Advent Reflections – Week 2 (6 Dec)

Advent 6 – Exodus 5:1–3

‘Way down in Pharaoh’s land, let my people go’

Where to? The way leads through the wilderness – 

Today’s wilderness of viral-borne disease the same

As ancient desert. Fire by night, cloud by day – 

The instinct from those times is sure enough to know

That if we seek we’ll find. There is a name

For this; for every suffering ‘no’, a yes

Sounds clear from the rocks along our way.

Advent 7 – Genesis 15:1–5

How far have we come? Look back to see;

Remember how things were when you began,

How things have been so far. Your ancestry

Is written in the fears and hopes of human

Life in any age. They were like you

Who lived before; those yet to come

Will be like you, marked by the two

Branches: hate and love. Some

Died in war, some lived in peace, none

Fell far from the tree of life. And here  

We are, on the way, feeling never more alone

Than in this age of frailty, where hope and fear

Vie to win us soon to love or hate.

What help is ours? Shall we grow wise

And who, if any, guides and holds our fate 

In loving hands? Look to the ancient promise.

Advent 8 – Ruth 1:11–18

Friendship is high among the gifts

We have been given. It crosses bounds and lines and lifts

Us; it goes the extra mile, ‘wherever you go

I will go’, it says; ‘your people shall be mine’. No

Thing shall come between us and our truest friends,

The Giver gives more yet: a love that never ends.

Advent 9 – 1 Samuel 16:1–13

Between the Shepherd and the King,

Between the One who serves and rules

There is no distance in His world. Nothing

Comes between; and if this virus fools

Us into thinking that it’s all, then they 

Who live by faith, who discover that glad things

Are theirs who serve, who do not trust in earthly kings,

Who give and love, will find there is another day.

Advent 10 – John 1:1–5 – Light

This present darkness, though it’s very dark

for many, cannot overcome the light.

This is the promise. The work

Of this and every day is to walk

Through every darkness doing what is right,

Trusting in the promise of the One who is the Light.

Advent 11 – Colossians 1:15–19 – Reconciliation

Much is divided in our world; the nation

Is divided. Nations are divided. We

Are divided. Politics is divided, culture is divided.

The poet’s words are for our world: ‘things fall apart’.

But this is not the world God has decided

To call us to. That world is whole and free.

All things in that world are reconciled. Start,

In this world, to look for signs of reconciliation.

Advent 12 – Romans 8:18–25 – Hope

Without hope we cannot live for long,

Soon we grow weary, fatalistic, scared.

Tired of life? That’s no way to live. What

Will be will be? That’s no way to live. Scared

Of our own shadow? That’s no way

To live. But if we live in hope that

Is not seen, trusting in another day,

Hope will be our story, it will be our song.