Advent Reflection and Renewal: Waiting For Promise To Be Fulfilled

God, you sending Jesus to earth is an amazing reminder of the original goodness in which you created the universe and of how it can be lived out by humanity. For this, we give thanks.

At the same time, it can be difficult from our historical vantage point to really have a sense of how - in the centuries that passed between creation and Jesus’ birth - your good news of liberation for the poor and oppressed was only a promise. While it was a hopeful promise, it was also one which generation after generation did not see fulfilled.

So God, help us to begin to appreciate what it means to wait. We’re so used to instantly having our every wish met. Help us to seek to understand what it means for those living in the dark shadows of injustice and suffering to hope for light to come.

Help us to not take your grace for granted.

Others of us know all too well what it means to continue to wait for things to be made right. We’re familiar with the weariness of hope deferred. God, help us be on the lookout for where even glimpses of the hope of your promise of are being born within us and around us.

God, thank you for your free and life-sustaining gifts of grace, which we can all tap into, regardless of where life finds us in this season. 

Amen.

The Misguided Priorities of “Keeping Christ In Christmas” - Stephan Ingram

When Christians belligerently insist that our faith necessarily deserves priority and that our traditions are what need to be centered, we are not representing Christ; who called for humility, peacemaking. meekness, and self sacrifice.

The very fact that people feel that it is their duty to mandate Christ in Christmas represents a misunderstanding of the priorities which Christ-followers should be guided by.

Christianity, as defined by the life and teachings of Jesus, never depended or insisted on being the majority, in power or even influential.

It was a religion that lauded the weak, meek and the poor. Jesus came preaching a gospel that defaulted on the need for religion to have power and influence. He told us that the last shall be first and the first shall be last.

When Peter picked up a sword and was ready to take Jerusalem, Jesus quickly told him to put it down because that is not the kind of gospel he was bringing.

When Christians try to force God on others we reincarnate some of the worst epochs of our religious history, and default on its core founding principles of love, grace and hospitality.

When Christians belligerently insist that our faith necessarily deserves priority and that our traditions are what need to be centered, we are not representing the man who called for humility, peacemaking. meekness, and self sacrifice.

The full article is available here

Advent Benediction: Jesus' Birth Heralds A New Family of Humanity (based on Isaiah 40:4-5)

As we go now, let's watch for all the places where God is making things new again. May the power of God's love recalibrate us. May it lead us to fill the dark places with light, to level the uneven paths with grace, and to join together with all of humanity as the family of peace and hope which Jesus’ birth initiated.

Advent Call To Worship: God's Light Came To Shine Into Dark Spaces (based on Luke 1:46-55, Matthew 4:16)

In Advent, we celebrate the gift of God’s light,  Jesus. 

According to Jesus’ mother Mary, it was extraordinary that this gift was made available to everyone - even those of low social status and those pushed to the margins by forces of power and greed.  The angels proclaimed the very same message to the shepherds, saying that Christ’s birth was “good news of great joy for all people.”

So like Mary, the angel chorus, and the shepherds; may we give thanks to God for the gifts of inclusive love and boundless grace which can be received by all. 

Advent Benediction: Paying The Gift Of Grace Forward Through Service (based on Romans 15:2)

May the gift of Christ coming to join our human race cause joy and gratitude to rise within us. May it lead us to follow Jesus' example of loving service in God's world.

And may the grace of God, the love of Jesus, and the peace of God's Spirit be with us this day and evermore.

Advent Call To Worship: A Message Of Hope For All (based on Luke 1:46-55)

Christ coming to earth is a message of hope for all people! All of those who aren't held in high value by the powers-that-be are now called "blessed" in God’s sight.

The mercy and love of God is good news to the poor, it is liberation to all of the oppressed, and it is the extending of welcome to all of the marginalized and excluded. God’s mercy and love is poured out for all who need it in every generation.

For this incredible grace, we come now to give thanks.