Advent 2023 – Page 2

Advent Two – Lectio Divina

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
Isaiah 40:28-31

Step One – Read the passage slowly, attentively. Allow yourself to be taken in by the words – pay attention to any word or phrase that strikes you in the passage. (If you haven’t studied this passage, you may find this first reading will stir observation questions in you – such as who, what when, where and how).

Step Two – Read it again. Meditate and reflect on the passage. What is it in your life that needs to hear that word or phrase? Sit in silence for a time, attending to the thoughts, images and impressions that begin to come to you. Turn that into prayer.

Step Three – What is God saying to you? What do you begin to feel called to?

Step Four – How does God want you to live this passage out? What are you resolved to do?

Advent Two – “I Will Wait upon the Lord”

I love to wait. It’s one of my favorite things to do. I choose the slowest lane while driving and the longest line when shopping. I never mind when my doctor is an hour late or my food never arrives. What about you? Don’t you just love to wait? Well, if you know me well at all you know that the first sentence of this devotional is unequivocally untrue. Waiting is my kryptonite. All of the virtuous character I might possibly lay claim to is out the window whenever I have to wait. Yet, all of life seems to center around waiting.

Waiting is at the heart of Advent. Think about all the people we see in the birth narrative of Jesus. Zechariah (Luke 1) had to wait the entire time his wife was pregnant just to be able to talk again. And Elizabeth (Luke 1) – not only did she have to wait the nine months she was carrying John (later known as John the Baptist), but she was also way past her birth bearing days when she found out she was pregnant.

Simeon and Anna, both of whom were always found in the temple, (Luke 2) waited for years for the consolation of Israel, and his redemption. Think as well about the four hundred years of silence the Jews had to wait for a prophet after the era of The Prophets came to an end.

Ruth Haley Barton calls waiting the crucible of transformation. There are two virtues necessary for this kind of transformation. We need patience, and we need long-suffering, both of these are so important. Patience, I think, is the way we learn to wait by staying the course. I think the title of Eugene Peterson’s book “A Long Obedience in the Same Direction” describes patience well. If patience is a fruit, we know we can only get there by abiding with Christ in the Spirit. By nature, none of us are able to do patience well. We need the help of the Holy Spirit, don’t we? That’s the heart of Paul’s theme in Galatians 5.

²² But the fruit of the Spirit [the result of His presence within us] is love [unselfish concern for others], joy, [inner] peace, patience [not the ability to wait, but how we act while waiting], kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Galatians 5:22-23 – The Amplified Version

You get the sense here that there is a somewhat complex idea of patience. The NKJV uses the word long-suffering instead of patience. Thomas Aquinas believed that patience and long-suffering have different ends in mind and probably Paul had both in mind when describing this fruit. The Latin word Aquinas used for long-suffering is longanimity. Both deal with “enduring difficulties for the sake of a good.” But patience focuses on the difficulties, whereas the virtue of longanimity focuses on the good to be received in the final hour.

Patience helps us stay the course, it helps us maintain serenity of spirit, and longanimity directs us toward the good we are waiting for, helping us remain steadfast in pursuit of the good. Luke’s account of those men and women he describes in Luke 1 and 2 has this double meaning of patience. Think about both Anna and Simeon. I love how Luke describes Simeon. ⁵ Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. (Luk 2:25 ESV) Their wait was incredibly long, and they only had the reassurance of what they knew of God to sustain them.

The waiting of the Christian church, therefore, is the waiting and longing and hoping expressed in the haunting cry at the very end of the Bible: ‘Maranatha: Come Lord Jesus’ (Rev. 22:20)
Fleming Rutledge

Waiting is an Advent virtue. All three “comings” are in play here. Put yourselves in Simeon or Anna’s place. They both waited for their Messiah King to come – and while in their waiting they did not see the fulfillment of their hopes, they were content with having seen the Christ Child. Their faith was strong, and they were satisfied in receiving Him. Simeon says, “Now, according to your word, Sovereign Lord, permit your servant to depart in peace. (Luk 2:29 NET) “I’m ready to come home, Lord because my hopes and dreams have come to fruition.”

The second coming is of course the day on which Christ Jesus returns to fulfill the promise of the fullness of the Kingdom of God.

“The waiting of the Christian church, therefore, is the waiting and longing and hoping expressed in the haunting cry at the very end of the Bible: ‘Maranatha: Come Lord Jesus’(Rev 22:20). Not until the final intervention of God in the last day will the true and lasting peaceable kingdom come. That is the not-yet of Advent. That is why we wait. ‘Thou must save, and thou alone.’ Fleming Rutledge

The third coming is the most revolutionary coming of all. It is of course the coming of Christ into the hearts of all who put their faith in Him. I wonder how many of us are even aware that we have been waiting for this our whole lives. Augustine has said, “our hearts are restless until they find their rest in You.” That restlessness wears many different coats – anger, addiction, trauma, pain, illness… all the consequences of living in this heartbroken world. I want to return to Simeon and Anna as icons of the kind of patience and long-suffering we need to have as we wait for our Savior – whether for the first time, or in our hearts or on the final day of judgment.

“The hopes and fears of all the years are met in Thee tonight.” Are you sensing the pull of God in this Advent season? Is God stirring in your heart? Do you long for a different kind of life? Are you yearning for the full manifestation of redemption in this world?

Take time this week to read the stories of Simeon and Anna in the second chapter of Luke. They too yearned for the fulfillment of God’s promises: Simeon served in the temple his whole life and we are told he waited for the Consolation of Israel: the coming (Advent) of the Messiah. Anna, too, waited; widowed early in life, no family to speak of – and it is said of her that she served in the temple until she was very old and to anyone who would stop and listen to her, she spoke of the Redemption of Israel, the end of a world of sin in the coming of a Savior. Consolation… Redemption – the first a comfort, for the sorrows and sins of the past; the latter – a purchase of freedom for the future – a personal freedom from sin and sadness, and an offer of freedom to the whole world.

As Christians, our waiting is both similar and different than Simeon’s and Anna’s. We hold within our hearts not only the hope of a future coming of the King, but the very presence of that King – the Holy Spirit does not rest on us – but lives within us. And we too have seen the Lord’s salvation. We may not hold God in our arms, but He holds us in His.

Longanimity is a great word isn’t it! Check out this article by Teresa Smart:

From <https://mcgrathblog.nd.edu/longanimity-the-virtue-of-waiting-for-god

Watch this YouTube video by Elevation Worship – It’s long, but oh so good. Wait On You | Elevation Worship & Maverick City – YouTube

Shane & Shane – Psalm 130 . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8pCbtLeXzc

Advent One – The Lord’s Prayer

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day, our daily bread,
And forgive us our sins,
As we forgive those who have sinned against us.
Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, and the power,
And the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

Our Father, what an incredible thing to be able to say, our Father. We hallow your name because of all names it is the holy name. As we enter this season of Advent, we pray that Your kingdom will come soon and Your full and complete will be done, here on earth, in our lives, as it is in heaven. Give us the bread of life that can only come through Your Son Jesus Christ, and may we receive it as sustenance to help us prepare for His return. Forgive our sins of complacency, dullness, self-centeredness; and grant us grace as we forgive others. In this season of preparation, keep us strong when we are tempted and deliver us from the evil that would turn our hearts away from Your return. May we heed the warnings of John the Baptist to repent and believe. In the strong assurance of hope that we have in You, we proclaim that yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Advent One – Lectio Quote

Under the spiritual practices tab I wrote about Lectio Divina, which is a way of reading Scripture that goes beyond knowing about the Scripture to receiving it “into our bones” through reading and reflection. One way to approach this is to read it, reflect on it, respond to it, and resolve to listen to God through it. Charlotte Mason puts it like this – we bite, we chew, we savor, and we digest. We can do this in reading Scripture and we can also do it with other forms of reading (or listening or even viewing – Lectio Visio is a real thing!). Obviously, these other practices don’t hold the authority of Scripture but they do yield great wisdom when we slow down and take in what someone else has created!

We bite, we chew, we savor, and we digest.
Charlotte Mason

I have discovered this new way of reading through keeping a commonplace book. I have done this for years, mostly through typing passages from books I’ve read, etc. into my OneNote app. (Which I love!) But I discovered commonplacing quite by accident at the beginning of this year and the person who filmed the YouTube video I watched challenged us to write these out by hand (I have terrible handwriting). I found that as I slowed down to write or copy a passage out, it stayed with me longer, and was legible as well! My commonplace books have really helped form my understanding of Christian formation and the Church calendar. So each week, I have selected a passage from what I’ve been reading that fits our theme for the week and now want to encourage you to take it and “bite, chew, savor and digest!” I may include at some point some of my other meanderings into commonplacing so that you reap the benefit I’ve received as well! This week’s quote comes from John Shea and is more lengthy than I will probably do in the future. But I love what he says about repentance!

“The more deeply one enters into the experience of the sacred the more one is aware of one’s own personal evil and the destructive forces in society. The fact that one is alive to what is possible for humankind sharpens one’s sense that we are fallen people. The awareness of sin is the inevitable consequence of having met grace… This grace-judgment dynamic reveals that the center of Christian life is repentance. This does not mean that the distinguishing mark of the Christian is breast-beating. Feeling sorry, acknowledging guilt, and prolonging regret may be components of the human condition, but they are not what Jesus means by repentance. Repentance is the response to grace that overcomes the past and opens out to a new future…

Repentance distinguishes Christian life as one of struggle and conversion, and pervades it, not with remorse, but with hope. The message of Jesus is not “Repent,” but “Repent for the Kingdom of God is near.”
John Shea, A Star is Rising: Advent Meditations

Advent One – Confessional Prayer

The grace of God prepares the way for the confession of sin, is present in the confession, and even before the confession has been made, has already worked the restoration of which the confession is not the cause but the sign.
Fleming Rutledge

This is a good prayer to either pray through in your journal, or with others. Praying with others, confessing our sins, is a rich way to build community and humility. If you have any questions about this spiritual practice I’ve included an explanation of this in the spiritual practices section.

Begin by centering your heart in God’s presence… Give thanks to Him that you do not need to hide anything from him. Affirm that He is faithful and good, and his mercy and grace are “new every morning.” The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness” (Lam. 3:22-23).

Now let Him begin the process of searching your heart. Are there ways you have not honored Christ this week? Where were your thoughts and desires not centered in Him? How have you failed in obedience to Christ?

Then, simply confess in as specific a way you can the sins that trouble you. Don’t rush through this process. Simply rest in God’s presence as He does this.

Now choose to let this go and receive Christ’s forgiveness for you. Remember – “He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

And finally commit this confession to the Lord. As you rest in His forgiveness ask him how to walk this out. Ask for the supernatural power of His Spirit to give you what you need to move forward. Thank Him that you “have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer [you] who live, but Christ lives in [you]” (Gal. 2:20). How is He calling you to prepare for His return?

Merciful God, who sent your messengers, the prophets, to preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation: Give us grace to heed their warnings and forsake our sins, that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our Redeemer, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Book of Common Prayer.

Advent One – Lectio Divina – Prepare

³ A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. ⁴ Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. ⁵ And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.” (Isa 40:3-5 ESV)

Step One – Read the passage slowly, attentively. Allow yourself to be taken in by the words – pay attention to any word or phrase that strikes you in the passage.

Step Three – What is God saying to you? What do you begin to feel called to?

Step Four – How does God want you to live this passage out? What are you resolved to do?

Since this is the first passage for lectio divina I’ll share how this went for me. The words that stood out for me in my first reading were prepare and make straight. This was pretty straightforward, so I spent some time thinking about what this meant. I went to the passages in the New Testament where this passage is quoted (Mat. 3:3; Mar. 1:2-3; Luk. 3:4). All three passages speak of this prophetic word from Isaiah. I came back to the passage and read it again, slowly. And the phrase that stood out for me then was “and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed”. This led me to a deeper reading and contemplation of the passage. And as I answered the last two questions, I sensed God’s presence and heard his call to respond. Practice may help this exercise flow more naturally. Remember, we are guided by truth here, and our interpretation of a particular passage will not be contradicted by other Scriptures.

Advent One – Prepare the Way of the Lord

Imagine if you will, a mountain shrouded with clouds, and on that mountain a lone watchman stands. He has been given a prophetic word for the people and he is determined to do that regardless of what might happen to him. Moses was such a prophet, climbing Mt Sinai to hear from the Lord his God. He was given a word from God for his people – a word of both blessing and caution. Elijah was another such prophet- standing on Mount Carmel, taking on the priests of Baal – his word brought deliverance as he proved that there was no power in idols. Isaiah was the bearer of good news as he spoke of the Messiah to come and deliver Israel from his enemies.

Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts.
Malachi 3:1

In that way, all prophets spend much of their time in isolated places, whether a tower or mountain or metaphorical high hill. After the exile ended and Jews returned from Babylon, the era of the Prophets ended. There was silence in the land for 400 years. But the last prophet of the Jews, Malachi, prophesized about one more prophet to come: This messenger was John, son of Zechariah – a man born of a miracle. He came out of the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance. Isaiah spoke of this prophet, who would be known as John the Baptizer, when he said, “Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare the way, the voice of one calling in the wilderness. (Mark 1:1-3).

I think about how John would be received today, and I’m pretty sure he would have been considered an outcast, a homeless beggar even. He was wild looking, with an odd diet and a passion for God like no other. He wore a coat made of camel hair like Elijah and ate honey and bugs! He was asked if indeed he was Elijah, to which he said no! Asked again if he was the Prophet, and this too he denied. The priests and Levites pressured him to tell them who he was, and his final response was this: “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness. ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.” (John 1:24).

All four gospels have an account of John the Baptizer, and his message is the same in all four accounts. “‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. ⁵ Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways, ⁶ and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” (Luke 3:4-6)

Christ’s baptism is a sign of the identification Christians have in Christ, and it embodies the sacrifice of Christ’s death and resurrection.

John’s clarion call was this and this only: Prepare. Make way, ready your heart, repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. He was fierce in this message, passionate about one thing – the Messiah, the Lord Christ. “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. When John says his baptism was for repentance and forgiveness of sin, he is drawing a distinction between his baptism and the one believers will have through Jesus. One author has said that John’s baptism was a bridge between the cleansing ritual you would have seen in the Old Testament and the baptism initiated by Christ for his followers. John’s baptism went further than the cleansing ritual known by Jews but did not go so far as to be the baptism for Christ followers. Christ’s baptism is a sign of the identification Christians have in Christ, and it embodies the sacrifice of Christ’s death and resurrection. And it confirms that the Holy Spirit now dwells in those who put their faith in Christ. Paul in the book of Romans wrote: ³ Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴ We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. ⁵ For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his (Rom 6:3-5 ESV).

Do you not realize that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?
Romans 2:4

John’s voice is one of the Advent voices we need to listen to. His charge to repentance and preparation should help us to both be ready to receive Christ in His incarnation and to be ready to receive him when He comes in the final day of judgment. We must make our paths straight, and we must bring to Him our crooked ways. John’s voice, his prophetic words make clear that Advent, like Lent, is a season of repentance. We don’t typically think of Advent like this. Even setting aside the marketing attempts of advent calendars – candy, jewelry, whisky, Christians have lost sight of the penitential call of Advent. We need to heed John’s call. Yet we find comfort and strength in this once we come to understand the joy of repentance that John preaches. Romans 2:4 –Do you not realize that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? John’s words and his call to repentance, just like Jesus’ (Mat. 4:17) are ways for us to enter into deeper joy and hope.

In that sense, we live in perpetual Advent – the place between two apocalyptic events – the birth of a baby, and the return of a King. How are your paths crooked? Where do your ways need to be made straight? “I am prone to leave the God I love”. For me, my anger, my need to control, my impatience, my frustration are always signs that I need the grace of God to turn back. I love what Fleming Rutledge says about this:

The grace of God prepares the way for the confession of sin, is present in the confession, and even before the confession has been made, has already worked the restoration.
Fleming Rutledge

We’ll revisit this idea as we move through this week. Let’s listen to John the Baptizer this week. Let’s pray for hearts eager to repent as we look to Christ’s first Advent and his final one.

Songs to listen to for this theme of Prepare:

‘Tis the Season

I’d like to bring you on my journey to this place of Christian formation that is now becoming my home. I feel at times that I’ve come from a far country of a faith fairly stripped of scripted liturgy. I find no one at fault for this and I’m very grateful for my deep heritage in Evangelicalism.

When we first started observing Advent as the season which precedes Christmas at my church, I was probably the first to eagerly want to incorporate Advent, although I certainly had not considered what it all meant! I was so struck by the idea of preparing for Christ’s incarnation. It became a season of anticipation and expectation, especially as we thought about the incredible gift God gave us in Christ. I remember the first time I spoke about this was actually at our Christmas Eve service.

One of my favorite commercials from that year which aired during December pictured for me the essence of Advent joy. In the commercial there were three (maybe four) children seated on a couch in front of a fire. Their stockings were hung on the mantle above. The scene pictured their glee and unbridled joy at waiting for Santa to come and fill their stockings. Before long though they had fallen asleep, in the dark, with the smoldering ashes of an almost extinguished fire. Ah… the waiting… I can barely remember what the commercial was for – except on each child’s head was a headband bearing a flashlight! So as the night deepened and the fire dwindled – all you could really see were four flashlights glowing in all different directions as they fell asleep! I suppose the commercial was about batteries but for me it was about Advent, and excitement and waiting and the anticipation of miracle!

Advent is wrapped in mystery and part of what helps us hold on to that is the joy of anticipating the birth of the newborn king. “The sky is dark, there blows a storm…” These are the first words of a favorite children’s book for me (Father Fox Penny Rhymes), and it speaks to warmth in the cold, joy in that warmth, and peace in the telling. Early on, Advent represented to me the need to slow down, to find a way out of the commercialism and trivial celebrates; a time to really enter the mystery of Christmas.

It wasn’t until much later, in fact, in the last few years I would say, that I began to see the penitential nature of Advent. In fact, I was really surprised when I read that Advent was considered to be a time of repentance. It was much like Lent in that way, although usually with a different emphasis from Lent. Advent is indeed a season of expectation and joy, but it is also the story of our need to be prepared for the final Advent of our Lord. John the Baptist leads that charge. In all four gospels John is spoken of the “messenger who will prepare the way” (Mal. 3:1, Mar. 1:2). He helped people prepare their hearts for the coming of the Messiah by baptizing them for the forgiveness of their sins. His warning is clear: “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Mat. 3:2)

Repentance distinguishes Christian life as one of struggle and conversion and pervades it, not with remorse, but with hope. The message of Jesus is not “Repent,” but “Repent for the kingdom of God is near.
John Shea

John’s message of repentance and preparation sings loudly of the first Advent of our King. But, its final verse sings of the second and last Advent: the return of that King to bring all of creation under His sovereignty and rule. John is saying to us, on the other side of the birth of Christ, to be prepared for Christ’s return. We do this in the same way John called us to in the time before Christ. “Make room for Him in your heart; make straight the paths; repent and turn your whole self, body, spirit, soul toward the imminent return of your Savior.”

Advent speaks of three comings – the first and the last have just been mentioned. But the coming that leads us to the capacity to repent and to persevere is found in the Coming of Christ into the heart of every person of faith.

Traditionally there are themes designated for each week in Advent – hope, peace, joy and love. I find it fascinating that two of these are actually fruit of the Spirit, (peace and joy) and two are virtues that only reach their full capacity of virtuehood (I know it’s not a word!) also through the indwelling Spirit of God.

I have chosen not to focus on these themes but to highlight four other themes. The first week is the story of John the Baptist and his call to preparation; the second week centers on the waiting nature of Advent. The third highlights another dimension of preparation and that is the need to be watchful. Matthew’s story about the 10 virgins comes to mind here (Mat. 25:1-7). The fourth week veers a bit off course because it also happens to be Christmas Eve and so I chose to focus on Christ as the God with us – Immanuel, and the joy there can be in our worship of Him as that God with us.

Many of us were raised in traditions where the significant Christian events were marked only by a single day in the Christian year. So, we have Christmas, Good Friday, and Easter, which were observed as the significant days that they were. Recently I’ve come to appreciate that these holy days are in fact a part of a season. It’s not just Christmas eve and then Christmas Day – but it’s Advent, and Christmastide, and Epiphany! This gives us time to really inhabit the Story and to give time and space, and worship to the significance of those seasons.

My friends who have been a part of sacramental churches may chuckle at my marveling about this. Yes, I came late to the party. So, indulge me if you will. I now see how this observance of the Christian year with all its seasons can help form me in my Christian faith. I have time to let the truth of the Incarnation and His Ascension, etc.… seep deep “into my bones.” My prayer is that you all, those familiar with the liturgical calendar and those who are novices, would find fresh joy as we take this journey together. I’m grateful that we are all pilgrims on the way. May God give us grace to inhabit the Story of our homecoming in Christ.

The Lord’s Prayer – A Guide

[The Lord’s prayer] was among the ultimate privileges allowed only to those in Christ. It took parrhesia, Holy Spirit boldness, to dare to say Our Father. That is reflected in the introductory formula used in the liturgy of St. John Chrysostom by the Orthodox to this day. “And make us worthy that we joyously and without presumption may be made bold to invoke Thee, the heavenly God and to say Our Father…” It is a prayer for Christians, and only Christians are in a position to pray it, because only they know God as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. (The Forgotten Father, Thomas Smail, 177-178).

I have taken the template of the Lord’s Prayer and written one to fit each week’s theme. I found it very inspiring! But I would also invite you to consider writing your own version, using this guide. And please if you can find The Forgotten Father, please read it!!

W.S.C refers to the Westminster Shorter Catechism. I love it because if frames theology within the context of questions and answers!

1. Acknowledgment of who God is:

Our Father in heaven, holy is Your name.

*WSC: The preface of the Lord’s Prayer, which is… teaches us to draw near to God with all holy reverence and confidence, as children to a father, able and ready to help us; and that we should pray with and for others.

Hallowed be thy name – we pray that God would enable us, and others to glorify him in all that whereby he makes himself known; and that he would dispose all things to his own glory.

2. Prayer for His Will

Your kingdom come; Your will be done.

On earth (in my heart) as it is in heaven.

WSC: thy kingdom come, we pray that Satan’s kingdom may be destroyed; and that the kingdom of grace may be advanced, ourselves and others brought into it and kept in it; and that the kingdom of glory may be hastened.

Thy will be done- we pray that God, by his grace, would make us able and willing to know, obey, and submit to his will in all things, as the angels do in heaven.

3. Petition

Give us this day our daily bread (manna) (all that we truly need for this day…)

WSC: In this petition, we pray that of God’s free gift we may receive a competent portion of the good things of this life and enjoy his blessing with them.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. (Jam 1:17 ESV)

Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. ¹² I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. ¹³ I can do all things through him who strengthens me. (Phi 4:11-13 ESV)

4. Confession and Repentance

and forgive us our sins as we forgive those who have sinned against us – (may we too have your heart of grace…)

WSC: In the fifth petition, which is… we pray that God, for Christ’s sake, would freely pardon our sins, which we are then encouraged to ask, because of his grace, we are enabled from the heart to forgive others.

Are there people you need to forgive?

5. Prayer for protection:

and lead us not into temptation* (testing) (I know too well how weak and frail I am in the face of testing and trials and even temptation) but deliver us from evil.

* Save us from this time of trial.

WSC: In the sixth petition… we pray that God would either keep us from being tempted to sin or support us and deliver us when we are tempted.

¹²Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. ¹³ Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. ¹⁴ But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. ¹⁵ Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, an (Jam 1:12-15 ESV)

² Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, ³for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. ⁴ And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (Jam 1:2-4 ESV)

See also – Ps. 66:10; Ps. 139:23-24; Mt. 26:41; Jn 17:15.

6. Acknowledgement of His Sovereignty – appropriate time for intercession

For the Kingdom of God and all its power and glory belongs to You – both now and forever.

(we desire Lord to fully trust You and Your sovereignty).

WSC: The conclusion of the Lord’s Prayer, which is thy kingdom…Amen, teaches us to take our encouragement in prayer from God only, and in our prayers to praise him, ascribing kingdom, power, and glory to him; and in testimony of our desire and assurance to be heard, we say, Amen.

As you do this, or when you read the weekly Lord’s Prayer the reflections below might be helpful.

I am moved in this prayer by:

I am called in this prayer to:

I hear God saying to me in this prayer:

Lectio Divina

Lectio Divina (Latin for Sacred Reading) is an ancient practice that Christians have used as a way to take to heart the Word of God. It involves reading a short passage of Scripture and taking the time to meditate on it, pray through it, and seek how to live it out. As such it helps the Christian to listen to God through His Word. Because the Word is living and active, as we approach it reflectively, we come to understand God’s Word through our senses and intellect, to be nourished by it, and to receive Christ into our lives in a tangible way. We read, we reflect, we respond, and we resolve. Put another way – we bite, we chew, we savor, and we digest. What a picture that paints as we seek to describe this kind of listening!

Because the Word is living and active, as we approach it reflectively, we come to understand God’s Word through our senses and intellect, to be nourished by it, and to receive Christ into our lives in a tangible way.

It’s important, however, that we not simply grab a passage out of context and make it all about us or our needs. This reminds me of a story I heard often when I first came to Christ. A certain man came to God and asked Him how to find a wife. He then opened his Bible to a passage that read – “grace be unto you” and decided this was God’s way of telling him to look for a wife named Grace!

The best balance to Lectio Divina is to first study a passage in its context. There are some very basic observation tools that help us to do this. If we come to a passage that we desire to listen for God’s Word to us, a natural curiosity to its source, context and place gives us those tools. Look it up! Add some notes about the passage.

An ancient practice for Jewish teachers of the law is called Midrash. This refers to a form of interpretation that allows the teacher or rabbi to apply his own meaning to the text. However, the Hebrew root of this word is “drash” which meant to study, inquire, seek, explain, or investigate. This is a great way of approaching any text of Scripture. We ask questions like, who, what, when, where, and how. We look at repeated phrases or words; we do word studies where we follow the word we’re looking at and see where it is used in other places of scripture. Suffice it to say that study helps keep us on track as we look to read the text meditatively.

Jean Khoury, author of Lectio Divina: Spiritual Reading of the Bible, writes that in approaching the Bible, we must distinguish two levels: the level of understanding and the level of listening. This, I think, implies that we use both mind and heart as we come to the Word. A much-loved professor at Wheaton College, Clyde Kilby, used to tell his male students, “men, you can’t kiss your girl and think about it at the same time. In essence he was saying- both practices are essential – reason and experience.

One story from Scripture helps tease this out. In Luke 24, two disciples, after the death of Christ, were on their way to a place called Emmaus. They were distraught over what had just happened and discouraged as well. A man comes up and asks to join their journey. He then asks them why they are so downcast -and they, in shock, say to him – “you mean you don’t know what just happened?” As they walk, this man begins to open the Scriptures to them, explaining to them why what happened to their teacher, Jesus, had to happen. Once they reach their destination, they ask this man to join them for supper. At first, he declines but then agrees. As they were at table, this man took the bread, and in that moment, they recognized him as Jesus. This is what the text says: “When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him” (Luk 24:30-31a).

“All of a sudden, we just know: prayer is a conversation in which God’s word has the initiative and we, for the moment, can be nothing more than listeners.
Hans Urs Von Balthasar

Another author puts it like this: “All of a sudden, we just know: prayer is a conversation in which God’s word has the initiative and we, for the moment, can be nothing more than listeners. The essential thing is for us to hear God’s word and discover from it how to respond to him. His word is the truth, opened up to us… God’s word is himself, his most vital, his innermost self: his only begotten Son, of the same nature as himself, sent into the world to bring it home, back to him. And so, God speaks to us from heaven and commends to us his Word, dwelling on earth for a while: “This is my beloved Son: listen to him” (Mat. 17:5) (Prayer, Han Urs Von Balthasar, Ignatius Press).

Each week, I will include a passage that I found relevant to the theme of the week and ask you to consider reading it reflectively.

We can also apply this approach to other kinds of writing. While this never carries the weight of taking in God’s Word, it can help us slow down and take in the meaning of certain quotes or prayers or other writings. Some weeks then, I will include a quote or prayer from my studies that hopefully will help, challenge, or inspire you.

Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and the comfort of your Holy Word we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus. Collect from the second Sunday in Advent.