Blessing of Advent Wreath and Lighting of candle represents HOPE. It prepares us for the anticipation of God's gift of his Son to us Something is coming. We are waiting. We are eager. all and the hopefulness that we embrace this gift of LOVE. It is more than presents. It is more than lights. We open the Book of Hope and read the promise. God will be with us. Our hearts are glad; we trust God’s holy name. God’s never-ending love surrounds us. Today we light the candle of Hope. (The first candle is lit.) Our hope is in the Lord! Our hope is in the Lord! Scripture- Micah 5: 2-9 Sermon- Presidents & Kings Give online at onrealm.org/MemorialUnitedM/Give or simply text to 73256 with Hymn #213- Lift Up Your Head, Ye Mighty Gates TRURO MUMCGreer and the $ amount you wish to give Benediction Choral Response- Be Near Me AWAY IN A MANGER Postlude The Gospel Reading: John 1:1-5, 9-14 Almost 2,000 years ago, the story goes, a clutch of John declares the mystery of the Incarnation sleepy shepherds were watching over their sheep on a In the beginning was the Word and star-brightened hillside in Palestine. It was a still, uneventful the Word was with God and the Word night. Suddenly the darkness was filled with a strange light. was God. The Word was with God in the beginning. The stillness was broken by voices singing “Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, goodwill to all.” Everything came into being through the Word, and without So begins Christmas, the most beautiful and meaningful the Word nothing came into being. What came into being celebration of the Christian calendar. through the Word was life, and the life was the light for all Christmas actually begins with Advent, the season people. through which we are moving. Both the seasons of Advent- the season of “going toward” the birth of Christ- and The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness doesn’t Christmas have a long history. These seasons and their extinguish the Light. The true Light that shines on all customs have developed through many centuries and many people was coming into the world, and the world came into countries. Old customs and observances are refined, renewed, being through the Light, but the world didn’t recognize the replaced; new ones are added. Some of our customs have light. The Light came to his own people, and his own pagan origins but have been “converted” by redefining their people didn’t welcome him. meanings. What is significant for us is not what they may once have meant but rather what they mean for us today.

our church building will begin to wear But those who did welcome him, those who believed in his This morning, its Christmas apparel. For the first time this season our name, he authorized to become God’s children, Christmas tree stands in the sanctuary. This day for the first born not from blood nor from human desire or passion, time its lights will shine for us. As we make ready for the but born from God. birth of the child by preparing this sanctuary, we make ready ourselves and the sanctuary of our own hearts. We are The Word became flesh and made his among us. mindful that, although it is not Christmas yet, it will be here We have seen his glory, glory like that of a father’s only son, soon, very soon. full of grace and truth. As we are mindful of the decorations in our sanctuary, not only will we explain the history of the symbols of these special seasons, but we will rededicate these symbols- and ourselves- to the service of God.

Jeremiah 23:5-6 Isaiah 9:2,6-7 Isaiah 61:1-3 The Lord Promises to send the people a The prophet declares that a child will be born The prophet tells the Messiah will come to heal righteous king The people walking in darkness have seen a great and redeem 1st ORD 2nd 3rd The time is coming, declares the L , light. On those living in a pitch-dark land, light has The Lord God’s spirit is upon me, because the Scripture when I will raise up a righteous descendant Scripture dawned. A child is born to us, a son is given to us, Scripture Lord has anointed me. He has sent me to bring from David’s line, and he will rule as a and authority will be on his shoulders. He will be good news to the poor, to bind up the broken- Reading wise king. He will do what is just and right Reading Reading hearted, to proclaim to the captives, and named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal in the land. During his lifetime, Judah will Father, Prince of Peace. There will be vast authority liberation for the prisoners, to proclaim the year be saved and Israel will live in safety. and endless peace for David’s throne and for his kingdom, of the Lord’s favor and a day of vindication for our God, And his name will be The LORD Is Our establishing and sustaining it with justice and righteousness to comfort all who morn, to provide for Zion’s mourners, Righteousness. now and forever. to give them a crown in place of ashes, oil of joy in place of mourning, a mantle of praise in place of discouragement. In ancient times the cedar was revered They will be called Oaks of Righteousness, planted by the as the tree of royalty. It is also signified Because the needles of the Lord to glorify himself. pine and fir trees do not die immortality, and was used for Because this is the passage which Jesus reads at the purification. We place these cedar each season like the leaves of most trees, the ancients saw beginning of his ministry in the synagogue at Nazareth and branches as a symbol of Christ, who which he applied to himself, we cannot hear these words of reigns as King forever, and whose them as symbols of things that last forever. In the scripture Isaiah without thinking of the healing that the coming of coming in justice and righteousness will Christ will bring. purify our hearts. passage just read, the prophet Isaiah tells us that there will be no end to the reign of the Messiah. And so we hang these wreaths of evergreens shaped in a circle, which itself has no The evergreen most end, to signify the eternal reign of Jesus, the Christ. associated with healing in the ancient world was the mistletoe. It was called the “all-healer.” People Isaiah 53:1-6 The foretelling of our Savior thought its special powers Who can believe what we have heard, and for whose sake has the Lord’s arm been revealed? 4th came from the lightning He grew up like a young plant before us, like a root from dry ground. He possessed no splendid form for us to see, bolt that fixed it high up in a tree, and therefore, they no desirable appearance. He was despised and avoided by others; a man who suffered, who knew sickness well. Scripture believed it came, as did the lightning, from heaven itself. Like someone from whom people hid their faces, he was despised, and we didn’t think about him. Reading This healing power was not only for physical ailments, It was certainly our sickness that he carried, and our sufferings that he bore, but we thought him afflicted, but for the healing of relationships as well. struck down by God and tormented. He was pierced because of our rebellions and crushed because of our crimes. He bore the punishment that made us whole; by his wounds we are healed. Like sheep we had all wandered away, Originally the kiss under the mistletoe was thought to have each going its own way, but the Lord let fall on him all our crimes. been the “kiss of peace,” symbolizing reconciliation, not the romantic kiss of a couple in love. It is in keeping with For Christians, this passage from Isaiah reflects the sufferings of Jesus, who saved us from our sins by his death this more ancient meaning that we decorate this house of on the cross and by his resurrection from the dead. In ancient times, holly and ivy were considered signs of worship with mistletoe, in anticipation of the coming of Christ’s passion. Their prickly leaves suggested the crown of thorns, the red berries the blood of the Savior, the healing presence of Jesus the Christ. and the bitter bark the drink offered to Jesus on the cross. As we place the holly and ivy let us rejoice in the coming of Jesus, our Savior.