THE THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT

(The Coming of Christ as Preceded by John the Baptist)

Let us praise our God
For the coming of His beloved Son
Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
Who has transferred us
From the kingdom of darkness
Into the kingdom of His Son

Whose coming was preceded
By the divinely appointed forerunner
John the Baptist
Concerning whom the angel of the Lord said
Unto his father Zacharias:
He will be great in the sight of the Lord, and
He will drink no wine or liquor; and
He will be filled with the Holy Spirit
While he is yet in his mother’s womb.

He will go as a forerunner before the Messiah
In the spirit and power of Elijah
To turn the hearts of the fathers
Back to the children,
And the disobedient
To an attitude of the righteous;
So as to make ready a people
Prepared for the Lord

Who as a voice
Crying in the wilderness,
“Made ready the way of the Lord”

Therefore let us worship our Lord
Concerning whom John said:
Behold the Lamb of God
Who takes away the sin of the world,
He must increase
And I must decrease

The passages of Scripture used in the collection for the Third Sunday of Advent:
Colossians 1:13; Luke 1:15-17; Luke 3:4-6; Matthew 3:3; Mark 1:2-3;
Isaiah 40:1-3; John 1:29; John 3:30