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Welcome to #ccdaAdvent.
In the midst of darkness, oppression, and marginalization, Christ entered the scene of the first Advent and paved the way for our communal wellbeing. This Advent season, we invite you to consider the implications of Christ’s coming for our communities. What lessons may we draw from their context?
This year, we are excited to partner with churches participating in CCDA’s Flourishing Congregations Initiative. Each devotional will include a reflection, breath prayer, art, and worship reflecting on what Shalom is in the midst of difficulty, darkness, and crisis.
We pray that the reflections and prayers within these Advent devotionals bring renewed inspiration, anticipation, and hope in the Kingdom of God that has come and is to come. Amen.
Devotional by: Erik Mast-Foss
This is what Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem:
In the last days
the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established
as the highest of the mountains;
it will be exalted above the hills,
and all nations will stream to it.Many peoples will come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the temple of the God of Jacob.
He will teach us his ways,
so that we may walk in his paths.”
The law will go out from Zion,
the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He will judge between the nations
and will settle disputes for many peoples.
They will beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
nor will they train for war anymore.Come, descendants of Jacob,
let us walk in the light of the Lord.Isaiah 2:1-5
Advent: Holding Tension
Advent is an ancient exercise in holding things in tension—presence and absence, hope and dread, peace and turmoil, joy and suffering. Taking up the Advent season means joining with our ancestors in a paradoxical practice; waiting for someone who has already arrived, and celebrating a reality that has not yet come to pass. When we sing about the coming Lord Jesus, we’re stepping into the shoes of those who went before us, those who were hoping for the coming of the Messiah to bring the vision partially shown by Isaiah. And yet, we are also waiting for the arrival of Isaiah’s vision, of the Lord’s return to make all things new.
This week’s scripture ignites that same tension in us.
The prophet Isaiah’s vision is of a world where shalom reigns, a world suffused with God’s wisdom expressed through willing partners, where nations learn together to make peace, and that peace actually endures.
Hope & Lament
This vision is the starting point of hope. To embrace God’s vision of Shalom is to allow a fire to be kindled in your heart that the world didn’t give and the world can’t take away. It warms us with its promise, but also because it speaks to the heart of the Visioner. To know this is God’s desire speaks to God’s radical love for us and commitment to our whole world.
Yet at the same time, the vision can’t help but bring lament. When we compare God’s vision for our world with the pain, violence, oppression, loss, and grief we see around us, we are moved to lament, just like our ancestors did and like our children will until the world is transfigured in the light of Christ.
This prayer, written by Walter Brueggemann, speaks beautifully to the tension of our waiting in Advent:
In our secret yearnings
we wait for your coming,
and in our grinding despair
we doubt that you will.And in this privileged place
we are surrounded by witnesses who yearn more than do we
and by those who despair more deeply than do we.Look upon your church and its pastors
in this season of hope
which runs so quickly to fatigue
and in this season of yearning
which becomes so easily quarrelsome.Give us the grace and the impatience
to wait for your coming to the bottom of our toes,
to the edges of our finger tips.We do not want our several worlds to end.
Come in your power
and come in your weakness
in any case
and make all things new.Amen.
By Walter Brueggemann in Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth: Prayers of Walter Brueggemann
With us in the Darkness
Advent reminds us we don’t need to be in sight of the promise to hold onto hope. We practice Advent to have our lives shaped by a hope that is stress-tested. Advent’s Immanuel—“God with us”—means exactly that we encounter the presence of Christ IN the darkness. The incarnation is the Light of life meeting us in the darkness. This is why we can hold things in tension, because Christ is with us in the darkness.
(Exhale) Hold our lament
(Inhale) Bring us your hope
About Erik Mast-Foss
Erik Mast-Foss serves as a pastor at On Ramps Covenant Church in Fresno, CA.
Erik is married to Jessica and enjoys biking around in his neighborhood.
