Advent Novena - Year A

Advent is a time of preparation for the coming of Emmanuel, God with us, in which we prepare our hearts to both receive the Christ and to birth God in our own time and situation. In Year A of the lectionary we explore the story of the coming of the Christ Child according to the gospel of Matthew. 

In the busyness of our world, especially in the lead up to Christmas, it can be very hard to enter into the spacious uncertainty, the yearning and desperate need for a saviour, and the hope and anxiety that our time provokes, in the keeping of a true Advent. This year I am exploring with you a contemporary version of Novena – the discipline of praying for nine days the same prayer as a way of preparing our hearts for the coming of God. (If you spend more than nine days wonderful but at the least it should be a sufficiently “bite size” spiritual discipline that even busy persons can keep!)

Over the nine “days” of this Novena we will explore a part of the narrative according to Matthew’s gospel and other texts. In doing so we will discover just how earthy the Holy One’s heritage was! And hopefully we shall come to appreciate even more deeply how much we belong within the family of Jesus with all our “earthiness”!

Some of the backstory of Jesus may be triggering for some of us and I urge you to be full of care for yourself and have wise and safe people in your network that you can call upon if necessary.

This Advent Novena is intended to be said every day. With a Novena you set an "intention" for your time of prayer. This may be as open as "preparing my heart for the advent of the Christ more fully in my life" or quite specific such as "what is mine to do in my family situation?" For each of the nine days I will provide a brief introduction to an aspect of the story to then take into your prayers. Use what is useful, let go of what is not.

Blessings, Reverend Sue

Gracious God:

Creator of all that was before, is now and might yet be;

Birther of worlds and source from which our Lord Jesus the Christ

sprung and to whom he returned;

Spirit that weaves us all together into the oneness of you;

Hear our prayer.

Quietly notice your breath in and then out for three or more cycles. No need to change your breathing, just notice it.

Open our minds and hearts that we might make room for you and all your dreams and gifts.

Quietly notice your breath in and then out for three or more cycles. No need to change your breathing, just notice it.

Hear our prayer.

Open our hands and our homes that we might make room for you and all your beloved ones.

Quietly notice your breath in and then out for three or more cycles. No need to change your breathing, just notice it.

Hear our prayer.

Open our breath and our living that we might find you within our very life and cease to resist your love and healing.

Quietly notice your breath in and then out for three or more cycles. No need to change your breathing, just notice it.

Hear our prayer.

Open us to your dreams and gifts, your presence, your love and healing touch.

Quietly notice your breath in and then out for three or more cycles. No need to change your breathing, just notice it.

Hear our prayer.

Please feel free to stay in this receptive state longer if you wish.

Amen. May it be so.

 Day One:

Read the gospel of Matthew chapter One verses 1-17.

The genealogy of Jesus. Surely one of the most boring passages in the New Testament. Except it’s not!! Firstly, the names are presented in three groups of fourteen. (And in order to do this some names are left out and some curious ones are included!). So today we pause and reflect on the pattern of the great grandparents of Jesus – of all that happened in order that he might happen amongst us. And over the next days we will reflect on some of those curious ones who are claimed as part of the genealogy of Jesus.

The pattern of three groups of fourteen ancestors is not completely accurate in terms of those who could be included in the great line of ancestors. So, it surely means something more than just who were the great-great-great grandparents of Jesus! The numerology of the arrangement is a play on King David’s name which is surely to emphasis that Jesus is of the line of David. The groupings also lead to Abraham, then David, then to Jesus, emphasising that Abraham and David who received the covenant of God led to Jesus the fulfilment of the covenant!

We can also reflect on all the ordinary and extraordinary people who played their part in the Advent of Jesus and of the part we have to play in bring God to birth in our time and place. If you have ever done some family research, or maybe watched an ancestry tracing reality show, you may have got the impression that all the generations before us did what they did, survived what they did, so that we could come to be. And in one sense that is true – we wouldn’t be here but for what others have done. But they also went about their lives, as best and faithfully as they could, to do what they had to do for their own survival and that of their children and maybe even their children’s children.

And so it would seem to have been for the ancestors of Jesus. They lived as faithfully as they could – sometimes desperately, sometimes triumphantly; with an eye to the horizon for promises fulfilled and the possibility of enemies approaching; trying to discern the favour and intention of God in the success or otherwise of the harvest, the entrails of sacrificed animals, and the portents of the skies; and when God’s intentions were not clear or agreeable doing what they deemed best or best for themselves. Like all of us. And yet out of all this human mess the golden thread of God’s love continued to seek out human hearts and great patterns of grace and purpose can be discerned, when looking back, in the chaos of human history. Looking back we see the overarching history of salvation and hope working towards incarnation.

What are the great patterns that inform, form, traumatise, radicalise, uphold … your family or tribe or group? Was there a before and after epoch because of migration, or war, or plague? Quietly reflect, write, draw, dance, walk, meditate on these matters and then take them into your time of praying the Novena Prayer for Advent and out into your day.

If you want to read further about some of the overarching themes of Matthew’s gospel and the first chapter you may wish to read Professor Bill Loader’s article at:

https://billloader.com/MeetingMatthewWW.pdf

Elizabeth A Johnson, “Dangerous Memories: A Mosaic of Mary in Scripture”, Continuum, New York, 2003

Another “day” will be added in time for the second day of Advent.