Sunday, November 30, 2014 – Advent 1 (full size gallery)
Two services to begin Advent – 9am Morning Prayer, Rite 1 and 11am Holy Eucharist Rite 2 with 7 and 32 at each service, respectively on a relatively mild Nov. morning for this time of year. There was abundant sunshine with some cloud cover that gradually disappated.
During the 10am hour, we had the second part of the Advent Christian Ed study, Singing Mary’s song with 13 present. The notes are here. Two prayers around Mary that come from the gospel were covered and the important of external events that made it timely that Jesus was born. This custom of praying three times a day reminded people of Mary, Jesus, and the gift of grace to us. With the latter the cycle of grace was considered —acceptance, sustaining strength, significance, and achievement. It is not the order we would expect. How does this cycle work in your own life?
Advent was setup with a change of color to purple and pink. At 11am we had the lighting of the Advent Candle by Michael and Sydney. A Moravian hymn was introduced for the ceremony – Candleglowing. Each week we sing a different verse.
The sermon was taken from the latter sentences in Mark, part of the readings this week – "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." The sermon was a dialog between the master and his slaves trying to keep his teaching alive, to share the good news. The teachings are a challenge to think of others needs in the role. To take up the cross. To accept suffering in the midst of work. To keep the master’s teachings even while we are being challenged in age. To practice forgiveness in the community. To understand the temptations of others, particularly in the accumulation of goods.
There were a number of announcements about Advent:
1. Village Harvest Food Distribution on Dec. 17 and what to bring
2. Advent at St. Peter’s handout
3. Coffee hour next Sunday with a Moravian Candle Tea and a Love Feast on Christmas Eve
4. Poinsettia – order form – Due Dec. 14
5. Events of the Dec. 12-14 weekend including the tree lighting in Port Royal (Dec 12), Choir retreat (Dec. 13) and Everett’s Christmas (Dec. 14)
6. Michael had an announcement to bring shoeboxes for a school project.
In connection with the recent Season of Giving, the men are helping two families in Christmas. At Thanksgiving they helped a family, mother and daughter while husband was away in Afghanistan while they were living at the Relax Inn. In a letter that Helmut wrote to social services. "She was provided with cooked sliced turvey, sliced roast beef ready to eat, mashed potatoes with turkey gravy, sweet potatoes casserole, a variety of canned vegetables, bread, sweet potatoe pie, chocolate chip cookies, apple juice. All of the above can be heated in her microwave…"
Usually we think of Advent as a time of patient, hopeful waiting for the joyous event of Christmas. At that time, God comes to us as a little child. Now we wait. Then God comes. All is right with the world. Such is not the stage set by this text from Isaiah, especially when coupled with the text from Mark 13.
In Mark we are instructed to watch for the violent, earthshaking coming of the Son of Man. If we are not watchful, we might be caught unaware and unprepared. Here in Isa 63-65 a community lament sets a similar, somber stage for Advent. This lament sets Advent in the context of a real world in which things are not going well
The key is not just waiting but how do we wait. What should be the focus of our Christmas preparations ?
The prophet Isaiah was speaking to a people who were returning from exile, who were falling back into their old ways. The prophet longs for God to just tear into this world and break open so that people would know God, because the people keep falling astray and turning away from God. The prophet pleads for God to enter their world as God did for their ancestors, to turn the people back to their God. The prophet uses the image of the potter, and that the people can be made into something new. Though they have failed time and again, God is still their God, and they are still God’s people.
Psalm 80: 1-7, 17-19 uses the refrain “Restore us, O God; Let your face shine, that we might be saved.” The psalmist prays for God’s deliverance, seeing only destruction all around them. Where is their hope, when you cannot see it? The psalmist sings for God to restore the people, to lead them as a shepherd leads their flock, through the darkness and danger into safety; to hear their prayers and that God’s presence will be made known to them.
Paul begins his first letter to the Corinthians with this greeting, stating that God is faithful and God has blessed them with gifts, and they have been strengthened by Christ through the testimony of Christ. They await the revealing of Christ, that is, Christ’s return. They were waiting, as we are now, for Christ to enter our lives in a new way, as they remain in the fellowship of Jesus the Christ.
In Mark 13:24-37, Jesus draws on images from the prophet Joel to describe his coming again. Jesus speaks of watching and waiting for the signs and the times that his return is near, but that no one knows except God. Jesus tells the disciples three times to keep alert and awake in this passage, to be actively looking for signs of his return.