Here are candle liturgies for the four weeks of Advent. I’m trying to recast my understanding of Israel as the end-all and be-all, as I find it undergirds the Israeli persecution of Palestinians. To that end, I have written my own lyrics to O Come, O Come, Emmanuel. You can use it, call me a heretic, pray for my soul. But Christians have to stop our unquestioning support of the modern state of Israel. For me, that begins with reconsidering biblical “truths.” By the way, my preferred scripture for worship reading is The Inclusive Lectionary. If you’d like to know why, read my review here.
1. hope
Prophecy: Isaiah 11: 6-8
Prayer:
Pour out your spirit and come, O God. You have promised for generations that you would not leave us to our own devices, let humankind die in a crisis of our own making. Rather, you have given us the vision of a world at peace, a world in harmony.
Give us your spirit, the wherewithal to create with you that world that is possible. In this Advent season, remind us, give us hope once again, and let us be the people you have long imagined.
Emmanuel, God with us. Amen.
Song, while candle is lighted:
O come Emmanuel o come
bring hope to this our earthly home
give us the means to seek and to find
the way of life with you aligned.
Rejoice! rejoice! all people everywhere.
the one will come God’s hope to bear.
2. peace
Prophecy: Isaiah 2:5:
Prayer
Pour out your spirit and come, O God. As we flirt with war, live by violence, place our hope in conquest, show us again your peace that is possible. Take away our assault rifles, our drones, our surveillance helicopters, our bombers, even our rubber bullets and pepper spray. More so, take away our desire to gain what is not ours, to gather more than we need, to strip the earth of its ability to sustain life.
Give us your spirit, the wherewithal to create with you that world that is possible. In this Advent season, remind us, give us peace, and let us be the people you have long imagined.
Emmanuel, God with us. Amen.
Song, while candle is lighted:
o come o come emmanuel
bring peace to lead us from this hell;
our earth is tired, creation cries
for light to break before our eyes.
Rejoice! rejoice! all people everywhere.
the one will come God’s peace to bear.
3. freedom
Prophecy: isaiah 42:1
Prayer
Pour out your spirit and come, O God. We have perfected ways of binding one another -- enslaving, indenturing, indebting, incarcerating -- all for whatever advantage or good we might gain by their loss. But we too are captive to the systems we have made.
Give us your spirit, the wherewithal to free one another, to free ourselves. In this Advent season, remind us, grant us release, and let us be the people you have long imagined.
Emmanuel, God with us. Amen.
Song, while candle is lighted:
o come o come emmanuel
to free us from the chains we know so well
we want to be your people who
can live in joy and justice too.
Rejoice! rejoice! all people everywhere.
for one will come God’s freedom to bear.
4. love
Prophecy: Isaiah 61: 1-3
Prayer:
Pour out your spirit and come, O God. We have lost the way to love, forgotten how to be community, wandered from those who would hold us up and be held by us. In our world of neighbors, we see strangers; in a world of diversity, we look with judgment; in a world of people looking for home, we are threatened and afraid.
Give us your spirit, the wherewithal to see one another, to love one another as you have loved us. In this Advent season, remind us, grant us love, and let us be the people you have long imagined.
Emmanuel, God with us. Amen.
Song, while candle is lighted:
o come o come emmanuel
we beg for love with power to compel
a global work of science and art
to mend the earth in mind and heart
Rejoice! rejoice! all people everywhere.
the one will come God’s love to bear.