People's Prayers: Prayers of the People: A NEW Advent-ure Begins ~ 1st Sunday of Advent, WCLWC*, '23 Yr B

For Sunday, December 3, 2023, Readings from WLWC*: Isaiah 12:1-5, Psalm 65:1-13; Romans 1:7-8, 14-17,

Mark 1:1-13

You will say in that day, “I will give thanks to you, Redeeming One, for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away, then you confronted me. Behold! God is my salvation; I will trust and I will not fear, for Yah** [She Who Is] God is my strength and my might and has become my salvation.” [Isaiah 12:1-2]

Through wondrous deeds you answer us with deliverance O God of our salvation, hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas. [Psalm 65:5]

To Greeks and to barbarians, to the wise and to the foolish am I a debtor, thus my eagerness to proclaim the gospel to you all who are in Rome. [Romans 1:14-15]

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, [the Son of God] 2. As it is written in the prophets, “Look! I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; 3. the voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way of the Holy One, make straight the paths.” [Mark 1:1-3]

Welcome to Advent, a season of hopeful waiting, anticipation, and the beginning of a new Liturgical Year, Year B, in the three year cycle of Sunday readings. Think of it as a time to see and hear the same readings differently; or, in this space this Season, to different readings in new translations, newly. As with the immediately prior 7 weeks of The Season of Creation in my parish, in this new Season of Advent, I’ll use the usual Revised Common Lectionary on one blog space offering my sense of the readings and form of the prayers of the people, and, in this blog space each week, I will be using the The Women’s Common Lectionary for the Whole Church aka WCLWC or, going forward here, WCL, by The Rev. Dr. Wilda [Wil] Gafney’s translations. I will post her translations below with a brief bio and her website link.* There is far far more to be gleaned from the Introduction, Text Selection, Proclamation/Text Notes in the book itself that accompany these translations and I cannot possibly offer her explanations for every reading but I will give very brief notes from the WCL when I deem them useful. For one tidbit of usefulness, the opening questions of the WCL Yr B ask, in part, What does it look like to tell the Good News through the stories of women who are often on the margins of Scripture and often set up to represent bad news…when women’s brutalization and marginalization are moved from the margins of canon…held in tension with the stories of biblical heroines and heroes…I do believe that my questions and perceptions invite women, men, and nonbinary readers to engage the scriptures in new ways [to] find themselves and their questions represented. Dr. Gafney uses gender-expansive translations and explicit feminine God language.

To begin: What is ADVENT to you in a spiritual sense? All too often we seem to focus on the end of it and all the less, or rather more of the non-spiritual preparations that go before. Part of the beginning of contemplation is knowing some of the “why and what” factors. For example, the name advent comes from the

Latin adventus, meaning "arrival" or "coming," especially the coming of something of great importance. Our culture uses the notion of adventure in a variety of ways but mostly as a way for us to experience something unusual and exciting. Using this series of readings from Dr Gafney will be an unusual and exciting way to challenge our Advent sense of the Spiritual. We are to spend the four weeks before Christmas, preparing ourselves and our souls in hope and with repentance for our less than stellar actions, words, and even thoughts [aka sins], as we await the birth of Jesus, our Redeemer Christ. Yet Advent spiritual preparation is about far more than waiting for a sweet baby to be announced by a chorus of angels and welcomed by shepherds. The sacred Birth would have been long forgotten were it not for the Gospel writers as they describe the intervention of God in Creation in the form of Jesus who became the Christ, the Messiah: the Anointed One. The name/word Christ, anglicized from the Greek, has more or less become the last or surname of Jesus instead of a “title” or Human-Divine position and role within the Trinity.

Jesus in his earthly time came to teach us, warn us, and show us how to prepare for the Second Coming, the Parousia [pahr-oo-see-uh, from the Greek for coming], the Last Judgment. It’s not as warm and fuzzy a concept and is much less exciting for many of us to anticipate than the pretty tree with lights, sparkling decorations, beautifully wrapped gifts, and the wide-eyed wonder of little ones.

Liturgical rituals for this time, in some denominations, include marking the beginning of each week by the lighting of a candle in an Advent Wreath with a prayerful reflection before the Liturgy [the Mass or the Service] begins. Even at home, families and individuals may use a wreath or an Advent Calendar for daily or weekly reflections and prayers. Each of the four candles represents a theme from the readings of that week.

This week’s theme is Hope. In a year where our world has seen terrible earthquakes, massive fires, and hurricanes all decimating the lives of millions, and then the horrific gun or knife or worse weapons of violence wrought by humans in malls, schools, neighborhood streets, and now, again and still, in new and ongoing terrible wars in too many places, killing tens of thousands, and holding too many others hostage. It does give pause and perhaps a deep inhalation of breath and wonder. But the Prophet Isaiah tells us God is my salvation; I will trust and I will not fear, for Yah** [She Who Is] God is my strength and my might and has become my salvation.

Our Hope truly is in the name of the Lord, and, in our willingness to turn the thoughts and actions of our lives toward the light of God's enduring, continuous presence. It's definitely not easy to get back on the right course, especially at this time of year with all the glitter that can be a welcome distraction from woes and worries. But those distractions can obscure our inner vision and divert us from our good intentions. The cloud cover on our path forward begins to lift when we are sincere in our desire to dedicate our lives to Christ, always as ready as we can be to be gathered in an unknown time and claimed for eternity.

Just as a New Year's resolution starts well and means well, Advent is the opportunity to be intentional about preparing for and renewing our commitment to Jesus as our Savior. Each season of the Liturgical Year is designed to help us to remember, continuously renew, and re-commit ourselves to our faith and to Christ. Here's a new beginning to get back into good habits of faith building and faith in action. It’s time for an old but NEW Advent-ure in faith, in hope, in Jesus, the Christ.

*Readings for Advent this year are from The Rev. Dr. Wilda [Wil] Gafney, Womanist biblical scholar, and is the Right Rev. Sam B. Hulsey Professor of Hebrew Bible at Brite Divinity School in Fort Worth, Texas. She is the author of A Women’s Lectionary for the Whole Church and translator of its biblical selections. Learn more about her and her work at her website: https://www.wilgafney.com/

** Yah [She Who Is] God: “’Yah’ (as in hallelujah/hallelu-yah) is, according to grammatical form, feminine…In some contemporary Jewish feminist practice and prayer…a feminine name for God…also the first syllable of the unpronounceable of YHWH…there are no strictures on pronouncing the first syllable. In Isaiah 1:2, I offer a feminine reading option in brackets for those who so choose.”

For Advent I:

Isaiah 12:1-5: You will say in that day, “I will give thanks to you, Redeeming One, for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away, then you comforted me. 2. Behold! God is my salvation; I will trust and I will not fear, for Yah [She Who Is] God is my strength and my might and has become my salvation.” 3. Then you all shall with joy draw water from the wells of salvation. 4. And you all shall say in that day, “Give thanks to the God of Our Salvation, call on God’s name; acclaim God’s deeds among the nations, make known that God’s name is exalted.” 5. Sing praises to the Mighty God, who has done gloriously; let this be made known in all the earth.

Psalm 65:1-13: To you silence is praise, God in Zion: and to you vows shall be performed, 2. You who answer prayer! To you shall all flesh come. 3. When deeds of iniquity overwhelm us, you forgive our transgressions. 4. Happy are those whom you choose and bring near to dwell in your courts. We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, your holy temple. 5. Through wondrous deeds you answer us with deliverance O God of our salvation, hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas. 6. You established the mountains through your might; you are girded with strength. 7. The one who silences the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, the rumble of the peoples. 8. They who live at the farthest reaches are awed by your signs; you make the dawnings of morning and evening sing for joy. 9. You attend the earth and water her, you enrich her greatly; the river of God is full of water; you provide the people with grain, thus you have established it. 10. Irrigating earth’s furrows, smoothing her ridges, softening her with showers, and blessing her growth. 11. You crown the year with your goodness; your paths overflow with fatness. 12. The pastures of the wilderness overflow, and with joy the hills gird themselves. 13. The meadows are clothed with flocks, the valleys arrayed in grain, indeed they, shout for joy.

Romans 1:7-8, 14-17: To all who are in Rome, God’s beloved, who are called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Creator and the Messiah Jesus Christ. 8. First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed throughout the world. 14. To Greeks and to barbarians, to the wise and to the foolish am I a debtor, 15. thus my eagerness to proclaim the gospel to you all who are in Rome. 16. Indeed I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and even to the Greek. 17. For the righteousness of God is revealed in it through faith for faith; as it is written, “the one who is righteous will live by faithfulness.”

Mark 1:1-13: The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, [the Son of God] 2. As it is written in the prophets, “Look! I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; 3. the voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way of the Holy One, make straight the paths.” 4. John the baptizer was in the wilderness proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5. And people from all the Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him and were baptized by him in the River Jordan, confessing their sins. 6. Now John was wearing camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7. He proclaimed, “there is one coming after me who is more powerful than am I;, whose sandal thongs I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8. I have baptized you in water; but that one will baptize you in the Holy Spirit.” 9. And it was in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10. And just as he was rising up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and he Spirit descending like a dove on him. 11. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” 12. Then the Spirit suddenly drove Jesus out into the wilderness. 13. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan, and he was with the wild beasts, and the angels waited on him.

For Further Reading: Compare these readings with a Bible version of your choice ~ using several versions is even better to discover differences and similarities. Think about which speaks to you most clearly. Why? There are no right or wrong answers! For a larger variety of interesting translation and paraphrase versions of the Bible, without overloading your shelves and wallet, check out this link to: www.BibleGateway.com

LET US, GOD’S PEOPLE, PRAY

Leader: ~ O Redeeming One, awaken the eyes of our souls and remind our hearts to call on Your name, to trust and not fear, to give You thanks, and to sing praises to our Mighty and Glorious God.

Behold! Yah [She Who Is] God
RESPONSE: Our Strength and our Salvation

~ O Redeeming One, enlighten the minds and steady the hearts of all who govern across this Earth. Straighten the path to peace and unity with local, national, and international friends and adversaries alike, guiding the path to justice, mercy, humanitarian, and planetary care. We pray especially for: add your own petitions