1st Sunday of Advent Year C

Today’s offering is more of a meditation, my own prayers woven with the Old Testament reading from Jeremiah as we begin this new season of Advent and new church year. If you resonate with any of these prayers, then I invite you to take them and pray them throughout the coming week. Let us pray: O Come, thou Wisdom from on High, who orderest all things mightily…to us the path of knowledge show and teach us in her ways to go. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel! The days are surely coming, says the Lord, This past week, I have felt besieged by the false urgency of Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Giving Tuesday. Do this now! Hurry, get this deal today only! Give to your beloved charity today to help us reach our goal. Jeremiahs hope for the days that are surely coming is a helpful reminder to me that there are really only a few things that have to be done today. O come, thou Wisdom from on High, who orderest all things mightily… help me to see and dwell with the longing behind the urgency and the explosion of Christmas all around me without succumbing to it, and may it resonate sympathetically in my soul. When I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. My friend found 3 perfect little figs this week on her fig tree on her birthday, even though it is no longer the days for figs. And she thanked God for them. O come, thou Wisdom from on High, who orderest all things mightily… help me to wait and watch during these days, during this season, for small, quiet, unexpected gifts from unexpected places, for promises to be fulfilled that I do not even know to expect. In those days and at that time I typically feel so much pressure in this season leading up to Christmas; I often feel the burden of all the extra planning and decorating, baking and buying that are layered upon ordinary, everyday responsibilities. O come, thou Wisdom from on High, who orderest all things mightily… help me to create space for it all; to find joy in preparing even as I find joy in waiting and watching. I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. I have my own ideas about what constitutes justice and righteousness. Sometimes this is at odds with other people around me and their ideas of what constitutes justice and righteousness. How might I be shaped if I address God in my prayers this week as “The Lord is our righteousness”? O come, thou Wisdom from on High, who orderest all things mightily… reveal to me how your true justice and righteousness appear unclouded by my own selfish and small and wayward ideas. In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. Everywhere I look there is so much fear. In myself, in my friends, and neighbors. Even in the Church. So many of us are afraid of what we might lose—safety and security, dignity, prosperity. I long for all this for myself, for the members of my family, for all whom I love. I believe every person longs for this. O come, thou Wisdom from on High, who orderest all things mightily… help me to pray and to work as diligently to preserve safety and security, dignity and prosperity not just for myself and those I love but for all people, and for all of your creation. And this is the name by which it will be called: "The Lord is our righteousness." What is the truth of these mysterious words: The Lord is our righteousness? What would the fulfillment of that promise look like in my own life, in the life of my family, in our community, our church and our world? O come, thou Wisdom from on High, who orderest all things mightily… through the gift of your Spirit, grant me the courage to be open to this mystery, this truth. O come, thou Wisdom from on High, who orderest all things mightily…to us the path of knowledge show and teach us in her ways to go. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel!