Advent Meditations

Psalm 34: 1-8
Zephaniah 3: 1-2, 9-13
Matthew 21: 28-32

Not only with our lips, but in our lives

This parable in Matthew is a reproving parable. In it Jesus poses his listeners with a question, and then immediately admonishes them with the answer. As current followers, we must also consider the two forms of denial characterized by each son, and apply the lesson to our lives. The first son denies outright his father’s order to work in the vineyard, but ultimately changes his mind – and the son is allowed to work. The second son respectfully agrees to work but does not report to work. Was he simply lying? Was he in denial? How often do we over-commit? Do we ever agree to do something, because our brain knows it is the ‘right thing to do’ but do not actually commit our heart to the work? Jesus tells us redemption comes when we hope and believe and commit our lives to service in the vineyard.

The crowd listening to Jesus in this parable was not comprised of followers, but people who claimed to be faithful people that could not recognize a Messiah when one was looking them in the eye. In community, together, here at Trinity Cathedral we are offered a life of redemption, and shown ways to tend the vineyard through belief, hope and service in Christ. (We can also literally tend an actual garden in service of others.)

My hope for strength in this mission comes from what is now an ‘old fashioned’ prayer of thanksgiving that includes these words:

And we beseech thee, give us that due sense of all thy mercies,
that our hearts may be unfeignedly thankful,
and that we show forth thy praise,
not only with our lips, but in our lives;
by giving up ourselves to thy service,
and by walking before thee in holiness
and righteousness all our days.

Sounds like a vineyard song to me.

Bryan Gillooly

Psalm 85:8-13
Isaiah 35: 1-10
Luke 5:17-26

Isaiah 35 uplifts us with so many promises of changes in the land and the healing of the people. We are exhorted to be strong and not fearful for God will come with recompense for violations of the Law. So many promises of beauty and joy. It makes me hopeful that there will be a purging of the child abuses that we observe, tolerate, and then not speak about. Isaiah describes a “highway that shall be called the Holy Way” where not even fools can go astray. The greatest promise of the Christ Child is that we receive the Child as leading us to the moral high road with no tolerance for child abuse, neglect and covert behaviors. Mankind must stop the abuse of young children by finding a new road.

In Luke Jesus faces the consternation of the Pharisees over his power to forgive sins versus healing the disabled. When we are faced with a scene of child abuse, shall we wait for the solution to come down from above by removing the roof tiles or can action be taken at the scene? I promise this day to change the future of the abused child; I promise to intervene immediately; I promise to offer the abuser a different road. I may feel vulnerable and even threatened by my actions, but the Silent Observer must disappear. Silence is not the promise of the coming of the Christ Child.

Rosalie Tyner

Psalm 89:1-4, 19-29
2 Samuel 7:1-16
Luke 1:67-79

The news that the Angel Gabriel brought to Zechariah was just too good to be true.  He and his wife Elizabeth, in their old age and after years of hoping and praying, would finally have a child.  And not just any child, but one who would help to set things right, one who would prepare people for the salvation that was to come.  Was the shock too great for Zechariah?  Or was he punished for his disbelief?  Whatever happened, the news left him speechless, literally speechless, he became mute.

He remained mute throughout Elizabeth’s pregnancy.  After the baby was born, when they asked him what his name was to be, he had to write it on a tablet.  The name he wrote wasn’t a family name; it was what the angel told him to name his child.  As soon as he wrote the name “John,” he knew that all that the angel had told him was coming true, his voice returned, and in joy he sang:

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
For he hath visited and redeemed his people;
And hath raised up a mighty salvation for us
In the house of his servant David.

Over the centuries since then we have sung Zechariah’s song — in Lauds, or Matins, or Morning Prayer.  We sing it again today to join our voices with Zechariah who sang it to welcome his child John who welcomed Jesus.

SING IT OUT!
SING IT OUT!
SING IT OUT!

Jim Bolce

Psalm 25:1-14
Malachi 3: 1-5
Luke 1:67-79

Good and upright is the Lord;
therefore he instructs sinners in the way.
He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way.  –Psalm 24: 8-9

We are on a Way whether we know it or not.  We walk a path where every step moves a little bit towards wholeness and holiness or a little bit towards destruction; of ourselves, of others, of creation.  That’s a scary image; that’s a scary road.  To think that life matters so very much; all the way down to our smallest choices.

God is in the mix with us, as well, all the time; wanting our best.  Trying us, pushing us, calling us to be more than we’ve been, to be what we can even yet still be.  We are being refined.  “The Lord is a refiner’s fire,” the Book of Malachi tells us.  And fire hurts.  I’ll never forget the feeling of burning my hand with fire.  I’ve done it more than once, clumsy as I am.  The instinct is to pull away.  But if we pull away from the Fire of God, we’ll never be refined.  We’ll never grow into the full stature of Christ.

“Love in practice is a harsh and dreadful thing,” says Father Zossima in Dostoyevsky’s “The Brothers Karamazov,  “compared to love in dreams.  It may very well kill you.”  Flannery O’Connor puts it another way, “What people don’t realize is how much religion costs.  They think faith is a big electric blanket, when of course it is the cross.”

But we’re not in this alone.  The same God who thrusts us into the fire of life feeds us with the Spirit who can lead us into the depths of things if we will only remain awake to movements of Presence and Calling.  The evangelist writes: “By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

Make me to know your ways, O Lord;
teach me your paths.

Lead me in your truth, and teach me,
for you are the God of my salvation;

for you I wait all day long.

Adam Spencer

Canticle 9  (Book of Common Prayer, pg. 86)
Samuel 1: 19-28
Luke 1: 46-56

Many years ago a young family walked into the empty Church parking lot as I was getting into my car.  The man was carrying a little girl in his arms and the child had shoes, but no socks on her small feet.  It was November, but their jackets were lightweight.  They asked if they could get some food at the Church.  It seems the police had told them to go there.

All I could think of was the Holy Family on the Flight to Egypt.  Yes, the father carried a little girl, not a boy.  There was not a donkey or camel in sight, only cars going by.  It was cold, not warm.  But they were in need with no place to go, and they were told by another to go to the Church just as Joseph was warned by an angel to go to Egypt.

Is anything really different from the time of Herod?  Our children are battered and abused.  They are locked in rooms, kept from school.  Many go hungry and cold, and some are murdered, bullied and afraid.  And they don’t have socks!  They fear for their lives in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Sudan and also in Cleveland.

This Advent let us do something for our children beyond giving toys.  Let us work for peace in families, help parents find jobs, improve our schools, and tell teachers how much we really care about them.  Seek decent housing for families and keep our children safe by surrounding them with love and caring people.  Keep Christmas simple – and really make Jesus the reason for the Season.

The Rev. Caroline Angus

Psalm 33:1-5, 20-22
Zephaniah 3: 14-18
Luke 1: 39-45

Do you always leap for joy in the presence of God?  I don’t.  Sure, it is always great to hear God’s voice; I love that feeling of closeness.  And I long to hear it more often – I think.

John, Elizabeth’s as yet unborn baby, leapt for joy at the sound of Mary’s voice.  Wow!  Even at that prenatal stage John seemed to know who Mary’s baby really was and focus on the great thing that was about to happen.  That’s pretty amazing.  He seemed to already know what the Psalmist said: “Be glad and rejoice with all your heart … The LORD, the King of Israel, is with you; never again will you fear any harm.”

If John can be so joyous so early, why do I sometimes hold back?  I think it is because sometimes when I hear God there is a message attached: do something.  I don’t always like the message and resist doing what it is I hear God asking me to do.  It might be scary, or hard, or take me out of my comfort zone.  It might upend my nice comfortable life or derail my plans.

I find John inspiring.  He leapt for joy, said YES and went on to a life that was anything but what one might have reasonably expected.  He didn’t marry, settle down with a family and live happily ever after; instead he lived in the desert, ate locusts and met an untimely and cruel end.  He answered God’s challenging call without appearing to lose that joyous response.

I have resisted God’s call on occasion.  I’ve learned that God can be very persistent, and in the end I find I am doing what it was He asked all along.  All my resistance, my refusals and my excuses can’t withstand this persistent God.  And, no matter how hard I resisted, I never regretted obeying Him.

Perhaps I should use John as my guide.  Perhaps it would be much easier in the long run to simply leap for joy, and embrace God and God’s call from the beginning.

Sherry Watts

Psalm   24
Isaiah   7: 10-14
Luke    1: 26-38

The Psalmist foresees the coming; a triumphal parade of the nobles and ladies through lifted gates and everlasting doors to greet the “LORD mighty in Battle”.

But others see a different, less conspicuous coming, appealing to other needs:

“He hath filled the hungry with good things—

Oh listen lords and ladies gay!  -

And the rich he hath sent empty away.”

Isaiah writes,  “The Lord himself will give you a sign: A young woman is with child and will bear a son and call him Immanuel.”

Luke identifies the young woman, not a noble lady at all, but a very poor one.

“Never a lady did He choose,

Only a maid of low degree”

Thus

“… Christ was never of gentle birth;

A common man of the common earth”.

Mary’s response to the angel’s message is one of humility and acceptance.  “ Here

am I.  I am the Lord’s servant”.

“So humble she might not refuse

The carpenter of Galilee:

A daughter of the people, she”.

So here’s an Advent message for us:

“And still for men to come she sings,

Nor shall her singing pass away.

‘He hath filled the hungry with good things-

And the rich He hath sent empty away’ ”.

Paul Ingalls

(“Our Lady”, Mary E. Coleridge  1861-1907)

Psalm 71: 1-8
Judges 13: 2-7, 24-25
Luke 1: 5-25

“In thee, O Lord, do I take refuge; let me never be put to shame! In thy righteousness deliver me and rescue me; incline thy ear to me and save me!”  Psalm 71: 1 RSV

Judges 13 talks about the birth of Samson to a barren couple. He was to deliver them from hand of the Philistines. Luke foretells the birth of John. John was to turn the people back to their God. Samson and John are to be instruments in saving God’s people. Advent is the time we await the birth of Jesus, the one who is coming for us. Jesus is the one who is coming to connect us to God. There is nothing we can or need to do. God’s Love is there for us, all we need to do is stop, slow down and accept it.

The Psalmist affirms God’s promise to rescue us. In order for us be rescued, we must be willing to let go. In today’s world, surrendering, or letting go is very difficult. We insist on having control of our lives. We want things to go our way and we become anxious if they don’t. Our lives are full of errands, meetings, hauling the kids, shopping and getting ready for Christmas Day. Advent is a time of anticipation and waiting. Both of these require patience. God is very patient with us. God does not force us to do anything. It is up to us to surrender our control and anxiety and let God rescue us from our busyness. There are so many things in the way that can prevent us from finding God’s peace, which is there for the taking. But we must slow down and let it come into us. If we let go, we are able to go deeper into ourselves and listen to God and our fellow human beings and get in touch with peace that is present in our inner selves and God. Meditation is a way to slow down and let God speak to us. Try to find 20 minutes each day to find a comfortable and quiet place to stop, sit still and relax. Concentrate on your breathing, and your body. Let the thoughts churning in your mind go off in a cloud and clear your mind. If your mind goes back to the thoughts that are keeping you agitated and anxious, just gently bring your self back to your breathing and the sensations of your body. Remember, God’s Love is there for us; all we need to do is stop, slow down and accept it.

Carl Stehman

Christmas is a time of giving.  Although it is often buried under layers of commercialism and tainted by materialism, the impulse to demonstrate our love for one another by the giving of gifts is both natural and good.  When I remember past Christmases, it is the fun of searching for, joy of finding and happiness at my family and friends’ reception of the gifts I gave them that I think of even more than the gifts I received.  For example, I still have in my possession a slightly chipped, but otherwise whole, ceramic rooster that I bought for my mother when I was nine years old.  I can’t remember why I thought she would like it, but the fact that she kept it until the day she died, makes it a symbol of her love that warms me whenever I look at it.  Her keeping of it was a meaningful gift to me.

When we give to one another out of love and without expectation of receiving something in return, we are acting in God’s image as His love for and generosity towards us are, as the readings for today illustrate, the heart of our relationship with Him.  The passage from Samuel relates God’s gift of a homeland to His people who had wandered for so long.  ”Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me . . .” The promise is made without conditions.  In today’s world, with so many refugees fleeing violence and poverty in search of safety and sustenance, these words represent both a hope for a better world for those who, like the ancient Hebrews, have wandered searching for a home, and a challenge to us to give what we can to make that hope a reality.

Of all God’s gifts to us, the most generous and full expression of His love is His gift of Himself through His Son. Jesus, as a widely displayed bumper sticker reminds us, is the reason for the season.  The reading from Luke relates to us the annunciation, when Mary received the news that she was to be the bearer of this gift.  Canticle 3, the Magnificat, continues the story with Mary’s response to this news.  Glorifying and rejoicing in God, she thanks Him for the marvelous thing He has done.  In so doing, she sets us an example.  God does not ask us to repay His gift. How could so great a gift ever be repaid?  But we, like Mary, can thank Him.  We can do so not only in prayer and song, but also by following the two great commandments, to love God and to love our neighbor not only at Christmas, but all through the year.

Laura Blunk

Genesis 49: 2, 8-10
Matthew 1: 1-7, 17
Psalms 72: 1-8

I read this passage from the book of Psalms and I am troubled. These verses give the idea that Good will prevail, yet we all know of plenty of cases where Good has not or is not prevailing. For a long time, I wondered how it was possible that there could be injustice, affliction, and oppression if God were all-powerful.

It finally occurred to me that when Evil wins out over Good, it is often because of us.  Not God. When God places it on our hearts to share, and we decide to be selfish, we are failing God. When God puts it on our hearts to show compassion and we choose judgment, we are failing God.  When God puts it on our hearts to be kind, and we choose callousness, we are failing God.  So, this passage also comforts me, because I realize that God’s power is easily obtainable.  All we need to do is let God steer us, day by day, choice by choice.

I recently read the story “Stone Soup” to my first graders.  If you are familiar with this folktale, you know it is about weary travelers who come into an impoverished village asking for food.  The villagers claim they have nothing to share until one of the travelers says he is going to make soup with nothing but a stone and some water.  Of course, the traveler tells the people, the soup would be better if someone had a few carrots to share.  Soon, a villager finds he can spare a bunch of carrots.  Not long after that, another villager can spare a potato, another one can spare some salt… Soon, the whole village has worked together to create a feast.

For years, people have been angered over the growing gap between the rich and the poor, the powerful and the powerless.  And now people all over the planet have reached the boiling point and are calling for an end to this evil.  But that’s only a start.  If, in small ways, we each can give our wills to God and toss in a little compassion, a little kindness, and a little generosity into this boiling broth, this season of giving will turn into a season of transformation.

Marcie Denton

Psalm 67
Isaiah 56:1-8
John 5:33-36

Advent is a time of waiting. Waiting to bear joyful witness to the incarnation of God into the realm of humanity. Waiting for, in the words’ of Isaiah, God’s House to be a House of Prayer for All. We are waiting for God but God is also waiting for us. God is waiting for us to recognize the foreigner or stranger or the eunuch (read by some to include homosexuals). God is waiting for us to recognize that anyone who preserves justice and does what is right has a place in the House of the Lord. God is waiting for us not just to recognize but also to rejoice and to join with them. For as Isaiah says “I will gather to them still others besides those already gathered.” God is waiting for us. What are we waiting for?

Toni Ponzo

Psalm 30
Isaiah 54: 1 – 10
Luke 7: 24 – 30

During my youth, summers were filled with visits to the Canadian Rockies.  Although I lacked formal religious instruction, I knew from these mountains that God is very, very big.  The mountains nurtured in me a grasp of limitless space.  Mountains rising on all sides with no foliage to define shape and distance caught my breath and lifted me to a place removed.  Those big mountains shaped my imagination and my experience of God.

The prophet Isaiah portrays Jerusalem in the image of a woman.  She was barren and is now fruitful, outcast and now honored, forsaken and now embraced.  The woman who was despised is liberated in the integrity and generosity of God’s favor.  She is no longer bound in her relationships but dwells in God’s spacious wonder.  She rises to a place removed.  She shouts for joy.

At the manger, we behold God’s limitless favor toward us.  We pray, the baby in the manger gathers our entire world’s grieving, restores us and lifts us to gratitude and praise. Amen.

Sharon L. Schwenk

Psalm 85: 8-13
Isaiah 45: 5-8 (9-17) 18-25
Luke 7: 24-30

Old-fashioned English Plum Pudding

1 cup all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon soda 1 teaspoon salt
1teaspoon cinnamon ¾ teaspoon mace
¼ teaspoon nutmeg 11/2 cups cut-up raisins (1/2 pound)
2 cups currants (1/2 pound)
¾ cup finely cut-up citron 1/3 cup cut-up candied orange peel
1/3 cup cut-up candied lemon peel
½ cup finely chopped walnuts
11/2 cups soft bread crumbs 2 cups sweet cream butter (1/2 pound) 1 cup brown sugar (packed)
3 eggs, beaten
1/3 cup currant jelly
1/4 cup fruit juice

Grease well 2 quart mold. Measure flour, soda, salt, and spices into large bowl.
Stir in fruits, nuts and bread crumbs. Mix suet, brown sugar, eggs, jelly and
fruit juice and stir into the flour-fruit mixture.
Pour into ring or turk’s head mold and cover tightly with aluminum foil.
Place a rack in a Dutch oven. Pour hot water into the pan up to level of the rack.
Place mold on rack and cover the oven. Keep water simmering on low heat for 4 hours, adding boiling water during steaming if needed.
Unmold while still warm.

This is a make-ahead dessert. Wrap in foil, refrigerate until day of serving.
Reheat in foil in 350 degree oven for 1 hour. Place on ovenproof platter to serve with Hard Sauce or, for a traditional flaming pudding, pour on 1/4 cup heated brandy and light with a match. Celebrate.

Jean Ingalls

Psalms 25: 3-8
Numbers 24: 2-7, 15-17
Matthew 21: 23-27

All three of these passages give me pause to reflect. I read the Numbers passage first where Balaam prophesies a king coming who “shall crush the borderlands of Moab” (v. 17). Language like this brings to mind the violence and retribution of the Old Testament at the same time that it heralds the coming of our Savior. I think as modern-day Christians we are uncomfortable with this type of language. It reminds me of all the pain, suffering, and damage done in the name of a little baby who grew up to preach peace. I think it is important to reflect on the harsher language of the Old Testament because we need to remember so we don’t continue making the same mistakes, and take Advent as the dawning of a new day where we look at the world in a new way.

Thinking of how we must remember this brings me to the passage in Psalms. It contains the usual language and sentiments that we know and love so well from Psalms… worship and mercy. The author is begging the Lord to remember them and forget their misdeeds. “Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions” (v. 7). Only by putting the past year behind us, the past life, the old way of life or testament, can we truly embrace the promise and new life that the tiny baby of Bethlehem is trying to teach us. I struggle with this most of all. I am very good at remembering my personal transgressions from yesterday, or last week, or years ago, but not so good at remembering the hope of the future and what I have done righteously today. Again, a new day is dawning with Advent. We don’t yet know how that new day will manifest itself, but we know the simplest kind of joy and renewal – in the amazing miracle of the birth of Jesus Christ.

Then of course, we come to the Matthew passage. I love this passage. On my first read, I noticed the wisdom of how Jesus addressed the chief priests’ question. He turns the question on them, asking by whose authority they are questioning him without directly insulting or demeaning them. This passage reminds me of how we should be wary of judging others in our thoughts and actions. There are implications for our judgments: we may cause others to fall or we may cause others and ourselves unnecessary pain. Advent marks not only the coming of Jesus’ birth, but also the coming of a new age, the coming of a change in thinking, a change in perception, and a new way of looking at things. Celebrating the Advent season reminds us every year, to let go of the past, to look at the world with new eyes, and to embrace the future.

Rebekah Solt

Psalm 126
Isaiah 61:1-14, 8-11
1 Thessalonians 5:16-24
John 1: 6-8, 19-28

Advent is a time of waiting and anticipation. Since we have walked this way before, we know that at the end of the journey we will find God (or God will find us?), but in a most surprising manner: in the form of a baby lying in a feed trough in some Middle Eastern peasant village.

I am haunted by the many passages in the Bible where people struggle to recognize the presence of God in their midst. For example, the opening chapter of John’s Gospel is mostly about the Incarnation of the Word of God, the entry of the Light of God into the World. In other words, it’s all about Jesus, even though John’s Gospel tells us no story about “a babe lying in a manger.” But at the same time that he sings the praises of the Incarnation of the Word, the author of the gospel goes out of his way to warn us not to get confused and misinterpret the presence of God in our midst. John the Baptist is a true agent of God, the evangelist says, bearing true witness to the Light of the World, but apparently it would be easy to misinterpret John the Baptist as the Light, instead of a witness to the Light. As great as John the Baptist is, we are warned against mistaking him for someone even greater for whom he prepares the way.

Apparently people were misinterpreting John the Baptist as “the Light,” at the same time that the Light was standing right in their midst, and they were oblivious to his presence: “Among you stands one whom you do not know.”

It’s easy to get confused. We regularly misinterpret the signals of God’s presence in our midst. We misread some signals, while others we completely overlook.

I wonder where and how the feed trough and the baby will show up in our lives this year? I bet it won’t be what we are expecting.

Robert M. Fowler