Advent Contemplation 11/12/13
Welcome
Lighting the candle
Poem “Carrying a candle” by Jan Sutch Pickard
Readings; “Everywhere light” by Bruce Sanguin
John 1:1-5
Out of the stars by R Weston
Silence
Star child, earth-child,
Go-between of God,
Love child, Christ child,
Heaven’s lightening rod:
This year, this year,
Let the day arrive,
When Christmas comes for everyone,
Everyone alive.
Street child, beat child,
No place left to go,
Hurt child, used child,
Noone wants to know:
Grown child, old child,
Memory full of years,
Sad child, lost child,
Story told in tears:
Spared child, spoiled child,
Having, wanting more,
Wise child, faith child,
Knowing joy in store:
Hope-for peace child,
God’s stupendous sign,
Down-to-earth child,
Star of stars that shine:
As stars to the maker
Be strong
We are the work of God’s hands.
Be gentle
As plants to the gardener
Be awake to justice.
We are the work of God’s hands.
Be joyful
As clay to the potter
Be humble
We are the work of God’s hands.
Be awake to holiness.
Be brave
Be steady
Be honest
Be hopeful
Be awake to integrity.
Be awake to love.
Ruth Burgess
Advent Contemplation 11/12/13 Readings
Carrying a candle
from one little place of shelter
to another
is an act of love.
To move through the huge
and hungry darkness, step by step,
against the invisible wind
that blows forever around the world,
carrying a candle,
is an act of foolhardy hope.
Surely it will be blown out:
the wind is contemptuous,
the darkness cannot comprehend it.
How much light can this tiny flame shed
on all the great issues of the day?
It is as helpless as a newborn child.
Look how the human hand,
That cradles it, has become translucent:
Fragile and beautiful, foolish and loving,
Step by step.
The wind is stronger than this hand,
And the darkness infinite
Around this tiny here-and-now flame
that wavers, but keeps burning:
carried with such care
through an uncaring world
from one little place of shelter to another.
An act of love.
The light shines in the darkness
And the darkness can never put it out.
Jan Sutch Pickard
Everywhere Light
O Holy One,
what a confession that we cannot see
the miracle that is before our eyes.
We march to the drum of the dismissive voice:
‘ If you can, see it, feel it, touch it,- if it is located
anywhere in your small orbit of experienceit is no sacred mystery.’
Miracles, we believe,
happen elsewhere;
in secluded caves,
on mountaintops,
in the next town over;
and to other people;
to gurus and priests,
shamans and saints,
the gifted and the great.
Forgive us
that even as we carry around
the entire universe in our bodies,
and in our luminous minds,
we look elsewhere for sacred revelation.
Forgive us:
despite knowing that each carbon atom in our blood
and firing neuron in our brain
came from ancient stars,
somehow we can ignore our own radiance.
Shine upon us now, O Holy One,
that we might see your light
among us, within us, and all around us.
Amen.
Bruce Sanguin
The Gospel according to John The Word Became Flesh
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3All things came into
being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What
has come into being 4in him was life, and the life was the light of all
people. 5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not
overcome it.
Out of the stars in their flight,
out of the dust of eternity,
here we have come,
stardust and sunlight, mingling
through time and through space.
Out of the stars have we come, up from time:
Out of the stars have we come.
Time out of time before time
In the vastness of space,
Earth spun to orbit the sun,
Earth with the thunder of
Mountains newborn, the boiling of seas.
Earth warmed by the sun, lit by sunlight:
This is our home,
Out of the stars have we come.
This is the wonder of time,
This is the marvel of space,
Out of the stars swung the earth
Life upon earth rose to love.
This is the marvel of life,
Rising to see and to know:
Out of your heart, cry wonder:
Sing that we live.
R Weston