LITURGY NOTES FOR THE FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT
First Sunday of Advent Year A
November 27, 2016
Suggest formula for recognition of indigenous people and their land
We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we stand.
We pay our respects to them, their elders past and present, and thank them for their care of the land.
May we walk gently on this land.
or
We acknowledge the traditional occupiers of the land where we are now gathered, ……….. and recognise that it continues to be sacred to them.
We hail them: as guardians of the earth and of all things that grow and breed in the soil; as trustees of the waters – [the seas, the streams and rivers, the ponds and the lakes] - and the rich variety of life in those waters.
We thank them for passing this heritage to every people since the Dreamtime.
We acknowledge the wrongs done to them by newcomers to this land and we seek to be partners with them in righting these wrongs and in living together in peace and harmony.
Noah’s Ark Vanderbilt Library
Prepare to wage peace
Readings
Reading I Is 2:1-5
Responsorial Psalm Ps 122:1-2, 3-4, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9
Reading II Rom 13:11-14
Gospel Mt 24:37-44
But today is a new day.
And a new day brings new hope.
We won't give up. We will continue to struggle.
We will struggle to bring peace
to Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Iran, Palestine, West Papua,
and in our neighbourhoods.
We will struggle to bring all the troops back to their homes.
We will struggle to stop new nuclear weapons.
We will struggle to protect the air we breathe and water we drink.
We will struggle for a better world for our children.
Change is never easy, and it’s never fast.
The season of Advent begins November 27. Check out this excellent Advent Reflection Guide courtesy of the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns
Opening Prayer
God of Peace,
your word of truth resounds
amidst the clamour for violence.
Keep us watchful and aware of the time
in which we live.
Hasten the coming of that day
when sounds the sounds of war and violence
will be forever stilled,
the darkness of evil scattered,
and all your people gathered into one.
Prayer over the Gifts
God of Peace,
in these signs of bread and wine
you give us Jesus your Son.
May we have the vision of Jesus
who is our light
and who gives us courage to respond
to your call to build a new humanity.
Prayer after Communion
God of Peace,
may this Eucharist prompt us
to be watchful so that we
may recognize the signs
of Jesus present amongst us.
As we hear the cries of the poor
may we know that your truth and justice will prevail
and that your love and peace can be shared by all.
General Intercessions
Introduction: Let us be attentive to the call of Jesus to be awake and to prepare his coming into the world as we pray with hope. The response is: Come to us and be born in our world.
· That in the world in which we live, people may work together to put an end to war and hatred, oppression and injustice and to seek peace, freedom and justice, we pray, Come to us and be born in our world.
· That the world will know peace as people everywhere will stand together against violence, injustice and oppression, we pray, Come to us and be born in our world.
· That the people of West Papua may be supported by Australia and New Zealand in their quest for justice, peace freedom and dignity, we pray, Come to us and be born in our world.
· That people who have known little peace in their communities and forced to flee their homes and loves ones may find welcome, peace and hospitality from those who boldly say with the Jesus and the prophets that building fences and walls is not the way we should treat people , we pray, Come to us and be born in our world.
· That we may recognise that the aspiration to peace is rooted in our hearts and which spurs people to seek paths to a better future for themselves and their families: may we all resolve to build a culture of peace in all our actions, we pray, Come to us and be born in our world.
· That in these 16 Days of Global Activism against Gender-Based Violence (November 25-December 10) we may more and more invest in and mobilise to end violence against woman and girls, we pray, Come to us and be born in our world.
· That our commemoration of World AIDS Day (December 1) may continue to raise awareness in our communities and across the world about the issues surrounding HIV and AIDS so that we may show support for people living with HIV and commemorate people who have died, we pray, Come to us and be born in our world.
· That we may be ready to make God’s Reign visible amongst people who are living with HIV/AIDS on this World AIDS Day and beyond by working to stop fear, shame, ignorance and injustice, we pray, Come to us and be born in our world.
· That people who work in dangerous and risk-filled employment may be kept safe from dangerous work practices and corruption, we pray, Come to us and be born in our world.
· That those who have not heard the good news will come to know through our witness to peace and justice, we pray, Come to us and be born in our world.
· That our sisters and brothers in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and other places of conflict and violence will find healing, peace and reconciliation in their lands and may political leaders understand the heavy toll and cost of war as they determine foreign policy, we pray, Come to us and be born in our world.
· That those who are sick and those who are dying: may the sick be cared for and protected in their fragility, and those who are dying know peace in their final days, we pray, Come to us and be born in our world.
· That we may be ready to hope actively, creatively, lovingly, by our self-sacrifice; may the barriers that we encounter or the clouds that loom on the horizon be opportunities to overcome distrust and fear, we pray, Come to us and be born in our world.
· That we may be watchful as we await the coming of Christ by refusing to allow chaos, terrorism, war, greed, injustice, cruelty and neglect to have the final say, we pray, Come to us and be born in our world.
· That we may be united in the struggle to overcome trafficking in persons as well as all religious practices and customs that discriminate against women and girls, and which contribute to the attitude of gender inequality underlying the growth of human trafficking in our world today, we pray, Come to us and be born in our world.
· That all people open their hearts to the victims of trafficking and act to change its root causes: poverty, gender inequality, discrimination, greed and corruption, we pray, Come to us and be born in our world.
· That we may be ready to renew ourselves in our efforts to make space for others, especially those who feel excluded form our local community through poverty, disability, illness and discrimination, we pray, Come to us and be born in our world.
· That we may be ready to be committed to the transformation of our world by bringing hope and good news to the poor by our attentiveness to those amongst us, we pray, Come to us and be born in our world.
Concluding Prayer: Open our eyes, God of Peace, that we may discover signs of hope and courage. Give us a bigger vision of what you can do in the most hopeless of times through the possibilities you offer for reconciliation, transformation and peace building.
Parish Notices
November 25-December 10, Human Rights Day, the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence aiming to raise public awareness and mobilizing people everywhere to bring about change. This year, the UN Secretary-General’s UNiTE to End Violence against Women campaign invites you to “Orange the world,” using the colour designated by the UNiTE campaign to symbolize a brighter future without violence. Organize events to orange streets, schools and landmarks! http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/in-focus/end-violence-against-women
December 1 World AIDS Day.
Maryknoll AIDS Task Force Prayer
God of all compassion,
Comfort your sons and daughters
Who live with HIV.
Spread over us all your quilt of mercy,
Love and peace.
Open our eyes to your presence
Reflected in their faces.
Open our ears to your truth
Echoing in their hearts.
Give us the strength
To weep with the grieving,
To walk with the lonely,
To stand with the depressed.
May our love mirror your love
For those who live in fear,
Who live under stress and
Who suffer rejection.
Mothering, fathering God
Grant rest to those who have died
And hope to all who live with HIV.
God of life, help us to find the cure now
And help us to build a world in which
No one dies alone and where
Everyone lives accepted
Wanted and loved.
God of all compassion,
Comfort your sons and daughters
Who live with HIV.
Spread over us all your quilt of mercy,
Love and peace.
Open our eyes to your presence
Reflected in their faces.
Open our ears to your truth
Echoing in their hearts.
Give us the strength
To weep with the grieving,
To walk with the lonely,
To stand with the depressed.
May our love mirror your love
For those who live in fear,
Who live under stress and
Who suffer rejection.
Mothering, fathering God
Grant rest to those who have died
And hope to all who live with HIV.
God of life, help us to find the cure now
And help us to build a world in which
No one dies alone and where
Everyone lives accepted
Wanted and loved.
December 2 International Day for the Abolition of Slavery recalls the date of the adoption, by the General Assembly, of the United Nations Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and the Exploitation of Others (resolution 317 (IV) of 2 December 1949).
Further Resources
‘Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: You don't give up.’
Anne Lamott
‘For outlandish creatures like us, on our way to a heart, a brain, and courage, Bethlehem is not the end of our journey but only the beginning - not home but the place through which we must pass if ever we are to reach home at last.’
Frederick Buechner The Magnificent Defeat
‘God's movement is often abrupt and unsettling rather than predictable and settling.’
Michael Joseph Brown
‘The thing I love most about Advent is the heartbreak. The utter and complete heartbreak.’
Jerusalem Jackson Greer A Homemade Year: The Blessings of Cooking, Crafting, and Coming Together
No-one can deny that the aspiration to peace is rooted in the heart of a large part of humanity. That is exactly the ardent desire that spurs people to seek every possible path to a better future for one and all. We are ever more convinced that we must fight the evil of war at its roots, for peace is not only the absence of conflict; it is also a long-term dynamic and participatory process that involves every social class, from families to schools and the various institutions and national and international bodies. We can and must build a culture of peace together that will prevent recourse to arms and all forms of violence.
John Paul II, Migration with a View to Peace - Message for the World Day of Prayer for Migrants and Refugees.
Peace is not merely the absence of war. Nor can it be reduced solely to the maintenance of a balance of power between enemies. Nor is it brought about by dictatorship. Instead, it is rightly and appropriately called ‘an enterprise of justice’ (Is. 32:7). Peace results from that harmony built into human society by its divine founder, and actualized by men and women as they thirst after ever greater justice.
Vatican II, The Church in the Modern World, #78
Christ crucified and risen, the Wisdom of God, manifests the truth that divine justice and renewing power leavens the world in a way different from the techniques of dominating violence. The victory of shalom is won not by the sword of the warrior god, but by the awesome power of compassionate love, in and through solidarity with those who suffer. . Above all, the cross is raised as a challenge to the natural rightness of male dominating rule. The crucified Jesus embodies the exact opposite of the patriarchal ideal of the powerful man, and shows the steep price to be paid in the struggle for liberation.
Elizabeth Johnson CSJ, She Who Is, 159-160
Today in our situation the authenticity of the people of God goes by way of poverty and justice: they are the touchstone of the truth of the faith that is professed and of the genuineness of life as it is lived out: poverty, which involves incarnating all our efforts and incarnating ourselves in the reality of the oppressed majorities, and that will necessarily entail a voluntary impoverishment and abnegation on the part of those who wield power; justice, which involves giving to the people what belongs to the people and struggling to uproot injustice and exploitation, and to establish a new earth, wherein the life of the new human may be possible.
Ignacio Ellacuría SJ
I swore never to be silent whenever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.
Elie Weisel
Protest that endures...is moved by a hope far more modest than that of public success: namely, the hope of preserving qualities in one's own heart and spirit that would be destroyed by acquiescence
Wendell Berry
There is such an enormous gap between our words and deeds! Everyone talks about freedom, democracy, justice, human rights, and peace; but at the same time, everyone, more or less, consciously or unconsciously, serves those values and ideals only to the extent necessary to defend and serve his own interests, and those of his group or his state. Who should break this vicious circle? Responsibility cannot be preached: it can only be borne, and the only possible place to begin is with oneself.
Vaclav Havel, poet and former President of the Czech Republic.
God we need a little more healing:
Something in all of us likes a lot of power and control.
We have ended up spending billions on weapons,
We have weapons that can destroy the whole world.
Somehow we get ourselves into the business of selling weapons to others.
Too many young men and women are trained for war, which nobody wants.
Too many people are hungry and afraid.
God we need a little more healing.
God we need a little more healing:
Something in all of us likes a lot of power and control.
We worry about money and food and clothes and things.
We end up buying things we don’t need.
We end up working too much.
We end up filled with things and worry.
Somehow we end up with a world where some are very rich.
We end up with a world where some are very poor.
We end up with a world where some have no work.
We end up with a world in which some are overworked.
God we need a little more healing.
God we need a little more healing.
Something in all of us likes a lot of power and control.
Some people end up with a lot of power.
Some people end up with making all the big decisions.
Some of our brothers and sisters never get listened to.
Somehow our politics becomes a politics of the rich or of the few.
Our democracy becomes less democratic.
Money and prestige and status are in charge.
Skin color or ethnic group or gender seem to matter too much.
God we need a little more healing.
God we need a little more healing:
Something in all of us likes a lot of power and control.
We don’t know how to let go.
We don’t know how to be free.
We don’t know how to be ourselves.
Sometimes we are bound by all our fears.
We don’t know how to be active and nonviolent.
We don’t know what to do at all.
God we need a little more healing.
Amen.
Hunger is my Native Place
Hunger is my native place in the land of the passions.
Hunger for fellowship, hunger for righteousness—
for a fellowship founded on righteousness,
and a righteousness attained in fellowship.
Only life can satisfy the demands of life.
And this hunger of mine can be satisfied
for the simple reason that the nature of life is such
that I can realize my individuality by becoming a bridge for others,
a stone in the temple of righteousness.
Don't be afraid of yourself,
live your individuality to the full—
but for the good of others.
Don't copy others in order to buy fellowship,
or make convention your law
instead of living the righteousness.
To become free and responsible.
For this alone was man created,
and the one who fails to take the Way
which could have been his shall be lost eternally.
Dag Hammarskjöld Markings, translated from the Swedish (Vägmärken) by Leif Sjöbeg and W.H.Auden, New York: Alfred A Knopf. 1964.
Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart
and try to love the questions themselves . . .
Don't search for the answers,
which could not be given to you now,
because you would not be able to live them.
And the point is, to live everything.
Live the questions now.
Perhaps then, someday far in the future,
you will gradually, without even noticing it,
live your way into the answer.
Rainer Maria Rilke, Austro-German poet (1875-1926)
Give thanks for a little and you will find a lot.
Nigerian proverb
The happy heart gives away the best. To know how to receive is also a most important gift, which cultivates generosity in others and keeps strong the cycle of life.
Venerable Dhyani Ywahoo, speaker, author, musician and spiritual leader in the Eastern Tsalagi (Cherokee) tradition
Under affliction in the very depths, stop and contemplate what you have to be grateful for.
Mary Baker Eddy, founder of Christian Science
A thankful person is thankful under all circumstances. A complaining soul complains even in paradise.
Baha’u’llah, founder of the Baha’i faith
As life becomes harder and more threatening, it also becomes richer, because the fewer expectations we have, the more good things of life become unexpected gifts that we accept with gratitude.
Etty Hillesum, Dutch Jewish writer known for her diaries and correspondence from Westerbork concentration camp
Grateful living: an alchemic operation of converting ‘disgraceful’ things into grateful events.
Raimundo Panikkar, Roman Catholic priest from Spain specializing in comparative philosophy of religion
Gratitude for the gift of life is the primary wellspring of all religions, the hallmark of the mystic, and the source of all true art. .... It is a privilege to be alive in this time when we can choose to take part in the self-healing of our world.
Joanna Macy, eco-philosopher and scholar of Buddhism
Gratitude is the most exquisite form of courtesy.
Jacques Maritain, French philosopher and political thinker
Thankfulness brings you to the place where the Beloved lives.
Jalaluddin Rumi, Persian Sufi poet
Sanctity has to do with gratitude. To be a saint is to be fueled by gratitude, nothing more and nothing less.
Ronald Rolheiser, Oblate priest and writer
Open our eyes, Lord,
especially if they are half-shut
because we are tired of looking,
or half open
because we fear to see too much,
or bleared with tears
because yesterday and today and tomorrow
are filled with the same pain,
or contracted,
because we look only at what we want to see.
Open our eyes, Lord
To gently scan the life we lead,
the home we have,
the world we inhabit,
and so to find,
among the gremlins and the greyness,
signs of hope we can fasten on and encourage.
Give us, whose eyes are dimmed by familiarity,
a bigger vision of what you can do
even with hopeless cases and lost causes
and people of limited ability.
Show us the word as in your sight,
riddled by debt, deceit and disbelief,
yet also shot through with possibility
for recovery, renewal, and redemption.
And lest we fail to distinguish vision from fantasy,
today, tomorrow, this week,
open our eyes to one person
or one place,
where we – being even for a moment prophetic –
might identify and earn a potential in the waiting.
And with all this,
open our eyes, in yearning, for Jesus.
On the mountains,
in the cities,
through the corridors of power
and streets of despair,
to help, to heal,
to confront, to convert,
O come, O come, Immanuel.
from Cloth for the Cradle, The Wild Goose Worship Group, 1997
We must break down the walls of division, hostility and hatred so that the family of God can gather in harmony around one table to bless and praise the Creator for the many gifts with which He enriches our lives, with no distinctions.
Pope John Paul II
The stories told by HIV and Aids
A story of shock at a death sentence newly learned.
A story of shattered dreams and lost opportunities,
Of bewilderment, anger and despair.
A story of fear and secrecy and shame and denial,
In individuals, in families. A story of guilt and blame.
A story of prejudice and discrimination,
Of isolation, rejection and judgement because someone has the virus…
Or maybe just because they're different.
A story of loss of health, security, friends, dignity, family,
Home, future, autonomy.
A story of needs and dependency and nakedness.
A story of lost skills, diverted resources, reversal of gains,
For families, communities and nations.
A story of inequality and injustice between North and South, male and female,
Adult and child, straight and gay, powerful and powerless, positive and negative.
A story of hostility and abuse by Church and State alike,
Of the already voiceless made even more vulnerable by HIV.
A story of healing and liberation preached to the whole Church in the ministry of those with HIV or AIDS.
A story of love and care and commitment poured out without reserve,
And going beyond the boundaries of dogma or law or tradition.
A story of countless grains of wheat…
of unhailed saints who come in many guises;
If we will but see; if we will just listen.
A story of hope for the present, and hope in the future, from those who, infected with the virus, subscribe to life, not death.
A story of courage and solidarity from those who, without concern for self or regard for rank or title, proclaim openly and honestly ‘the Church, Christ's body, has AIDS’.
And, from those who teach and counsel, nurse and support,
From the many who advocate and struggle for justice,
A story of truth and freedom and acceptance and love;
-signs that even in this time of AIDS God's kingdom is among us.
Blessing
(taken from a liturgy at the meeting of the Caritas Internationalis AIDS Task Force, Rome, April 1999)
May God our Father bless and strengthen us.
May God our Mother shape and sustain us.
May we find in our ever-loving God rest, renewal, support for the difficulties ahead, challenge in our times of complacency and inspiration to always proclaim the Truth of God's good News in this time of HIV and AIDS.
Prayer of Hope
[The Diakonia Council of Churches in South Africa]
God of Hope
All of us are affected by HIV/AIDS.
At this time of Advent Hope,
As we prepare for the coming of your son into this world
We give thanks for signs of hope.
For growing understanding
For medical advances
For changing attitudes and behaviour
For greater awareness and concern in your church.
God of Unity
Bind us together with strong ties of love
That this church community may be a place where
All can find acceptance,
May it be a place of welcome for all affected by HIV/AIDS.
May it be a place where care is given and received,
especially for affected children and youth,
Where stories are told and heard,
Where fear is overcome by love,
Where you are to be found. Amen.
A healing touch
Who touched me? Somebody touched me
With the needs, the dreams and the hopes of the world
Who touched me? Somebody touched me
And I turned and saw the people
And I turned and listened to their story
Who touched me? Somebody touched me
And I turned and saw two worlds where God created one
And the gates of the rich were closed
And I dreamed of the world you created
A garden with plenty for everyone
With a stream of clean flowing water
For all to drink
And I believe in life
I believe in hope
I believe in a future
where there is one world
that we build together.
Who touched me? Somebody touched me
And I pray
Stay with us, Lord, as we work for a better world.
Amen
Make God's love known
God our strength and our refuge
In our waiting
in our praying
in our being
by our actions
and our words
by our choices
and decisions
May we make your love known
In our tears
And our anger
By our sharing
and our sheltering
Through our joy
And thanksgiving
May we make your love known
Amen.
Together, not alone
God of all humanity,
In a world full of fear,
Open our hearts to your love.
Though we walk in desolate valleys,
Open our minds to your hope.
As we seek paths in the darkness,
Open our eyes to your light.
We turn away from hatred,
Towards love.
We turn away from intolerance,
Towards understanding.
As sisters and brothers,
We commit ourselves to compassion.
Together, not alone,
We pray for peace.
Blessing When the World is Ending
Look, the world
is always ending
somewhere.
Somewhere
the sun has come
crashing down.
Somewhere
it has gone
completely dark.
Somewhere
it has ended
with the gun,
the knife,
the fist.
Somewhere
it has ended
with the slammed door,
the shattered hope.
Somewhere
it has ended
with the utter quiet
that follows the news
from the phone,
the television,
the hospital room.
Somewhere
it has ended
with a tenderness
that will break
your heart.
But, listen,
this blessing means
to be anything
but morose.
It has not come
to cause despair.
It is simply here
because there is nothing
a blessing
is better suited for
than an ending,
nothing that cries out more
for a blessing
than when a world
is falling apart.
This blessing
will not fix you,
will not mend you,
will not give you
false comfort;
it will not talk to you
about one door opening
when another one closes.
It will simply
sit itself beside you
among the shards
and gently turn your face
toward the direction
from which the light
will come,
gathering itself
about you
as the world begins
again.
—Jan Richardson, The Painted Prayerbook
Celebrate life
Creator God,
As we journey through this world
Give us the grace to allow your Holy Spirit to work through us.
Help us to speak, think and work
with honesty, and compassion,
to celebrate all that is life-giving,
to restore hope where it has been lost,
and to bring about change where it is needed.
We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, our companion.
Amen.
The truth that makes [men] free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear.
Herbert Sebastien Agar, (1897-1980)The Time for greatness, 1942
The key to wisdom is this -- constant and frequent questioning ... for by doubting we are led to question and by questioning we arrive at the truth.
Peter Abelard (1099-1142)
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.
Aldous Huxley - (1894-1963)
... the 20th century has been characterized by three developments of great political importance: The growth of democracy, the growth of corporate power, and the growth of corporate propaganda as a means of protecting corporate power against democracy:
Alex Carey: Australian social scientist
If you go to one demonstration and then go home, that's something, but the people in power can live with that. What they can't live with is sustained pressure that keeps building, organisations that keep doing things, people that keep learning lessons from the last time and doing it better the next time.
Noam Chomsky:
The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil [men].
Plato
You can either be complicit in your own enslavement or you can lead a life that has some kind of integrity and meaning.
Chris Hedges: Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author
When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross
Sinclair Lewis
To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of [men].
Abraham Lincoln - (1809-1865) 16th US President
The objector and the rebel who raises his voice against what he believes to be the injustice of the present and the wrongs of the past is the one who hunches the world along.
Clarence S. Darrow -1857-1938
The right to defy an unconstitutional statute is basic in our scheme. Even when an ordinance requires a permit to make a speech, to deliver a sermon, to picket, to parade, or to assemble, it need not be honored when it's invalid on its face.
Justice Potter Stewart (1915-1985), U. S. Supreme Court Justice
We are reluctant to admit that we owe our liberties to men of a type that today we hate and fear -- unruly [men], disturbers of the peace, [men] who resent and denounce what Whitman called 'the insolence of elected persons' -- in a word, free men.
Gerald W. Johnson - (1890-1980)
Holy One, we are an Advent people,
those who are called to struggle for
a new and transformed world for all your creation.
Help us to claim this Advent season as
a renewed commitment to bring your realm into being
on behalf of all those who are waiting and hoping for justice and liberation.
Help us take on the mantle of courage as we face into all the places
where we are complicit in the world's suffering,
so that our true repentance might help turn our world around.
Help us take on the mantle of justice making in this moment and time,
for this is truly revolutionary patience.
Some reflections for the First Sunday in Advent
Our destination is never a place, but always a new way of looking at things. Henry Miller
As the hope of Advent hurtles into our midst at the start of another church year, can we dare to hope for something much better than reported in the media? We can remember who reigns and sets our hearts on participating in God’s plant to bring to reality a world of peace with justice. Isaiah uses mythical language to lift up the hope of all nations for peace and justice that the people might ‘walk in God’s paths’ – to walk the talk. ‘They shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks; one nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war or learn war again.’ There is work for us to do in re-shaping the instruments of war, violence, and destruction into instruments of peace and provision for all. The recent US election saw its winners and losers. I fear that many who think themselves as winners might also lose. Some celebrate and others protest. The campaign should not have been as it was with its misogyny, homophobia, demonising of Muslim people, fear of the stranger and the mocking of disabled people. We saw hatred bubble up. We saw division caused through vitriol and scapegoating. It is not the way it should be. In Australia we are gradually accepting the divisions that are insidiously creeping into our community and political lives. We do not have to accept this. We do not have to accept narratives that dehumanise both the victim and victimiser. We do not have accept this situation. Isaiah points to the intrusion of God’s reign that will set us on a path of peace, justice, life, hope and liberation. God calls injustice what it is. As we inherit a more and more violent world, we see that God does not accept this misshapend world. We can collaborate with God by taking the implements of violence and war and transform them into tools of nonviolence and peace; we turn them into tools that prepare the soil for the coming of new seed and new life. Realists will consider this to be unrealistic and naïve, yet we are asked to imagine a world without weapons of war; without nuclear weapons; without drones; without guns of any kind; without threats; without hatred; without revenge being our default response to conflict; without building higher walls or fences; without using drawing a ring of steel around our nation to keep vulnerable, hurting, frightened people from finding safety. Can we even imagine such a world? Can we imagine a world in which violence does not order our every step? It is difficult when the cries of the most vulnerable are dismissed as unimportant or overreactions. It is difficult when the rhetoric invites attacks on women and men who are different, or invites people to distribute material that highlights white ‘supremacy’ or the painting of Nazi symbols on walls. Isaiah, like Jesus, is calling us to see beyond the present moment. It is not to dull to these realities or make us apathetic but to fill us with hope, to cause our hearts to open and be broken to allow this broken world in and be part of the healing and reconciling.
Scott Bader-Saye, in Following Jesus in a Culture of Fear, argues that our lives are easily ruled by ‘apocalyptic fear’ rather than divine goodness; that following Jesus involves us in risky practices that fuel temptations to live out of self-preservation – ‘if you are the messiah then save yourself’ - instead of self-giving love. He suggests we need a kind of courage to persevere fueled by hope in God to be witnesses to God’s peace in the midst of a chaotic, violent world.
The heart of Advent is about participating, actualising a vision of a different world. Chris Hedges, the US journalist and author, says: ‘You can either be complicit in your own enslavement or you can lead a life that has some kind of integrity and meaning.’
In 1997, a 5 metre sculpture was lowered onto a cement base in a square in Washington, DC. It was named ‘Guns into Plowshares’. Full of biblical symbolism, it was made up of 3,000 guns were welded together to form a steel plough. The sculptors worked for two and a half years to mould handguns surrendered by local people. The sculpture announced the prophetic hope for a time when God’s way will take priority – where people will be fed rather than succumb to violence; where people will be infected with genuine regard for each other and forget how to fight. In Advent we are reminded of the preciousness of life. The call is to wake up, to yearn for peace, rather than squandering our days on the wrong things. Can we begin by making time to look at one another and listen to one another? What hope is there of living less selfishly and more peacefully?
To wake us from our complacency, Jesus offers a number of images in the gospel beginning with that of the burglar stepping into our bed room whilst we are asleep: ‘If the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into.’ Surely, fear of a break-in should be cause for a change in thinking and adjustment in priorities. 700 years before Christ, Isaiah envisioned the reallocation of resources from the manufacture of weapons of war to implements of cultivation. Obviously, it is better to feed people than to kill them. What a different world might emerge if more doctors, teachers, nurses and means of development were provided rather than more troops? As followers of the vulnerable child who would initiate change but threatened by Herod's sword, we must convert our weapons of mass destruction into technology and resources for food, water, education and medical assistance to secure the future of the earth's children. President Eisenhower in 1953 said: ‘Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.’
Paul offers concrete advice as to how to prepare for the reign of peace. He knows that the peace Isaiah dreamed of does not come without a struggle, or wishful thinking or leaving it to others. He warns of the kinds of things prevent us from true community building and peaceful coexistence. The alertness we are called to a positive struggle to build the reign of peace by our initiating personally and in solidarity with others in nonviolent action to dismantle weapons of war. It is a shift from a war economy to one that is just, egalitarian, equitable and thus peaceful; where peoples might now have enough food, decent health care, proper education, and the injustices of the past righted.
Another shift in our mentality is to imagine that a new world is possible. It comes down to our immediate interpersonal relationships and extending the breadth of our embrace to include more and people. We might consider the cheap clothes we buy that come from the oppression and unfair trade practices in overseas countries. We might consider what we sell – like uranium – to India and Russia. We might consider our attitudes that relate to materialism and greed; the failure to share with our neighbour or as a nation to honour our responsibilities of genuine foreign aid to the developing nations without strings attached; our attachment to cheap oil, petrol and fossil fuels. Might these not be included in the ‘works of darkness’ Paul refers to in Romans?
Though the scriptures look at universal issues we need to apply them to our own lives – to the : connections between the poor and the push to kill through weapons of mass misery, arms sales, land mines, cluster bombs, and the manufacture of ever-new forms of destruction. A Korean theologian in an American film said: ‘Your economy is based on inflicting pain in other persons’ lives. So, I ask, where is God in your country?’
This is a time for dreams and visions being made flesh in our lives. This is a time of hoping outrageously for peace now, for passionate repentance, for justice to come among us. It is about looking God in the eye, and rejoicing that this God is on the side of the poor especially when they are blamed for their situation; the immigrants, the persons seeking asylum who are blamed and targeted for their plight; the family struggling in the system and falling through the cracks and being blamed for being unemployed; the person living with AIDS in Africa and Asia and Latin America who cannot receive medication that would slow down the progress of his/her sickness.
We are called, not to just imagine and dream, but to make peacemaking a priority in our everyday lives. Though many people are sceptical that seeking peace through justice will be effective in avoiding war, they would still admit that justice, safety, and sharing have a better chance of resulting in peace than injustice, danger, and wealth disparity.
This Advent, for the sake of peace, what steps might we take to heal division, alienation, and broken relationship in our family, our community, and the world? Beginning with just one step, one relationship, perhaps one apology or offer of peace? Do we believe that we can be part of God's dream? How can we transcend our differences and speak with one voice about the call to peace given by a God who – today – loves each one of us? What can we share in common – our care for our children, for the earth, for the future – that brings us together in recognition that we, and our lives, belong to the same God and therefore find our common ground in peace, not war? What ways do we need to imagine for our interactions to change? How might we deepen our respect for one another? How might we hear one another, and in the hearing, listen for the voice of the Still-speaking God? The images of the unprepared ones in the gospel whose homes are broken into or who are left behind are not meant to frighten us, but they remind us that when all our preparations, all our attempts to be alert and all our efforts to disarm our hearts and wage peace will, in a critical moment, reach fruition. And we will be ready.
This Advent, we wait once again. We wait to hear that story again, of a child born under the shadow of a mighty empire, of a child who would deliver us from death itself. We wait not just for Christmas morning, but for his birth again and again in our lives, for it is among the vulnerable and the scared and the afflicted that he is found.
The prophets were people on the ground speaking truth to power. They do not belong to some distant past but are present amongst us in their words and actions. More importantly, we too can speak in much the same way as they did. Their words don’t have to stay in the past, and they will not where we are on the front line of a protest demanding justice; when we step between the taunts and screams of bigots and the victimisation and vilification of migrants and refugees; and when, we refuse to accept the status quo or business as usual. Let us open our ears and eyes. Let us hear and see how hatred and bigotry is being normalised more and more. Let us listen for it and struggle to overcome anger, prejudice, exclusion and violence.
In terms of the gospel, an important role of the prophet is to wake us up to face injustice; to rouse us when we tire of resisting; to reassure us that this is not how things need to be in our world – but that God has something better in mind for all of us, something just, liberating and transforming.
