God in the Darkness...

God in the darkness, God beyond our knowing,
patient creator, seed in secret growing,
rock of the living water ever flowing:
come and renew us.

God in the darkness, God in all our grieving,
friend of our tears, companion never leaving,
drawing us past the limits of believing:
come and renew us.

God in the darkness, God of holy dreaming,
giver of hope, and pledge of our redeeming,
Spirit of truth, our memory and meaning;
come and renew us.

Elizabeth J Smith from Run, Shepherds, Run Poems for Advent and Christmas by L William Countryman

Taken from the excellent Love Blooms Bright blog...

---

Advent Word as a Wordle

From Isaiah 35:1-10...

The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad,
the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly,
and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it,
the majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the ²Lord,
the majesty of our God.

³ Strengthen the weak hands,
and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who are of a fearful heart,
‘Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God.
He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense.
He will come and save you.’ ⁴

⁵ Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy. For waters shall break forth in the wilderness,
and streams in the desert; the burning sand shall become a pool,
and the thirsty ground springs of water; the haunt of jackals shall become a swamp,^*
the grass shall become reeds and rushes. ⁶⁷

⁸ A highway shall be there,
and it shall be called the Holy Way; the unclean shall not travel on it,^*
but it shall be for God’s people;^*
no traveller, not even fools, shall go astray. No lion shall be there,
nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it; they shall not be found there,
but the redeemed shall walk there. And the ransomed of the ⁹¹⁰Lord shall return,
and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;
they shall obtain joy and gladness,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Shepherds star in BBC’s The Nativity

From the BBC website...

The writer who brought Kat and Alfie to life in EastEnders has been working on another tempestuous relationship this year – Mary and Joseph.

Tony Jordan, lead writer on EastEnders and writer of Life on Mars, has been adapting the story of the Nazareth couple whose lives were thrown off course by an unexpected pregnancy. The result of his extensive research and writing is The Nativity, which will be shown on BBC One in the week leading up to Christmas.

Over four half-hour episodes, the familiar story is given a contemporary twist, as the drama follows Joseph (Andrew Buchan) and Mary (Tatiana Maslany) from their initial courtship – Joseph desperate to win the heart of Mary – to his emotional turmoil at her mysterious pregnancy.

Tony Jordan says, ‘The challenge for me was to retell a story that has been told countless times before, a story that everyone knows intimately, yet to do so in a way that will still surprise and move you, to see parts of the story you’d never seen before.’

Rich in colour and humour, the remarkable events that led up to Jesus’ birth will unfold across the four nights, from the epic journey of the wise men (one of whom is played by Peter Capaldi from The Thick of It) to the poignant tale of Thomas, a poor shepherd, whose waning faith in God is revived as he kneels beside the crib of the newborn king.

Of all the characters in the drama, Tony Jordan feels most affinity with Thomas.

‘The Magi are there to watch the fulfilment of Balaam’s prophecy, Mary is there because she has been chosen by God, and Joseph has been chosen by God to look after Mary and the child. Everybody is there for a reason, but the question still remains, “Well, what does this mean to me? Why is this important to a normal working bloke?” And Thomas is there to represent all of us.’

The Nativity, BBC One, starting Monday 20 December at 7pm.

For a gallery of pictures from the production released today by the BBC, visit our Facebook photos page.

An Environmental Advent

Advent is about the justice of God and the revealing of His kingdom.

Our readiness for it's revealing is shown in how we live our lives now - in how we treat each other and our planet. The Archdeacon of Worcester, Roger Morris, reminds us of this fact... (from the CofE's excellent Advent website.)

Christ is Coming

From Christine Sine on the Godspace blog...

Word as a Wordle - Advent 2

Isaiah 11:1010
A shoot shall come out from the stock of Jesse,
and a branch shall grow out of his roots. The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him,
the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the spirit of counsel and might,
the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. ²³

He shall not judge by what his eyes see,
or decide by what his ears hear; but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,
and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,
and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist,
and faithfulness the belt around his loins. ⁴⁵

The wolf shall live with the lamb,
the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together,
and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze,
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,
and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den. They will not hurt or destroy
on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea. ⁶⁷⁸⁹

10 On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious.

December 1st - an absent presence

Presence in absentia: the photograph represents both an absence which is unmissable and a presence which is unmistakable. The snow lying on the ground is clear evidence that something substantial was there while the flakes were falling from the night sky. That something was gone by daybreak but no one could argue with the fact of its having being there in the first place. The vehicle was a very tangible reality and a fact beyond disputation.

For me Advent has this same sense of presence in absentia: we wait, we hope, we feel longing and expectation; there is a tingling sense of promise in the chilly air. God is on the move again. The Spirit of Divine love is stirring up wistfulness, wonderment, remorse and regret. Darkness is prepared for enlightenment, evil for surrender, yearning for fulfilment.

All around us the quiet work of love, compassion and prayer leaves an outline of presence in our common experience. Unseen, elusive yet tangible is God's being with and amongst us. The sense of 'in retrospect' clarity is characteristic of God's presence in absentia. The poet-priest R.S. Thomas understood this aspect of God with us better than most and expressed it par excellence. Just a few of his lines unpack the truth to which the photograph points:

He is such a fast God, always before us and leaving as we arrive...


It is this great absence that is like a presence, that compels me to address it without hope of a reply, It is a room I enter from which someone has just gone, the vestibule for the arrival of one who has not yet come...


Advent conveys this presence in absentia with marvellous imagination and such resolute faith. So we are encouraged to trust and look forward. The presence of God is unmistakable.

~~~~

From Dave Perry's marvelous Visual Theology blog with thanks