Liturgy
Advent nears its end.
The promise of Your blessings to come are around the corner
But they have yet to arrive.
The expectation for things not yet realized still rumbles within us
It makes us lose sleep.
We toss and turn waiting for what we are promised.
The world we wish to have that is not yet ours.
We need Your peace.
Remind us to be still.
Ground us in this moment.
Remind us of the blessings we have already received.
We look at the faces of those around us.
Remind us that we are a community
Built to share and support, grow and take, love and give.
Remind us of the things that have given us today.
So that we might be a blessing tomorrow.
We pray in the name of God, the witness
Christ, the promise
and the Holy Spirit, our blessing.
Amen
(Vox Prayer Team)
Scripture
We invite you to hear from the Gospel according to Luke 1:39-45
39 In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the
hill country, 40 where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted
Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in
her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit 42 and exclaimed
with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of
your womb.
43 And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes
to me? 44 For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in
my womb leaped for joy. 45 And blessed is she who believed that there
would be[a] a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”
The Good News of the Lord.
Thanks be to God!
The grass withers and the flower fades,
but the Word of the Lord endures forever. Amen.
Homily & Reflection
How can you open your heart and life to others in ways that allow both you and them to experience the blessing of God’s love, even in moments of vulnerability or unknowingness?
In what ways do you sometimes forget that you are blessed by God, and how can community—your relationships with others—help you remember and live into this truth?
How can you actively create spaces of relational freedom and blessing in your daily interactions, allowing both yourself and others to experience God’s love and affirmation?
Benediction
Like a tree birthed from a seed that gives forth fruit
that creates a seed that births a tree,
Remind us of our place in this world
Remind us of the ripples we create
The effects we have on everything around us.
Reveal to us the roots that spread beneath us
That connect us to the chorus of plants
That transform us from one solitary tree
into the vast, expansive forest.
Crack open the bedrock that has formed around us.
Open the hard shell built to winterize us
Create vulnerabilities in our parts
So that we might love and give
In the same way that we have been loved and blessed.
We remember your divine dance
The one you have called all of us to join
May we reach out, take the hand of those next to us
And join the movement together.
Through God, our song
Christ, our partner
and Spirit, our movement.
Amen
(Vox Prayer Team)
[Photo by José Ignacio Pompé]