by Christine Sine
Who is your favourite New Testament figure? Mine is the apostle John and he is one I think a lot about at this time of year. The transformation that occurs in him throughout the gospel story is remarkable. We are introduced to him as a son of thunder, but in the end, he becomes the apostle of love. He is transformed by the example and love of Christ and that gives me more hope than anything else I read about in the gospel story.
I think we often forget about this radical transformation that seems to have occurred in his character and one of our few clues to that transformation is our knowledge that he was “the disciple that Jesus dearly loved” (John 13:23). It’s one of those almost throw away lines that holds so much meaning. Because he was dearly loved by Jesus, he could be transformed. In 1 John 4:11, John himself calls us “delightfully loved ones” (TPT) and I wonder if as he says that he is fondly remembering his own transformative journey and the love of Jesus that made it possible. In my head, I hear John saying: “You are all dearly loved disciples of Jesus and are all capable of that same transformation.” What a hope-filled message this season of Advent holds for us.
As we look towards the birth of Christ this year, it seems as though we all need to think long and hard about the radical transformation into apostles of love that God still wants to bring about in our lives and our world. The possibilities are so remarkable, and so hope-giving. This year has uncovered so much hate and so much chaos. Yet, transformation is possible. The seeds of Christ’s love planted within us can be birthed and grown.
7 Those who are loved by God, let his love continually pour from you to one another, because God is love. Everyone who loves is fathered by God and experiences an intimate knowledge of him. 8 The one who doesn’t love has yet to know God, for God is love. 9 The light of God’s love shined within us when he sent his matchless Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10 This is love: He loved us long before we loved him. It was his love, not ours. He proved it by sending his Son to be the pleasing sacrificial offering to take away our sins.
11 Delightfully loved ones, if he loved us with such tremendous love, then “loving one another” should be our way of life! 12 No one has ever gazed upon the fullness of God’s splendor. But if we love one another, God makes his permanent home in us, and we make our permanent home in him, and his love is brought to its full expression in us. (1 John 4:7-12 TPT)
I am constantly awed by the depth of God’s love, never more obvious than at this season. It is now that we are invited to enter fully into the love of God as we celebrate the birth of Christ. In the baby Jesus, love is being birthed into our world wanting to make a permanent home in us. The wonder of the Christmas story is not just of a baby born 2,000 years ago. It is the wonder of love being birthed once more, in us, today, in the midst of the hate and the chaos of our world. It is the wonder of love becoming a way of life for us just as it became for the apostle John.
Take some time to reflect on the impact that the love of God has had in your life. How has it transformed you and your ways of interacting with the world? How has it enabled loving one another to become a way of life for you?
Watch this fun video below and allow God to speak to you of new aspects of that love that God wants to birth in you this Christmas.
Each Sunday I love to start the day with the beautiful contemplative services provided by St Andrews Episcopal Church in Seattle. In this season of Advent, I begin by lighting the appropriate candles and sitting back to enjoy the refreshing beauty of these services. I hope that you too will take time to refresh yourself with this contemplative offering.
A contemplative service with music in the style-of-Taize for the Second Sunday of Advent. Carrie Grace Littauer, prayer leader, with music by Kester Limner and Andy Myers.
Permission to podcast/stream the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-710-756 with additional notes below.
“Maranatha, Come Lord Jesus” – was written for The University Of Notre Dame Folk Choir by Steven C. Warner, released on the album “Prophets of Joy.” Copyright 1996 World Library Publications.
“Within Our Darkest Night (Dans Nos Obscurites) – Taize song by J. Berthier — copyright 1991, all rights reserved by GIA/Les Presses de Taizé.
“Watching, Waiting, Hoping,” and “Kyrie for December 6” – music and Lyrics by Kester Limner, shared under the Creative Commons License, Attribution (CC-BY).
“When He Cometh” (Jewels) – public domain hymn, written in 1856 by William Orcutt Cushing, who was a Methodist minister and advocate for the education of blind children. Originally, the lyrics were written as “make up His jewels”, but my mother always sang it to me as “take up”, so that’s how I sing it. I like the image of God collecting his scattered treasures, like the woman seeking the lost coin in Luke 15. –Kester
“Prophetic Indigenous Voices on the Planetary Crisis” is being promoted in the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion and emerges from Anglican communities. We use the Maori & Polynesian Lord’s Prayer each week, from The New Zealand Prayer Book. The Anglican Maori community is featured in the first webinar. You can view it here
To tell you the truth, I was not aware that World Soil Day existed until I began looking through the UN observances list. Today, we celebrate the 6th year since the official start of World Soil Day, which the UN designated to “keep soil alive, protect biodiversity”. I learned some really startling facts about soil such as, “It can take up to 1,000 years to produce just 2-3cm of soil.” Check out their website to learn more through the interactive map, posters, activities, and videos that explain these efforts and how you can be part of the change we need for preserving soil around the world.
I can’t breathe.
Dirt needs oxygen,
soil must respire to
live.
The concrete knee,
the asphalt grip
(foundations forgotten)
leave
no passage for air
to roots, organisms.
From elemental deeps I
heave,
send forth shoots
of ancient seeds—
forced through cracks—
a green gasp.
Can you picture fertile soil or think about the last time you picked up rich soil, not dirt, in your hands and could almost feel the life within it? It smells and feels different than just dirt. As we continue to build, we neglect the health of the soil with has detrimental effects on the food that we grow. Our food quality not only decreases, but the amount of food that can be grown decreases.
As followers of Jesus, how can we reflect today about our impact on the earth’s soil? For me, this issue, like so many that I have become aware of this year, feels like too much to add to the list of already overwhelming devastation. But if I ask God what I am specifically being called to do with the level of awareness I have, I am confident that God will answer me and guide me. I need to be willing to stop what I am doing, be interrupted by God’s divine presence, and seek to hear from the Almighty One. This issue is on God’s heart because creation care matters, and soil is another area that needs attention as we desire to grow in caring for the earth.
GSP GSOBI20 KM Actions EN
In 2020, the Jewish festival Hanukah, or Festival of Lights, begins on December 10. On this night, Jewish families will use the central candle of the menorah, the servant candle, to light the first of the eight candles that represent the eight days of Hanukah.
As a child, Jesus probably celebrated Hanukah. Like many Jewish traditions, this celebration points to the coming Messiah. But while most Jews probably had no difficulty in seeing the light the Messiah would bring, visualizing Him as servant might have been more challenging. Did Mary imagine her son lighting up the world as the candles were lit? Did she realize that His role included the harder role of service as much as the more glorious role of illumination?
Jesus came as Messiah, a role that includes His kingship, but one that also includes servanthood. Isaiah 53 describes the coming Messiah as a suffering servant. At the last supper, Jesus assumed the role of a servant as He washed His disciples’ feet. Paul speaks of how Jesus took “the very nature of a servant.” (Phil. 2:7) The light Jesus brings into the world comes in the form of service. In coming as a servant, Jesus set an example for us. As the light of the world, He is the source of the light He asks us to be in our dark world.
The servant candle is an appropriate symbol of Jesus’ work in our lives. Like the unlighted candles of the menorah, we wait for the fire of Jesus to set us ablaze, to bring us light and life. As His Spirit brings light to us, we in turn act as servant candles to those around us.
Did you see our other post from this morning? Check out I can’t breathe – World Soil Day by Lisa DeRosa and special poem by Catherine Lawton.
By Lilly Lewin
WEEK one of Advent begins with the candle of HOPE and the passage from Isaiah 64.
The Word HOPE is TIKVAH in Hebrew. What if we viewed HOPE like a cord or a rope that binds us to God?
“We typically think of hope as a feeling that something desirable is likely to happen. Unlike a wish or longing, hope implies expectation of obtaining what is desired. In Hebrew, hope is the word tikvah (teek-VAH). Strong’s defines it as a cord, expectation, and hope. It comes from the Hebrew root kavah meaning to bind together, collect; to expect: – tarry, wait (for, on, upon). While hope in English is abstract, hope in Hebrew provides a strong visual. A bound cord, rope, or thread cannot only be seen with the eyes, but it is something one can grasp hold of with their hands. In other words, hope is something real enough that we can cling to it. Hope is not something out of our reach.“ Kisha Gallagher (more on this from Kisha)
How is this definition of HOPE and encouragement to you today? How do you need to hold on to the cord of HOPE today?
READ Isaiah 64 and allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you today… what is the image or phrase that speaks to you?
Isaiah 64:1-9 (NIV)
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you!
As when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil, come down to make your name known to your enemies and cause the nations to quake before you! For when you did awesome things that we did not expect, you came down, and the mountains trembled before you.
Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.
You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways. But when we continued to sin against them, you were angry. How then can we be saved?
All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.
No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and have given us over to our sins.
Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. Do not be angry beyond measure, Lord; do not remember our sins forever. Oh, look on us, we pray, for we are all your people.
READ the Isaiah passage again in OTHER TRANSLATIONS HERE:
Spend some time reflecting on this passage. What image does the Holy Spirit highlight for you? What do you notice? What is God speaking to you about through Isaiah 64?
CLAY
Here are few practices to try as part of your advent reflections on Isaiah 64. You can do these on your own, around your table as a family or with housemates, or even on a Zoom gathering with your church community. Everyone will just need advance warning about the supplies needed to pray with for your time together.
You will need these supplies to pray with :
A leaf from your yard or garden. Some play dough or clay. A rag or paper towel. A piece of yarn or cord.
Here is a homemade playdough recipe to make and you don’t have to have cream of tarter, it just makes the clay last longer!
PRAYER OF CONFESSION WITH YOUR CLOTH/RAG or Paper Towel.
Hold your cloth/rag/towel in your hand. What “filthy rags” have been getting in your way lately? Old stuff, junk, fears, habits? Hold on to a cloth, rag, or paper towel and give them to Jesus. Allow Jesus to clean up the stuff and forgive you today. As you use paper towels, rags, etc., be reminded that Jesus wants to take away the filthy stuff that is getting in the way of your relationship with him.
RAG
PRAYING WITH A LEAF.
“We are all like fallen leaves, and our sins sweep us away like the wind.”
Have everyone hold on to their leaf. Look at the Leaf…
Consider the color, texture of the leaf. How are you feeling like that leaf today? Talk to Jesus about this.
Consider how you/they have been blown about lately by the cares of the world.
Talk to Jesus about how you are feeling today.
What do you know to be true about leaves? What are the positives of leaves? Ask Jesus to reveal to you the message of the leaf for you this Advent Season.
Give Jesus your cares, concerns to carry for you.
LEAVES
ADVENT DEVOTION/PRACTICE with Clay
“We are the clay you are our potter, we are all the work of your hand” Isaiah 64:8
Play with your clay.
Mold it, feel it in your hands.
How is God molding you in this season? In this time of Covid-19?
How does God want to mold you? Perhaps God wants to mold you more into the image of God? What would that look like?
How have you felt God’s hand at work in your life?
As you play with your clay, ask Jesus/God to show you what God is molding in your life right now.
Take time to listen.
Create a symbol or a clay figure of a person to represent you. Add this to your clay to your Advent wreath/ centerpiece. Know that God will continue to hold you in God’s hand this Advent season.
Know the Jesus is continuing to mold you into his image.
Spend some time thanking Jesus for how you are made and for his love.
CLAY
THE CORD OF HOPE
Hold a piece of yarn, cord or rope in your hand. Consider the definition of HOPE at the top of the page. The word Tikvah (Hebrew for Hope) is first found in Joshua 2 in Rahab’s red cord that saves her life and the lives of her family members from destruction in the battle of Jericho. The cord of salvation and the cord of hope! What does your cord of hope need to be like this Advent season? Are you connecting to the hope of Jesus? Maybe, like me, you need to be reminded that Jesus showed the ultimate connection to us by coming to earth as a baby. Jesus wants us to hold on to the cord of HOPE and know that he is with us even in the mess of our lives and our world! Tie the cord around your wrist as a reminder or use it as a bookmark or put it somewhere you will see often each day to help you remember!
ADVENT CENTERPIECE
CORD bracelet
by Tom Sine
As we raced into 2020, we suddenly found ourselves dealing with the COVID 19-pandemic, disrupted school schedules, and Zoom church services. If all that wasn’t enough, COVID-19 has caused a recession where millions have been laid off… and it isn’t over yet!
Dwight Friesen and I invite you to view a webinar for followers of Jesus who want to both be a difference and make a difference in 2021. Send us your feedback and questions, we want to hear from you!
In 2020s Foresight: Three Vital Practices for Thriving in a Decade of Accelerating Change, Dwight and I show Christian leaders:
- How to anticipate waves of change that are likely to impact those they work with in their churches and communities;
- How to use their lead time to research innovative ways to address those new challenges;
- Finally, how to select those creative responses that most fully reflect the ways of Jesus.
As we race towards Christmas 2020, we have already been alerted to some very bad news, The refusal of many to take seriously the incoming waves of the COVID-19 pandemic has cost some of our family and friends, who shared Thanksgiving, their health and for some, even their lives. The Washington Post observed that, “Thanksgiving leftovers won’t taste as good if you’re on a ventilator.”
We urge all of our readers to take very seriously the dangerous COVID-19 Wave coming our way for Christmas 2020. We urge you to very seriously consider hosting a Zoom celebration with your loved ones and friends. You can open presents together over Zoom, have activities as well as your respective meals together.
In the new year, President Biden and Vice President Harris will need all of our help to deal with a growing economic recession in 2021. Thousands of young people in our churches and neighborhoods are not going to be able to go to college because of the growing impact of the COVID-19 Recession. This is an opportunity for all of our churches to come alongside young people in our churches and our communities to help them launch their lives in times like these.
We are all looking forward to the good news in 2021 of the growing availability of immunizations to protect us from COVID-19. It is also a year to reinvent where we live, how we work to support our families and how we can join neighborhood change-makers to create a better way of life for all our neighbors.
2020s Foresight: Three Vital Practices for Thriving in a Decade of Accelerating Change is designed to be a study book for church study groups, campus ministry groups, Christian colleges and seminaries with questions at the end of each chapter. If you contact Dwight and I ahead of time, we would welcome the opportunity to Zoom into your discussion group and discuss creative ways we can all both be a difference and make a difference in the new year of 2021!!!
by J. Thomas
Growing up, my youth pastor liked giving sermons about the resurrection leading up to Christmas, and Christmas sermons on Easter Sunday. He was funny that way. Admittedly, I did appreciate hearing a message on the reason Jesus came to earth leading up to the day that celebrates his birth. As I prepare my heart for Christmas, the Advent season is the journey leading up to the blessed day. This reminds me of the many great experiences that biblical figures have on their journeys or “on the road” to somewhere. Today, I reflect on two of Jesus’ followers shortly after Jesus’ death and resurrection on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24.
Imagine two of Jesus’ closest followers, but not part of the twelve, traveling away from Jerusalem talking and having an in-depth discussion on the week’s events: the triumphant entry of Jesus on a donkey, the last supper, a secret arrest followed by a sham trial, the public execution, and now mysterious reports of an empty tomb and Jesus sightings. It is a married couple. Think about the lively, perhaps bickering, conversation and debate unfolding when Jesus himself comes alongside them and walks with them. They have no idea it is him, and the pair update this uninformed stranger about the crazy week and aftermath. I can just picture how in the retelling of the events, the married couple disagrees on the details, speaks over each other to offer commentary, and express emotions of confusion, hope, and sadness all mixed up. No wonder why Jesus responds with a “how foolish you are” annoyance at their chattering. Then for the rest of the journey, it is Jesus’ time to give the Bible study of a lifetime – starting with Moses and all of the Prophets, Jesus expounds on what is “said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.”
Photo by Jonny Gios on Unsplash.com
Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?
Amazing things happen on the road. So, as we travel with our family and friends during this year’s Advent journey, let us expect glorious things to occur. I want us to talk, laugh, and debate about the world’s events. We are experiencing strange and disorienting times when it is hard to see what is up and what is down. It is dizzying. But I admire the journey. Like the travelers on the road to Emmaus, I am on my own journey after a confusing and dizzying few months. I feel like I have been persecuted but also triumphant in starting a public ministry and connecting to a new church. And like Jesus was able to tell a single narrative that spans the entire Bible, I feel Jesus is revealing to me a story that spans my entire life.
At three-and-half years old, I am separated from my primary caregiver, my grandmother, as she returns to Korea after living with us from birth. Both my parents are still there to feed me and shelter me, but as my earliest childhood memory, I am left with a deep loss and a fear of abandonment that follows me to adulthood. I am pained by how my parents did not prepare me for the separation and provide an explanation of what was going to happen. I’m incensed when a second aunt, whom I saw only twice before, tries to comfort me. She implores, “Don’t be sad! I’m still here. I’ll take care of you.” I look at her. Her lack of understanding cuts deep. I push her away, and yell, “I don’t want you! I want my grandma!” I am on my knees and bawl as I watch my grandmother walk away down the airport terminal.
What I did not recognize back then, I realize now. Just as the two followers did not recognize it was Jesus speaking with them on their journey, I did not realize that it was my Lord and Savior that spoke to me through that second aunt. What possessed that woman to say those words to me? Why are they still burned in my memory as I recount the story? What was the salt in my grief as a toddler, is now a message of hope and joy. My God never left me. He was always there. I did not recognize it, but it was he that tried to comfort me. And though I pushed him away because I did not recognize my Savior, he continued to pursue me until I reached out for his hand.
Whether we are walking away from something or walking toward a destination, on the road is an opportunity to have a Jesus encounter. With untrained eyes, light is blinding. We may shun it at first. It hurts. We may close our eyes and reject the light. But when the moment comes when we can see the story of our lives from God’s point of view, our eyes open and we see Jesus was there all along. Leading up to Christmas, expect great things to happen. There are revelations all around us that Jesus is eager to unlock for us. Please lean into the light and press in closer to Jesus. And that burning you feel in your heart, that is the light within. Tell your story to another, and let it shine
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