'advent' Tagged Posts (Page 2)
What we need.
“Night is drawing nigh – How long the road is. But, for all the time the journey has already taken, how you have needed every second of it in order to learn what the road passes-by.” Dag Hammarskjold
Toward Sunday
Advent is the time in which the church waits for the mystery of Christmas to be born. This Advent we hope to wait together in the wonder and mystery of the dark even as we seek the light of God’s coming into our world. Outline of Worship Series. November 30, 2014 Mark 13.24-37 December 7, 2014 Mark 1.1-8 December 14, 2014 John 1,6-8, 19-28 December 21, 2014 Luke 1.26-38 We turn this week from Mark 13 to the very first chapter…
Holding hope.
Holding hope is a practice we are called to work on every day as followers of Jesus. Right now, we hold hope for the community of Ferguson, Missouri, and for all of us even as we feel the deep pain and suffering of racial inequality. Once again white privilege takes hold of the justice system and the deep gulf between the police and those who are policed is exposed. This gulf has been formed over generations of discrimination and by…
Toward Sunday
This week we begin the season of Advent. Advent is the time in which the church waits for the mystery of Christmas to be born. Sometimes we talk about this as waiting for “the light to illumine the dark.” As I write this the light is fading in the sky outside of the church and the clouds are illumined from beneath by the setting sun. Darkness is coming soon. Darkness is often feared rather than welcomed. But what if there…
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
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…
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…