The Days Are Getting Darker: Call to Worship for the First Sunday of Advent

The days are getting darker and darker.
Night's blind shadow, longer and longer.
Our hearts sigh to the eastern sky.

We gather today at God's sacred mountain,
The place where the prophet promised the Word of the Lord would be!
We've brought our swords and our spears, our lust for war, greed for power!

God judge our broken hearts, mend our unjust ways!
Instead of the kingdom of self, the land of fear, and the foreclosure of hope.
Make our knotted systems fair to all; help us support the Kingdom of God.

Then we will follow you,
Beating our swords into plows,
Feeding the poor.

Then we will follow you,
Beating our spears into pruning hooks,
Giving everyone a fair share.
Then we will hear the Word of God come forth from Zion!

The Rev. Nathan Decker is the pastor of the South Sussex Charge of the Petersburg District of the Virginia Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. Nathan has great love for the diversity and inspiration of God's creative nature in worship.