Creativity and Advent for worship planners

Saturday, November 15, 2008
How does the worship planner make ready for Christmas? We do the shopping. We get excited about all of the Advent activities. Long before "the day" arrives, we also are doing our best to listen to God in order to bring God's fresh message among us: the word made flesh. Here are some resources and thoughts I've collected today:

Mary . . .
A wondering question: I wonder what it was like to be Mary ... 13 or 14 y.o., hearing from God in such a surprising way?

"Our strategy was simple. Each service, entitled “Thirteen and . . .”, would feature a monologue presented by Mary. A teenaged girl (a different one each time) would come up the aisle dressed as Mary and dramatically recite a monologue. As she left, I would pick up my sermon where she left off. On the Sunday after Christmas, a woman representing Mary at an older age would present the monologue. Each worship service would include an instrumental or sung version of the Magnificat.

To avoid the pitfall of “psychologizing” Mary and making her the focus, we reminded each other that the sermons had to focus on what God was doing by using Mary. That helped us set the direction for the whole series."
From: accessed on 11/15/08.

Somebody's Coming!
"Imagine standing in the arrivals area at the airport, your heart pounding. Your beloved has been away on a long trip, and any second he or she is going to walk through those doors. In your mind you can already see the dear, tired face lighting up as your eyes meet. . . .

But there’s also another kind of waiting, and it’s the kind that evokes not anticipatory joy but rather a prick of anxiety or even of naked fear:

“Somebody’s coming! Run!”

“Somebody’s coming! Quick! Clean up!”

“Somebody’s coming! Hide!”

“Somebody’s coming! Get back to work!”

Jesus is coming. There’s definitely a “Look out!” element to the imminent arrival of Jesus as well."
From: accessed on 11/15/08.

What to expect when you're expecting.
"Advent is the time that both ends and begins the Christian calendar. So often the focus during Advent is Jesus’ first Advent—his coming as a baby born in Bethlehem. As a preaching group we wanted to focus on Jesus’ second Advent—his soon-expected return. As we discussed what such a series of sermons might look like, we came up with the idea of “expecting,” drawing a parallel to the expecting that a couple does while awaiting the birth of their child. In this way we drew a close parallel between the first and second Advent of Jesus. What to Expect When You’re Expecting (by Arlene Eisenberg) is the title of a popular handbook for parents expecting the birth of a child. We borrowed that title for this series of six sermons. Our plan was to draw on some Scripture passages that compare the second coming of Christ to the pain and joy of childbirth."
From: accessed on 11/15/08.

Psalm 80 for Advent?
This site, www.workingpreacher.com, gives a brief but deep exegesis for each of the lectionary scriptures by date, and the week for preaching that lectionary piece, there is an audio blog from 3 or 4 professors on what they would preach.

"Three verbs dominate the refrain: Restore (Hebrew shub), shine ('ur), save (yashab). The psalm exploits a dual meaning of the first word (shub). In the refrain, the word means "restore," and is a plea that God would change the circumstances of the people. But in v. 14, the word means "turn," or "repent" (cf. Psalm 90:13), and is a plea for God to change God's will concerning the people's situation. The poetic play on these two meanings of the word amounts to a faith assertion by the community—the solution to the people's situation rests in the heart of God. The people cannot change their own circumstances, but God can—simply by willing that the situation be reversed."
From: accessed on 11/15/08.


May the words of Advent come quickly, for we need the words; but may we drink deeply in that quickness, and not miss the freshness of our Savior.