Experience Advent...& Christmas!: Sunday, December 9, 2012

Sunday, December 9, 2012

The Season of Preparation

Read Luke 3:1-6
http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=222053440

“Prepare the way for the Lord.” –Luke 3:4

‘Tis the season for preparation. We are preparing for Christmas morning, looking for the right sales to buy the right gifts for our loved ones. We are preparing our houses for the season, hanging ornaments and stringing lights.

‘Tis the season for preparation in the Christian year as well. “Advent” means the arrival or coming of an awaited person. Accordingly, during the Christian season of Advent we remember the first coming of Christ at Jesus’ birth, and we look forward to the second arrival of Christ as a future hope. Also during Advent we recognize and celebrate the daily arrivals of Christ – the daily presence of Christ filling us with hope, freeing us from sin, healing our hearts and lives. As we celebrate all the arrivals of Christ during Advent, we hear the call of John the Baptist to “Prepare the way for the Lord.”

John the Baptist is the Prophet of Preparation. In fulfillment of the prophecy in Isaiah 40 John called people to get ready for the coming of their Savior. His message was simple: clean your hearts and lives, and declare your desire to follow God. Repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will be ready to receive your Savior.

John’s call pierces through time and place and speaks volumes to us today. As we celebrate and anticipate Christ’s coming, we are called to prepare our hearts for Christ through genuine repentance. We sing “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” – but our hearts are cluttered with thoughts and desires that do not welcome Christ’s presence, and our lives are burdened by behaviors that do not acknowledge the love and peace of Christ. We haven’t given Christ the throne in our hearts so he can reign as our Lord. Christ is coming and is here in our midst, and through repentance we can prepare our hearts to receive him as Lord. Repentance is more than saying “I’m sorry, God.” It is grieving and confessing the wrong we’ve done, and it is taking concrete steps towards change, to be the people God calls us to be. In repentance we reject the thoughts and behaviors that keep us from God, and we turn back to the Lord saying, “Make my heart your home. Shape me into the person you created me to be.”

‘Tis the season for preparation, the season to prepare our hearts and lives for Christ. May we repent and make our hearts ready to welcome our Lord.

Laura Johnson

God of Advent, walk ahead of me, helping me keep sight of your vision of peace. May I hold peace in my heart and pray for peace in our broken world. Amen.

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Christmas is Born!

Fourth Week of Advent: Joy

The fourth candle on our Advent wreath is the candle of joy. As we enter this last week of Advent, we allow ourselves a little celebration--the Savior is coming, alleluia! We've been waiting, and we must wait a bit longer, but God is coming--soon!

The invitation to rejoice during the season of Advent reminds us to consider the joy that awaits the end of Mary's pregnancy. Mary must have felt joy in carrying a child, in anticipating the birth of her son, the birth of the Savior. Her hymn of praise, the Magnificat, praises God for the great deeds that God has done. The God who proclaims righteousness and justice, who has fed the hungry and sent the rich away, this same God looked on Mary with favor and blessed her with the gift of service to the world.

Our joy calls up visions--what gifts can we expect from the Mighty One who has blessed us and looked upon us with favor?

Beth Richardson, The Uncluttered Heart (edited)

God of joy, may we dream dreams and share tales of hope as we enter these final days before Christmas. I praise your mighty name. Amen.

Third Week of Advent: Love

The fourth candle on our Advent Wreath is the candle of Love. That seems so appropriate as we begin the last week of Advent, the final days before we receive God's greatest gift to us--divine Love wrapped in swaddling clothes,lying in a manger.

Joseph's place in this drama is one of love. Engaged to Mary, he discovers that she is pregnant. Even the visit of an angel probably does not answer all of his questions or calm all of his fears. But Joseph, I like to think, acts out of love. Love and trust make up for any doubts he might have about his role in this matter. Joseph takes Mary as his wife and makes room in his heart for her son, whom he names Jesus.

We certainly don't play such a dramatic role as Joseph in God's story, but we are, nevertheless, important to the whole. Every action we take, every small or large task we perform, is woven in love into God's cosmic story.

God of love, may everything I do become an expression of your love. Amen.

Beth Richardson, The Uncluttered Heart

Second Week of Advent: Peace

The second candle on the Advcent wreath is the candle of peace. When we light the candle of peace, we affirm Isaiah's vision that peace will come on earth. As we move closer to the birth of the Prince of Peace, we are acutely aware of all the places in the world, in our families and relationships, and in our hearts that have not achieved peace. Peace is a vision, a hope, a promise made by the Holy One--that there will be a time when peace will prevail.

Peace, in the global sense, is the cessation of violence between peoples and nations...in Israel and Palestine, in Darfur, in Iraq and Afghanistan. We people of peace hold the vision that God's spirit will rest on the leaders of the world and will whisper wisdom in their hearts, wisdom that will guide their actions toward paths of forgiveness, compassion, and peace.

In our own hearts and lives, peace is the calm in the midst of chaos. Each day, may we hold the vision of peace, seeking times of rest and prayer when we open our minds and spirits to God's powerful, gentle peace.

Let peace be our vision.

Beth Richardson, The Uncluttered Heart

First Week of Advent: Hope

The first candle on the Advent wreath is the candle of Hope. When we light the candle of hope--in the Advent wreath or in our hearts--we kindle a flame of expectant anticipation that something rich, something special, is on the way.

As we enter into this Advent journey, we already know that the something special at the end of Advent is the birth of Christ, God's great gift to the world. But much of the richness of this season comes with the anticipation, the waiting, the deferral of the celebration until the appropriate time.

During Advent, the first season of the church year, we relive the story of Jesus, the wonder of how he came to be, the story of his birth. We don't yet know what God has in store, but we trust God's promises of righteousness, justice, and peace for the hurting world and our discouraged spirits. We live in the hope, that despite our current struggles, God has something good in store for us.

Jesus, the hope of the world, is coming to an unsuspecting world.

Beth Richardson, The Uncluttered Heart