Third Sunday of Advent

Our readings for the third Sunday of Advent:

1. Isaiah 35: 1-6a, 10
2. Psalms 146: 6-7, 8-9, 9-10
3. James 5: 7-10
4. Matthew 11: 2-11

• Freedom is coming
• I suspect that each of us is shackled by something.  Maybe it's a need to be in control.  Maybe it's a need to be appreciated and noticed.  Maybe it's an addiction of some sort, or fear of failure, an oppressive job, an abusive spouse.  God offers us freedom in all of those circumstances.
• How have you become more free over time?
• How did you first realize that you were bound to begin with?
• What had to change in you before you were able to step into that freedom?
• Was that freedom a "one and done" transition for you, or do you continue to embrace/appropriate that new-found freedom? 

• Being that welcome
• It's sometimes a challenge to welcome someone new.  They might be just a little different from the rest of the comfortable community.  They don't think the way that the rest of us do, they don't express themselves the way that we have learned to.
• When is a time that you felt personally welcomed?
• Were there requirements that you had to meet before you were "a full member"?
• How did that welcome change you?
• When have you tried to be welcoming in your own way? 

• Complaining about one another
• Gossip seems to be second nature to most of us.  Once I was gossiping full tilt until a good friend called it to my attention.  I just thought that I was telling them some of the community stories.  So they could get to know us better.
• Have you ever been in a community, even family, in which you "lost" someone?  Maybe they no longer felt welcome, maybe their views changed and they were no longer in agreement with the prevailing opinion(s) on key issues, ...
• How did that make you feel?
• Did you speak up about that?
• Why or why not? 

• Taking no offense at Jesus
• Jesus can be hard to understand sometimes.  It's easy to be offended at the way things happen in our lives.  We wonder what sort of God would allow such things.
• What is something that has happened in your life that made you wonder whether God really cared about you.  Or maybe you thought that God cared, but He just wasn't able for some reason to make a difference in your life at that time.
• How did that occurrence affect you, how did it make you feel?
• How did you pray about that?
• What did you learn about God in that experience?
• What did you learn about yourself? 

• Preparation for Reconciliation
• Where is God renewing me?
• What does God's justice mean for me?
• Where is God calling me to be more grateful for others?
• Where might God be calling me to greater trust? 

Tell my cousin I love him

Jesus my cousin has stirred up the whole region.

Hope blooms in the breast of the afflicted.

The lepers find acceptance at last.

The crippled run and leap for joy.

 

Yet here I am, His herald.

Confined to this stinking cell.

With barely any room to roam.

Hardly enough food to live.

 

Maybe I missed my calling.

Called attention to the wrong messiah.

And now I, and my countrymen

Are all paying for that mistaken identity.

 

This isn't my vision of a successful ministry.

This is not the stuff of a mini series.

I'm all but forgotten, rotting here.

With no one to tell me why I might be here.

 

I was in the sun for a brief moment.

Turning eyes and hearts toward Jesus.

And yet, and yet, if He is the one,

Why am I here when I have served so well?

 

I don't worry so much for my part.

I worry for my bretheren who look to me.

To help them make sense of it all.

After all, that's what prophets are for!?

 

Perhaps, rather than an anvil,

God is shaping me with uncertainty.

Rather than finding Him in the light -

He's calling me through this darkness.

 

Give me patience Lord.

That I might stay the course 

That you have set before me.

And find my joy in you regardless. 

 

Shalom!

2nd Sunday of Advent

Our readings for the second Sunday of Advent:

1. Isaiah 11: 1-10
2. Psalms 72: 1-2, 7-8, 12-13, 17
3. Romans 15: 4-9
4. Matthew 3: 1-12

• Making all things new
• God's action in our world seems to be about making all things new, rather than making all new things.  He's never started over, but always seeks to transform, to reinvent, to bring new life to what already is.
• Have you ever had a resurrection experience?  When something in your life gave way to something even better?  Maybe it was a child leaving home to begin life as an adult, or a relationship maturing to a new level, loss of a job to make room for a new career or a new take on work itself.
• How did you gain the courage to make that transition, cross that threshold?
• How did you come to realize that it was all for the best?
• Where was God in all of that? 

• Bringing God's justice, bringing God's kingdom
• Do you think that true justice has to happen for God's kingdom to be present?
• Do you think that God's kingdom on earth is the same as true justice?
• How would you define justice?
• What can we do to help bring that justice about? 

• Welcome one another
• I remember John Flaherty talking about the welcome that newcomers get at a church that he attended.  Newcomers would see a sign at the entrance to the parking lot "turn on your headlights if you are new here".  The newcomers each got a dedicated guide who would accompany them throughout the service so they felt welcome.  I love that.
• Welcoming can be hard.  Is there any one that you would have a hard time welcoming into a community that you are a member in?
• What about that person makes you uncomfortable?
• What does that say about you?
• What does that say about your community? 

• Bearing good fruit
• Richard Rohr frequently observes that Jesus never said "believe the right things about me."  Instead, He always called others to "follow me", which Rohr takes to translate to "do the things I do in the world."
• Who is someone close to you that has been fruitful for God?
• What are some of the fruits of their life?
• What of their attitude, approach, practice do you think that you could adopt so that you might become more fruitful? 

• Preparation for Reconciliation
• Where is God renewing me?
• What does God's justice mean for me?
• Where is God calling me to greater generosity?
• Where might God be calling me to be more fruitful? 

Get Me to the River

I can hear the labored breathing of my friends as they bear my litter.

Even in my wasted condition, I am quite the burden, today and always.

 

I too was once straight and strong,

Clear of eye and bold of bearing.

 

But age has taken its relentless toll,

And I lie here at the threshold of eternity.

 

When I heard of this cry in the wilderness,

This ringing invitation to awaken,

 

I begged them to bring me to the river.

That I might be baptized into greater awareness. 

 

I realized that old age has not brought me comfort,

But it it has given me occasion to reflect.

 

To ask whether the world is better for my passing through,

Whether I have given more than I have taken.

 

And I realized that I have never asked the important questions:

Why am I here?  What is my ultimate calling?  Where is my true home?

 

And I realized that this preacher offers the answer.

Not in words so much as in awareness.

 

Awareness of how content I have been to let others suffer.

Telling myself that it was no concern of mine how they chose to live.

 

Awareness of how much I have been given all these years.

And what a gift I could be to those around me.

 

I only hope that in this, the twilight of my existence,

I might burn just a little brighter than before.

 

Help others to find their way here, to the burning sands of the desert.

That they might find their own flame, though flickering.

 

That they might find the heart of their maker

Beating within their own breast. 

 

Shalom!