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Lincoln Advent: 17 December

17 December, 2012 wonderfulexchangeLeave a comment

Advent Prayers, 17 December
Lincolnshire Chaplaincy Services

O Sapientia

O Wisdom, proceeding from the mouth of the Most High,
filling all the world and ordering all things with your strength and gentleness:
Come and teach us the way of truth.
(traditional Magnificat antiphon )

Today is the day we pray for wisdom. All over the world, as dark falls and evening prayer is said, the Magnificat is surrounded by a cry for wisdom.

The “O” Antiphons are a very old part of the church’s life. ‘O Wisdom’, ‘O King’, ‘O root of Jesse’, ‘O Dayspring from on high’. We know them best as the carol, O Come, O Come Emmanuel – and I cannot imagine an Advent without it. But the truth is, I love these prayers most as they were first sung: one at a time, day by day, slowly surrounding Mary’s song.

‘O Wisdom’ calls us to a place of sanity. Amid the intensity of our preparations for Christmas – crowded streets and long to-do lists – Wisdom whispers of a different sort of world. ‘Come’, she says, ‘to a road that is gentle. Come, find compassion and truth.’

As we draw near the end of Advent, there will be a thousand reasons that we fail to find rest or prayer or peace. Lots of them will be good reasons. Some of them will be the very work of God. But I suspect that some will be of our own making – as we try to do more than is humanly possible, more than is humanly necessary, and confuse ourselves with God. Wisdom invites us to remember our place: as co-creators and workers for the kingdom, certainly – but also as the beloved children of God.

There are eight days left – long enough for preparation, creation and sabbath rest. Wisdom calls to a road that is gentle, and urges compassion on ourselves.

Today we pray for the Lincolnshire Chaplaincy Services, which offers pastoral care in places of work, education and leisure. We pray that through their efforts, the people of Lincolnshire will find greater peace, greater purpose, greater pleasure as the ways of Wisdom sink in.

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Lincoln Advent: 16 December

16 December, 2012 wonderfulexchange1 Comment

Advent Prayers, 16 December
Furnichurch, Skegness

God’s home is now among his people.
He will live with them, and they will be his people.
God himself will be with them.
(Revelation 21.3, New Living Translation)

How does it feel to be the dwelling place of God?

Our whole Christian story is based on the belief that God not only dwells among us, but comes to share our human nature. All that we are is taken up into the life of God in Christ. But that is only half the story. When God comes to Mary, Mary’s ‘yes’ makes her the God-bearer. When Jesus is born in the stable, human life reveals the presence of God. When we are given new life in the Spirit, God becomes our very breath. We become God-bearers; our lives become a revelation of God.

These things are ‘given’ to us in faith. But this is Advent, and we know that we live in the space between ‘already’ and ‘not-yet’. ‘Already’ is the fact that God shares our life and wants our lives to proclaim his presence. ‘Not-yet’ is our ability to embody that fully – to know, truly and deeply, that we are the dwelling place of God.

Most of us carry voices in our heads that tell us we are not good enough. We can’t sing. We can’t dance. We are (cruelty of cruelties:) ‘no good with people’. Even if there are many things we know we are good at, there is usually some undermining fear: maybe this time we will be caught out. If we are not even sure that we are ‘good enough’ for the normal tasks of living, then how can we be the dwelling place of God?

To make a dwelling place is to make a home – to make a place where others are welcome. I read once (I cannot think where) that in order to offer hospitality, we must first feel at home ourselves. We have to have a certain ease with our place in the world, so that we can help others find ease and well-being. Part of the task of the church is to be a place where we can learn to feel at home – where we can experience enough of God’s love to let go of our fear of failure, and to trust that we might be (may be) the very dwelling place of God.

Jean Vanier says this:

To love someone is not, first of all, to do things for them, but to reveal to them their beauty and value, to say to them through our attitude: “You are beautiful. You are important. I trust you. You can trust yourself.” … To love someone is to reveal to them their capacity for life, the light that is shining in them.”

(J. Vanier, From Brokenness to Community, p. 16)

We learn to trust ourselves as we give and receive trust from other. We come to feel at home, as God’s dwelling place, when we respond to the presence of God, dwelling in others.

Today we pray for Furnichurch, which helps those who would otherwise struggle to furnish their homes. Pray that through their efforts, more people will be able to feel at home, make spaces of hospitality, and come to see that they are the very dwelling place of God.

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Lincoln Advent: 15 December

16 December, 201216 December, 2012 wonderfulexchangeLeave a comment

Advent Prayers, 15 December
Pray, Play, Say. Lincoln

What does the Lord require of you, but to do justice,
love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.
(Micah 6.8)

To the bidding: “Auntie, will you come play football?
my instinctive response is: “Lord, have mercy.”
But off I go anyway, to ball and net, because the person asking matters more to me than my non-sporty ways.

Up and down the land, the most unlikely people are playing football because the person who asked them to matters more than their own reluctance. They are not the only ones, of course: there are the eager ones, the skilled ones, the people who would do anything for their team.

However we feel about it, football is one of the ways that our culture works out our basic need for belonging. We play with the people we care about. We learn who we are in the game.

When a child asks for a football stripe, or wants desperately to join the team, they are testing the boundaries of their identity. “Will I belong here? Can I fit in? Will this be fun – and keep me from being bored – and give me a story to tell?” Children are seeking acceptance. They will find it wherever and however they can.

One of the questions the church faces is whether we can be a place of acceptance where each person finds a way to belong. It is easy to say ‘yes, of course – we are that,’ but there is a gap between tolerance and acceptance, and we stumble into it all the time. Tolerance says: “we will put up with you: you can stay,” and (quietly) “we trust you will become more like us in time.” Acceptance says: “how wonderful, you are here: beloved child of God.” In fact, if our acceptance of others is real, we don’t have to tolerate everything. We can set expectations on how we relate when we come together, or what it is we are trying to do. But we can’t set boundaries on who joins us, or who will show us the ways of God.

In Advent, we are called to make ready a place of acceptance, of hospitality and of love. We prepare to meet the Christ-child, the hidden home of God.

Today we pray for Play, Pray, Say. Pray that through the teams they run, and the relationships they build, children will find a place of acceptance and welcome.

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Lincoln Advent: 14 December

16 December, 2012 wonderfulexchangeLeave a comment

Advent Prayers, 14 December
Mission to Seafarers

Our Lord says, “Surely I come quickly.”
Even so: Come Lord Jesus.
(Common Worship, sentences for Advent)

“I’m on the train”
“Home soon.”
“I can’t wait to see you tomorrow.”

I wonder how many messages pass by text, phone and messenger each day saying “I’m almost there… it’s almost time… I can’t wait to be with you.”

The promise of our coming is an important part of our relationships. It allows people to prepare – to put the kettle on, to wrap up the tricky bit of business, or just to make use of those last few minutes alone (breathe… and… yes: you can come in). The messages also build excitement – they are a sign of the importance we place on relationships, the importance we hope you will place on them too. And, when the coming is delayed – when work or crisis or competing needs mean that we can’t be where we want to be, a message acts as a sort of promise: I am thinking of you. I want to be with you. I’ll get there as soon as I can.

Once the text has been sent or the phone call has been made, we are part of a process together. Something is about to happen – and it is something we already share.

The messages of Advent are like that: “See, I am Coming Soon. Surely I come quickly.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

The words back and forth, the versicle and response, help form our relationship with God. They act as a promise – on both sides – that we are part of something together. What we are a part of is the coming of Christ in Glory. What we are a part of is the transformation of our world, until Christ is All in All.

We stand in the in-between time: Christ yesterday, Christ tomorrow – us today. Christ in us, surely. Christ in those we meet, without doubt. But for Christ’s presence to be known in our communities right now, God counts on us today.

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