Every week we practice, “Call and Response.” One person speaks or sings, and the other person or persons reply in song or speech. We start out the church service this way.
Call: Blessed be God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Response: And blessed be His kingdom, now and forever. Amen.
We continue with the amens, and we really get going for the Peace.
Call: The peace of the Lord be always with you.
Response: And also with you.
The response at the peace is not just words, but also actions. We shake hands, hug or kiss, nod, and smile at those around us as we show them Christ’s peace. Then there is the big moment of action, where the caller and responder hunker down for some serious work.
Call: The Lord be with you.
Response: And also with you.
Call: Lift up your hearts.
Response: We lift them to the Lord.
Call: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
Response: It is right to give him thanks and praise.
Suddenly what started as a few words back and forth and broke into action at the peace has come into its fullness. God calls to us by giving us good gifts, bread, wine, hearts. We respond by saying thanks. We call out to God, lift up our hearts, bread, and wine, and God gives us Himself in response.
We go back and forth with God, in words and actions, God giving, us giving back, God giving back even better than before. In Advent, all of the scriptures and hymns show us some of this story. We hear God saying to us through prophets, through John, through songs and prayers, “My people whom I have called, I have heard your call to me. I am on my way right now.” God is coming to be with us! The call goes out, waking us up to be ready to respond.
Our calls to God may happen when we see or experience hurt in the world. God comes to us in response. Our calls to God may be calls of rejoicing, when we see or experience good in the world. God comes to us in response. This week’s hymn takes us to the verge, lets us peek into the gifts of God, right up to the moment when we see God arriving.
This week’s hymn, “Watchman, tell us of the night,” 640 in The Hymnal 1982, follows a Call and Response pattern. Help your children notice this pattern that is so central to our worship. Help them to notice the hope in this hymn, hope that God is coming to us.
