Advent One - Awake

The challenge to awaken sounds both inviting and alarming – depending where we are in our lives and our part of the world. Many spiritual traditions have the theme of awakening as part of the path of faithfulness and the getting of wisdom. And so, in some ways, we can understand it to be part of the perennial path. However, given the focus on salvation in the Christian tradition some may be shocked to hear St Paul tell those who are already believers that they/we need to awake! Believing is not enough! Believing is a beginning. (Advent One. Year A)

Sentence: 

“Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is already the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone; the day is near.” Romans 13:11-12

Collect:

God of the ages

and for the ages still to come,

Awaken us your people,

Until each and every heart is alert to your presence,

yearning for your kingdom,

and seeking to make your ways our ways.

This we pray in the name of Jesus, the One who came among us, is present among us still, and will come again.

Amen.

Reflection: 

Please consider what I have previously written on this topic.

Advent One Year A

You may also wish to consider what I wrote in the Advent Study.

Advent Study

According to the gospel of Matthew the alarming words of Jesus “ … Keep awake, therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming … you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” (Matthew 24:36-44) are taken from his last sermon. At this stage in his ministry Jesus would have had a very clear idea of the tumult and violence to come and his disciples, even though in some denial, would have had an increasing sense of rising tension and threat. And by the time the gospel of Matthew was committed to writing the Temple had been razed and many of the Jewish inhabitants of Jerusalem scattered. In many ways these ominous words would already have been realized to a large extent.

But in Advent we are beginning the new year, preparing for the Christ child, so why are we starting at the end? I’m not sure why the lectionary writers decided to start at the end but it does make psycho-spiritual sense to me. Firstly, the radically gracious news of the divine become flesh is so life changing and counter to all the established assumptions about life that the old order needs to be shaken up and pulled apart so that the new way, the way of Christ, can be received.

David Cassian Cole, Brother Cassian, has shared that the Celtic tradition divided the 40 days of Advent into three sections reflecting the three ways of the coming of the Christ: 1) the incarnation; 2) into our lives; and 3) at the end of time. (See John T Squires blog.)

So secondly, I think we all need this reminder, this imperative to awake not only because we have such a human tendency to go back to sleep, to slip back into a semi-conscious state but also because there is always more to come, more to know (and unknow), and more to experience. The coming of the Christ into our lives is not once only but an ongoing process of awakening to life.

And thirdly, when the end comes – our personal ending or the end of the known world for all – will we be ready? Not in some fear-based way are we right with God and confident that we will avoid eternal damnation! But have we realised what life is about; what our particular life was for; have we awakened to the beauty and grace of the world; have we celebrated the joyful and added to the good?

So let us awaken to the coming of the Christ – long ago, now in our lives, and in the future!

Intercessions:

Creator of all that is and may ever be,

Awaken us to the beauty and demands of this your creation.

May we be awake to the provisions and protections of your world.

And may we be ever mindful of the needs of all your peoples and precious creatures.

We pause to reflect on the gifts and needs of this created world.

Holy one in whom all are reconciled, 

awaken us to the liberating love of Jesus

that comes to us in stranger and the all too familiar.

Awaken us to the gifts that are hidden in plain sight,

and the needs of the vulnerable that are whispered and roared in unlikely ways.

We pause to reflect on the gifts and needs of all peoples, especially those known to us.

Spirit of the Living God,

Awaken our hearts to the movement of the Spirit in the world we inhabit.

Awaken us, in our everyday lives and even on our deathbeds, to the force of love and healing that pulses throughout the cosmos.

Awaken us to what binds and loosen us from what ensnares us

Awaken us to your healing presence that in nearer to us than our own breath.

We pause to reflect on those in need of inspiration and healing and entrust our beloved to the embrace of God.

Living God,

Creator, Reconciling Lover of all, Spirit that Sustains,

We pray in the name of the Christ who came among, us for us. Amen. 

This is my work informed by all that I have heard, read and experienced. I am indebted to the wisdom of others. This week I am especially grateful to John T Squires.

http://johntsquires.com2022/11/21/on-reading-scripture-during-advent-starting-with-the-end-matt-24-advent-1a/