An Advent Call to Worship for St. Louis & Ferguson

I know in the coming days I will start blogging again but for now I want to share liturgy I wrote today for worship this Sunday (the 1st of Advent) in my downtown St. Louis congregation.  I searched and searched online to find worship resources for a community dealing with the aftermath of the kind of devastation we've suffered in the last week here in the St. Louis area.  I found nothing! Great theological discussion is popping up using #StayWokeAdvent on Twitter and also on the website Theology of Ferguson.  Worship resources were much harder to find. Los Angeles riots were pre-internet boom era so obviously I wasn't finding anything from CA churches online.  

I hope by sharing this publicly I can lighten the load for other worship leaders in our community just a little. Use it, adapt it, share it, if it works for your context.  It is based on the popular Advent hymn O Come, O Come Emmanuel and includes a line from an article written by my very gifted friend and member of my church, Bill Powell.  If you know of other relevant liturgical resources please feel free to comment below with links.  

An Advent Call to Worship for St. Louis & Ferguson

Based on O Come, O Come Emmanuel and words from journalist William Powell http://www.stlmag.com/news/despite-calls-for-peace-protests-turn-ugly-as-city-burns-la/

O come, Desire of nations, bind in one the hearts of all mankind; bid thou our sad divisions cease, and be thyself our King of Peace.

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

O Come, Be our refuge, comfort us as we weep over the ashes of our broken city, ‘tears for what we’ve lost, for what we don’t know how to find.’  

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

O Come, Great Counselor, guide us on, as together we move in expectation toward the birth of our Savior; may we labor for the birth of a new St. Louis.   

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel