First Sunday of Advent

Verses: Isaiah 64:1-9, Mark 13:24-37

Advent. Adventus. Coming.

What Holy humor to enter a season of waiting, amid a season of waiting. 
O Creator, have you not seen that your people are weary of waiting?
We wait for signs of safety. 
We wait for brighter days. 
We wait for test results. 
We wait for a vaccine. 
We wait to embrace ones held dear.
We wait. 

We wait for news of budget cuts and furloughs. 
We wait for bad news on television, twitter, politicians, go figure,  
We wait for more news of black lives lynched. 
We wait for death at our doorstep. 
We wait six feet apart in grocery store lines. 
We wait. 

We wait, but we do not watch. 
Fear has narrowed our vision.

We wait, but we do not hope. 
Anxiety mutinies imagination
making way for derision. 

Yet You call us to wait, 
O Creator, might this call be for a different kind of waiting? 

You call us to wait, 
Can you not see that we have already been waiting?
How long, how long, HOW LONG? 
Oh that you would tear open the heavens and come down, 
So that the mountains would quake at your presence,
So that the nations might tremble at your presence
So that our enemies would crumple in your presence,
(Oh no, our inequities made clear in the previous line. 
We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.)

This waiting, Creator, we have waited so long, 
We long to wait no longer, 
But might this waiting be of a different kind?

Creator, you have done awesome things that we did not expect.
You came down and the mountains quaked at your presence.
From ages past no one has heard, 
No ear has perceived, 
No eye has seen any God besides you. 

O Creator, we long to see you, 
Be among us again.
We cannot wait to see you.
O Creator, might this waiting be of a different kind?

Fear blinds us, narrows our vision. 
We wait for bad news,
We wait for a vaccine, 
We wait but do not see, do not watch. 

But you have said, 
“Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come. 
It is like a man going on a journey…”

Oh how we long to journey with you.

In these days of suffering,
The sun is darkened, 
The moon does not give light, 
The stars appear to be falling from heaven,
But even the four winds tell of the coming of the Son of Man. 

We wait.
We open our eyes —
begin to watch. 

O Creator, might this waiting be of a different kind?

Give us eyes to watch,
As we wait six feet apart in grocery store lines, 
As we wait for a vaccine, 
As we wait for politicians to surprise us with goodness,
As we wait and see that the unhoused find shelter.

Even in these days, O Creator 
we are the clay
and you are the potter.
Reshape us, transform our inequities.
Mold us and hold us.
Make us anew.

In the palm of your hand, 
We finally learn to watch
while we wait.

O Creator, might this waiting be of a different kind?
Come, O Come, Emmanuel. 

Recommended Hymns: O Come, O Come Emmanuel, Wait for the Lord

Advent 2020: Thanksgiving Day

Verses: Deuteronomy 8:7-18, Psalm 65

O Creator, you love this world. 

In these days of lessening light and growing the darkness, as the cloud of disease hangs over us, through suffering, we remember that you love this world. O Creator, what a gift to be so loved. 

The true light is coming into the world.
Bearer of light in shadowy places, we will rejoice and delight in The Light. 

For the sun rising each morning, we give you thanks.  
For the bounty of harvest brought forth from land and careful labor, we give you thanks.

For chloroplasts and photosynthesis, for seeds that burst open and scatter, 
for milkweed pods cracked open in soft explosion, tossed to the wind, carrying forward light
and new life for next season. 

May the cycle repeat, repeat, repeat (you will not abandon us) 
repeat, repeat, repeat (we give you thanks) 
repeat, repeat, repeat (to everything there is a season) 
repeat, repeat, repeat (we give you thanks) repeat, repeat, repeat. 

For waters which cleanse, we give you thanks. 

For air which purifies, we give you thanks. 

For solid earth which sustains, we give you thanks. 

For warmth of hearth and
fire which ignites our hearts
and heats our home, 
Now, our hearts blaze with gratitude
for this world
which you love.
We give you thanks (repeat). 

May we remember it is not by our deeds, but by Your Hand,
and this gracious world, 
that life comes
each day 
as a gift. 
For this, we give you thanks. 

Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. 

May we remember that when we plow the fields, you send the sun and rain. You have made us co-creators
and have called us caretakers of this world
which you love. 

For this, we give you thanks. 

May we remember that when valleys deck themselves with grain
and the meadows clothe themselves with flocks and wildflowers, 
See how Creation persists in giving, 
in spite of our inequities and greed. 
She is a generous world indeed. 
You love this world. For this, we give you thanks. 

May our praise be unceasing
Releasing pride, unleashing thanksgiving. 

Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. 

O Creator, we have built fine houses. We have filled our storehouses.
We live in fear of catastrophes that we cannot see, and tremble in the face of those that already be.  

O Creator, fear turns our hearts to pride. We say to ourselves, “My power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth.”
But you have called us co-creators and caretakers.
What a gift. What a responsibility.

O Creator, teach us to have humble hearts again. 

How easily we forget that when we plant the grains, the grains become our bodies. Teach us to live like apsen: one single organism flowering as a forest.

How easily we forget. We poison the waters with our ego, a learned separation from Creation. Teach us to live as walking tributaries. 

How easily we forget. The air does not belong to us, but that our emissions are the inhalations of our neighbor.
Teach us to breathe deeply of Your Presence
and exhale goodness. 

How easily we forget. Fire requires fuel. The gathering of Two or More burns brighter than a single flame. Teach us to share warmth and spirit with our neighbor, to let our light shine. 

Holy One, we give you thanks for all good gifts, which flow from your radical abundance, love never-ending. 

O Creator, you love this world. What a gift to be so loved.  

Recommended Hymns: Praise to the Lord, The Almighty. All Good Gifts.