ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS
Do you believe God is real, personal, and involved in this universe?
Do you believe that the birth of Christ is a present event or not just the memory of something that happened a long time ago?
If Advent is a season of expectation sensitizing people to what God can birth in our world, what are the practices during Advent that can help you be sensitive to what God is doing?
WHAT DO YOU YEARN FOR?
Separate your yearnings into three categories.
- If you could pray for one thing to happen in your personal life during the next year, what would it be?
- If you could pray for one thing to happen in your church during the next year, what would it be?
- If you could pray for one thing to happen in the wider church, what would it be?
Take the risk of writing those answers down in a personal journal.
Can you think of one or more scriptural support in each category supporting that that is the type of thing that God might do in your world?
Can you think of one very small step towards each of those happening that you could take during Advent?
THE FREEDOM OF GOD
Many people yearned for the Messiah around the time of Jesus’ birth. Many of them could even recite scriptural support for their expectations. The fulfillment of that expectation was so at variance with the actual way that God acted, that they missed it all together when it happened.
During the next several weeks, take a few moments each day to meditate on your three expectations and how God might fulfill them in a way that was different than what you expected. What is the deeper question behind each of your expectations that God might want to address?
How does engaging in this reflection alter the way that your Advent might unfold?
ENRICHING ADVENT FOR OTHERS
If you are on the staff of a presbytery or a pastor or educator of a church, you can make use of this process to deepen the experience of Advent for your people. Consider using the email list that you have for your constituency and engage them in a similar reflection during the Advent season. Feel free to alter the questions to fit your people.
Ask them what they expect and then share a compilation of those expectations without names attached with the whole body. Whether it be the clergy and educators of a presbytery or the members of a congregation, it would be good for them to hear each other’s hopes and dreams. The community can be strengthened by dreaming together.
As you do so, keep track of the expectations that you are hearing and consider how you might be part of God’s addressing of these yearnings. This Advent experience might provide agenda for the year ahead.
One of my hopes for the wider church is for people and groups to stop trying to “win,” to stop trying convince everyone else of the rightness of one’s own position. More embracing of mystery and grace.