Advent Two - Prepare the Way

At this moment in history, as many times before, we can identify with the yearning and hope for a world of justice and mercy. The words of Isaiah, the psalmist, and St Paul all stir that longing for a world that lives as creatures of the Living God. And we also quicken with recognition of the need for the prophet John the Baptists words that cut through whatever disguise and distraction we may have colluded with!

Sentence:

“This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, ‘The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’ ” Matthew 3:3

Collect:

God that we see in your world, your word and your people,

And God for whom we wait still;

help us prepare ourselves by opening hearts and minds and eyes;

and help us prepare the world by living by gospel mercy and justice.

Prepare us for your gifts and prepare us for the work of proclamation!

This we pray in the name of the Word by which we came to be,

the Gift that saves, and the Spirit that enlivens. Amen.

Reflection:

At this moment in history, as many times before, we can identify with the yearning and hope for a world of justice and mercy. The words of Isaiah, the psalmist, and St Paul all stir that longing for a world that lives as creatures of the Living God. And we also quicken with recognition of the need for the prophet John the Baptists words that cut through whatever disguise and distraction we may have colluded with!

Please consider what I wrote on pages 10 - 12 as part of the Advent Study.

Advent Study Year A

And you may wish to consider what I wrote on these texts in previous years.

Advent Two - Preparing

As so often when we read Scripture we need to hold any tension if we want to understand at any depth what is being taught. On this occasion the dream of God and God’s people for justice and mercy needs to be experienced in the holy tension of the current realities of our own broken lives, communities and nations. After all it is the broken and ‘corrupted’ world we live in that is in need of saving, healing, and transforming!

If we only see what is good and hopeful we will never give ourselves over to the work of transformation and the healing of the community. If we only see the hypocrisy and injustice we will not have the hope and energy to do the work of the gospel. We need both the dream of God and the motivation of the perceived need for restoration and healing to engage in the work of our personal life and our shared life.

Holding the hope and the clear sighted awareness of what is broken we can become truly open to the need for the coming of the Christ Child and glimpse everywhere the evidence of the incarnation of God’s love in action. We can identify within our own life and the community in which we live all that needs winnowing and burning away, all that needs saving and birthing, and all that needs celebrating and tending!

Let us experience the hope of the season, the possibility of justice and mercy, and let us see all that is still suffering and reach out in tenderness to those in need of healing – including ourselves.

Even so, come Lord Jesus the Christ, come deliverer of justice and mercy and inspire us to live out your gospel in our world. Amen.

Intercessions:

Creator God,

you have made this world for joy and justice,

prepare us to live accordingly with hope and tenderness

for those we share your world with.

We pray with thanksgiving for all that is strong and beautiful,

for all that is resilient and flourishing.

And we pray for all that is polluted or drought stricken or drowning.

We pray for the strengthening of all who defend and protect your world,

for those who seek to heal and comfort.

We pray for agencies of care and for the aid and encouragement they bring. Keep alive in us all the dream of justice and mercy.

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

Jesus the gift of life and hope,

we pray that all who gather in your name may be inspired and equipped

to live lives of hope and encouragement.

And we pray for those who do not have hope or purpose,

for the lonely, the forgotten, the overlooked, and the exhausted.

May the gift of your life and love bring good news to our community and world.

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

Spirit of the Living God, who inspires and revives,

help us live alert to the surprising gifts in every day life and help us see and reveal the possabilities of your dream for us hidden in the world as it is.

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.

https://johntsquires.com/2019/12/04/for-our-instruction-that-we-might-have-hope-rom-15-isa-11-matt-3/