Category Archives: Advent

Prayer for the Third Monday in Advent

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Stop being afraid. The Lord favors you.
Me, Lord? How can I possibly magnify you? 
How can I make you any bigger than you are?
Nothing is impossible with God.
Well, I wish you’d get to it, Lord. Bring down the mighty and fill the hungry with good things, and fulfill your promise of peace among the nations.

O Leader of the House of Israel,
giver of the Law to Moses on Sinai:
come to rescue us with your mighty power!

And while you’re at it …
comfort those who mourn, 
be present to the lonely,
heal the sick,
provide for the poor,
show mercy, Lord.
Why do you think I have come to you, favored one?
Stop being afraid. You get to it.
Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word. Amen.

Prayer for the Second Monday in Advent

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Holy and Immediate God,
urgently calling us out of ourselves
to turn around and see you,
help us see the urgency of your coming.
In this bleak midwinter – or midsummer –
let ‘the beginning of the Good News’ grow in us.
Guide us as we answer John the Baptizer’s call to
prepare the way of the Lord
in our own hearts,
in our world,
in your will.

Amen.

snow-covered trees

Prayer for the First Monday in Advent

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December 4, 2023

Your advent is upon us, Lord. 
In the fullness of time, you said, you would come to us.
And here you are,
In one whose hope has worn thin,
In one whose “To Do” list never gets done,
In one who doubts but still trusts,
And in one who believes but still wonders.
In the Bread and in the Cup,
Here you are, just as you said you would be:
God with us, in the fullness of time.
Holy One, as you come toward us, may we come toward you.
May your advent be ours, too.
In the fullness of your time,
May our times be in your hands,
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

snow-covered trees

Monday Prayer

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12/19/2022

We’re coming down to the wire, God. This is the point in Advent where, if I haven’t done it by now, it isn’t going to happen. Those dreams I had of creating the perfect Christmas for my family, my church, myself …. they were lovely, weren’t they, Lord? 

But maybe they weren’t the dream you’ve been dreaming all along. 

Like the dream you gave Joseph. 

Your dream disrupted Joseph’s dreams of the perfect marriage, the perfect family, the perfect life …

Yet Joseph didn’t argue with you (the way I would).

As far as we know, Joseph stayed silent (the way I would not).

Joseph simply obeyed. Mary may have said, “Let it be with me according to your word,” but Joseph quietly acted, even if he didn’t completely understand what you were about to do. 

And you chose Joseph, of all the possible people in Nazareth, to be the one who would teach Jesus how to be human.

So, Lord, help us to discern your dreams for us, and make us willing to obey you, just as Joseph did.

Give us courage to abandon our old dreams, dreams that focus on what we want for ourselves, instead of what you want for us. For we know that what you want for us is far greater than anything we can imagine.

Help us to embrace the new dreams you put into our hearts and minds, dreams for peace, for justice, for lifting up the lowly and filling the hungry with good things, dreams for sharing the good news that You are with us, Emmanuel, and you will save us from our sins when we turn to you.

And then, Lord, teach us how to be human, too. Just as Joseph taught Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us. Amen. 

God With Us: Repent and Rejoice! – sermon on Zephaniah 3:14-20

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Advent 3C – December 12, 2021
VIdeo

This is Gaudete Sunday! It’s the Latin word for ‘rejoice’ taken from the first word in the New Testament reading for today. Rejoice in the Lord always we just heard Paul say to the Philippians – Again I say Rejoice! And why? Because the Lord is near.

Last week we heard John the Baptist calling us to a ‘baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” as he cried out in the wilderness to prepare the way of the Lord. And why? Because the Lord is near!

You just heard the gospel reading for today, describing John’s ministry in greater detail. As he called people to repentance, they had some questions about how, exactly, to go about that. Yes, we know repenting means turning away from one thing so we can turn toward something else, but how do we do that?

So John gives some specific examples. He encourages his listeners to look for ways to make things right and fair, to be generous with what we have, so that others who don’t have anything can be clothed and fed and cared for. He starts out calling people a brood of vipers, but ends up proclaiming the good news that … the Lord is near!

We are three fourths of the way through the season of Advent. And while we might think of these four weeks of preparation as leading up to Christmas, our focus should probably be looking forward to Christ’s coming again in glory as much as remembering his first coming in human form.

In fact, during medieval times, the four Sundays of Advent had nothing to do with Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love – the themes of Advent in the middle ages were Death, Judgement, Heaven, and Hell. Put that in your Christmas stocking! The truth is that Advent simply means Arrival. We look for Jesus to come among us, to be God with us – Emmanuel. So today, we hear the Old Testament prophet Zephaniah describe what that will be like, how God with us changes everything, and why God wants to be with us in the first place.

Sing aloud, O daughter Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter Jerusalem! The Lord has taken away the judgments against you, he has turned away your enemies. The king of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst; you shall fear disaster no more. On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: Do not fear, O Zion; do not let your hands grow weak.
The Lord, your God, is in your midst, a warrior who gives victory; he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing as on a day of festival.
I will remove disaster from you so that you will not bear reproach for it. I will deal with all your oppressors at that time. And I will save the lame and gather the outcast, and I will change their shame into praise and renown in all the earth. At that time I will bring you home, at the time when I gather you; for I will make you renowned and praised among all the peoples of the earth, when I restore your fortunes before your eyes, says the Lord. (Zephaniah 3:14-20)

Rejoice! Exult! I wonder if we even know what those words mean anymore. The short definition of “exult” is to ‘feel or show triumphant elation or jubilation.’ Try explaining that to a kindergartener.

Let me give you an example: It’s the sound you make and the way you act when a player from your favorite football team intercepts a pass and runs it in for a touchdown. Especially if that touchdown puts your team in the lead.

You exult when you watch your child ride a bike unassisted for the first time. I exult every time I get a sermon written in time to preach it. It’s that “Woohoo!” feeling of gratitude that things are good – really good! – and we are filled with joy and gladness we can’t contain. So why does the prophet Zephaniah, who has spent so much breath telling the nation of Israel how bad things are going to be for them because of their disobedience, suddenly do a 180 turn and start telling us to rejoice?

Because God has taken away the judgments against you. The first two chapters of Zephaniah are all about the punishment God intends for those who have rejected God. It’s pretty dire. A lot worse than being called a brood of vipers. Then, suddenly, here in chapter three, God does an about face – God repents. Now hear me out, I’m not spouting heresy here. There are several places in scripture where God repents:

  • God repented that he had made humans, because they would only do evil, and it ‘grieved him at his heart,’ so he told Noah to build an ark before God flooded the earth (Genesis 6:6)
  • God repented from destroying Jerusalem because of King David’s sin, and stopped the angel of death at the threshing floor which eventually would become the land where Solomon would build the first Temple (Chronicles 21:15)
  • When Nineveh repented of its sin in Jonah 3:10, God repented of destroying Nineveh.

Do you notice what all this repenting has in common? God gets disgusted with humans who have rejected God’s love, and decides to destroy them – then repents, or changes direction, and shows mercy instead. You could almost say that God is the model of repentance. God shows us how to repent of our sin, by repenting of punishment and turning toward mercy and life.

Here in Zephaniah, that’s exactly what God does. Zephaniah describes the Day of the Lord as a time of doom and destruction, but God says, “On that day, you won’t be ashamed … no longer will you be haughty on my holy mountain … no one will make you afraid,” (3:11-13) because God will shower God’s people with love and forgiveness. And like everything else God does, this new message of love and joy goes over the top.

“Rejoice,” Zephaniah says, “God is in your midst, so you do not need to be afraid anymore.” Your judgment, your punishment for all the ways you have abandoned God or ignored God or rebelled against God – all that is cleared away. You have no reason to be afraid, because God is in your midst. God is with us. And that brings us to my favorite verse in the whole Bible, and the central idea of this passage. It is a five-fold blessing:

  1. The Lord your God is in your midst,
  2. a warrior who gives victory;
  3. he will rejoice over you with gladness,
  4. he will renew (or quiet) you in his love,
  5. he will exult over you with loud singing …

All that rejoicing and exulting Zephaniah tells us to do back in verse 14 is merely a reflection of God’s rejoicing and exulting. All our loud singing is simply an answer to the singing God does over us. Have you ever considered that God sings? And when God sings, it’s because of you?

Ponder that for a moment. You are so precious to God, so deeply loved, that God rejoices over you and sings your name, even as God is in your midst, right beside you, God with you. I know the first time this verse hit me, it wasn’t with the realization that God cared so much for me, it was the fact that God sings! And if God sings, and we are made in God’s image, that’s why we sing. Not for our own pleasure, but for God’s.

It has only been with time and deeper understanding that I have come to realize it isn’t the singing that’s important here. It’s the love. Sometimes that love actually prohibits us from indulging in the pleasure of singing – as it has over these past months of pandemic restrictions. But if love is more important that anything else in this passage, surely we can express that love for God and for one another in other expressions of joy, at least for now.

And that brings us to the final part of this passage, this message of hope, peace, and joy for the third Sunday in Advent. Finally, we come to God’s promises, God’s pledge to do what God says he will do.

In the Day of the Lord, the day of rejoicing and exultation, God says “I will…”

I will remove disaster.
I will deal with your oppressors.
I will save the lame.
I will gather the outcast.
I will change your shame into your fame.

And best of all, because God is with us,
“I will bring you home.”

Isn’t that exactly where we want to be? At home with God, as God is at home with us? This is what matters. This is what Advent is preparing us for – the time when time is no more, when all the promises of the ages have been fulfilled, and God brings us home.

God With Us: Endure with Hope – Sermon on Luke 21:25-36 Advent 1C

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Video

Happy New Year!

That’s right. Today marks the beginning of the new church year. For you liturgy geeks, this is Year C in the Revised Common Lectionary cycle, which means we will be hearing a lot from the gospel according to Luke over the next 12 months.

But the gospel passage assigned for the first Sunday in Advent, this first Sunday in the new church year, does not come from the beginning of Luke. It comes from near the end, as Jesus is preparing his disciples for the time when he will no longer be with them in the flesh. Jesus has come to Jerusalem for one purpose only: to give his life for the redemption of us all. His earthly ministry is nearing its completion, and he knows it.

So see if this gospel reading sounds a little familiar, like something you’ve heard from Mark and John over the past couple of weeks:

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From Darkness into Light: Turn to Joy – Sermon on Luke 1:46-55

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Have you ever wondered why one of the Advent wreath candles is a different color than the others? In the traditional church calendar, the third Sunday of Advent is called “Gaudete” Sunday. Gaudete is Latin for “Rejoice!” We light a rose-colored candle, to contrast with the purple or blue candles used on the other three Sundays of Advent, to represent joy.

In the early church, Advent was a penitential season, much like the season of Lent. New believers prepared for baptism through spiritual practices such as prayer and fasting. Gaudete Sunday was a break from that fast, a time to rejoice in the promise of Christ’s coming as Emmanuel, God With Us.

One of the features of Gaudete Sunday is the use of Mary’s song from the first chapter of Luke. Next week, we will get the story surrounding this song, now known as the Magnificat – that’s Latin for the first word in the song: “magnify”. We’ll hear how Mary sings this song when her relative Elizabeth greets her and calls her ‘blessed.’ This week on the third Sunday of Advent, the Sunday of Joy, let’s focus on the song itself:

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From Darkness Into Light: Awake to Hope – Sermon on Mark 13:24-37 for Advent 1B

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Watch a video of this sermon from November 29, 2020.

“But in those days, after that suffering, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in clouds’ with great power and glory. Then he will send out the angels, and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.

“From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

“But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. Therefore, keep awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.”

Mark 13:24-37 (NRSV)

Do you ever find yourself lying awake in the middle of the night? I think the older I get, the more trouble I have staying asleep. It used to be thinking about work I needed to get done, or dreaming about how I would redo my kitchen if I won the lottery… now it’s more likely the aches and pains of aging that keep me awake at night. But one of the key causes of insomnia is stress, and during the pandemic, lots of people were experiencing sleeplessness as a side effect of pandemic stress. Researchers even coined a term for it: “Caronasomnia”.[1]

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Magnified Joy – Advent 3A

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“Are you the One,” John wants to know, “or should we be waiting for someone else?” You can read an earlier message on Matthew 11:2-11 and Luke 1:47-55 here.

It’s curious that we hear about John the Baptist’s doubt on the same Sunday Mary’s song magnifies the Lord and rejoices in God our Savior. Joy and doubt are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Consider Martha Spong’s thoughtful reflection on this week’s lectionary readings.

May you be released from whatever binds you, or stalls you, or holds you captive, so that your joy – like Mary’s and John the Baptist’s – may point others to Jesus.

Holy Lord, our hearts leap in our chests when we experience your nearness. We cannot help but know ‘the joy of the Lord’ when you are in the center of our lives. But how easy it is, Jesus, to slip into doubt and despair when we take our eyes off you.

Give us the kind of steadfast faith that Mary had when she said, “let it be to me according to your word,” even though she had no idea what she was getting into. Give us the courage to seek you out when our doubts overcome us, just as John did. And remind us, as you did John, that the evidence of your kingdom is right under our noses. You are working through us to magnify your name. Let our joy be complete and point others to you, Almighty God.

Making Room – Sermon on Matthew 3:1-12 for Advent 2A

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Blessings on your Advent journey! You know, some folks aren’t even aware there is a season called ‘Advent.’ For them, this season leading up to Christmas is Christmas. We get that message loud and clear everywhere we go, in every store where we shop.

What are we waiting for? Let’s cut to the chase and start singing “Silent Night” and get that Baby Jesus into the manger where he belongs!

But we aren’t there yet. Continue reading →