The guide is intended to be used every other day. Watch the opening videos on day one, and read the devotional articles and other resources on alternating days.
The aim of the guide is to be a tool that helps you reflect on the meaning of Advent and the ways that the Spirit wants to remind us that, because of Jesus there is good news and great joy.
Hope: Devotion & Worship
Reflection
Read Luke 2:8-15. In what area of your life or circumstance you are facing do you need the hopeful presence of Christ?
A Reflection on Hope
by R.L.
Advent is a strange holiday season where we celebrate with anticipation the coming of Jesus over 2,000 years in the past. It’s a celebration of what has come, what is here, and what will come. Yet it's an important and soul-nourishing practice that arrives in the midst of a hectic season where we're sprinting towards our year-end goals at work and end-of-semester finals at school, all while decorating trees, hanging lights, and making wassail.
It’s a practice where we put ourselves in the sandals of the shepherds and allow ourselves to be surprised by hope realized in the birth of Jesus, Immanuel—God with us. So, let’s start there, in Luke 2, where the scene is set with shepherds tending their sheep at night just like any other night.
BOOM! An angel appears and tells them that Jesus, the Messiah, the Lord, is born and they can find him as a baby wrapped in cloths, lying in a manger. Then, they see an immense choir of angels glorifying and praising God. With their ordinary lives suddenly interrupted by a moment of heaven colliding with earth, they head over to Bethlehem to find Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus in a manger just as the angel said. They spread the word and returned praising and glorifying God.
What is captured in this scene is a magnificent zero to one moment. For decades upon decades, the shepherds and their ancestors were waiting, hoping, longing, for their promised messiah to come. The messiah they envisioned who, by popular belief, would overthrow their Roman overlords and restore the earthly kingdom of Israel back to the golden age of King David. Wannabe messiahs came and went, crushing the hope of many as each rebellion came to a violent end. Is God with us? Has God forsaken us? Does God even exist?
It is in this context of great doubt that heaven meets earth to answer those questions. Is God with us? Yes! He’s here: Immanuel—God with us. Has God forsaken us? No! The Messiah has come! Does God even exist? Yes! Jesus, the son of God is here! Hope is realized and hope is rekindled.
But … it’s a slow burn. THIRTY YEARS pass before Jesus’ ministry begins. That’s thirty more years of Roman occupation. Thirty more years of dealing with despised tax collectors collecting for the empire and for their own pockets from their own people. Is God actually with us? Has God forsaken us? Is God even real?
Then Jesus’ three-year ministry answers those questions with miracle after miracle after miracle. As John the Baptist’s followers learn: the blind see, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. The excitement culminates on Palm Sunday where the people’s hope is on the verge of being realized. They exclaimed, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” and “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
Only a few days later, the joy and excitement crashes to the deepest depths of despair as Jesus is hung on the cross—the Roman empire’s dreaded symbol of fear, oppression, and humiliation.
Is God with us? Has God forsaken us? Is God even real? Even Jesus says, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” We know what happens three days later: Jesus rises from the dead and is victorious over death. Hope is rekindled, again.
Fast forward to today. The questions are being asked again: Is God with us? Has he forsaken us? Does God even exist? I wish I could tie this off in a neat little bow, but it would be trite to do so. The struggle is real. Many Christians have gone through a period of faith deconstruction over the past few years and as some have found out, demo day is easy, but it’s hard to build back better, especially when it feels like we lack the materials to do so. If you’re staring at the rubble of your faith, where do you start?
Hope. Hope that your faith will be restored. Hope that God will make things right one day. That when his kingdom comes and his will is done on earth and in heaven, the broken things will be made whole. Then clear the rubble. Rather than giving mindspace to noise, doubts, and things that tear down, cling to what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent or praiseworthy. Invite God into your faith rebuilding process and give him space in your life. Then, I believe, on one ordinary day, you’ll experience a magnificent zero to one moment like the shepherds where heaven meets earth. Let’s make space for God this Advent season and we’ll press on together.
Reflection
Spend time remembering a moment or circumstance when God came through for you. What happened? How did God work in the circumstance?
What aspects of faith are you asking God to restore, rebuild, or strengthen? Who in your life is asking for something similar? Spend time praying for yourself and for them.
Hope Behind the Headlines
by Kelsey Marden
Kelsey Marden is a writer and photographer based out of Washington, DC. She writes for non-profits to help them tell stories that empower people who've overcome incredible violence and hardships. She currently writes for International Rescue Committee's creative team and has previously written for International Justice Mission, World Relief, BmoreArt, and Baltimore Jewish Times.
“Wealth inequality is the highest since World War II.” “At the Polish border, tens of thousands of Ukrainian refugees.” “In May, a month of mass shootings, one after another.” “At least 1,000 killed in Afghanistan earthquake, officials say.” “Pakistan suffers record flooding, turning villages into islands.” “Protests intensify in Iran over woman who died in custody.”
These are all grim New York Times headlines from this past year. It felt like I was reading headlines like these every day — the mass numbers and the heart-breaking stories that seem to replay, making me question if I’m reading a new story or the same one I read the week before.
Bad news keeps showing up in our feeds. And we can’t stop it. We can never stop the world from experiencing crises, conflicts, injustices, wars, and disasters. We’ve all realized this as we experienced a global pandemic together.
This past year, each global humanitarian crisis meant I wrote an appeal letter for the emergency response organization I work for. And I asked myself each time where is the hope? Where is God? Where is he in the midst of such massive injustices and suffering?
When I look back to when Jesus first entered the picture, this is where I find my hope.
The news headlines of ancient Rome weren’t much better than they are today. Those living during Rome’s occupation of Israel were trying to survive in the midst of subsistence living, all while being told that Ceasar Augustus was the “good news” of the world. Biblical scholar Michael Gorman describes the situation this way::
“But there was a dark side to Rome’s ‘peace’ that cannot be forgotten… The Romans established and maintained their empire through conquest, subjugation, and intimidation. It was, in other words, peace through war, and security via domination. The Romans invaded and enslaved; they moved the conquered in and out; they formed new colonies and refounded old cities as their own colonies. They imposed taxes and tributes to maintain the empire...and its peace among the subjugated. And they had a deterrent to make sure that those who might threaten the peace understood the consequences: crucifixion.” — Michael Gorman, Apostle of the Crucified Lord, 19.
And yet, Israel had hope. They held onto a promise from long ago. Someone was supposed to come and lead them out of oppression and into freedom. Someone they thought would lead them in war against the Romans, tear down the Roman empire, and bring justice.
But Jesus had other plans.
When trying to test Jesus to see if he wanted to overthrow the Romans, his response said it all. In Matthew 22, they asked him if it was lawful to pay taxes to Rome. Jesus responded by saying: “Give to Caesar that which is Caesar’s. Give to God that which is God’s.”
Jesus defied the savior they had planned for him to be. Instead, he met people on a seemingly smaller level: performing miracles, spending time with the people society rejected, and meeting people’s physical, emotional, and spiritual needs in the streets.
At the time, he wasn’t the savior they wanted him to be, he was the savior they needed him to be. Jesus did not free them from their oppression of the Roman empire. What he did was free them from so much more. He restored the relationship that was torn between us and God. He reinstated his kingdom, his justice, and his relationship with us for eternity.
This is the true hope of this world. Not that our kingdom will come, but that his perfect kingdom will.
In the stillness of the morning, before you read one headline, remember the true good news of this world: Jesus.
Reflection
As an Advent practice (or at least for this week), practice reading the Christmas stories in the Bible (Luke 2:1-20, Matthew 1:18-25, Matthew 2:1-18, John 1:1-18) prior to reading the news on news or social media sites.
Hymn of Hope
by Amy Sawyer
Amy Sawyer is a poet and educator in the Washington, DC area. She studied philosophy and religion at Clemson University and earned her MFA in Creative Writing at Converse College. She has served as a Program Director, Story Coach, Teaching Artist, and Tutor for non-profit organizations throughout DC and currently works for RISE DC. Her current obsessions are basset hounds, stained glass, and oat milk lattes.
Read the words of this Advent Poem, "Hope" by Amy Sawyer. Attend to the words. How do they stir up a sense of hope for this season?
Hope
by Amy Sawyer
(with borrowed phrases from Emily Dickinson, A Charlie Brown’s Christmas, and Luke 2)
She says it is the thing with feathers
but we know it to be sown in soil.
Hope is the reason we bury tulip bulbs in the fall,
when nothing grows, but roots.
It is the pregnancy announcement after a loss,
as fragile and shimmering as a bubble.
It is the phone call when you finally apologize
and the silence as you await their response.
It is a new job, a new city, a new sparkling love,
and staying when the newness wears off.
It is the fertile soil tended by our grandmas and aunties,
the soil of ancient Babylon. Aren’t we all
carrying soil that was trod upon by Solomon,
or Joseph, or even Mary? Her hands weren’t clean,
even as the magnificat pulsed through her palms,
her mudstained feet connected to earth.
Soil is dirt with history, fungi and humus, decay and promise,
bacteria and host, worms and hands to see to it.
It is a great multitude of earthly hosts,
praising, singing, planting, sowing, always hoping.
Benediction
Wait for the Lord with hopeful anticipation. Set your face towards the God of all hope and your heart towards the One who is to come. Anticipate God's entrance into the world and into circumstances in need of the Lord's presence. Remember that God is very near and is coming to make all things new. Amen.