Advent 2025 - Week 1 (Nov 30-Dec 6)

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Advent Week 1 (November 30-December 6

Both Luke and Matthew begin their gospels by orienting us within “the time of King Herod,” and so we begin the series by fleshing out what it might have been like to live in the days when Jesus was born—a time not all that different from our own.

As an elderly priest, Zechariah had witnessed the fall of Judean independence and the beginning of Roman occupation. He longed for the coming Messiah, and he longed for a son. The author of Lamentations cries out in personal pain while his homeland is under Babylonian rule. Our global and personal heartache are intertwined, and the wait for promised rescue is hard to bear.

Whether in exile, under the rule of a puppet king, or in the depths of personal pain, we long for God to break through the fear and bring us hope.

This week's readings

Luke 1:5-13

Lamentations 3:55-57

Visual images for the week

Zechariah and the Angel

by Hanna Garrity

Inspired by Luke 1:5-13

Depths

by Carmelle Beaugelin Caldwell

Inspired by Lamentations 3:55-57

This week's poetry... In the Time of Herod

I didn’t live during Herod’s time—that brutal, murderous king, God save his soul.

But even hundreds of years later, I know the prayers of his people.

I know the prayers of the mothers and the children under his rule.

I know the prayers of the young men under his angry arm.

I know their prayers, because anyone who has ever lived in this soft world for more than two days

knows how to pray for a miracle.

We rub our hands together.

We fold weary shoulders in,

a cage of bone to protect our bleeding hearts.

We sing, we shall overcome and bind my wandering heart to thee.

We walk across bridges and in front of powerful buildings.

We cover our cars in stickers that scream, we will not give up!

We allow a hungry cry to slip from our lips,

giving our lament a life of its own (with room to dance!).

And when all of that is said and done, we whisper to our creator,

God, break through the yelling and the fear. Break through the violence and the oppression.

Get past the Herods of this world, and come be here.