• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Reading Circle Books

Lifelong learning together

December 1, 2022

Home >> Reading the Word >> Divine Reading for the First Sunday of Advent
close up of a table covered with a purple tablecloth, holding three "stained glass" style tea light candles next to several service programs featuring a painting of a lighted street in NT Bethlehem, surrounded by a dark sky.

Divine Reading for the First Sunday of Advent: An old practice for the new year

This Advent our little nondenominational Bible church is taking time on Sunday mornings to sit quietly in the presence of the Word, patterning our time after a medieval practice that blends reading, contemplation, and prayer, called Lectio Divina:

  1. READ a passage of Scripture (preferably out loud, but silently will do as well). Read the passage again with each step that follows.
  2. LISTEN: You are invited to simply listen to the reading. Hear the words & receive them. Hold them lightly, loosely in your mind. Begin to wait patiently for the Spirit to reveal the Word, Jesus Christ, to you through the words you are hearing…
  3. REFLECT: Meditate on the words of the passage. Turn them over and over in your mouth, mind, and heart. Notice what word or phrase stands out for you. Hold that word in front of you in the presence of the Lord…
  4. SEE: Return to your word or phrase, and turn your heart to the presence of Jesus within these words. Give your consent to the Holy Spirit’s presence & action within you. Let God give you eyes to behold what God has for you here. As you return again to your word or phrase, note what thoughts, impressions, memories, or feelings come to mind. Hold them up before the Lord…
  5. PRAY: Respond to God with the prayer of your heart. Offer up your response to the words and images you have heard and seen…
  6. REST in the presence of God who is with you & knows you & loves you…
A church basement with musicians and a projection screen in the background, preparing for the Sunday service; close up of a table covered with a purple tablecloth, holding three "stained glass" style tea light candles next to several service programs featuring a painting of a lighted street in NT Bethlehem, surrounded by a dark sky.
Our Advent space, made beautiful with help from Bobbette Rose & Janine Bessencecker


Nicole & I had the privilege of leading our tiny congregation through these steps with Isaiah 2:2-5 (We read Robert Alter’s version!) last Sunday, with a congregational response after the almost-a-minute long silence following each step. This is about a “liturgical” as our church ever gets!

But many churches follow a lectionary that, working in a three-year cycle, assigns four separate Scripture readings to every Sunday! For the First Sunday in Advent, the beginning of the church year, the other three lectionary texts after Isaiah 2:2-5 are:



  • Psalm 122 (I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord…” — one of the Songs of Ascents),
  • Romans 13:11-14 (Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep…), and
  • Matthew 24:36-44 (But about that day and hour no one knows…Keep awake therefore…).

You can find these along with the other Revised Common Lectionary readings for all four Sundays of Advent (with accompanying artwork & prayers) at https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/lections.php?year=A&season=Advent


Author, preacher, & scholar Diana Butler Bass weaves three of these Advent 1 passages together with Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time to meditate on how Scripture doesn’t let us be trapped in any one moment or circumstance of history, triumphal or tragic, but invites us to see God’s arrival in all times:

“The readings for the first Sunday of Advent all place us in time: “In days to come,” “You know what time it is,” and “that day and hour no one knows.” On the face of it, that sounds simple. But it isn’t.…

“Advent, of course, reenacts a past event as if it is new each year. And every week, in liturgical churches, we are reminded that “Christ will come again.” That’s the other Advent — the future one that hasn’t happened yet. Advent is about both of those times: the first coming of Jesus’ birth and the second coming of Jesus’ return. It is also true that Jesus comes to our hearts, a kind of personal Advent for every Christian. We’re waiting for Jesus — a memory, an experience, and a hope.

“Christians have struggled to understand this. Entire New Testament books try to make sense of God and human time, of the various comings of Jesus, and of the tension between This Age and the expectation of The Age to Come. Christian theology speaks of already and not yet, of creation and re-creation, of memory and anticipation. In a warring world, we await swords to be turned into plowshares. While governments slumber to injustice, we awake to liberation. As we toil in ordinary work, we are aware of God’s impending approach.”

Read her whole post here: https://dianabutlerbass.substack.com/p/sunday-musings-advent-1

Shelved with: Reading the Word|| Word in Worship|| Word in Prayer
Tagged With: Holidays, Advent, Church Year, Lectio Divina
By CircleReader Leave a Comment

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Favorite Posts

  • Homeschool Moments: Dishing Out BOF, Dealing with Prejudice
  • On Manifestoes
  • The Heart of Father’s Day
  • A Good Day for the Beginnings of Journeys
  • Storytelling and Fear
  • Of Lists and Learning
  • Locals in a New Place – Reading Aldo Leopold
  • Teach Them to Read and Let Them Go!
  • Gutenberg’s PC: The Espresso Book Machine

Themes

Aldo Leopold Barack Obama Bible Blogging Book Clubs Books Bookstores Christmas Cities Civility Civil Rights Classics Community Community of Practice Democracy Digital Literacy Economics Education Environment Food Gender Having Faith Heroes History Holidays Home School Homeschool John McCain Lifelong Learning Michael Pollan Music NPR Parenting Politics Psychology Race Religion Richard Harwood Sandra Steingraber Social Justice Stories Thanksgiving War & Peace Wisconsin WordPress

Footer

Favorite Posts

  • Divine Reading for the First Sunday of Advent: An old practice for the new year
  • Another Transfiguration
  • Truly Alien
  • Gutenberg’s PC: The Espresso Book Machine
  • Teach Them to Read and Let Them Go!
  • The Heart of Father’s Day

About RCB