Tag Archives: Advent

Advent Reflections: make straight the way

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Advent reflection: this week during Advent we encounter John the Baptist, proclaiming the coming of the Lord as he courageously stands in the wilderness, clothed in camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist. Make straight the paths for the coming of the Lord. In the reflection offered below from Stan Purdum’s Advent study book, we consider the paths of our lives, the obstacles, roundabouts, and narrow ways of those paths; and, finally, reflect on how we might begin to uncover our obstacles to God and smooth the way for the coming of the Lord. Continue reading →

Welcome to Advent!

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Welcome to Advent! The season of Advent is one of my favorite times of the year…I wish it was a little bit longer, and perhaps it could be a bit longer if we are able to devote ourselves to the season until the Magi arrive on the feast of the Epiphany. Advent asks much from us – Advent asks us to patiently wait while the world urges us to hurry up; Advent directs our attention to the hope filled future while grounding us in the now while the world tempts us to focus our energy on the here and now (as the catch phrase “You only live once” YOLO promises); Advent points toward holy ground while the world calls us to the shopping malls. Advent is an invitation to spend time in reflection of God’s many gifts of grace: the grace of Christ’s presence among us, the grace of the earliest Christians’ courageous devotion and faith, and the grace of our gifts as God’s children. These gifts of grace can be challenging to discover in our “noisy” world, and I invite you to consider taking up a few practices to quiet the noise and discover God’s grace among you. Throughout this season there will be many opportunities for corporate worship, study and reflection, but these are just a few among the many ways to find God’s grace in this holy season. Throughout this season, I will try to offer a few thoughts for prayer and reflection…an Advent discipline I hope to keep!

“May He whose second Coming in power and great glory we await, make you steadfast in faith, joyful in hope, and constant in love. Amen.” (Advent blessing from Book of Occasional Services, p. 22)

Blessed are the Peacemakers: the harmony of Advent

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Advent 2 (Romans 15:4-13)  12/08/2013

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This week has been a busy and joyful week at St. John’s! There are many varieties of busy weeks, but this past week would rival any beehive at the height of the honey season. The work of the Christmas Festival was quite amazing and the efforts of Annabel and everyone who worked in the many areas of the Festival was a wonderful blessing. Today marks the ingathering of our gift bags in support of our participation with the VNA Christmas Sharing program. And for the crescendo of the week, we will celebrate an Advent Procession of Lessons and Carols this evening! As wonderful as the food, crafts and other items of the Christmas Festival were; as important as our shopping for the Christmas Sharing program was; as important as the music of the Advent Lessons and Carols will be; the most important aspect of all of this, the most grace-filled and sacramental aspect of this incredibly busy week was and is the spirit of generosity toward others and the gathering of the Christian community, in God’s name, for the nourishment of our lives together. The season of Advent brings many messages for us to consider, but the gathering together as a community of faith in the presence of God is among the most powerful of all the Advent lessons…the sacred gathering together of God’s children as we anxiously await the coming of our Saviour Jesus Christ. Continue reading →

“Let’s believe best intentions from others”

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The Advent season is now in full swing and as we prepare for the coming of Jesus Christ we must also manage to hold back a cacophony of competing tasks and the subsequent thoughts these tasks engender: have I completed my Christmas shopping list; do I have enough cards for the season and the right mix of “Merry Christmas” and “Happy Holidays;” I wonder if those Christmas lights will work from last year; and on and on and on. These thoughts not only creep into the forefront of our minds but can take hold of our imaginations…causing us to wonder of the intentions that lurk behind the actions of others. Life in the church is no different, and add to the mix the unfortunate timing of creating budgets for the coming year and counting financial commitments made by church members. We are tempted to wonder why others delay their support…are they looking for something other than we can provide, do they require more information before making their thoughts known, or are they simply too busy with other matters that seem more pressing. The “crush of the holidays” can take hold of us and bring out the dark clouds of our imaginations. But wait: close your eyes, count to three (forward or backward, they both will do) and say the following – “I will believe the best intentions from others,” and I think you will find this is nearly almost always true. The Apostle Paul gave similar advice to the Christian community in Corinth nearly two thousand years ago and they didn’t have to worry about mall traffic or Black Friday shopping sales.

Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians (1 Cor 10:23 – 11:1) are words we need to hear during this Advent season; a season that is best spent slowing down in thoughtful preparation and prayer for the coming of Jesus, but is often spent going fast and furious from one commitment to the other. Paul advises us to consider that “not all things are beneficial…not all things build up” but that as we continue to work and live with others we should “not seek our own advantage, but that of the other.” (1Cor 10:23-24) Paul’s lesson to us is rather simply stated but perhaps challenging to implement: we live in community, in a diversity of thought, opinion and action; but the diversity of others should best be interpreted as a variety of actions reaching for the best we have to offer. The ability to interpret our diversity in this way requires an expansive understanding of good intentions, and now we have come back to Advent. The season of Advent prepares us for something radically new, something radically powerful, something so creative and imaginative only God could have done it – and that is the Incarnation of the Word of God, so abundant with love that nothing is beyond reach or beyond redemption. If God can do this for us, maybe we can spend the rest of our Advent and the days following believing in the best intentions from others.

“Come out from under that fir tree – the season of Advent is here!”

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Advent 1 (Luke 21:25-36)  12/02/2012

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I imagine that many of us have special memories from our past, vivid memories that are so unforgettable the experience seems to have occurred only recently. One of my lasting memories happened when I was just a young boy, many years ago. As a young grade school student, I was allowed to go home to eat my lunch and then return back to school in the afternoon. My parents worked but I was fortunate that my grandparents lived just down the street and I was able to have lunch at their home …and grandmothers are known to spoil their grandchildren! I was quite happy until one day I was told that my grandparents would be going on a one week vacation and I would have to have lunch at a nearby neighbor’s house. The neighbor was a very good friend of my parents’ and a loving mother of three children. But I wanted no part of this new routine, even if the change was only for one week. The day of my new lunch location loomed in front of me until the day had finally come. I walked down the street and as I arrived in front of my neighbor’s house I saw her at the front door waving at me. My own house was just a bit further down the road and as I approached my neighbor’s front walk I decided to run as fast as I could to reach the comfort of my own home. My mother’s friend seemed to expect something funny might happen and in moments I noticed her quickly heading toward her bicycle. Now, a young boy running in canvas sneakers is no match for a determined mother riding a bicycle…and I quickly noticed a large fir tree in a neighbor’s yard. I crouched behind the large tree and hid myself behind the trunk and the green drooping branches. I tried to remain quiet as I watched her ride by me, calling my name and looking throughout the neighborhood. She returned in no time and suddenly stopped in front of the tree, looked through the branches and called for me to come out. I thought that I might “faint from fear and foreboding of what was coming.” (Luke 21:26a) Continue reading →

“Our Advent journey – Are we there yet?”

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Advent 2B (Mark 1:1-8)  12/04/2011

“Are we there yet?” I don’t want to keep bothering you, but I was just wondering – “Are we there yet?” Imagine you are driving down the road and there is a voice coming from the back seat of the car, “Are we there yet?” I always wondered to myself; why do young people ask that question all the time, especially on particularly long journeys. Perhaps they ask because they do not know how long the trip will take; or maybe they ask because they are not familiar with important landmarks along the journey or cannot read road signs that would help them determine where they were and how long they had left to go. But that familiar question is not limited to the young ones among us; adults have their own way of wondering, their own way of asking, “Are we there yet?” We like to know certain bits of information in advance of the journey, so we ask others to tell us what the journey will hold for us and what the place is like when we get there. We might investigate our destination on the internet or go to the library to perform some research. We need to satisfy our curiosity. We need to answer our questions in order to demystify the mysteries of unknown places. After all, when we ask “Are we there yet?” and the answer is “Yes, we are here;” we do not want to be disappointed or unprepared. Continue reading →

“Filled with hope, we wait with a promise”

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First Sunday of Advent (Isaiah 64:1-9)  11/27/2011

I have just returned from enjoying some restful time with my family over the Thanksgiving holiday. Throughout the past week, as I was reflecting on the coming season of Advent (the season of waiting for the coming of Christ), I noticed that there can be quite a bit of waiting involved with taking vacation. The practice of waiting begins fairly soon into the vacation, perhaps waiting at the ticket counter of the airport or at the security line. There can be waiting for a rental car; waiting for a table at the restaurant, or waiting for your favorite part of the vacation to finally begin. And if you are even a little bit like me, waiting can sometimes become a frustrating exercise. As I waited in the security line at the airport, I was finally the next person to have my boarding pass checked by the security person. But due to the backup in the scanning line ahead I was just out of reach of the security person and so I needed to wait a bit longer. After a few moments had passed, I noticed that the line to my right was completely empty, so I quickly dropped below the boundary and walked the final three feet to hand my pass over to be checked. The security person did not appear too pleased with me, but checked my boarding pass and allowed me through the gate. As I was moving on he raised his hand to someone behind me and said, “I am sorry but this lane is the Priority Security line and you must go back to where you were unless you have a Priority Pass.” You see, there was no waiting if you had a Priority Pass.

Waiting, however, was exactly the challenge that faced the people of Isaiah’s community in ancient Jerusalem. As we hear the words of the prophet this morning, we listen to the frustration of the Israelites as they wait for the coming of the Lord in Jerusalem. A remnant of faithful Jews had returned to Jerusalem after the long days of exile in Babylon and they waited for God to restore their city. They waited and waited; they suffered continued frustrations and their days seemed futile…no Priority Pass to avoid the long days of waiting. Continue reading →