advent 2011: Monday of Peace

We return to Isaiah, to the prophecies of old that would set the stage for Jesus' birth and ministry. This is one of my favourite passages, at any time of the year. From Isaiah 60:

Arise, Jerusalem, and shine like the sun; 
   The glory of the Lord is shining on you!
 ² Other nations will be covered by darkness, 
   But on you the light of the Lord will shine; 
   The brightness of his presence will be with you.
 ³ Nations will be drawn to your light, 
   And kings to the dawning of your new day.

Waiting in Peace...for the Light.

advent 2011: Sunday of Peace

This is a day late, but here is what we read yesterday. The second half of the annunciation: Gabriel's visit to Joseph. From Matthew 1:

¹⁸ This was how the birth of Jesus Christ took place. His mother Mary was engaged to Joseph, but before they were married, she found out that she was going to have a baby by the Holy Spirit.¹⁹ Joseph was a man who always did what was right, but he did not want to disgrace Mary publicly; so he made plans to break the engagement privately.²⁰ While he was thinking about this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, 
         Joseph, descendant of David, do not be afraid to take Mary to be your wife. For it is by the Holy Spirit that she has conceived.²¹ She will have a son, and you will name him Jesus—because he will save his people from their sins.

   

 ²² Now all this happened in order to make come true what the Lord had said through the prophet,²³ 
         A virgin will become pregnant and have a son, and he will be called Immanuel (which means,
         God is with us).

 ²⁴ So when Joseph woke up, he married Mary, as the angel of the Lord had told him to.²⁵ But he had no sexual relations with her before she gave birth to her son. And Joseph named him Jesus.

Waiting in Peace...for an unexpected son.

advent 2011: Friday of Hope

Back to the Gospel of Luke and we arrive at the Annunciation to Mary. I like to travel slowly through this scene, drinking in all the hidden elements to the story. From Luke 1:

²⁶ In the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy God sent the angel Gabriel to a town in Galilee named Nazareth.²⁷ He had a message for a young woman promised in marriage to a man named Joseph, who was a descendant of King David. Her name was Mary.²⁸ The angel came to her and said,         

Peace be with you! The Lord is with you and has greatly blessed you! 

²⁹ Mary was deeply troubled by the angel's message, and she wondered what his words meant.³⁰ The angel said to her,          

Don't be afraid, Mary; God has been gracious to you.³¹ You will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus.³² He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High God. The Lord God will make him a king, as his ancestor David was,³³ and he will be the king of the descendants of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end!

Last year I shared my reflections on the Annunciation on our church blog, Sunday Lunch. I also highly recommend Denise Levertov's poem of the same name; her fresh perspective is inspiring and eye-opening.

Waiting in Hope...to understand.

advent 2011: Wednesday of Hope

Today we’re reading from the prophet Isaiah, continuing the look back at why the people were waiting and who they were hoping would come. Having read about Zechariah and Elizabeth and the foretelling of the birth of John the Baptist, we’ll look at the role he would play. From Isaiah 40:

 ³ A voice cries out,

         Prepare in the wilderness a road for the Lord!
      Clear the way in the desert for our God!
 ⁴ Fill every valley;
      level every mountain.
   The hills will become a plain,
      and the rough country will be made smooth.
 ⁵ Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed,
      and all people will see it.
   The Lord himself has promised this.


Waiting in hope...for a Path Maker.

advent 2011: Tuesday of Hope

Today we went back, back to the prophet Micah, to read about why the people of Israel had been waiting for Jesus. Who were they expecting? What were they hoping for? A peacemaker. From Micah 4: 3-4:

 He will settle disputes among the nations,       among the great powers near and far.    They will hammer their swords into plows       and their spears into pruning knives.    Nations will never again go to war,       never prepare for battle again.  Everyone will live in peace       among their own vineyards and fig trees,       and no one will make them afraid.    The Lord Almighty has promised this. 

We wait in hope.

Advent 2011: Monday of Hope

This evening we'll be talking about when waiting can be difficult, when waiting is even unpleasant for us and how, by holding on to HOPE the waiting is easier. We'll be reading from Luke 1:

Zechariah said to the angel,  "How can this be so? I am an old man and my wife is old also." I am Gabriel," the angel answered. :I stand in the presence of God who sent me to speak to you and tell you this good news. But you have not believed my message which will come true at the right time. Because you have not believed, you will be unable to speak; you will remain silent until the day my promise to you comes true." Zechariah went home. Some time later his wife Elizabeth became pregnant.

Have a blessed evening! 

Advent 2011: Sunday of Hope

Today was the first day of Advent. After dinner, we began our Advent family activity. We read verses from Luke 1:

There was a priest named Zechariah. His wife's name was Elizabeth. They both lived good lives in God's sight and obeyed fully all the Lord's laws and commands. They had no children because Elizabeth could not have any, and she and Zechariah were both very old. One day Zechariah was doing his work as a priest in the Temple. An angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar where the incense was burned. When Zechariah saw him, he was alarmed and felt afraid. But the angel said to him, "Don't be afraid, Zechariah! God has heard your prayer, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son. You are to name him John. How glad and happy you will be, and how happy many others will be when he is born!"

We talked about waiting, about how challenging it can be to wait for something we really want, like a baby, but that the good things that come after waiting are worth it. Peanut said it was just like having to wait for a chocolate cookie.

advent 2011

Last year I planned to do a daily Advent reading with Peanut. But then our apartment filled with mold, we temporarily evicted ourselves to a hotel and then my mother's house, and I had some pretty horrendous nausea and fatigue on top off all that stress. We tried to stay focused on joy, but..well, it was hard. This year, though, I'm feeling extremely determined.

It took me a while to figure out precisely what I wanted to do to mark the progress of the Advent season every day, but after reading this and having a conversation over Facebook with Katie Munnik, I found my direction.

We start with the theme of Waiting. Advent is a season of waiting, of expectation and anticipation as well as preparation. We prepare ourselves for The Gift but we also acknowledge The Wait. The long wait for the sun. The long wait for a son. The long wait for a Saviour. Reading through Luke, there are scores of players in the story who are waiting. Zechariah and Elizabeth wait for a child. Zechariah waits to speak. Mary and Joseph wait to be married. Mary waits for her child to be born. Israel waits for the Messiah. The shepherds wait for the nightwatch to end. The Magi wait for the star to show them where to find Him. And of course there's Herod, futilely, malevolently waiting for the Magi to return.

And we: we wait to celebrate again. We wait for the days to lengthen once again, for our Northern world to begin its turn back toward the sun. We wait to sing out joy to the world, the LORD is come! I can understand waiting. Moreover, a 3 year old can understand waiting. She can understand anticipation: she is, in fact, a master.

Here's what we'll be doing: we start with a branch and some yarn. I happened to have a branch painted gold from a long-ago dance recital, so I used that. I have suspended the branch over our dining table from a shelf on the wall using  some twill tape. Onto the branch I've draped several random loops of yarn to create a sort of web hanging over the table. Before dinner tomorrow I'll clip 29 very small clothespins or paper clips onto the yarn. I'll also have 29 squares of coloured paper, as well as a few slips of plain white paper, sitting on the shelf above the table. On the table we'll have a candle.

So that's the display we'll have set up for the season. Every evening we'll light the candle and we'll read a short passage, talk about what it means, what part of the story it represents, and about the waiting within that passage. Then we'll take a square of paper, decide as a family what shape might represent that passage (or just what we feel like seeing that day) and we'll cut it out. Stars, hearts, people, doves, snowflakes...We'll cut out the shape and then clip it to the yarn. Every day more and more of the clothespins will be filled up. Some days we'll add some written words as well. By the end we should have a colourful, joyful little array above our table.

I'll be posting the reading for that evening here every day, so feel free to follow along with your family.  And I'd love to hear how you are marking this season of anticipation.