Four Studies for Advent by the Rev Susan Jones of Dunedin
The Gospel readings this Advent are demanding. Though the readings are quite hard hitting, it is nevertheless a time for spiritual preparation as well as for commercial and social preparation and we need to hear that message. Congratulations ! You have obviously formed a group and are ready to prepare yourselves for the coming of the Christ this year. I wish you well as you prepare for Advent 2003.
Susan Jones
Advent 4
As you gather.
Light a candle in the centre of the group and hold silence for at least a minute (If you are not used to doing this you will need to time it)
Hear the word:
Read I Thessalonians 3: 9-13. Follow this with a prayer of thankfulness for the people who have been important to you around Christmas. You might like to use the following form:
Loving God of new life and new birth, we thank you for those who have made past Christmases memorable for us
Name those people out loud.
We think with sadness and grief of those who come to mind at Christmas and we offer you that burden of pain
Honour this in silence first.
Then some may like to name people out loud.
We thank you for those people who have brought new things into our lives, helped us think in new ways and helped us bring to birth that which was struggling within us
Name those people out loud
Preparing for Christmas, being alert.
Briefly talk about preparations made, or preparation still to be made. (This is not a competition for efficiency!!). Talk about preparations you enjoy making and those which are a chore.
Read Jeremiah 33: 14-16 and Luke 21: 25-36
In the Jerusalem Bible the name of the city given in verse 16 is Yahweh-with-integrity. (NRSV The Lord is our righteousness)
1. If the advent of the Christ were to bring integrity to
New Zealand or to your home town or city in which areas would you most like to see it happening ?
2. Is there any difference in how you see the word
righteousness (NRSV) and the word integrity (Jerusalem Bible) ? What is the difference and why do you think this is so ?
In Luke 21 the sayings which Luke has collected here, he has placed just before Passion week, immediately before the Passover Jesus eats with his disciples in the Upper Room, forerunner of our Communion. These words are in a place of preparation for something quite different from a birth, although Christians can regard death as a birth. Most offer dire predictions. Note the recommended reaction: "Stay awake, praying at all times for the strength to survive all that is going to happen and to stand with confidence before the Son of Man."
3. Whenever something dreadful or even just something busy is
about to descend on you what is your first reaction - to procrastinate, to plan, to pray, to panic, to purchase ?
(a) Into which category do you fall ?
(b) How does your initial reaction (i) help (ii) hinder ?
(c) If you pray or if you did pray - what would you pray for this Christmas ?
4. Read silently this passage from Wendy M. Wright's The Vigil and see what of this you could incorporate into your life. Then discuss where the passage struck you with particular energy and freshness. (Avoid discussing practicalities, but honour the sense of stillness )
The Beginning
IT BEGINS IN THE BEGINNING. The vigil we keep has its true beginning long before any of us are born. It begins in the seasons before seasons, before the emergent cosmos exploded into being. It has its beginning in the heart of God. And so we must begin there as well.
The ancient desert dwellers of our early Christian communities tell us that the surest way into the heart of God is to be still. In being still we learn to be attentive to the vast and hidden stillness that permeates all things.
So I invite you to begin by becoming more attentive to that stillness as well. Seek it first in your own home. Go at night into the darkened room of your sleeping child, and breathe with the moist, quick risings of the child's breath. Rise in the thin light of a new day. Do not turn on the lamp or the television or the coffee maker, but stand by an east window and let the dawn's fingers creep up over the fingers of your own hand.
Listen next for stillness as you venture out of doors. Hear it in the splintering of fall leaves [ for us the rustle of newly leaved trees?] as you cross a grassy knoll between paths in the park...
Turn finally to your own heart. The same stillness is there as well. At the core, buried beneath the turbulence of emotions rubbed raw by life's labour, is the same stillness discovered in the slow-moving sap of an autumn tree. In that primordial stillness beats the heart of God.
There is a correspondence between our hearts and God's. They have imprinted on them the same unimaginable hope, sealed with a promise. The hope is for fullness, for completion, for being one with each other. What that will look like is hidden from us. The end and fullness of all things is known only to God. But we have glimpses of it and those glimpses stagger us with their inexpressible beauty. We are tormented with teasing reminders by the restlessness of our desires, by the almost painful depth of our longings, by our ardent seeking for something more.
Our entire lives are a vigil, a keeping watch, for the fulfillment of this hope. All creation holds vigil with us, as it has done since the beginning. All generations before us and those that come after us will hold it as well.
But it is especially in this season of the church year, during Advent and Christmas, the season of the Coming, that we rise up on tiptoe to dance. We open our throats to sing and to proclaim this vigil that we keep.
As we do so we dip down into the ageless vigil being kept by the waters and grasses of the earth. We share the solemn watchfulness observed by granite and limestone. We enter the hearts of one another as, in the stillness, we listen for the divine heartbeat.
We wait for the fullness. We watch for the completion of the promise. We vigil for the coming of the unimaginable fruition of the seed growing from the beginning in the heart of God.
Discuss the passage in the light of question 4.
Finish the session with this prayer or another of your choosing:
God of stillness,
let us hear your heartbeat. Among the noise and cheerful bustle of this Advent season, let us hear the unimaginable, see the inexpressible, feel the ineffable. May we find both the energy and the stillness of heart that we can too rise up on tiptoe and dance the joy
of being alert and prepared for your Coming in us.
AMEN
Important:
For this study you will need a pile of stones of varying sizes. Also have a table in the middle of the group as you gather.
Light the candle in the centre of the group and hold silence for at least a minute.
Now, go round the circle. People who were at the Advent 1 study may like to comment on any moment of stillness they encountered since they were last here. Others not present last week could comment on any moment of stillness they have experienced throughout their whole life.
Hear the word: Read Philippians 1: 3-11
In this passage The writer is recalling the pleasure he gets from the way the church at Philippi had responded to the Gospel. He prays that their love will overflow more and more. Go round the group and speak of people who helped you come into the faith or to grow in faith or to persist in the faith. (see the following prayer for ideas) Use this prayer or one of your own making to give thanks to God for those people. Their names can be spoken out loud or silently.
Loving God, we know you now because of the influence and assistance of others in our lives. We give thanks for those who brought us to faith and instructed us in its basic teachings
Name those people here
We give thanks for those who helped our faith to grow; those who stretched the boundaries of what we believed, we consolidated our ideas and experiences
Name those people now
We give thanks for those who helped us persist in the faith when times got tough, and we wondered if we could hold on; those who were an example or a comfort or a support.
Name those people now
We pray our thanks in the name of Jesus the Christ AMEN
Read Malachi 3: 1-4 and then Luke 3: 1-6
The famous passage which John the Baptist states on his arrival in the Jordan Valley, calling the Jewish people to repentance and baptism is a quote from the prophet Malachi. Most of the Jewish men who heard him would have known that and would have interpreted the one who was coming as the one predicted in the Jewish Scriptures.
Earthworks are often very substantial when a highway is being built. Large boulders and tonnes of dirt need to be shifted so that the highways is smooth, has the right camber and takes the traffic easily to its destination.
Discuss the blocks-in-the-world the group members have spoken of and talk about realistic ways in which you as a group or as individuals could help those blocks be removed. You may be able to decide on group or individual action which you can take in the next week.
Conclude the session by praying this prayer or another
which suits your group
God of all journeys,
Help us prepare you a highway. Among the blocks and barriers of this Advent season, let us do the unimaginable and put into practice the inexpressible. May we find both the energy and the willingness of heart that we can too prepare a way for you to enter our and others' hearts this Advent, by removing the blocks to your Coming to us.
In Christ's name we pray, AMEN
Important: For this study it would be good to have a sand tray ready with small tea lights or votive candles available as you gather
Light a candle in the centre of the group and hold silence for at least a minute (If you are not used to doing this you will need to time it)
Go round the group and talk about finding stillness (advent 1 ) or removing obstacles (advent 2). Support each other in the struggle to be still and block-free !
Hear the Word Read Philippians 4: 4-7
This reading talks of two things, first, being gently happy and taking joy in life as you meet it. Also, secondly, it talks about prayer and asking for what we want, while at the same time thanking God.
Go round the circle and talk of the people in your life who have made it joyful or who have brought gentleness into your life. They might be happy people, or people who brought you joy by being loving or special. Then do a second round and speak of people whom you know to be people of prayer- or those whose prayers have helped you. Give thanks to God for both these kinds of people (some of you may find they are the same people!) in the prayer that follows or another which suits your group..
Loving God of joy and gentleness, we thank you for those who have brought joy and gentleness into our lives.
Name those people out loud.
We think with gratitude of those who we know pray frequently, or those who help us to pray, or whose prayers have meant much in our lives. Help us to learn from them.
Name these people now.
With thanks for these, we pray in the name of Christ AMEN
Read Zephaniah 3: 14-20 Luke 3: 7-18
Zephaniah's ministry as a prophet coincided with the reforming reign of King Josiah over the kingdom of Judah. He is also a contemporary of Jeremiah. If his book was a piece of music, it would be played largo (slow at the beginning) and go into pianissimo (quietness) at chapter two when a "whispered promise" of God's deliverance appears. This rises to a crescendo and fortissimo (loudness) towards today's reading where the full blown promises of God's eventual deliverance of the people are described.
1. Perhaps Advent is like a rising crescendo. All the preparation secular and spiritual are progressing quietly at first and then with mounting passion and urgency.
(a) From what would you most like to be delivered ?
(b) What would you feel like if you knew God was exulting over you "with loud singing as on a day of festival" ?
(c) What oppressors in your life would you like God to deal with ?
(d) Can you imagine that God might make as much fuss over your birth as the world does over Jesus' birth ? How does that idea feel ?
The experience of the exile into Babylon was a crucible-like experience for the Jewish people. They found out much about themselves and their faith in the process. The Luke passage speaks of a coming time of testing and trial, of burning of chaff and threshing of grain, also of non-fruit bearing trees being cut down and burned. Notice the advice John gives to those who ask how they can be prepared: he commands them to share their wealth with others (two coats and more than enough food was our equivalent of wealth), to be honest in their jobs (tax collectors collected extra taxes from the people which they pocketed) and be satisfied, not extorting anyone else - in other words to act always with generosity and integrity.
2. What acts of compassion and integrity have you seen others do recently ?
3. If you had to give an account of your compassion and integrity - what examples could you quote from the last two months ?
4. What avenues are available for people to use at Christmas for giving away their 'second coat" or their "spare food" ? (Be specific about these opportunities and name addresses and phone numbers)
Put the sand tray in the centre of the group, with the candles nearby. People take their time in choosing one or more candles to represent acts of compassion and integrity they have seen others doing, or acts they have done themselves or acts of compassion and integrity which they wish to vow they will do. The candles can be lit from the central candle you lit at the start of the session. This is done in silence. When all have had a turn, use this prayer or something more suitable for your group to end the study.
God of compassion,
We give thanks for those who have demonstrated to us through the years how compassion can be shown and wealth shared.
When we have more than we need, help us to give to those who have less than we. Especially at Christmas time, help us be generous and open hearted.
We give thanks for those we know and have known who live lives of integrity. Help us to be like them, never exploiting other or taking them for granted, always operating on high levels of honesty towards others and within ourselves.
We pray in the name of the compassionate, honest Christ, AMEN
Yes
Often I have envied Mary her calm serenity,
her saintly certainty as she said 'yes' to you [1]
But now, I read that maybe this divine mother
knew little of the other 'yeses' that would be inside her first.
So Mary too, like me, gave what she could at the beginning
little knowing to where it might lead.
Like peeling layers from an onion, you strip me slowly, God.
My first assent gave permission to deal.
In my innocence I assumed one peeling would achieve your purpose,
but you continue to claim me, to seek my trusting 'yes'
for one more layer and then another and another.
So I face the other 'yeses' that were inside the first, if I had known it.
A confidence trick? A con job ? Yes and no
You asked me only for what I could yield at the time
I can only handle this painful exposing in stages
My confidence in you builds as one skin is shed
I find I can cope and so can say confidently the next 'yes'
That's the point, not the understanding or the amount yielded
but the continuing, faithful readiness to say the next 'yes' too
to have the courage to continue the job having started
to remain open and trusting enough to shed the next layer
and not to fear what I will be when all the skins have gone.
To be faithful to the desire to do your will
which prompted that first,
most inadequate,
and yet most important 'yes' of all
Yes, my God
continue. Susan Jones
As you gather
Light a candle in the centre of the group and hold silence for at least a minute (If you are not used to doing this you will need to time it)
Go round the group and talk about finding stillness (Advent 1) or removing obstacles (Advent 2) or about practising compassion and integrity. Support each other in the struggle to be still, block-free, compassionate and honest !
Hear the Word Read Hebrews 10: 5-10
The Hebrews passage is comparing the actual ritual of sacrificing animals which was a part of Jewish worship with the spiritual practice of doing what God wants ("I have come to do your will")
Go round the group and speak of people you have known (without using names) whom you feel were hard workers for the church and either
(a) did that work out of duty and familiar habit (sometimes grudgingly ) without any change in their personality or happiness
or
(b) those who willingly and freely lived for God, making all sorts of sacrifices, it seemed, without barely noticing, they were so happy to do it for God.
This might lead on to your speaking together of times when you sacrifice grudgingly and when you do something simply because you want to do something for God and the sacrifice is no trouble.
Use this prayer or another one which suits your group better to sum up this discussion.
Loving God you do not want us to simply go through the motions. We pray with sadness for those people we knew and know who just follow you out of duty, getting little satisfaction or reward because their hearts are closed to joy. We give grateful thanks for those in our lives who showed us what giving was about, whose love for you was infectious and whose example we have found ourselves following. Help us not to do things out of duty or ritual but from the heart, especially this Christmas We pray in the name of the one who gave all of himself for us. AMEN
Read: Micah 5: 2-5a Luke 1: 39-45
Micah lived about two centuries before the exile, during a time when the Jews were not doing what God wanted. His little book warns them of impending doom, but also offers redemption for those who will listen. In these famous verses, often read at Advent, his words could be taken as a prophecy of where the Christ would be born. These words also predict a peaceful shepherd-like king who offers security.
1. In what ways would you like our present day government to offer you and your families more security.
2. Peace (verse 5) is sometimes interpreted in scripture as a kind of internal personal and individual feeling of peacefulness. Why hasn't God been more active in procuring and maintaining actual peace (as in freedom from conflict) in our world ?
Luke describes Mary, early in her pregnancy going to visit her older cousin Elizabeth obviously someone in whom she thought she could confide. Elizabeth recognises the importance of the child Mary will have.
3. What people have you known who you can confide in because they recognise the importance of the spiritual stirrings going on inside you - people who could be or have been spiritual mentors for you ?
4. What qualities make a good mentor ? whether spiritually or for any life events?
5. What people look up to you as a mentor ?
6. How can the church train and equip its members to be mentors to those they work and live and play with ?
7. Think of the following groups of young women ( and young men) going through life transitions. How is your church helping them to cope with these changes ?
(a) young men and women already associated with your church
(b) young men and women not associated with your church but in your community.
Part of mentoring is affirming those whom you mentor.
Write the names of the people in your group on small pieces of paper. Put the papers in a basket and offer them round the circle, Each takes out a piece of paper. Make sure it has a different name from yours, otherwise draw again. Now write on the piece of paper something you have appreciated about that person during the course of these studies. When you have finished put the pieces of paper back into the basket. The leader draws out the papers and reads aloud the messages on them.
Leave a silence for this to sink in !
Use this prayer or something else which suits your group better to close your group
Loving God,
We give thanks that Elizabeth could be there for Mary when she needed a mentor. We given thanks for those who have been mentors to us, for their belief in us, their affirmation of us and their carefully chosen words of advice and guidance. We thank you for the way they modelled how it was to be searching, questioning, loving and adult men and women of faith. We pray for the strength and insight to be mentors ourselves for those who follow us. We ask it in the name of the best mentor, Jesus the Christ, AMEN
Now you might like to offer each other the peace of Christ ("The peace of Christ be with you .....") as you disband and go forth into Christmastide.
Happy Christmas!
The blessing of God
Goes with you all