Advent Week 2

Below, you will find a short liturgy for Advent Week 2. You may do this alone or with a few others. If you do this with others, first assign who will be the leader(s) who will read the prayers; read the text under contemplative song, silence, and reflection and practice; and will lead the prayer of lament. (Also, if you like to journal, get your journal out now and jot down thoughts and reflections as you go.)

Opening Prayer

Begin with this prayer:

Contemplative Song

Begin your devotional time today with this video, reflecting on the lyrics to the Advent Hymn, “O Come O Come Emmanuel.” (If you like to journal, you might want to write down the words that stand out to you. Otherwise, just listen and watch.) Note, this video is almost 9 minutes. That is indeed long, but the theme of today’s devotional is longing and thus waiting. So press into this time, making space for God to speak to you, resting in his love, and letting any angsty feelings you may have put in you touch with your deeper longings, feelings of impatience over circumstances in your life, and desires for Jesus to return to make all things new.

Silence

Enter into a time of silence, reflecting on the following:

What words from this traditional Advent hymn stood out to you? Take a moment of silence to reflect on all you have heard. Is there a particular word that God has for you today?

Reflection and Practice

Reflection

Ponder the following:

This is a season of remembering our Immanuel, “our God with us.” It is also a season when we remember how long our Jewish forbears waited for Immanuel to come. While in exile in Babylon, the Jewish people longed for God to deliver them, and though many did eventually return to to their homeland, God then fell silent. No prophet brought any word from the Lord for nearly 400 years. So the Jewish people waited, and as they did, they did so under the rule of several foreign empires, including Persia, Greece, and Rome. They wondered, “When would their Messiah come?” “When would this descendant of David and Jesus establish his rule?” And as they waited, they lamented and longed for things to be right.

And still now, over 2000 years later, we also lament and long for things to be right. Though we know that Immanuel has indeed come and that the Kingdom of God has broken into our midst, and though we also have the wonderful comfort of the Holy Spirit indwelling in us - which our Jewish forbears - did not, we also long for our Messiah. We wait for our Dayspring, the one who will usher in a new dawn - an era of everlasting justice and peace. We wait for our King of Kings, Jesus, who will return again and will usher in the fullness of the Kingdom throughout the whole world. And so we cry out, “Come, Lord Jesus, Come!”

Though the culture around us pressures us to give into a prolonged and often saccharine celebration of Christmas throughout December, this Season of Advent invites us into a different kind of engagement. We are given space to voice our laments and longings. We know that there is so much that is wrong in our world. So much injustice, lack of peace, poverty, relational breakdown, and brokenness of all kinds, experienced in every nation of this earth. It does no one good to skip over these realities and to carry around a “false joy.” If we truly want to experience the joy that this season brings, we need to give voice to our laments and our longings. So that is what we will do now.

Name Your Longings and Laments

Take a few minutes to name your longings and laments, as they pertain to yourself, your family, your city/town, and the world. If you are doing this in a group, you can spend a few minutes voicing them out loud. If you are doing this on your own, you can write these down in a journal.

Take This To the Lord in Prayer

You can pray however God leads you, but a good pattern for voicing a lament prayer is to 1) protest (give voice to our laments), 2) petition God (ask God to make things right), and 3) praise God (thank God for his care of us). As for the last part, it is good to remind yourselves how God is still very much at work even in the brokenness of your lives and world. If you are in a group, you can engage in the three parts of the lament prayer together or if you prefer, you could open up a space of silence to allow people to pray on their own.

Silence and Closing Song

After you have voiced your prayers of lament, enter into a minute of silence with the Lord. You may once again wish to contemplate the song, “O Come O Come Emmanuel” as a way to sum up your laments and longings. Here is a recording from the Mission Cincinnati - the words end after minute 1 and the remaining minute is instrumental, giving you space to rest in the Lord. If you prefer, you can forgo the song and just dwell in the silence, listening to the Lord’s inner stirrings in your heart.



Closing Prayers

Close with these prayers.

Come back next week for Week 3’s Devotional.

And if you missed last week’s devotional on self-reflection and repentance, click here.