Tag Archives: Advent

Lenten Calendar: Another Season, Another Fast

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Julie Elfers Winter to Spring

art by Julie Elfers

I’ve blogged a few of years of Advent reflections, but Lent calls for a different kind of pace and energy that I’m just now trying to summon and articulate for the first time.

Both Advent and Lent are fasts, designated times of preparation that allow us to better celebrate the feasts of Christmas and Easter. Both seasons are quiet, but Advent mirrors the deepening stillness of winter’s approach, where Lent channels the subterranean stirrings of early spring.

Advent is lament, crying out in our need and powerlessness as the darkness deepens around us. Lent is repentance, throwing off every self-imposed impediment so we can walk in freedom and power in the light, The discipline of Advent is to cultivate hope in spite of the darkness around us. The discipline of Lent is to spite the darkness within and share the hope that is also within us.

During Advent we meditate on the wonder of God coming to be human as we are: small and vulnerable. During Lent we follow Jesus in his earthly ministry, striving to become human as he is: whole and restoring others to wholeness.

In Advent we fall to our knees in anticipation of a blessing and receive the gift of a savior. In Lent we rise to our feet to be a blessing and learn to give sacrificially in the model of the Savior.

Advent is dwelling on the promise of Isaiah 9:6; it’s a call to wait on the Lord. Lent is embracing the exhortation of Isaiah 58:6; it’s a call to action.

Each of the 40 days of Lent I will try to post a little something to get us moving. A song, a poem, an article, a study, a wandering exploration, a quote…. We’ll see. I have no overarching plan beyond the grand tradition of the disciples – just praying to be able to keep up as Jesus quickens his pace toward Jerusalem.

Words of Witness – Advent Week 4: LOVE

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We gather here today in response to God’s love

that feeds our souls like a good meal with friends,  

filling our minds and hearts and senses

until our best selves overflow.

aerial photo of mountain surrounded by fog

Photo by icon0.com on Pexels.com

Despite the selfish demands and betrayals of love we have suffered.

Despite the impatient and half-hearted attempts at love we have offered.

Despite our flawed definitions and our misplaced affections,

We come.

 

We come because of all these things, believing

in a love that is bigger than us, and better;

that is offered to us as we are,

even as it is beyond our scope to comprehend as we are.

Lord help our unbelief.

 

We gather in love

and in need of God’s perfect love.

A love that has been through everything

and come out stronger.

A love that knows and accepts us so deeply

that the stranger no longer poses a threat.

A love to grow into.

The gentle touch of the sun on our upturned faces

Its soft warmth on our backs when it is no more

and no less than the light by which we see.

A faint trickle of water music

heard throughout life’s song-rich forest

telling us that wherever we go,

we will never go thirsty.

 

We are God’s people.

We light this candle as a sign of the love of God,

who comes to walk in our shoes

and make a home among us.

O come, Immanuel. 

 

 

Composed by and for the American Church in Paris community, the work of the people to the glory of God.

Words of Witness – Advent Week 3: JOY

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We gather here today in God’s Spirit of joy

that erases all memory of pain and fear

like the holy cry of a newborn child.

 

Despite the status quo and daily grind that stifle our humanity

Despite unanswered prayers that make us doubt divinity

In the face of desperation and discrimination, sickness and loss,

In the face of death itself, we come.

 

We come because of all these things,

believing that God’s joy is as unconditional as God’s love,

as unbounded and independent of circumstances as God’s own Spirit.

Holy Spirit, help our unbelief.

 

We gather in the joy of the Spirit who groans for us,

longing that our joy be made full,

that our joy be made deeper

than the pride we can buoy only with compliments,

more grounded than the mania we conjure against depression.

The joy of letting our guard down.

The joy of going beyond our limitations and our successes.

Giving more, doing more than we thought possible

only to find we have and are more than when we began.

Joy in the journey when the end is not yet in sight.

Walking freely in the counsel of the wise.

Being blessed by our children.

Joy transcending time and place

to make joy possible in our time and place.

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“The Way of Water” – photograph by Jenn Cavanaugh

We are God’s people.

We light this candle as a sign of God’s joy

who comes to us in the newness of life

and makes a home among us, and for us.

O come, Immanuel.

 

 

Composed by and for the American Church in Paris community, the work of the people to the glory of God.

Words of Witness – Advent Week 2: PEACE

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We gather here today in response to Christ’s peace

that draws our eyes upward

like birdsong and rainbow against a storm-dark sky,

promising an end to destruction.

 
Despite the interminable warzones we shrug must always be so;

Despite the seething culture wars boiling over into our own streets;

Despite our clenched fists, anxious minds, and overburdened hearts;

Despite our frustrated relationships and hard-wired wariness, we come.

banksylovevspeace

by Banksy

 
We come because of all these things,

believing that our inner chaos can be rightly ordered,

that wrongs will be righted, that wars and fears shall cease,

that a day will come when we will no longer live by the sword or die by the gun.

Jesus help our unbelief.

 
We gather in the name of the savior who is our peace,

a peace beyond fleeting distraction,

beyond the suppression of hostility.

A more perfect peace we glimpse

from the zone we enter when we run, when we bike,

when we read, when we create.

Peace resonating after the choir’s last chord.

Peace with God and with ourselves.

Well-placed trust in friends and harmony with enemies,

smiles from strangers and the company of those who love us.

All the world’s children tucked safely into beds,

Falling snow framed in a picture window,

and the time to watch it fall,

mug in hand, good things baking in the oven.

The smell of a forest in its prime, clearing the air,

The trickle of snowmelt, reviving the earth.

Peace running like a warm bath at the end of a hard day,

when all has been done and done well.

 
We are God’s people.

We light this candle as a sign of God’s peace

who comes to us in the fullness of time

and makes a home among us.

O come, Immanuel.

Words of Witness – Advent week 1: HOPE

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We gather here today in response to God’s hope

that calls us like church bells,

heralding the birth of a savior

and new life offered to all.

selective focus photography of paintbrush near paint pallet

Photo by Steve Johnson on Pexels.com

Despite the failure of our systems to protect the innocent.

Despite the arrogance of those who say there is no hope.

Despite our distorted desires

and disheartening battles, we come.

 

We come because of all these things,

believing that things could be different,

that things could be better;

that we could be changed.

God help our unbelief.

 

We gather in hope

and in need of God’s perfect hope.

A hope like unbounded light

at the end of our tunneled vision.

A hope like cool waves on sunburnt skin.

A hope that smells like fresh-baked bread,

sustaining our bodies.

A hope that tastes like fresh spring water,

restoring our souls.

A hope like the mess of a palette

resolving itself on canvas

into wonder.

 

We are God’s people.

We light this candle

as a sign of our hope in the God who comes to us in our darkest hour

and makes a home among us.

O come, Immanuel.

 

Composed by and for the American Church in Paris community, the work of the people to the glory of God.

Advent Again – day 26

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“Your mind will muse on terror… your eyes will see a quiet habitation”

“Woman Holding a Balance” by Johannes Vermeer

from “Hermeneutics” by Kerri Webster

 

All winter she’s been growing more powerful.

Radiant, says the man at the bar.

Voluptuous, says the docent.

Nervy, says God.

All winter her soul has been juddering.

It feels like drinking gold flakes!

The word sleeps inside the stone.

The wind tongues the underside of the lake.

Inside the rifle scope of time, God

teaches her Grounding Techniques

through his emissary, a Certified Therapist.

Beetles bore their dirty traffic into pine trees.

God says, You cling to deixis

like a life raft. Here, you

say. Now, you say. All winter, you say, like it means

something, days crossed off your compulsive

calendar, wind tied to your wrist like

a pet. This dumb hunger for

fixity! I made your cells

to shed, says God. See them

everywhere, everywhere.

…

Advent Again – day 10

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“so that all may see and know…”

 

[Psalm #5] from 99 Psalms by SAID, translated from the German by Mark S Burrows

(Brewster, Mass.: Paraclete Press, 2013)

 

lord

let me be a water puddle

that mirrors your heavens

and murmurs your prayers

so that the cicadas might understand me

puddlemcescher

“Puddle” by M.C. Escher

show yourself o lord

even if you have no other choice

than to come in the fierce coursing of blood

and take in the refugees

because every fleeing ends in your eye

even if those who flee forget you in their time of need

because only those who doubt in you

seek you

 

Advent Again – day 9

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“aspire to live quietly”

from “Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front” by Wendell Berry

Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.
And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.
When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know.

night-of-the-poor

“Noche de los pobres” by Diego Rivera

So, friends, every day do something
that won’t compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it

….

Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?

….

Advent Again – day 8

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“a branch shall grow…”

the-tree-of-life

“The Tree of Life” by Gustav Kimt

“Tree” by Jane Hirschfield

It is foolish
to let a young redwood
grow next to a house.

Even in this
one lifetime,
you will have to choose.

That great calm being,
this clutter of soup pots and books—

Already the first branch-tips brush at the window.
Softly, calmly, immensity taps at your life.

Advent Again – day 7

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“What shall I cry?”

 

from “Advice to a Prophet” by Richard Wilbur

 

When you come, as you soon must, to the streets of our city,

Mad-eyed from stating the obvious,

Not proclaiming our fall but begging us

In God’s name to have self-pity,

 

Spare us all word of the weapons, their force and range,

The long numbers that rocket the mind;

Our slow, unreckoning hearts will be left behind,

Unable to fear what is too strange.

 

Nor shall you scare us with talk of the death of the race.

How should we dream of this place without us?—

The sun mere fire, the leaves untroubled about us,

A stone look on the stone’s face?

 

Speak of the world’s own change. Though we cannot conceive

Of an undreamt thing, we know to our cost

How the dreamt cloud crumbles, the vines are blackened by frost,

How the view alters….

cityscape-by-jeremy-mann

Painting by Jeremy Mann