Blog (Page 28)
Toward Christmas Eve
Restore us, O God; let your face shine, that we may be saved. You have fed us with the bread of tears, and given us tears to drink in full measure. —Psalm 80.3, 5 The Gentle One does not cause us pain, yet all tears come from God. The joy of Christmas is the presence of Christ in the dark night of our hurt. Let your sorrows be a manger for the Christ child, a lowly resting place for the…
Love
Advent is a time to practice loving every little bit that we can, trusting the holy that we can’t yet see, loving the holy child in each beautiful, dear, precious, screwed-up person, every one a beloved child of God, so far from home. ~Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Hope on the Advent Way
May this poem from the Brazilian theologian and educator Rubem Alves accompany you on the Advent Way: What is hope? It is the pre-sentiment that imagination is more real and reality is less real than it looks. It is the hunch that the overwhelming brutality of facts that oppress and repress us is not the last word. It is the suspicion that reality is more complex than the realists want us to believe. That the frontiers of the possible are…
Imagine
We commend this video and website to you this week as you imagine walking and turning on the The Advent Way. How does the way in which God moves to turn restore justice and set right the world make a place for you? Take time to move from scene to scene. Read the text. Imagine. The Boy
Toward Sunday
We are grateful for our time together on The Advent Way. We hope this worship series, rooted in the book of Isaiah and Matthew’s Gospel, invites reflection on how the Advent way prepares us for the beauty and mystery of Christmas. Our privilege as Christians is to receive the gracious gifts of God’s presence in Christ. Our task is to prepare for his coming so that we will not miss life’s greatest gift. Outline of The Advent Way December 1:…
God the Accompanist.
Here is an image of God. Playing along. Waiting for you to approach. Knowing your tune before you are aware. Accompanying you. What would it be like if you understood that this is how God is with us on The Advent Way?
The more we are open…
Worship this Sunday is rooted in Isaiah 35, 1-10, where the prophet describes the coming Servant of Yahweh. It is precisely this quote that Jesus first uses to announce the exact nature of his own ministry (Luke 4.18-19). In each case Jesus describes his work as moving outside of polite and proper limits and boundaries to reunite things that have been marginalized or excluded by society: the poor, the imprisoned, the blind, the downtrodden. His ministry is not to gather…
Turn
God leads through all the events, all the circumstances of your life. Nothing in your life is so insignificant, so small, that God cannot be found at its center. We think of God in the dramatic things, the glorious sunsets, the majestic mountains, the tempestuous seas; but God is the little things too. God is in the music, in laughter and in the dance…. how might you turn toward God, and let God lead you in your dance of…
Toward Sunday
We are grateful for our time together on The Advent Way. We hope this worship series, rooted in the book of Isaiah and Matthew’s Gospel, invites reflection on how the Advent way prepares us for the beauty and mystery of Christmas. Outline of The Advent Way December 1: Walk. Isaiah 2.1-5. December 8: Turn. Matthew 3.1-3. December 15: Imagine. Isaiah 35.1-10. December 22: Love. Matthew 1.18-25. Christmas Eve: 5:00pm & 11:00pm Read the poem from Isaiah 35.1-10. Noel Leo Erskine writes, “Although the people are in a place…
Meeting God on the Advent Way
“There is no limit to the ways in which God may makeGod’s self known. At every turn in our lives there can be a meeting place with God….” (from Prayer by Mother Frances Dominica) Where are you right now? Who are you with or who will you see today that may make God known to you? How might you make God known for another? Turn toward those around you as you go through your day as you live into the…
Sanctuary wilderness
“…worship is always something of a wilderness where people think their lives through and wonder about all that is unknown and frightening and causes them to double-andtriple-check their holds on what is reassuring. No matter how beautiful the sanctuary, the pew where people sit with their fears, worries, responsibilities, and all the rest is a kind of wilderness place where people confront the howling winds, thorny brambles, and lonely emptinesses of their lives.” (from Feasting on the Word by Mark…