Advent Reflections – Week 4 (20 Dec)
Advent 20 – Matthew 2:1–6
Some are looking at the stars,
While all of us are mired and marred
By all the mess of earth.
Some look high and far,
While we are tired and scarred
By all the mess of earth.
Will you follow, like the star-gazers,
Who made their way, required and hard,
Through all the mess of earth?
They came across the far
Lands to where a desired shard
Of God came to the mess of earth.
Will you? Beyond the stars
A promise comes, inspired, and heard
Throughout the mess of earth.
Advent 21 – Matthew 2:9–12
Where will you look, where will you go?
Is this life the only one you know?
Here is everything you are, but will it be
All, or will you continue on the journey –
Always looking to become more than you are?
If so, the message and the promise are
There for you, for any and for all;
They’re brighter than a star yet small,
Small as a baby’s cry carried on the wind,
Small as a cross, where you will find
A life like yours but lived for love
in every moment, a life to prove
This track from birth to death that’s true
for all of us is blessed for me and you
If lived forgiven, if lived free.
That’s the promise for you and me.
Advent 22 – Matthew 2:3–6
In a hidden, shadowed place,
Far from wealth, far from power,
With the organs of the state
Stirring, looking out
For innocence, to pounce
On the alternative
To self-serving greed,
New life begins; a life of grace.
The promise comes; He lives our
Life, an advocate
Of love, and faith and doubt.
And those he counts
His friends are those who live
To serve. And though they lead
The world, the peddlars of disgrace,
They shall not, because of this hour,
Always lead. Love leads hate.
Life leads death; faith and doubt
Together come to see, to announce
Their partnership; to kneel, to give.
Will you? No other ways succeed.
Advent 23 – Luke 2:17
They gather round, drawn by the message in the stars,
The promise in the heart, the news in dust and dirt.
A light is shining in the dark and we look on
As glory comes to birth, as peace begins to shine;
It’s known to everyone who watches at a birth
But this is new, this life will grow to give the earth
A gift of love for all; the magi know, who’ve travelled far,
The shepherds know, who understand the hurt
Of the outsider; everyone
Who ever loved and lost, who ever walked the line
Between joy and suffering knows. So what’s it worth,
This life? This much: love graces all the earth.
Advent 24 & Christmas Day
This is the day! Come out onto the streets!
Love’s born; God smiles on everyone he meets!
This is the day! All fear and hate are gone,
The promise comes; we are not alone!
So come, you who have journeyed far,
You who would be more than you already are –
More peaceful, hopeful, more faith-filled, more kind.
This sign of love is yours. Leave what you were behind
And come, rejoice! Look on this promised, gifted sign;
No need to travel on, look elsewhere; this is yours and mine
To make of what we will, to follow, to believe,
This baby is the sign of God among us. Receive
The ancient promised joy and peace and start
To see a peaceful Kingdom; it’s written in the heart.