Divine Reading for the First Sunday of Advent
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:
- READ a passage of Scripture (preferably out loud, but silently will do as well). Read the passage again with each step that follows.
- 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…
- 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…
- 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…
- PRAY: Respond to God with the prayer of your heart. Offer up your response to the words and images you have heard and seen…
- REST in the presence of God who is with you & knows you & loves you…
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
Leave a Reply