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1st Sunday of Advent
Hanging of the Greens
November 30, 2025
Welcome to Crescent Hill Presbyterian Church. We are a worshiping community called to live out love and grace with one another and the world. We would like to get to know you better and invite you to fill out the welcome card located in your pew and place it in the offering plate. If you would like to learn more about our mission and life together, you may talk with our pastor, elder of the month, or visit our website, www.crescenthill.church. We are glad you are worshiping with us.
*Denotes an invitation to stand in body or in spirit.
Bold indicates congregation’s response.
Introit
Welcome
Minute for Mission Build-A-Bed
Announcements
Call to Worship
Come, let us walk in the light of the Holy One.
Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Almighty.
During this Advent season, let us learn of God’s ways and walk in God’s paths.
Let us seek the well-being of all creation. Let us worship God.
* Hymn 83, vs.1,3,4 Come, Thou Long-expected Jesus
1. Come, thou long-expected Jesus, born to set thy people free;
from our fears and sins release us; let us find our rest in thee.
3. Born thy people to deliver, born a child and yet a king,
born to reign in us forever, now thy gracious kindom bring.
4. By thine own eternal Spirit rule in all our hearts alone;
by thine all-sufficient merit raise us to thy glorious throne.
Decorating the Sanctuary
Presentation of the Liturgical Color, Isaiah 9:2-7
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light;
those who lived in a land of deep darkness— on them light has shined.
You have multiplied the nation, you have increased its joy;
they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest,
as people exult when dividing plunder.
For the yoke of their burden, and the bar across their shoulders,
the rod of their oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian.
For all the boots of the tramping warriors and all the garments rolled in blood shall be burned as fuel for the fire.
For a child has been born for us, a son given to us;
authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named
Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
His authority shall grow continually, and there shall be endless peace
for the throne of David and his kingdom. He will establish & uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time onwards and for
evermore.
Advent Wreath Greens Presentation
Advent Light Presentation
Poinsette Presentation, Revelation 22:12-13, 16
“Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person
according to what they have done.
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches.
I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.”
*Hymn 88, vs 1,6 & 7 O Come, O Come Emmanuel
1. O come, O come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel,
that mourns in lonely exile here until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
6. O come, thou Dayspring, come and cheer our spirits by thine advent here;
disperse the gloomy clouds of night, and death’s dark shadows put to flight. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
7. O come, Desire of nations, bind all peoples in one heart and mind;
bid envy, strife, and discord cease; fill the whole world with heaven’s peace. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
The Greens and Wreaths, Isaiah 41:17-20
“The poor and needy search for water, but there is none;
their tongues are parched with thirst.
But I the Holy One will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.
I will make rivers flow on barren heights, and springs within the valleys.
I will turn the desert into pools of water, and the parched ground into springs.
I will put in the desert the cedar and the acacia, the myrtle and the olive.
I will set junipers in the wasteland, the fir and the cypress together,
so that people may see and know, may consider and understand,
that the hand of the Lord has done this, that the Holy One of Israel has created it.”
Prayers of the People (Joys and Concerns)
Call to the Offering
Offertory
Blessing over Gifts
Holly and Ivy Presentation, Isaiah 53: 1-6
Who has believed what we have heard?
And to whom has the arm of the Holy One been revealed?
For he grew up before him like a young plant, & like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by others;
a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity;
and as one from whom others hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him of no account.
Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases;
yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, & by his bruises we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way,
and God has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
The sprigs of holly placed in each window are signs of Christ’s passion. The thorny leaves and stems remind us of the crown of thorns, the red berries, the blood of the Savior, shed for us...
Cross Presentation
Luke 1:68-79
‘Blessed be the Holy One God of Israel,
for God has looked favorably on God’s people and redeemed them.
Raising up a mighty savior for us
in the house of God’s servant David,
as God spoke through the mouth of theholy prophets from of old,
that we would be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us.
Thus God has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors,
and has remembered the holy covenant,
the oath that God swore to our ancestor Abraham,
to grant us that we, being rescued from the hands of our enemies,
might serve the Holy One without fear, in holiness and righteousness before all our days.
And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;
for you will go before God to prepare the ways,
to give knowledge of salvation to God’s people
by the forgiveness of their sins.
By the tender mercy of our God,
the dawn from on high will break upon us,
to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.’
Bread and Cup Presentation
For I received from the Christ what I also handed on to you, that Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Savior’s death until he comes.
* Affirmation of Faith
In life and in death we belong to God. Through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, we trust in one triune God, the Holy One of Israel, whom alone we worship and serve. With believers in every time and place, we rejoice that nothing in life or in death can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
* *Hymn 105, vs. 1,2,4 & 5 People Look East
1. People, look east. The time is near. Of the crowning of the year.
Make your house fair as you are able, trim the hearth and set the table.
People, look east and sing today: Love, the guest, is on the way.
2. Furrows, be glad. Though earth is bare, one more seed is planted there:
Give up your strength the seed to nourish, that in course, the flower may flourish.
People, look east and sing today: Love, the rose, is on the way.
4. Stars, keep the watch. When night is dim. One more light the bowl shall brim,
Shining beyond the frosty weather, Bright as sun and moon together.
People, look east and sing today: Love, the star, is on the way.
5. Angels, announce with shouts of mirth, Christ who brings new life to earth.
Set every peak and valley humming, With the word, the Lord is coming.
People, look east and sing today: Love, the Lord, is on the way.
* Charge and Benediction
* Postlude
This morning’s Hanging of the Greens worship celebration is based on a service used by The Rev. Pressley Cox, pastor of Eastminster Presbyterian Church, Simpsonville, South Carolina. It meaningfully moves preparing our church building for Christmas from being a decorating project to being a devotional preparation for celebrating Jesus’ birth.
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