Gathering:
Resources Needed:
Video: Your Last Rolo (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YZ4R1fNYzI)
Start the service by showing the video clip.
Love is an amazing thing. If I were to ask you what you love I’m sure I’d get plenty of different answers. Some of you, presumably, would say your family and friends, others of you, hopefully, might say your partner, or your wife or husband. But then there are the other things that we love too. How many of you love The X Factor? How many of you love a football team? How about a singer or band? We love all sorts of things. Some of them we even love enough that we’d give them our last Rolo.
But sometimes the people or things we love let us down. This is particularly true if you’re a football fan (specifically a Liverpool fan – do change this to your local team) but actually can be true of many of the other things that we love. Friends or family members let us down, people we love do things that really hurt us, our favourite contestants get booted off X Factor! And then we have to decide if we still love that team or contestance or friend.
Our Advent theme this week is love and the great news that God’s love for us is utterly unconditional – he loves us no matter what we’ve done or said or thought. The Psalms tell us that he is slow to anger and filled with unfailing love.
Lighting The Advent Candle:
Person 1: In Advent we are reminded of God’s unfailing love for us, demonstrated so clearly in Jesus.
Person 2: This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son.
*Light Candle*
Confession:
A simple invitation for people to bring their sins to God in silence followed by a short prayer thanking God for his forgiveness. You might like to start with these words from the Advent resources on the Church of England website:
‘The axe is laid at the root of the trees;
every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down.’
But confident in God’s mercy we confess our sins
Pray: Father God, thank you for your unconditional love. As we gather to worship you this morning help us to receive your forgiveness and to know that we are deeply and personally loved by you. Amen.