Advent Prayer & Meditation

I don't know if you all know this, but every Thursday at 5:45 the Canterbury House hosts an awesome prayer service to allow students to take a break from their lives, their school work, and the pandemonium that is a college students schedule. We here at the Canterbury House really want students to begin seeing God in their lives...everywhere, everyday! and prayer is a wonderful way to take a breath and simply be with God. It is seriously amazing.

Starting last week, and continuing for the rest of the semester our Thursday evening prayer will focus on a special theme for the season of Advent (as we prepare for the birth of Christ!). The fabulous Michael Knoll, one of our peer ministers, will be leading the prayer and meditation each week. While we are exploring the topic of "gifts" over the four-week period, each Thursday will have a different way to look at "gifts" in our lives and some of our consumption practices...Though Christmas is the "season of giving", do we always have to give things? (just a thought.)

Anyway, last Thursday service and meditation were so wickedly awesome I had to share it with you all. I urge you to really think about what Michael is saying here because it definitely needs to be examined.

peace&grace: kiera.

THURSDAY November 13, 2008
If you are like me, and like millions of Americans, you hate waiting. Waiting for the light to turn green, waiting for class to start, waiting for the water to heat up in the shower, waiting for the clothes to be dry, waiting for the gas to pump in your car, waiting for your friend to text you back. And then there is the worst kind of waiting: waiting in lines whether it is for food, coffee, driver’s license exam, tickets, etc. We live in a society that is so fast but yet creates so much waiting. And I am pretty sure I have never heard anyone say that they were happy to be waiting. If they have it is far fewer people than the amount of people that I have heard complaining about it. What is interesting is that no one has found a way to end the waiting. It seems to be a big problem that you would think someone would do something about.
If you think about it though God is all about the waiting. The Old Testament is all about this waiting for the Messiah to show up. Then it is all about waiting for Jesus to do something. There were people always waiting for Jesus to make a mistake. And now it is all about waiting for Jesus to come again. We have been waiting almost two thousand years for that. And we get upset if we stand more than five minutes in the check out line when Christians have been waiting for two thousand years to check out Jesus. And that is what this Advent season we are coming upon is about: waiting. Hopefully instead of complaining about the things we have to do like tests and projects and presents we can enjoy this season of hope.

For the next four weeks of our weekly gathering here at Canterbury we will be exploring the season of Advent. In the Episcopal Church and several churches this time begins on the Fourth Sunday before Christmas Day and ends on Christmas Eve. Since we will not be meeting for half of Advent I thought we would have an advent to Advent as we prepare for the end of this semester and our time off from classes.

Advent means “coming” or “arrival.” The focus of the season is the celebration of the birth of Jesus the Christ in his First Advent and anticipation of the return of Christ in his Second Advent. For a long time the Church would celebrate or rather observe Advent as a time of penitence and fasting as the Church prepared itself for the celebration of Christmas or the birth of Jesus but also for it to realize its sins for the Second Coming of Jesus or as it is sometimes called Judgment Day. Today the church focuses more on the hope and anticipation of the season and less on penitence. This does not mean that we are to forget our sins and not be mindful of our humanness but rather celebrate the gift that saves us from those trials in the birth of Jesus.

So the spirit of Advent is this expectation, anticipation, preparation, and longing. It is the expectation that God came down from Heaven in human form to live among us and show us the way to live. It is an anticipation of that gift, the greatest gift given to all humanity because through Jesus, God gave us life. It is through this new life with Christ that we also anticipate the judgment of our sin for the Second Advent of Christ. It is about preparing oneself for this Advent of Christ. And this preparation is what we are going to focus on throughout the next four weeks.

A lot of us are going to start preparing, or are already preparing for the end of the semester’s projects, papers and tests. During that time it is easy to get lost in the mindless value that is placed on hard work, good grades, and money. What we are going to do each week is take a step back from those material things that we have placed value on and try to see them for more than just their physical meaning. We are going to take time to be more mindful of God’s creation and of God’s blessings in our life, being ever mindful of his greatest blessing, Jesus Christ.
Gracious LORD thank you for the many blessings in our lives both material and non-material. Help us to be ever mindful of those blessings and what they mean in our lives as we carry out your work from day to day. Guide us in knowing their true purpose in our lives as we discern our own life’s purpose. Be with us as we prepare for this Advent season and as we wait for your most precious gift Jesus Christ our LORD in whose name we pray. AMEN.