Prayer of the Day/Collect for 2nd Sunday in Advent

Blessed are you O God of heaven and earth: Long ago you gave the prophet Isaiah a beautiful vision of Shalom, in which the violence among human beings and the predator instinct among animals would be transformed into a new world order of perfect Shalom. In a world and church filled with conflicts, divisions and wars, we pray: Come Jesus, Prince of Peace, usher in your perfect realm of Shalom. Amen. 

Prayer of the Day-Collect for 4th Sunday of Advent Year C

God of love: We magnify you for showing mercy upon the poor and forgotten ones around the world. Your love through Jesus our Messiah came to earth to reverse the order of things and set all things right. May we follow your example Jesus of love for all people even as we pray for your coming again today, tomorrow and in the unknown future as Messiah, Saviour, Lord of lords, and King of kings; to reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit; one God, now and forever. 

Prayer of the Day-Collect for 3rd Sunday of Advent Year C

Holy One: In this season of joy and rejoicing, there are many family members, friends and neighbours in our midst; as well as countless millions of poor and oppressed people around the globe who find little joy or occasion to rejoice. May your Holy Spirit’s fruit of joy and rejoicing spread into the hearts, minds and lives of all humankind as we prepare to celebrate the coming of our Messiah Jesus; in whose name we pray.

Prayer of the Day/Collect for 2nd Sunday of Advent Year C

God of judgement and grace: You sent John your faithful messenger to prepare your people for your coming through a baptism of repentance. Grant us open ears and hearts to hear your word; and to respond with acts of repentance to prepare for the coming of your Son; Jesus the Messiah; who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit; one God, now and forever.

Prayer of the Day-Collect for 1st Sunday of Advent Year C

God of hope: Amidst all of the darkness and suffering, tragedies and disasters, fears and growing hatred, divisions and wars, help us to remain firmly rooted in the hope that only you can give us through our righteous Branch, Jesus, the Messiah. May we be signs of this hope as we prepare for your coming through the living out of our lives trusting in your promises; through Jesus our Messiah, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Clergy Comment column

Here is my article published in the December 14, 2017 Camrose Canadian Clergy Comment column.

Advent and the “R” word

We are now in the season of Advent, the season traditionally observed as a time of preparation for celebrating the coming of Jesus the Messiah.

   One way of preparing is by focusing on the “R” word—repentance. Last Sunday, Christians who follow the Revised Common Lectionary, heard the Gospel of Mark, chapter one, verses one to eight—John the baptizer’s preaching of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. John comes across as a rather eccentric wilderness prophet, dressing like I did back in my hippie days of the 1960s and early 70s, and following a rather strange diet of locusts and wild honey. However, he takes his call seriously as a second Elijah, preparing folks for the Messiah’s coming, like a broken record, wearing out the “R” word.

   What is repentance anyway, and why is it so necessary? The Bible describes repentance in several ways, including: to regret one’s mistakes and harmful thoughts, words and actions, to change one’s mind and behaviour, to turn around, to return. Repentance is necessary since whether we want to admit it or not, we are all sinners—we think and say and do things that are harmful to others, ourselves, God’s creation, and all of this can and often does cause us to drift further away from God.

   The following story is one example of what it means to repent. Some years ago, CBC’s “Fifth Estate” program aired a documentary on “the Squamish Five.” You may remember that they were a group who bombed the Litton plant, which was involved in the production of nuclear weapons. They also bombed other political targets.

   Eventually the police caught them and they were then convicted and sent to prison.

   In the interview with Juliet Caroline Belmas, she admitted that the group’s actions were wrong. She also discouraged others from following their example. Juliet Caroline Belmas’s change of heart was a public expression of repentance—realizing her sins and genuinely wishing to clean up her act. Those who sincerely repent are like Juliet; showing remorse for the sins committed, and sorry enough to quit the destructive behaviours; and helping to prevent others from making the same mistakes.

   This Advent, as we prepare to celebrate Jesus our Messiah’s coming at Christmas do you and I need to reorient, return, change our thinking and behaviours?

   May the grace of God help us so to do as we share the love and joy that Jesus gives us with the world this Christmas! 

Advent is almost here

This Sunday marks the beginning of a new church calendar year, with the season of Advent. There are at least three things I like about the season of Advent.

   First, I like the mood that scripture, theology and liturgy instill within us with the emphasis on the three-fold coming(s) of Jesus the Messiah—past, present and future. Learning from the past, living fully in the present, and hopeful preparation for the future.

   Second, I like the Advent hymns, which we don’t get to sing much during the other seasons of the church year. They evoke within us—among other things—awe, reverence, humility and repentance, and the longing for the ushering in of the fullness of God’s realm with the coming Messiah.

   Third, I like especially the first Sunday in Advent’s focus on our hopeful waiting. It was Lutheran theologian Paul Tillich who once said something like this, regarding hopeful waiting: Our entire relationship with God involves waiting. Unless we wait on God, we cannot know or do anything in accord with God’s will for us. I like that, even though I, like most contemporary human beings run short on patience and waiting from time-to-time!

   Life is full of waiting from the cradle to the grave. Yet our society would have us falsely believe that in many cases, we need not wait, we can have what we want instantly. Some things in life cannot be had instantly, nor can they be rushed or fast forwarded, even as much as we’d like them to be. For example, we cannot qualify for the calling of or serve as a pastor at the tender age of six years and a grade one education. Hopeful waiting is necessary.

   It is hopeful waiting, since without hope it is very difficult, if not impossible to wait. We need hope to help us realize and accept that even if life stinks and is rotten right now, there is a better future for us. It is hopeful waiting because we can accept the necessity of waiting thanks to the hope given to us through Jesus our Messiah, who  one day shall come in all of his fullness to right all wrongs, and bring in that beautiful realm of God where swords shall be beaten into plowshares, and spears into pruning hooks, and no one shall learn war anymore.

   Until then our hopeful waiting can be a sign to the world of the reality of God’s future realm in all of its fullness insofar as our hopeful waiting bears fruit in the present and reveals itself in our imperfect and provisional thoughts, words and actions of hope, peace, joy and love especially among the least, the last, the lost and the lowest.