This is one of the liturgy pages for the Methodist Church's Hush the Noise Advent and Christmas campaign 2024. A full list of the services can be found here. A PDF containing all the services can be downloaded here.
Advent 1: Hush the Noise
1 December 2024
Bible readings
Jeremiah 33:14-16
The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfil the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David, and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will live in safety. And this is the name by which it will be called: “The Lord is our righteousness.”
Luke 21:25-36
“There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in a cloud’ with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”
Then he told them a parable: “Look at the fig tree and all the trees; as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
“Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life and that day does not catch you unexpectedly, like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place and to stand before the Son of Man.”
Songs and hymns
All the room was hushed and still (StF 266)
Come, Lord Jesus, come (StF 168)
And I will wait now (website only)
Calm me, Lord, as you calmed the storm (StF 624)
Carol of Peace (website only)
Deep in the darkness a starlight is gleaming (StF 625)
May the God of hope go with us every day (StF 411)
Open, Lord, my inward ear (StF 450)
O, the love of my Lord is the essence (StF 431)
Put peace into each other’s hands (StF 712)
Send down the fire of your justice (Call us to be your compassion) (StF 413)
Also see: Resource Hub Worship Calendar suggestions for 1 December 2024
Opening liturgy
Advent dawns with lights strung high and music everywhere,
Sights and smells abound around,
Senses assaulted and confused,
O hush the noise,
Let’s hear the angels sing.
Amid the lists and cards and gifts,
Amid the pleas and “please can we”,
Amid the chaos of the world,
O hush the noise,
Let’s hear the angels sing.
Let’s seek to see and seek to hear.
Let’s seek to feel and seek to know.
Let’s seek to find peace and love.
O hush the noise,
Let’s hear the angels sing.
Background notes
Throughout Advent and Christmas 2024 the Methodist Church is calling us all to ‘Hush the Noise.’ This is a phrase taken from the carol It Came Upon the Midnight Clear, which we will use each week as a basis for our worship.
Advent is the start of the Church’s liturgical calendar, and the main Gospel used in the lectionary rotates to Luke. In this first Sunday in Advent we begin with a rather cryptic warning that we are going to explore through the lens of hushing the noise.
Each week we have a symbol that can be used in worship to summarise the theme. This first week’s is a picture of roaring waves.
This text is a continuation of Luke’s account of Jesus’ speech about the end times; the advent of the Son of Man and the coming of redemption.(1) Many scholars think that it is based on Mark 13:5-37, and reuses some of the phrasing, but that Luke wove in some of his unique content.(2) Luke distinguishes the end times from the historical fall of Jerusalem, which Mark conflates.
...the roaring of the sea and the waves...
In the first section Luke abbreviates the quotation in Mark 13:24-25 taken from Isaiah 13:10. Luke adds a new image of the roaring seas.(3) This may be an allusion to Psalm 46:3, which uses the common scriptural imagery of the sea as a metaphor for chaos.(4)
...distress among nations confused by...
The sea causes ‘distress’ (sunoche) for the nations, who are ‘confused’ (aporia) by it.(5) ‘Confusion’ is perhaps too mild a translation of ‘aporia’, which usually carries a sense that there is no way to go on, people being ‘at their wits’ end’.(6)
Here we make the connection to the theme of this week: Hush the noise. Jesus encourages us to note the chaos around us and rather than being overwhelmed by it to respond to it in a way that recognises what is truly important. In that way the noise is, in effect, hushed.
Andrew Root (a theologian interested in ministry, culture and younger generations) writes that we are in a time of unprecedented contemporary cultural acceleration. We see this in rapid changes in technology, in changing social ethics, and in the general pace of life speeding up. Root claims that this causes disorientation, since we cannot realistically keep up with all the changes around us. It leads to alienation and depression;(7) a state of aporia, brought on this roaring sea of contemporary change.
For Root, drawing on the work of sociologist Hartmut Rosa, the answer is to seek moments of ‘resonance’: times when we feel connected to our bodies, to our friends, to God.(8) This sense is what we are expressing through the idea of ‘hushing the noise’ to hear the angels’ sing.
...he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will live in safety.
The passage from Jeremiah promises of a new era of ‘resonance’, a new eternal order dependent on the grace of God. Christ will bring justice and righteousness and well-being will flow into the land.(9)
Methodist Way of Life: Pray
Questions for discussion
The idea of a ‘stress bucket’ is used to help mental health well-being.
- What’s pouring into your bucket at the moment, and what might make the drain holes bigger?
- Where do you go to find peace and quiet?
Christians who practise silence as a spiritual discipline talk about the ‘monkey mind’ – those thoughts that pop up to distract us that are hard to hush. What helps you quiet those thoughts for a few moments?
Hands-on activities
- In small groups create your own ‘physical’ version of the roaring sea. Each person should have a different role: to make a noise or an action. For example, using voices for the sound of the wind wailing, using arms to make the shape of the big waves, and altogether creating a crash motion. Take a few moments to practice then show the other groups what your ‘picture’ of the roaring sea looks and sounds like.
- Music of the roaring sea: fill a selection of different sized bottles and tubes (from drinks and crisps) with a small amount of rice and seal well. Explore making various sounds of the sea by tipping the bottle or tube, slowly and quickly. How can we make the sound quieter or noisier? Experiment creating a soundscape where the sea is calmer or the waves are roaring.
Prayer ideas
If you usually place a Christmas tree in your venue, these are suggestions to incorporate the tree into your prayer journey through the season. If you are using the suggested symbols you can add a lightbulb, sticky tape etc to your tree as well!
Before setting up your tree, prepare the pot/stand cover with prayers for a troubled world:
- Pot: Invite the group to cut headlines or text from newspapers (local and (inter)national) which represent their concerns for events in the world. Paste these onto your tree pot to represent the stormy waves (ie not in neat rows, but interwoven and in differing directions)
- Pot: Give out slips of paper in sea shades and invite people to write on places and events around the community, nation and world that they are concerned about – things that make our world distressed, our metaphorical seas stormy. Paste these slips of paper onto the pot to represent both the stormy seas and the prayers represented.
- Pot or Stand: Take a red ribbon long enough and wide enough to tie in a bow around the pot/stand. Invite everyone present to write the word ‘justice’ and their initials on the ribbon before tying it around the pot/stand. Explain when inviting participation that we are praying for both God’s justice and for our own part in challenging the injustices we see in the world around us. The red ribbon represents the blood of Christ – the one who died unjustly so that we may live life in all its fullness.
- Stand: Repurpose a piece of fabric (such as an old sheet) of a suitable size to drape around the base of your Christmas tree. Invite all those present to write on the cloth waves of concern for people and places locally and around the world (ideally give pens in sea scape colours such as green and blue for this.)
The good news to get across
You can hush the noise and activity and reconnect with love and peace.
Ways people can respond
Take a couple of minutes now to hush the noise. Consider what you might choose not to do this Advent, to give yourself more time to pause.
Prayer of blessing
The angels are still singing.
Hush the noise, hear them sing, repeat the song.
And the blessing of God,
the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,
be yours/ours, now and always. Amen.
References
(1) Joel B. Green, The Gospel of Luke (1997) Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, p. 740.
(2) Joseph A. Fitzmeyer, The Gospel According to Luke (1981) Doubleday, New York, p. 1324.
(3) Fitzmeyer, p. 1349.
(4) Artur Weiser, The Psalms (1962) SCM, London, p. 368.
(5) Fitzmeyer, p. 1349.
(6) Evans, p. 755.
(7) Andrew Root, The Congregation in a Secular Age (2021) Baker Academic, Michigan, ch. 13.
(8) Root, ch. 14.
(9) Walter Brueggemann, Jeremiah 26-52 To Build, To Plant (1991) Eeerdmans, Grand Rapids, pp. 98-99