"COME LORD JESUS, RENEW YOUR CREATION"

(This prayer reflection could be used by one person as it is, or it could be printed out for use by a group. The suggested hymns can be replaced by other suitable hymns or poems. The wording will need to be adapted slightly for use in the Southern Hemisphere)  

OPENING HYMN - "Of the Father's Heart Begotten" - 2'29" - CD1, no 4
arr, Willcocks, (Carols from Trinity, Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge, directed by Richard Marlow, Conifer Classics,1993, CD1, no 4, 75605 51742)

OPENING PRAYER

God of births and beginnings, you are our beginning and our end,
We gather on this shortest of all days as darkness threatens covers the earth
We gather to remember and wait for your coming.
Like the dawn from on high, you will come.
With healing in your wings you will come.

Come Lord Jesus -   Renew your creation!

To save us from the shadow of death you will come.
For even the dark is not dark to you, the night around us will be clear as day
When the darkness covered the deep, when all was still and quiet, your almighty word down from the heavens leaped to change our mourning into gladness. Today we know that the Lord will come; in the morning we will see his glory
God of births and beginnings rise and shine forth among the nations of the earth; all creation longs for the coming of the Saviour, the whole earth yearns for your loving-kindness

HYMN - "For the Beauty of the Earth" - 3'37", no 8 (Gloria: the Sacred Music of John Rutter, Collegium Records, Cambridge, 1984, COLCD 100) ) 

Reflection/Narrator:

The words and music there create a vivid picture of God's beauty that surrounds us from our very birth: beauty of earth and sky, night and day, freshness of tree and flower lift the heart. The hymn then surges upward, praising God for the joy of human love - brother, sister, parent, child, friends on earth, and friends above. All these human and divine graces evoke a sense of God's love incarnate on the earth, the God who is alive in the heart of creation and who comes close to us in the intimacies of family and friendship. Everything about the hymn speaks freshness and the grace of heaven touching earth. That too is the secret that Advent holds for us.

It is the season of God's promise hidden from the beginning, hidden, but never absent, creation hidden in God, salvation hidden in creation.

We listen now to a reading from the Book of Proverbs which personifies with vibrant imagination God the Creator as Dame Wisdom, bringing the world into being in the beginning with tremendous energy and delight. The words almost dance along, images and rhythm evoking the mysterious creative power of the God of creation.

READING - Book of Proverbs - 8:22 -31

The Lord created me at the beginning of his work,
the first of his acts of long ago.
Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth.
When there were no depths I was brought forth,
when there were no springs abounding with water.
Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills - I was brought forth
when he had not yet made earth and fields, or the world's first bits of soil.
When he established the heavens, I was there,
when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,

when he made firm the skies above,
when he established the fountains of the deep,
when he assigned the sea its limit,
so that the waters might not transgress his command,
when he marked out the foundations of the earth,
then I was beside him, like a master worker;
and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always,
rejoicing in his inhabited world,
and delighting in the human race.


Deep in midwinter, Advent harbours the yearning for new beginnings in nature and in all our lives. It is a time when the Church calls Christians to conversion of heart. We find echoes of this interior renewal in the unseen, under-ground activity of seeds sprouting, bulbs bursting old skins with

green shoots. We see it in the activity of the farmer, preparing the hardened soil for the new sowing, looking out for sheep as the lambing season comes near. The winter solstice today gives us a brilliant image of nature's rhythm of renewal through darkness and light. Today, when daylight hours are shortest; when night and darkness encroach and steal into daytime light, energy is at its weakest. All of a sudden, there is a turning around in nature, which ancient people celebrated in a festival. Although the change is imperceptible and fragile, people watched out for it, knowing that without this rebirth of the sun, life would be doomed.


They never failed to recognize the cosmic turning point and acclaimed it in music and dance, and the kindling of Yuletide candles and fires. For Christians, such symbols are infused with new meaning, for they herald the new dawn of salvation. The darkness of sin will scatter before the light of Christ coming. Renewal of life and hope are assured for those who watch and wait for his coming. All whose lives are clouded in fear will see him, all whose lives are blighted by sickness. There will be redemption for those in prison, healing for the sick, sight to the blind, liberation from every captivity of body, mind or spirit, a homecoming for every exile, joy for every sorrow.

The older Christmas verses create this sense of Christ as the source of cosmic rebirth. Listen to these words translated from the old Gaelic carol, Isu Mac De - Jesus Son of God:

This night is the eve of the great Nativity,
Born is the Son of Mary the Virgin,
The soles of his feel have reached the earth,
The Son of God has
Come down from on high,
Heaven and earth glow to him,
Joy, let there be joy!

Earth and sphere shine to him,
God the Lord has opened a door;
Son of Mary Virgin speed to help me,
Christ of hope, Door of health,
Golden sun of hill and mountain,
Joy, let there be Joy!

HYMN - "In Dulci Jubilo" - 2'48" no 2
Christmas with Kiri Te Kanawa: Carols from Coventry Cathedral, Teldec1994, 4509-99000-2))
or

HYMN - "See How the Rose of Judah/A Great and Mighty Wonder" 3'20" CD2, no 12 (Carols from Trinity)

Advent celebrates three comings; we remember the first coming of Christ into the world of two thousand years ago; we look forward in hope to the final coming of Christ in glory to judge the earth in truth and justice, love and peace. But in Advent Christians also keep watch for Christ 's coming into our world here, now - into the confusion of our own hearts, into the lives of our loved ones or neglected ones far and near. These days as we write cards or think of giving gifts to those we care about, or make time to visit a lonely person we know, or donate something to the Simon Community or St Vincent de Paul, or send off our annual subscription to Friends of the Earth, we are in our own frantic or fumbling ways discovering in our midst the salvation that the world cannot give. We are reaching out for the comfort and healing of Christ, our promised one, here, now.

(Pause for quiet reflection)

Yes, we recall the scenes of the first Christmas. With the help of carols, sung in churches or piped in supermarkets, we retell the story of the first coming of Jesus from the view of Joseph or Mary, or the Shepherds, or the Three Magi who travelled so far in search of the Messiah. (Some poets and painters have filled out the story in their imaginations, from the point of view of the inn-keeper's wife, or King Herod, or even of the ox and ass). Our faith is sustained by looking back, strengthened by telling the story over and over again. We are drawn into the big story of God with us, Emmanuel.

So too, we look forward in hope to Christ's coming in the fullness of glory and justice and peace without end, but if the truth be told, not many of us dwell on that day of glory and judgement. But, in the meantime we are lodged in the "now". Somewhere in between the first coming and the

final coming of Christ, we live in the gap of the meantime. We need something more immediate, personal to our own lives; something more relevant to our world in all its needs . We need Christ to come to us, to meet us here, now, in the in-between-time of the two great comings. In Advent we prepare our minds and hearts to receive him.

Meister Eckhart, writing in the fourteenth century puts a bold question to us:

What difference does it make if the Word takes flesh in the womb of Mary unless the Word takes flesh in my heart also? What good is it for me for the Creator to give birth to [the] Son, if I do not also give birth to him…? In this birth, you will discover all blessing… Attend to this birth in you and you will find there all goodness and all consolation, all being and all truth."

The Word seeks an answer from each one of us, here, now, so that it does not return to heaven without doing its work. It is with that expectation of a profoundly personal encounter, that we approach Luke's story of Mary as she first from the Angel Gabriel that she is to be Mother of the Saviour. Luke portrays Mary in no passive light. She responds, pondering what the words might mean, questioning the angel about the part God intended her to play, and then embracing the Word that would transform her life. Mary steadies herself by speaking the words so often spoken in faith by her ancestors and prophets who had likewise been summoned by Go: "Here am I, the servant of the Lord."

HYMN - "The Angel Gabriel from Heaven Came" - 2'26", CD2, no 2
(Carols from Trinity, Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge)


It is perhaps most of all in the reality of birth that we discern the Spirit renewing creation in the image of Christ. So, even as we hear creation groaning, we are also moved by the underlying hope. As we pray, "Come Lord Jesus, renew your Creation", we hope for what we do not see and we wait for it with patience. But we are also impelled by a holy haste and impending joy.


READING - Rom 8:19-24

For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the

glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labour pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope.. But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience


We pray with the whole church throughout the world, in the words of the ancient O Antiphon:

"Oh Rising Sun, splendour of eternal light and brilliant Sun of Justice, come and lighten up the darkness, concealing from us the path of life"

HYMN - "Tomorrow Shall be my Dancing Day" - 1'51", CD" no 25
(Carols from Trinity)

(* Isu Mac De, transl. Caitlin Matthews, The Celtic Book of Days: A Celebration of Celtic Wisdom, Gill and Macmillan, Dublin, 1995)