Advent Reflections – Week 3 (13 Dec)
Advent 13 – Philippians 4:4–9 – Peace
The absence of conflict is not peace.
Anything for a quiet life is not peace.
Keeping quiet about wrong is not peace.
Peace comes when someone speaks the truth.
Peace comes when life overcomes death.
Peace comes when someone lives by faith.
Peace passes all understanding in this age.
It is a promise, a gift and a message.
Advent 14 – Psalm 27
Soon waiting will be over; Christmas comes near.
This year the meaning is in the waiting
Like never before; so much is on hold,
Friendships are socially distanced, families
Kept apart, livelihoods and businesses fold;
Nothing to do but wait, between hope and fear.
But look, the Christmas story will be told
Again, lighting up our world, creating
New life; freighting us with gold,
Frankincense and myrrh. The homilies
Of love will once more unfold.
And in hospital wards angels of love will appear
And to the streets shepherds of love are called,
And by the empty hearts kings of love are waiting
And none shall fall, none shall be alone, shall be cold
In the dark. Though still we’re waiting
The light shall come; long looked for, long foretold.
Advent 15 – Luke 1:1–20
This is for all those who cannot speak
Of what they’ve seen and heard,
Who’ve waited for a word.
This is for the poor-at-heart, the meek.
The journey takes us far from where
We started; far from what we were,
Far from what we had when we were
Starting out. Now, what awaits us there?
A living word, a baby’s cry, a sound
Born of the ages? This is He of whom
We’ve heard – born for us, with no room
In this world. Listen…gather round…
Advent 16 – Luke 1: 24–25, 39–45
Longing for something to come to birth;
This is what frames our journey from where
We were to where we might be on the earth,
We who are far from all we once had there.
It has been a long time and such a long way
Through barren places, the wilderness
Of this last year with all its loss. The day
Will surely come when we can show kindness
Again, but till then something deep inside
Stirs, grows and at the last is born,
A hope, a preparer of the way, a guide;
Not the Light, but here to witness and to warn.
Advent 17 – Luke 1:26–38
At last the ancient promise is almost here.
First someone humble, kind and clear,
Someone who knows the ways the poor
Must walk, someone who will act on what she saw
And heard – the angel voice, the favoured one –
Must say what must be said, do what must be done
By any who would walk by faith, ‘let it be…’
As for her, so for you and me.
Advent 18 – Matthew 1:18–25
Always, someone must stand and wait and give
The best of what they are so others might live.
This is true in all the world: humility
To mend a world of sound and fury.
So stand, while others point and stare.
Wait; the rush to judge is everywhere.
Give; while many take more than they share.
Advent 19 – Luke 2:8–16
Always there are the forgotten ones, voiceless
In this world; their lives enclosed, choiceless
In this world. Always they are outside
Cities, establishments, nations. They ride
On leaky boats on unyielding seas.
They huggle close in camps of refugees.
They herd the flocks, operate the machines
That make some rich, who don’t know what it means
To scrape and save to make ends meet.
To such as these the promise is complete,
It comes to them and they rejoice and go
to see. Will you go too, and find the truth they know?