This year I will be preaching from the The Women’s Lectionary: Preaching the Women of the Bible throughout the Year by Ashley Wilcox. The year begins with Advent, and the four Advent readings include the stories of the four women included in the genealogy of Mary’s husband as told in the Gospel of Matthew. This year, the first Sunday of Advent is also the first Sunday of the month, which means it is a Communion Sunday. I have written this Communion liturgy for this Sunday to honor the grandmothers of Jesus.
Feel free to use it at any time. Just drop me a comment letting me know where you are using it in worship.
The Lord be with you
And also with you
Lift up your hearts
We lift them up to the Lord
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God
It is right to give our thanks and praise
It is a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere to give thank to you, Almighty God, creator of heaven and earth. You formed us in your image and breathed into us the breath of life. You who are father, mother, and parent of all gave us the gift of parenthood and told us to be fruitful and multiply. You set parents in a garden and called them to partner with you in caring for it. They outgrew the garden and the peace and balance – the Shalom – that you created was disrupted.
Still your love was passed down from generation to generation. You guided your chosen family of people so that they could be a blessing to all the families of the earth. When they fell into slavery, your power liberated them. When the family was threatened by external foes, your grace delivered them. When the family threatened to pull itself apart, your forgiveness saved them.
A family set apart to bless the world was itself saved many times by women who acted boldly and with righteousness. Threatened time and again by foes internal and external, four women emerged out of the messiness of life and were called righteous. Each of them saved their family and preserved the family line that stretched from Abraham to Christ.
And so with your people on earth and all the company of heaven we praise these women who saved the family of Christ. But first and foremost we praise your holy name and join the eternal hymn of the Saints of God:
Holy Holy Holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.
Holy are you, and blessed is your Son Jesus Christ, who was born of a woman and was adopted by Joseph, a Son of David, and a child of Abraham. We give thanks for Tamar the Canaanite, Rahab the Canaanite, Ruth the Moabite, and Bathsheba the wife of a Hittite. They proved that all the families of the earth are a part of your plan of Salvation. Through their agency, intelligence, courage, and loyalty, they were called righteous. They proved that those who persist for justice will be heard. Through them the line of Jesus was preserved.
Through slavery and liberation, exile and restoration, you have been our God. The Law and the Prophets declare describe your justice and your steadfast love that endures forever. After being visited by an angel, Mary went to her relative Elizabeth who was the first to declare that Jesus, still in utero, was “My Lord.”
Mary magnified you, and confessed that you show mercy to everyone, from one generation to the next. You scatter the arrogant and pull down the powerful from their thrones. You lift up the lowly. You fill the hungry with good things. You come to the aid of your servant. We remember your mercy and the promise you made to our ancestors, Abraham and Sarah, which was kept through the agency of these women until the Word became flesh.
Christ humbled himself in obedience to the Divine Will and freely accepted death on a cross. By the baptism of his life, ministry, 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 by Spirit.
Words of Institution
On the night Christ was betrayed…
The Fat Pastor 