#Advent Day 9 Longest Night Prayer

Nativity, 2022 (Ukraine) by Irenaeus Yurchuk.

Longest Night Prayer
Jesus,
Sweet Baby Jesus
Born in the midst of a collapsing empire
Hidden in plain sight from everything and everyone official


When different factions of the religion
were all claiming to be the “truer” one
Each saying if you don’t worship our way
You don’t belong to God.

You were born when a Messiah
Seemed to be around every corner
Lamps were left on at night and demagogues and dynamic cult leaders
Were followed at whim, because people needed hope

And the gulf between who was poor and who was rich
The distinction between who was citizen and who was not
The taste in one’s mouth when people called one another
Foreigner, Outsider, or Different was sour and full of hate

Violence was everywhere
Children, the Poor, The Elderly, The Lonely, the Sex Worker
were Ignored or Forgotten
Laws were passed against anyone deemed Unclean in any way (oh my Queer siblings!)

Jesus Christ, you were born in a time
When no one was receiving proper healthcare
So people banged down your door
for a bit of healing

And my heart aches
With the familiarity, you could be born today
Is this why you have to be born into today’s world?
Have we forgotten why we need you?

Sometimes I wonder if you haven’t returned
Because we haven’t learned enough?
Heretic thought I know
But I sit in the hate and terror and worry Jesus

Jesus Christ, we need you. A baby
A sneak king full of healing and mischevious teachings of Grace
Jesus we need someone who will sit in the dirt with the marginal
and embody the Peace so much that we will sit in the dirt with you.

Sweet baby Jesus, though I know we picture angels, shepherds, & magi
I think that a baby born in the war-torn dark
might be the truth
Help us to sit with that, in the shortest day and longest night I pray.

Amen.

Feel free to use/adapt/share with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta

Advent Day 8 Silence & Noise

I like to think about
How Jesus was all about
the in-betweens

Because Jesus got
that some days
You wanted to be
in the the middle
of the racous noise

And others
the stillness
is what feeds
your soul

I remember the moment
in the pandemic
when all the introverts needed people
And I know there are many times
When I, and extrovert, was surrounded
by my family’s devices, and craved an empty house

The extremity can feel so holy can it not?
Alone in a field looking at the stars?
In the middle of a crowd, feeling lost in the humanity?

I love that all of this is blessed
Yes, be loud!
Yes be quiet!

Go, find your people!
Go, be alone!

Is this not how God makes things holy?
By blessing who we are
what we need
And how we do it?

Feel free to share/adapt/use with credit to Katy Stenta “Katyandtheword” tweet by Amy Colleen

Tweet by Amy Colleen @sweistwrites
So many Christmas carols can be divided into two categories “Will You Be Quiet” and “Let’s Get Loud.”

“Shush! The Herald Angles Will Now Perform
Muteness (x)
Let All Mortal Flesh Please Can It
If You Would Shut Your Pie Hold for 5 Seconds You would Hear What I Hear
(2) The Loud Ones
Virtuous Believers, Let Me Hear you Say Yay!
Happiness to the Earth!
Small Child Banging on Percussive Instrument.
Hasten to the Hilltop and Give it To’em
TRUMPETS! AND! LATIN! CHRIST THE LORD

Advent Day 7

Peace first perhaps

Then Hope, Love and Joy

Perhaps that’s why the Prince of Peace came…to show us this

Black angel with a brown hair in a bun bun holding a blue Peace banner, Brown (race unclear) angel with shoulder length black hair holding a gold Hope banner, Black angel with black hair in an Afro holding a blue love banner, white angel and with long curly blonde hair holding a blue Joy banner

Advent Day 6 Sitting in the Dark of Advent

Dr. Wil Gaffney “I have come to appreciate Advent so much more without the light/dark binary. Rather, I see darkness as the generative space in which the light is conceived and form which it is born. Both holy, both life-giving.”

Out of the Deep
the dark
the womb
…….

Out of the Silence
the non-speaking
the I-don’t know what to say

I have so many things to say
but I know nothing will fix this
………………
………………
………………

When I sit in the Dark…..
………………
………………

When I have no words….
………………
………………

When I cannot generate anything else…
………………
………………

(the Nothingness)

………………

………………

I remember…

Jesus came from this

Light,
Word,
Hope

Created from the Holy Rest,
Sabbath

………………

………………
In the midst of like circumstances
………………

………………

This is how God Conceives
a Savior for us

Holy
able to sit
in the dark
silence
nothingness
war….chaos….loneliness

And be unproductive

With us…..

holy, holy, holy
Amen

Feel free to use/adapt/share with credit to Dr. Wil Gaffney and Pastor Katy Stenta “KatyandtheWord”

Day 5 Advent Alternative: We 3 Kings

We Magi from Eastern Lands are
Following Heaven’s wisdom Afar
Valley, Fountain, Desert, Mountain
Following Yonder Star

O Star of Wonder, Star of Night
Star with Humble, Beauty Bright
Westward leading, Still Proceeding
Guide us to thy Perfect Light

Born a King on Bethlehem’s plain
Gold, a crown for kin-dom come
King forever, ceasing never
Humbly born of grace

Frankincense to offer have I
Incense Trin’ty, Deity nigh
Prayer and Praising
We are raising
Worship them, God most high

Myrrh is mine
It’s bitter perfume breathes
A Life of gathering gloom
Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying
Sealed in a stone cold tomb

Glorious, now, behold Him arise
King and God, Sav’r on High (Sacrifice)*
Alleluia, Alleluia
Heaven to earth replies

Feel free to use/share/adapt with Credit to Pastor Katy Stenta “KatyandtheWord”

Explanations for some changes: 1. We don’t know how many “kings” there were, and if they were kings. 2. Orient is an out of date and racially charged term lumping a lot of groups together in an uneducated way. 3. Moor carries with it radicalized meanings and Valley/desert/mountain are straight out of scripture 4. I emphasized a little more of Jesus’s humble status 5. Men is changed to more inclusive language 6. God’s Trinity status and Jesus’s status in the Trinity is emphasized

*I am not sure how I feel about this line and substitutionary atonement theory. I waver, and I am definitely behind Jesus as Savior. On the other hand, we do not always have to be comfortable with everything, so I have offered two options.



Advent Day 4: Prepare ye…

Ah God
Lord Almighty
Creator of all things

I love the art of an unspecified pronoun
When it is said
Prepare Ye the way of the Lord
the implication is perhaps us

But, maybe not–maybe it is you who is preparing
Or maybe it is a Ye/We kind of thing
A royal you, an authorial you
One where the narrator says Ye–but means everyone

Because you know, I know. God
Not how to straighten paths, knock down mountain
or exalt any mountains
And though accessibility is totally my thing
literally, physically and spiritually
(Prepare Ye, can you hear the echo in your soul?)

I have a feeling the Kin-dom will
change the landscapes in ways I’ve not yet dreamed

All I know God is that I am not prepared
We think preparations are one thing
(money, power, war)
And from the way you entered the world
and the way I feel the echoes of Preparation in my heart..

You are the one who is going to have to lay the groundwork
Prepare Ye
the way
of the
Lord

Love in the Rubble

Jesus Christ,
I think it’s much easier to picture you
in a stable, cozy among the hay–
Then in the cave that they showed me
in Palestine, where all the animals are stabled.

I remember, when I toured Bethlehem
among the Christians
hearing talk of building permits
and dirt roads
the lack of permits
and that a lot of the fighting
was really about water access
“Is it like Syria?” I asked?

Aware, that
Syria was
is turning into a desert
before our eyes

“Exactly” they answered
Like a deer thirsts
for water
So our soul longs for God
“But I never hear that people are fighting
over water?” I wondered

Christmas Day
Eastern Orthodox
Christmas
we went to the tomb
of Jesus
Where seven (the holy number)
crowded in

Each with clear
ropes
labels
and signs claiming
this piece of the Savior
is mine.

“Merry Christmas!”
Our Eastern Orthodox Brethren Proclaimed
“Here touch the head of the tomb,
Normally, it is not allowed,
But today is a merry day”

I do not know, if I wanted
To feel so closely
the desperation
Of occupied
wartorn Gaza
must have
felt like
at your birth Jesus

But when I visited
Lo those 13 years ago

I remember–too
The hope of
Love among the
rubble.

Jesus in a Nativity scene among rocks and rubble in Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem this year

The joy of “Merry Christmas”
amongst many faith
The sharing of a meal
with Muslims, Christians, Jews and Druze

Love among the rubble
As real as a Savior
born in a cave–
as real as a glimpse of peace,
in war.
As real as hope,
in a capitalistic, political scape.
As real as joy,
in the midst of weariness.

As real as faith,
in the midst of doubt.

As real as Christmas,
in the midst of the Advent of Life.

That’s my God
the one who shows up in the rubble of life.
Amen, Alleluia, Amen.

Jesus in. Nativity scene among rocks and rubble in Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem this year. Photos originate from the Church here

Feel free to use/adapt/share with credit to Katy Stenta “Katyandtheword”

Advent Candles RCL Year B

Week 1

Mark 13:24-37
Isaiah 64:1-9
Psalm 80
1 Corinthians 1:3-9

Hope
Our Hope lies in the Lord
The waiting seems long, but we wait together
God you shape us into your people
Prepare our hearts for Hope
Uncover hope, Holy Spirit
Stir the Hope in us Today

Hymn Suggestions: Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence, Taize: Wait for the Lord (Taize could be done throughout the candle lighting liturgy)

Week 2:

Mark 1:1-8
Isaiah 40:1-11
Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13
2 Peter 3:8-15a

Love
We are preparing for the Love of the Lord
We are all baptized with the same water
God speaks tender words of love to us
Comfort, Comfort my people. The way will be made clear
Every mountain and hill be low, and even ground shall be made even, when all is eased and leveled, then the glory of God shall be revealed in love.
Uncover the love of God in us Today.

Hymn Suggestions: Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, Taize: Prepare the Way of the Lord, There is One Lord (Taize could be done throughout the candle lighting liturgy)

Week 3

John 1:6-8, 19-28
Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11
Psalm 126
1 Thessalonians 5:16-24

Joy
Let us shout with Joy about the coming of the Lord
Our God is the God of restoration
God promises to turn tears into joy, protect the weak, and overturn the structures of injustice
Preparing for Jesus, means preparing for power structures to be turned upside-down
Mary shouted with joy in the Magnificat, that true justice will come
Let joy unfold from God in us today.

Hymn Suggestions: Taize: in the Lord I’ll be ever Thankful, (Taize could be done throughout the candle lighting liturgy)

Week 4
Luke 2:1-14 [15-20]
Isaiah 9:2-7
Psalm 96
Titus 2:11-14

Peace
Let us come together, for God is calling us towards peace
God promises us that Jesus will be named Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace
And even angels will sing of God’s peace
Let the Glory of Peace spill out Today.

Hymn Suggestions: Away in a Manger, Taize: Song of Simeon, Laudates Omnes Gentes (Peace on all the Earth)

For more ideas check out Advent Resources page