Liturgy of Advent: Hope

Day 1

call

Prince of peace, allow us to enter the reality of your goodness, a hope so scandalous it makes ambition obsolete.

meditation

(War Time)

There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,
And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;

And frogs in the pools singing at night,
And wild plum trees in tremulous white,

Robins will wear their feathery fire
Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;

And not one will know of the war, not one
Will care at last when it is done.

Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree
If mankind perished utterly;

And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn,
Would scarcely know that we were gone.

“There Will Come Soft Rains” Sara Teasdale 1884-1933

reading

The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. In days to come the mountain of the LORD's house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it. Many peoples shall come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths." For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the LORD!

Isaiah 2:1-5

prayer

Lord, we know hope is not a guarantee, but an invitation. We are not promised the things we desire, we are promised that our desires can be transformed by your goodness. We pray that our hopes are not built on destructive, consumptive ambition, the kind of ambition that takes and grows bigger and bloated each time its fed. We pray our hopes are built on the hunger for justice, the thirst for peace, the desire to offer and receive mercy, and the need for love-to know and be known. For now, our own selfish ambition causes us to grasp at swords and spears to protect what we think we are owed; these days will be replaced with a peace built on the shared abundance of plows and pruning hooks.

confession

We confess our ambition. We confess of the ways our ambition, both collective and individual, has hollowed out our love for others and robbed us of the kind of hope that leaves behind fear and hoarding and instead beats swords into plowshares.

benediction

Go forward in an expansive hope today, toward a future ripe with goodness and peace ready to be harvested and shared.