. . . As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord . . . Joshua 25:15b

Advent 1 Yr B
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Salvadore Dali, Figure at the Window, National Museum in Madrid, Spain. downloaded 11/8/2020 from Google search.. See one description in last article on this page.

Published date 11/29/2023

Watch

original post 11/23/2022; repeated 12/03/2023

Watching is not something we modern folks are any good at. We are used to instant gratification. In fact, we get quite annoyed if we have to wait for anything these days. The technology of our world allows for so much to be at our fingertips that we can satisfy most whims at a moment’s notice.

Whilst that is helpful and convenient in many cases, I do think that it can devalue the things we receive. We also lose the anticipation which is part of the joy of receiving.

Our ancestors understood the importance and power of watching. Of course, you needed someone to watch whilst others slept as a means of protection. People watched for messages to arrive. They watched for armies to descend. They watched for days to lengthen and shorten. They watched crops growing. They watched for harvest time. Watching was a significant part of their lives.

But watching is a skill that takes practice. Watching requires the ability to be still, to concentrate, to be aware of things outside ourselves and to realize that sometimes we must rely on something outside of ourselves that we have to wait to arrive.

Advent is a time of watching and waiting. My mother to this day sends me an Advent Calendar. I find it keeps me centered as I open a new window every day to mark off the days of the season. As a child it felt like an infinitely long time but as an aging adult it seems to pass more quickly every year. (I am also always disappointed that she flatly refuses to send me a Star Wars calendar!) I find the ceremony of opening the calendar every day a way of acknowledging the anticipation and trying to slow down a little bit as I watch.

Advent makes us uncomfortable. It impinges on our self-centered hurry up world. We have to take a long hard look at ourselves.

There is an old saying “Good things come to those who wait”.

And here we are in the season of waiting. Watching for the ultimate good thing to come. The incarnation of God with us. The ultimate example of our Creator’s love for us. No wonder we want the days to hurry up and pass. We want to receive that gift of ultimate love. But we need to be in the right frame of mind to allow that love into our lives and hearts. That is why Advent is a time to prepare.

I think that is a pretty good reason to slow down and watch. As I open each door of my Advent calendar, I will try and embrace the anticipation of Christmas and make a place in my heart for God.

Introduction

Our COVID winter put the exclamation point on "Watching" or "Waiting", as we are called to do to begin our Advent journey to the birth of Jesus and subsequent visit of the magi. And the lessons fall right into place. The Prophet Isaiah tells how the children of Israel have been disobedient yet ends with the assurance that the Lord is our God and cares for us. The Psalm echoes the Isaiah sentiment. Paul reminds those in Corinth that God has equipped them with all that they need. But Mark sorta tells us that we really won't know when Jesus is coming even though we should be on the lookout. Now, post-COVID, many of us remain in distress—emotional or physical—so let's acknowledge the losses we have felt and are feeling. Let us recognize the losses of those around us—near and far because it extends throughout the world. God has given us what we need to make it through—as a team. We will continue to wait. Come, Lord Jesus!

Feel free to make a comment.

Mark 13:24-37

Jesus said, “ . . . But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. Therefore, keep awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.”

From sermon4kids.com: “As we look forward to Christmas day, we also look forward to the day when Jesus will come again. Today we light the candle of hope on our advent wreath. Just as the people of Israel found hope in the promises of God, we find hope in Jesus’ promise that he will come again.”

Scripture: Decenber 3, 2023—Advent 1 (Year B)—Isaiah 64:1-9 (image); 1 Corinthians 1:3-9 (image); Mark 13:24-37 (image); and Psalm 80:1-7, 16-18 (image). A visual/audio journey through the scripture.

Collect: Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Reflection: The weeks leading to Christmas are often filled with much activity. Along with work, school, and church responsibilities, there are special holiday festivities to which we will attend. Staying “awake,” as Mark 13:24–37 stresses, may not be the problem—in fact, we may feel there are not enough hours in the day! Yet, this reading from Mark counsels us to be awake to, to pay attention to, what is most needful for our well-being and the well-being of the world: God’s presence, God’s appearing among us. Here at the beginning of Advent, how will you “keep alert” for God in the midst of so many responsibilities and distractions?

Eye Candy:
“Drawing Near” by Jan Richardson, ALSO LOOK AT "END AND BEGINNING";
several images about “a righteous branch”;
“Tomorrow I may be far away” by Romare Bearden;
"The Last Judgment" by Wassily Kandinsky;
"Advent and Triumph of Christ" by Hans Memling

Mary and Elizabeth, Peter Koenig, https://www.pwkoenig.co.uk/Portfolio/mary-and-elizabeth

Ear Worm:
“One candle“, Sacred Heart Choir;
“One Candle” by J Ralph and Sia, a rocking environmental protection song;
“Wait for the Lord“, Taize community;
"My Lord, what a morning", spiritual by Marian Anderson;
"Come, Lord Jesus" by Far-flung Tin Can, "worth listening to, might meditate to as well

Brain Food:
Commentary about the Jeremiah lesson, by Lynn Miller;
“Is today ‘the day’?“, a reflection by Lynn Miller;
"Has God hidden?" by Beth Scibienski;
"Watching and Longing" by Janet H Hunt;
"Watch Actively" by Tom Beam

Reflection on Advent 1: Candle of Hope

Christ we sit in darkness, but you are our light. We long for your coming into our hearts, into our lives and into our world.
You are the One for whom all the peoples of the earth wait.
Our world has been shaken by fire and earthquake and storm; Our security has been shaken by bombings and wars and uncertainty.
We wait in anticipation expecting God’s light to penetrate our darkness and radiate within us.
In the midst of our doubts and our insecurities we are reminded that you are never shaken. Your faithfulness reaches to the ends of the earth.
We watch and wait expecting new light to shine as the season of joy approaches.
You are our rock and our refuge, an ever present help in trouble. Come down, come in, walk with us so that we trust in you and not be shaken.
We wait in hope attentive to all the signs of Christ’s coming.

downloaded from https://lifeinliturgy.wordpress.com/2014/11/18/advent-candle-lighting-rituals/ on 11/13/2020.

Parables:
“The Truman show” (1998, PG), “An insurance salesman discovers his whole life is actually a reality TV show”, Review;
“Big night” (1996, R), what does it take to keep the dream alive, Review;
“Star Trek: Generations” (1994, PG), “time is the companion on the journey”, Review

Special Note: Jan Richardson, a gifted leader and multimedia artist, is offering “ILLUMINATED 2023: AN INVITATION INTO THE HEART OF CHRISTMAS. Join for this new retreat for Advent! A great way to travel toward Christmas, from anywhere you are. Individual, group, and congregational rates available. Info & registration: Illuminated Advent Retreat.”

For lighting of Advent candles, week one:
O God, we light the first candle of Advent. (A member of a family lights the first candle.)
We kindle it with hope. We long for you to come to our world, to break through and reign with compassion, justice, and peace. This Advent, visit us with your justice, love, and peace. Amen.
Sing (tune of Let all mortal flesh keep silence): Shine on us, O God of justice; Guide our path through gloom of night; Bear within us Wisdom's glory; Come to us, O Christ the Light.

[the incomplete hymn will be complete when lighting the Christ candle on Christmas Day. Excerpted from United Church of Christ)

For families: Study guide; group activities; snack; sing “Wait for the Lord“.

For children: activity; bulletin games; craft.

For middlers: activity; bulletin games; craft.

For youth: So . . . we have been told that the Messiah is coming for a very long time. We are told to keep watch, to wait, the Messiah is on his way. Spend a minute thinking about the fact that your parents have been waiting for the coming Messiah too. Just how hard is that? To wait without knowing about how long it’s going to be? One problem with a very long wait is we might lose our enthusiasm for the coming or we might lose heart about it. How can you keep your enthusiasm for the coming Messiah? Does it matter?

Extra: Advent coloring pages: Hope; Peace; Joy; Love; and Emmanuel.

Waiting, hoping, giving shape to our dreams is part of the human condition. To dream of a world of peace and justice, where God's goodness is all in all, and to wake to the realization, is a cherished human hope. The figure in Salvador Dali's Girl standing at the window (above) waits with full attention for something. She looks expectantly out into the wide world beyond her familiar harbor. Attentive, hope-filled, alert, with her whole being trained on the horizon, she watches for the sign: the break in the meeting of sea and sky, the cloud of smoke that heralds the messenger's arrival. Fully attentive—eyes and ears and imagination—she is ready to recognize and greet a hope-filled future.

So the church waits for Jesus in Advent. Poised, we are alert to the signs of the times in nature, Scripture, newspaper, ready to greet wherever the Christ appears. The Promise comes in unexpected peace blossoming like a garden in winter, in the wake up call of an unlikely prophet, in the sudden courage to risk bringing God's future into being, in Mary's risk to bring Jesus into the world. Advent's color is deep blue, the color of the sky just before the first rays of sunrise wake the rooster to announce to the watchers the dawning of a new day.

From Rite Lite

The season of Advent begins today. The name of the season means "coming," and it celebrates God's coming to us in the birth of Jesus and looks toward Christ's return at the end of history as Savior and Judge.

The first reading from Isaiah reflects the intensity of the prophet's hope for the Messiah. In a period of Israel's history when confidence in the people's own efforts to build God's Kingdom had collapsed, Isaiah expresses that hope in a passage that has been a part of the Advent liturgy since the earliest days of the Church, "O that you would tear open the heavens and come down..."

In the second reading we hear Paul's greeting in his first letter to Corinth. Recognizing the many spiritual gifts of the Corinthian church (a source of their strength, but also a source of the controversy which caused him to write) he says that those spiritual gifts are given to prepare us to greet the return of Christ.

Jesus' message to his followers is an assurance that he will return and that our lives should be lived in preparation for that return. This theme of watching for his return is always central on the first Sunday of Advent. Today's reading from Mark is the parable of the door-keeper. It reminds us that we are always to be on the watch for Jesus' return.

The liturgy is the way the Church lives in the time between Jesus' first coming and his second coming. In word and sacrament he comes to us again and again, veiled, but present to eyes of faith. In the Eucharist and in ministry to others we are continually being prepared to greet him when he comes again in glory.

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