This first Sunday in the season of Advent marks the start of a new year. The Gregorian calendar we follow to keep track of the months, weeks, and days in a year tells us that a year ends on December 31 with the start of the next year as the first of January, so that the transition into a new year happens after Christmas.
But according to the Church calendar, the shift into a new year happens four weeks before Christmas with the first day of the new year landing on a Sunday early in December.
In this year of 2019, the first Sunday in Advent and the first day of a new Church year happens to be the date of December 1. The season of Advent will span the days from December 1 to December 23, the fourth and last Sunday before Christmas. The term Advent, from the Latin word adventus, meaning “coming” or “arrival,” is the four-week season of preparation for the coming of Jesus at Christmas.
What is the best way to prepare for the coming of a King? The world presents multiple opportunities for preparation in the form of shopping, entertainment, parties, and eating. While these events are all fun and may enhance our enjoyment of the Christmas season, they don’t go deep enough in helping us get ready for Jesus.
He wants to make his home in us, to come and live with us. This is what the name Emmanuel means, God with us, living here among us. This means it isn’t our houses or Christmas trees or schedules that need preparation, but our hearts.
Advent is a time for discipline. Contrary to what the world offers during this season, our hearts need regulation and training, much like a loving parent would give to a dear child.
Advent is also a time for repentance. We must climb the daring slope of self-awareness, and take a good look at our behavior, our character, and our weaknesses, and admit to the Lord how desperately we need him. Repentance makes space for the holy, and this is exactly the conditioning our hearts need in order to be ready for Christ to enter into them.
In addition to this somber work of the season, Advent is also a time for the joyous watch of expectation. We wait in confidence and hope because Christ is coming again. He came once as a baby. He will come the next time as the King. Advent contains this tension of celebrating what has already happened while hoping for what is yet to come.
As Romans 13:11 tells us, we now know what time it is, how it is now the moment for us to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first became believers.
The order of prayer in the remainder of this blog is intended to help you focus, to prepare, and to wait in hopeful expectation for the day of the Lord’s coming.
Call to Prayer
In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Prayer of Confession
Merciful God, always with us, always coming: We confess that we do not know how to prepare for your Advent. We have forgotten how to hope in miracles; we have ignored the promise of your kingdom; we get distracted by all the busyness of the season. Forgive us, God. Grant us the simple wonder of the shepherds, the intelligent courage of the Magi, and the patient faith of Mary and Joseph, that we may journey with them to Bethlehem and find the good news of a child born for us. Now, in the quiet of our hearts, we ask you to make us ready for his coming. Amen.
Assurance of Pardon
The good news of this Advent season is forgiveness of sin and new life. Let us commit our lives to Christ’s way of hope and peace. Thanks be to the Advent God, who comes among us, setting us free to love and serve.
Jubilate
O be joyful in the Lord, all you lands; serve the Lord with gladness, and come before his presence with a song.
Be assured that the Lord, he is God; it is he that has made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
O go your way into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise; be thankful unto him, and speak good of his Name.
For the Lord is gracious, his mercy is everlasting, and his truth endures from generation to generation.
Psalm: Psalm 122
Gloria Patri
Glory be to the Father, and to the son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen
Scripture Readings
Old Testament: Isaiah 2:1-5
New Testament: Romans 13:8-14
Gospel: Matthew 24:29-44
Canticle (The Song of the Redeemed) Revelation 15:3-4
O ruler of the universe, Lord God, great deeds are they that you have done, surpassing human understanding.
Your ways are ways of righteousness and truth, O King of all the ages.
Who can fail to do you homage, Lord, and sing the praises of your Name? For you only are the Holy One. All nations will draw near and fall down before you, because your just and holy works have been revealed.
Intercession
For Joy in God’s Creation
O heavenly Father, you have filled the world with beauty: Open our eyes to behold your gracious hand in all your works; that, rejoicing in your whole creation, we may learn to serve you with gladness; for the sake of him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be your Name.
Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen
Collect
Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Benediction
May the God of hope fill us with all joy and peace in believing through the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Sources
The Book of Common Prayer. (Huntington Beach, CA: Anglican Liturgy Press, 2019).
The Worship Sourcebook. (Kalamazoo, MI: Faith Alive Christian Resources, 2004).
Worship the Lord, The Liturgy of the Reformed Church in America. (Reformed Church Press, 2005).
