Advent Podcast #2
- Story by Jim and Donna Mathwig
- Music by Aaron Strumpel,In Mansions and Church of the Beloved
- Reflection by Dr. Dwight Friesen
- Story by Jim and Donna Mathwig
- Music by Aaron Strumpel,In Mansions and Church of the Beloved
- Reflection by Dr. Dwight Friesen, Seattle School of Theology and Psychology Seattle WA
- Meditation by Christine Sine, taken from the Advent devotional Waiting for the Light
- Produced by Ryan Marsh, Church of the Beloved
Listen now:
Listen to Donna and Jim share their grief as they lose their home in the recession, enjoy Aaron Strumpel’s music and ponder Dwight Friesen’s profound reflections on Advent and the need to knock on the doors of injustice and anticipate where Christ might be born.
By Lilly Lewin
We are on the way to Bethlehem.
We are all on the way, in the midst of Advent and all the holiday preparations that go with the season.
How are things going?
If you are like me, you still have a long list of things to do and preparations to make.
We are on the way to Bethlehem and the birth of Jesus.
Are we ready?
Are we getting close? I mean are we getting closer to Him or are we feeling farther away due to those long lists of things to do and stuff piling up emotionally and maybe even physically! (you should see my dining room table! Filled with paperwork and wrapping!)
The gospel reading for this week is Luke 3: 1-6 which reminds us of Isaiah 40.
ISAIAH 40 The Message
“Comfort, oh comfort my people,”
says your God.
“Speak softly and tenderly to Jerusalem,
but also make it very clear
That she has served her sentence,
that her sin is taken care of—forgiven!
She’s been punished enough and more than enough,
and now it’s over and done with.”
Thunder in the desert!
“Prepare for God’s arrival!
Make the road straight and smooth,
a highway fit for our God.
Fill in the valleys,
level off the hills,
Smooth out the ruts,
clear out the rocks.
Then God’s bright glory will shine
and everyone will see it.
Yes. Just as God has said.”
LUKE 3 (NIV)
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar—when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene— 2 during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3 He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 4 As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet:
“A voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.
5 Every valley shall be filled in,
every mountain and hill made low.
The crooked roads shall become straight,
the rough ways smooth.
6 And all people will see God’s salvation.’”
The Isaiah passage is one of my very favorite passages. It gives me great hope on the way to Bethlehem.
Speak comfort!
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed,
She has been punished enough
Her sins are forgiven
Can you picture God saying this to you today?
Can you imagine God speaking comfort and speaking softly and tenderly to you?
Telling you that you that your sins are forgiven?
Sit with this awhile. Receive the comfort of this.
Breathe it in.
What is a symbol of this comfort for you?
Is it a cozy blanket, a warm fire, a cup of tea or good coffee?
Look up this passage on Bible Gateway and read it in different translations.
What do you see or hear? What do you notice?
The second part of the passage can also help us get ready for our journey to Bethlehem.
And you might need to work with the second half of the passage in order to really rest in the first part, the comfort and forgiveness.
“Prepare for God’s arrival!
Make the road straight and smooth,
a highway fit for our God.
Fill in the valleys,
level off the hills,
Smooth out the ruts,
clear out the rocks.
What are the ROCKS that are in your path right now?
What are the things that are making your path rocky and rough and preventing you from going smoothly to Bethlehem?
Notice the rocks in your yard, or on the street or path near your home. Collect a few rocks on your next walk around the neighborhood. Hold a rock or two in your hands and consider the things that are blocking your path and the pathway of your heart to receive the King this Advent.
What things are in your way?
Ask Jesus to show you these things.
Are there rocks of fear and anxiety in your way?
Are there rocks of resistance and bitterness because of broken dreams or feelings of not enough?
Are there broken rocks that need healing?
Are there rocks that others have thrown on your path that need to be cleared away and forgiven?
What about the rocks you’ve thrown on the paths of others? Or on your own path that are blocking you?
Rocks of busyness, worry, doubt, impatience, laundry, homework, etc…
Talk to Jesus about these things and then go back and read the beginning of Isaiah 40.
Allow Jesus to have these rocks.
Allow Jesus to clear the path for you.
And as you are driving the highways this week, notice when they are straight.
Notice the valleys and hills around you.
Thank Jesus that you are on the path to Bethlehem.
Continue to ask him to take away the rocks on your path.
And let us all receive the Comfort and Forgiveness and Love of Jesus this December.
Listen to this passage in Messiah by Handel
more ideas for advent and christmas at freerangeworship.com
by Christine Sine
As Christmas rapidly approaches and I survey our world with its pain and suffering I was reminded of this prayer that I wrote a couple of years ago. It is my favourite Advent prayer and I love to revisit (and repost it) each year.
How do we make room at this season for all the marginalized people in our society and our world? How do we reach out to bring peace and not violence, healing not disease, wholeness and not destruction? How do we make room for all those who are despised and abandoned not just at this time of year but at all times?
by Christine Sine
At the beginning of the calendar year we make resolutions and plans for the entire year. Why don’t we do the same before Advent, the beginning of the church year? After all, for people of faith, the liturgical year and rhythm that revolves around the life death and resurrection of Jesus, should be more important for us than the secular year.
Tom and I have just printed out the the daily lectionary readings from the Book of Common Prayer for the coming year. This is still my favourite scripture reading plan though I must confess that this year I have taken a break for a few months and just focused on one verse and some days just part of a verse for my daily devotions.
The daily lectionary readings cycle on a three year rotation. There is an Old Testament, Psalm, New Testament and Gospel reading for each day. Part of what I love is that the readings from each section of the bible follow the same theme and have helped me to understand a lot about where Jesus drew his theology from. The Jewish leaders would have been well educated in the Old Testament which is why they were so often annoyed by what he said.
What I don’t like about these readings is that they do not include all the books of the Bible so it is good to identify these and work out a way to incorporate them as well in your readings.
Planning for the Coming Year
I heartily recommend taking time in the next few weeks to plan your scripture readings, prayer rhythm and retreat times for the coming year. Get together with your spouse, your family, or a group of friends and do some brainstorming.
Here are a few questions to ask yourself first:
- Do you want to follow the church calendar with your daily readings?
- Do you want to read through the entire Bible in a year?
- Do you want a contemplative approach to bible study and focus on a single verse or phrase each day?
- Is there a specific Biblical theme you would like to consider?
- Is there a Bible App or devotional App that appeals to you?
- Are there blogs you visit regularly that augment your Bible reading? If so how can you more intentionally incorporate these into your scripture reading? Is there a focus these blogs offer that can run in synch with your readings?
- Are there Apps you use regularly that
Choose Your Scripture Plan
Here are some resources to help you identify which plan you might like to try. I have tried to put together a list from a wide variety of denominational perspectives:
The Voice is a great source for the daily scriptures of the liturgical year. The site also has one of the most comprehensive explanations of Advent and the symbols we use during the season.
The Daily Office from the Mission of St Clare and based on the Book of Common Prayer
Daily readings from the Presbyterian Mission Agency USA
BibleStudyTools.com provides several plans for reading through the whole or parts of the bible in a twelve month span.
Reflections from Forward Day by Day
Northumbria Community provides resources for praying the daily office through morning, midday, evening and compline services.
Bible App Anyone?
Sacred Space – Daily Prayer with the Irish Jesuits
Pray as You Go – also from the Jesuits. I love this daily prayer for your phone.
If reading the daily lectionary readings is a little much for you check out Lectionary Liturgies which posts liturgies for Sunday worship based on the RCL weekly readings.
biblegateway.com provides a variety of reading plans that can be downloaded as an app.
The Bible App – also provides lots of reading plans for different seasons of the liturgical year as well as those themed around a topic selected by the user.
Or if you really want to be challenged this Advent try this Social Justice Advent Guide for Families from the North Carolina Council of Churches. It uses the Lectionary Year A scriptures but it would be easy to adapt these for any year.
And Rachel Held Evans has a post on 28 Ideas for Advent that is definitely worth a look.
This is one of a series of posts on resources for Advent and Christmas. Check out the other posts here.
I wrote this litany several years ago for the Advent devotional Waiting for the Light but decided this year that it needed some revision and updating.
In this Advent season we await the coming of Christ
Come, Lord Jesus, come, We await your coming.
We await the coming of God’s revealing light,
Come, Lord Jesus, come, We await your coming.
We await the coming of God’s saving hope,
Come, Lord Jesus, come, We await your coming.
We wait the coming of God’s redeeming child,
Come, Lord Jesus, come, We await your coming.
(Pause for lighting of the Advent candles)
We wait for the God of life,
We wait for the Christ of love,
We wait for the Spirit of truth.
Come down, come in and dwell among us.
We wait in expectation of your coming,
We wait in hope for your promises,
We wait in joy for your salvation.
Come down, come in and dwell among us.
Come into our hearts that we may love you,
Come into our minds that we may know you,
Come into our lives that we may serve you.
Come down, come in and dwell among us.
(Read Scripture for the Day)
Child of promise come,
Revealer of God come,
Bringer of life come,
Come to the beaten and the battered,
To the despised and rejected,
To all in whom the divine image is still distorted.
We wait in joyful expectation.
Not for a distant emperor but for a helpless babe.
Not for a prince in a gold palace, but for a displaced and frightened refugee.
Not for a man of power, but for a vulnerable infant.
Come to those outcast like shepherds in the field.
Come to foreigners like Magi watching from afar.
Come to rich and poor, young and old, male and female.
We wait in hopeful anticipation.
Come and bless all creation with your love,
Bring salvation on the earth,
Rule with justice and in peace.
Come Child of promise, open the windows of our hearts
Come Christ of compassion, open the doors of our homes
Come Prince of Peace, open the pathways to our lives
We wait with all the peoples of the earth,
Child of hope we welcome your coming,
Christ of life we welcome your coming,
King of glory we welcome your coming.
Our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.
Come Lord Jesus and lead the captives from their prisons,
Come Lord Jesus for in you we trust O King of kings.
Come to bring peace in the midst of war,
Come Lord Jesus for in you we trust O King of kings.
Come to offer comfort in the presence of mourning
Come Lord Jesus for in you we trust O King of kings.
Come to provide abundance in the midst of hunger
Come Lord Jesus for in you we trust O King of kings.
Come to show forth justice for those who have been oppressed
Come Lord Jesus for in you we trust O King of kings.
Let us put on hope to guide us,
Let us put on love to surround us,
Let us put on joy to sustain us,
Let us put on peace to inspire us.
And clothe ourselves with Christ.
Amen.
When I posed the question “What song bubbles up within your heart at this season?” I got a number of responses. Most of them were Christmas rather than Advent songs, so I thought I would list some of my favorites for Advent.
This selection focuses on Advent themes rather than the Christmas carols that the secular culture grabs onto before Christmas is seen vaguely on the horizon. These songs really help me to keep my spiritual focus in the weeks leading up to Christmas. Then when Christmas arrives (or at least gets close) I can enjoy the carols fully. I love Advent chants, especially Gregorian chants, and also contemplative music so obviously this is the focus of my suggestions here.
Everyone’s favorite is O Come O Come Emmanuel which is often used in the days leading up to Christmas so I thought it was a good one to start with.
Gregorian Chants to Inspire Us.
Gregorian chants especially during Advent are a wonderful way to calm my soul and rest my spirit.
I also highly recommend acquiring is a set of Advent chants recorded by The Benedictines of Mary “Advent at Ephesus” These hit the top of the classic music lists a couple of years ago and it is easy to see why.
And another favourite of mine an hour of contemplative music from Hildegard of Bingen Voice of the Living Light
And I just came across this amazing set of chants recorded in 1930
Advent Songs from the Black Gospel Tradition.
Paul Neeley at Global Christian Worship posted a link to this wonderful collection of inspirational African American gospel songs that are appropriate to Advent. It included this inspirational recording.
Celtic Music for the Season
My favourite Celtic style musician is Jeff Johnson. His Selah service meditations on Psalms are beautiful to listen to at this time of the year to help us maintain our peace. His Christmas album A Quiet Knowing Christmas is also one of my constant companions.
I also enjoy this great collection of instrumental Celtic Christmas music.
Another inspirational recording is this one from Celtic Woman.
From Pentatonix
I love these not quite so traditional songs from Pentatonix
And Carol of the Bells:
A Few More Traditional Christmas Suggestions.
If you are looking for more traditional Christmas Music here are some that are hard to beat:
One song that remind us of the season of Advent rather than Christmas:
The Three Tenors Christmas Concert in Vienna 1999
Andrea Bocelli Christmas songs
And for those that want to check out the vast range of what is out there.
Top 40 Pop has a list of their top 100 Christmas songs .
And a fascinating list of 50 top Christmas Songs from TimeOut London.
A great list of classical Christmas albums. from Ranker.com.
Looking for an International Christmas:
I love this Arabic Byzantine Hymn of the Nativity.
Some beautiful songs for peace, from Latin America:.
African Christmas by Ed Jordan is a very powerful song to listen to at this time of the year.
Betelehemu – a Nigerian Christmas song sung by the African Children’s Choir
I was not able to find this song on You-tube, but one Asian carol I would recommend is The Hunger Carol with words by New Zealander Shirley Erena Murray and music by Taiwanese hymnologist I-to Loh
And for more inspirational carols from around the world you might like to do a Christmas search on the Global Christian Worship site. Check out the carols in Arabic, Yoruba (Nigeria), Pidgin from Papua New Guinea and many more languages.
For several years I produced an Advent meditation video with background music by Jeff Johnson. These can be viewed on YouTube but here are my favorites
As a free gift to you all, a small way to say thank you for your prayers, support and encouragement, we offer, as well as Advent in a Jar, our Advent/Christmas colouring book, Colour Your Way Through Advent and Christmas. Colouring pages are based on the O Antiphon images drawn for us last year by Danielle Poland for our popular devotional A Journey Toward Home: Soul Travel from Advent to Lent. Additional Christmas images were created by our new volunteer Shelby Selvidge.
And don’t forget our prayer cards and other Godspace resources
Prayer Cards. I have loved putting these together and their popularity suggests you enjoy them too. There are three sets available – two that provide short reflections and prayers for pausing through the day and a third with a Celtic theme. These are available as separate sets or you can bundle them together to receive one of each set. I find these cards enrich my own devotional time and I hope they will do the same for yours.
Waiting for the Light – An Advent Devotional – Christine Sine
A Journey Towards Home: Soul Travel From Advent to Lent with contributions from a number of Godspace authors
Advent Waiting Experience by Lilly Lewin
A Fragrant Offering: A Daily Prayer Cycle In The Celtic Tradition – John Birch
Seeking the Light: Poetry for the Soul – Ana Lisa DeJong
This is part of a series on Christmas/Advent resources. Check out the other posts here
by Christine Sine
This year I am creating an Advent calendar with succulents. It all started when I was browsing Pinterest one day and followed a link to what purported to be a succulent Advent calendar. I was so disappointed when all I found was a box with 24 succulents in it.
“I can do better than that I thought and started to brainstorm. I went to the local thrift store and came across this amazing stand which I think is probably for cupcakes. It has 24 spaces in it. Perfect I thought and at $4 a real steal.
Then I went hunting for terra cotta pots and not surprisingly Amazon ha
d just what I wanted – 24 small terra cotta pots that I then had fun spray painting some purple, some pink (from Hobby Lobby where it was half the price of Amazon) to be consistent with the 4 weeks of Advent. The hardest thing was getting the lids off the cans.
Finally I added some remote controlled, battery operated candles that I can light when the pots are fully planted. They ere not cheap but I know I will use them again next year. Real candles would have been great but I was afraid of using real candles as that many might burn the place down.
I numbered the pots from 1 to 24 and have started planting succulents in them. My original plan was to plant one a day, but that is a little messy to do each day so I am getting them all planted over the next couple of days and will decorate one each day as the month progresses. It is a fun alternative to my usual Advent garden and means that I can leave my gratitude garden on my desk as part of my sacred space. All I needed to do was add a few candles to give it a more Advent/Christmasy feel.
Part of what I have enjoyed about creating this calendar is that it has had me thinking about Advent for weeks – not just about the calendar but about the whole purpose of Advent. It has reinforced my exploration of Celtic Advent and has helped me to get into the spirit of the season in a very powerful way.
You may not want to make a succulent Advent calendar but maybe there is something else that you love to do that can provide the materials for an Advent calendar maybe for next year as it is probably too late to work on it for this year. Alternatively you might like to start brainstorming for the Christmas and Epiphany season. Is there something you enjoy doing that could provide the materials for a unique and creative way to celebrate the season?
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