We are a small Episcopal Church on the banks of the Rappahannock in Port Royal, Virginia. We acknowledge that we gather on the traditional land of the first people of Port Royal, the Nandtaughtacund, and we respect and honor with gratitude the land itself, the legacy of the ancestors, and the life of the Rappahannock Tribe. Our mission statement is to do God’s Will in all that we do.

Advent 3 is Gaudete Sunday

The third Sunday of Advent is known as “Gaudete Sunday.” The day takes its common name from the Latin word Gaudete (“Rejoice”). Its name is taken from the entrance antiphon of the Mass, which is: Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice. Indeed, the Lord is near. This is a quotation from Philippians 4:4-5, and in Latin, the first word of the antiphon is “gaudete”. We are most of the way through the season, closer to Christ’s birth and so that is the emphasis rather than coming again.

We light the rose colored candle in addition to the other 2 violet ones. Purple is a penitential color of fasting while pink (rose) is the color of joy. Long ago the Pope would honor a citizen with a pink rose (or a rose) Priests then would wear pink vestments as a reminder of this coming joy. Rose is also used during Laetare Sunday (the fourth Sunday of lent) to symbolize a similar expectation of the coming joy of Christ’s coming in Easter. The third Sunday of Advent is rose (pink) because pink symbolizes joy, the joy that Jesus is almost here. Adult Christian Ed discussed “Rejoice! What promises of God give you cause to rejoice?”

Theologian Henri Nouwen described the difference between joy and happiness. While happiness is dependent on external conditions, joy is “the experience of knowing that you are unconditionally loved and that nothing — sickness, failure, emotional distress, oppression, war, or even death — can take that love away.” Thus joy can be present even in the midst of sadness. Jesus reveals to us God’s love so that his joy may become ours and that our joy may become complete. As Nouwen says, “Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day.”

This is break from some of the penitential readings earlier in Advent. How will you express joy this week? Consider the good things that have been given to you.

Besides the emphasis in joy, this is also “Stir up Sunday!” The collect has the words, ” Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us; and, because we are sorely hindered by our sins”. Let’s change the “our sins” to “missing the mark.” How can we hit the mark ? One way is to advantage of our opportunities.

Advent 3

Advent 3

Explore Advent, Part 3 – Over the Sundays in Advent there will be a presentation each week focusing on that week’s scriptures, art and commentary and how they demonstrate the themes of advent. Let’s continue with Advent 3.

A. Voices for Advent 3

“In Advent the church emphasizes these ways of continual change: Repentance. Conversion of life. Self-examination. Awakening. Deepening.  “

– Suzanne Guthrie

B. “You Don’t Want to Be a Prophet (Isaiah, Luke)

“Christmas without Anglicans?” – Anglican contributions to Advent and Christmas carols.

Advent Thoughts

Advent is a season of Watching and Waiting. It is a season of leaning into hope

Lord Jesus: Come into our world and heal its wounds Come into your church and raise it up Come into our homes and make them holy Come into our work and make it fruitful Come into our minds and give us clarity Come into our lives and make them beautiful O Come, O Come Emmanuel

God of the past, the present and the future, grant me patience when I must wait, courage when it’s time to take action, and the wisdom to know when to wait and when to act. Amen.

Advent 2

Explore Advent, Part 2

“Advent is a time to look for “desert places”: the place of solitude, the place of true silence in which we can become fully awake to our sin and God’s forgiving grace which alone can heal it.”-Br. Robert L’Esperance

This week we focus on John the Baptist through scripture, art and commentary. Let’s move to  Advent 2.

John the Baptist      

John the Baptist in art

 

John the Baptist Presentation

 
St. Nicholas      

St Nicholas Day is December 6. 

 

Here is a presentation that provides the background of this saint who has had a colorful and varied history over 1800 years.

 

A collection around the following 6 categories:

 READ!

1  What Does This Season Mean? Though Advent appears at the end of the secular calendar year, it is the beginning of the Christian year. The deep darkness of the natural world around us is an echo of the nurturing darkness of the dawning of Creation. It is in this holy space we begin re-telling our Sacred Stories. The word “Advent” comes from the Latin adventus, which means “coming” or “arrival.” Advent prepares us for, and leads us to, Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem. The four Sundays in Advent invite us on a journey. As the days grow shorter each week, we are invited to draw closer and closer to the light of Christ. We are invited to open our hearts a little wider each week to God With Us.

2 Three Teaching Points of Advent – Sarah Bentley Allred  https://bit.ly/2HMHfA2

3 The way we begin Advent is different.  Each year, the First Sunday of Advent starts the church’s liturgical calendar, and our countdown to Christmas, with a set of haunting, apocalyptic readings https://buildfaith.org/apocalyptic-advent-in-the-season-of-merry-and-bright/

4  Advent Waiting Article explores three qualities of Advent waiting – expectant, requires us to make space, and is hopeful.

5  Waiting and Unknowing by Fr. Richard Rohr. Once Thanksgiving is over, we in the United States are rushed headlong into the Christmas season. Yet Advent was once (and still can be) a time of waiting, a time of hoping without knowing, a time of emptying so that we can be filled by the divine Presence. 

6  Advent as an introvert Season –  Advent is expectant and full of hope.  “There’s also a solemn quality to the waiting — not dour or dreary — something grounded and okay with a close stillness, a quality that honors the waiting itself as sacred.” https://onbeing.org/blog/the-shoulder-season-of-advent/

7 Advent mediations from Living Compass. Read it here

The key word is “simplicity”. “We are talking about a practice of simplicity on a much deeper level. This is the kind of simplicity that people talk about when they describe being in the midst of a crisis, and then later report that the crisis has caused them to rethink their priorities, to focus on what is truly most essential in their lives.”

“So let us embrace whole-heartedly the season of Advent, along with these reflections, as the support we need to practice simplicity in a way that will help prepare us for the true meaning of Christmas.”

“The Living Compass Model for Well-Being offers us guidance in four dimensions of our being: heart, soul, strength, and mind. Our call is to live an undivided life, where heart, soul, strength, and mind are integrated into both our being and our doing.” Quotes begin on Page 44

 WATCH

1 Nativity: The Art and Spirit of the Creche. After the cross, the Nativity scene is Christianity’s most recognized symbol. Its history, art and spirituality have been embraced by cultures around the world for nearly two thousand years. This video unites theologians and collectors with an astonishing and beautiful array of nativity scenes collected from across the globe. https://www.youtube.com/embed/M29ShR-V9Pk

2 The Story of Silent Night – Classic Collection In the quiet of an Austrian winter, a young priest received heavenly inspiration to commemorate the most significant event in history by writing the world’s most beloved Christmas carol, “Silent Night.”  https://youtu.be/nKn9wLLzha8

  LEARN!

1 Luke’s canticles – Combines four stories from Luke with insights from artists, prayers, and hymns from around the world. Based on Songs in Waiting by Paul Chandler, now the Bishop of Wyoming https://www.churchsp.org/course/lukescanticles/

2 Matthew’s Infancy Stories.  The other author of the infancy stories, much different than Luke above https://www.churchsp.org/course/matthewsinfancystories/”

3 Christmas Carols – They surround us at Christmas. How much do you know about them?https://www.churchsp.org/course/12daysofcarols/

4 Handel’s Messiah, Prophesy and Birth of the Messiah.  The premiere Christmas work with the music and text https://www.churchsp.org/course/handels-messiah-part-1-prophecy-and-birth-of-the-messiah/

5. Dickens A Christmas Carol and the Bible. The premiere Christmas novel, here with the influence of the Bible and much of Dickens time https://www.churchsp.org/course/dickens/

 LISTEN!

1 O Emmanuel A fresh exploration of the O Antiphons including traditional Advent and Christmas music. The album combines a jazz trio with children’s choir and adult voices in just the right mix of expectation and joy. https://music.apple.com/us/album/o-emmanuel/1151565367

2 Advent Lessons and Carols – Washington National Cathedral The classic way to begin Advent  – Scripture and music with a service for the season. Previous service https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwR1FJ3-dts&t=3s , Nov. 27, 2022 service, 4pm https://cathedral.org/event/advent-lessons-and-carols-4/

3. Still Forming Advent Meditations by Christianne Squires is a collection of audio meditations recorded by Christianne Squires for the Still Forming community, based on Jan Richardson’s book of blessings, Circle of Grace https://www.stillforming.com/still-forming-advent-meditations-2015

4 Spotify Play list  Advent with Sacred Ordinary Days on Spotify.  Listen and prepare for our Savior, with anticipation, longing and hope

 PRAY AND REFLECT!

1 Advent meditations. In this workshop, Rev. Hillary Raining, D.Min. guides you through a meditation with prayer, scripture, and reflection using visio Divina, or “divine seeing,” with candlelight.  http://lifelonglearningvts.teachable.com/p/advent-meditation-workshop/?src=email

2 Antiphons for Advent in English and Spanish for 2022 A devotional resource in English and Spanish created from antiphons that families and communities can use daily in Advent. The short liturgy includes a prayer for lighting candles of an Advent wreath.

An antiphon is the brief snippet of a psalm recited or chanted as a refrain at the beginning and/or end of a psalm or canticle. Antiphons were in use by the 5th century and are still in use during the services of daily prayer. The practice comes from the Jewish tradition of the congregation reciting, chanting, or singing together, the word referring to call-and-response type of singing. https://buildfaith.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Advent-Antiphons.ENG_.2022.pdf

3   Journey on the Way of love.  Designed for Christian Formation (“Sunday School”). There are 4 sessions for the 4 weeks of Advent  The Way of Love is based on a rule of life. The best known rule of life developed in Christian monastic communities is  that of St Benedict, dating from the 6th century. https://www.episcopalchurch.org/journeying-way-love/

 MAKE!

1 Advent Crafting Traditions

2 Christmas cooking – Christmas cookies. Are these the top 10 Christmas cookies? https://www.tasteofhome.com/collection/top-10-christmas-cookies

3 Families celebrate  Advent and Christmas Families Celebrate Advent & Christmas is a colorful deck of cards that is full of rituals, prayers and reflections. Endlessly flexible for busy schedules, you can create a new after-meal ritual, use them as decorations, or carry them on the go. https://www.augsburgfortress.org/store/product/9781506483498/Families-Celebrate-Advent-and-Christmas-2022-23 Free promo pack at bottom!

4 Create your own advent calendar 20 advent calendars to make. https://www.parents.com/holiday/christmas/crafts/best-advent-calendars/.

5 Advent wreaths on a Budget In congregations that have tight budgets, making Advent wreaths with families may be out of reach. While making wreaths is a wonderful parish life event, buying the foam inserts, ring trays, five candles and four stakes can add up to a hefty sum.  Here is an alternative solution https://buildfaith.org/99-cent-advent-wreath/

Here is another wreath article from Episcopal Relief that go up to $50 in cost.

Video, Advent 1, Nov. 27, 2022

1. Prelude

2. Lighting of the 1st Advent Candle

3. “Hark a Thrilling Voice is Sounding” – Opening Hymn

4. “What Wonderous Love is This” – Song of Praise

5. “I Wonder as I Wander” – Guitar solo, Lary Saylor

6. Sermon – Catherine Hicks

7. “People Look East” – Choir Anthem

The Importance of Advent 1, Year A

The first Sunday of Advent is one of change. A change to the altar in color; a change in the year – Advent is the first Sunday in the church year where this year we shift in the lectionary from Year C (Luke) to Year A (Matthew). A change in focus since Advent means to come:

The Coming of God to the world as a human baby
The Coming of God to the world in His glory at the end of time where God’s purposes will be fulfilled
The Coming of God into the world today. Jesus comes to us now in word and sacrament, in prayer and praise, in his Body, the Church. By the work of the Holy Spirit, the Jesus who was born in the past in Bethlehem and who will come in the future is present to us and in us now.

The altar colors changed to blue, the altar flowers were green

In a timing of coming, the Gospel this week emphasizes the need to prepared for future events. Isaiah envisions a time of full justice when all nations honor God and live in peace. In Romans, Paul reminds us that the nearness of our salvation enables us to love selflessly and live honorably. Paul asserts that the greatest motivation for the Christian’s moral life lies in the future–the Christ’s second coming. The end of time is near at hand. The great day of salvation is coming–sleep/night/darkness will give way to waking/day/light.

In Matthew’s Gospel the season of Advent begins with a look to the future coming (parousia of the Son of Man. Chapters 24–25 are the last of the five major speeches that Jesus gives. They center upon the last days and the expectation of the coming of the Son of Man. Today’s section focuses on the theme of preparedness. The “Son of Man” likely references the human-like divine being named in one of the apocalyptic visions found in Daniel 7:13 (Aramaic bar enash — “human being” — lit. “son of man”), a text that figured prominently in first-century Jewish and early Christian apocalyptic thought. For Matthew, this is a title that represents Jesus as the divinely chosen human agent who ushers in the end times. The warnings here against lack of awareness balance those earlier that caution against overzealous or premature expectations of the coming.

Jesus’ coming will bring judgment, not upon sin, but upon one’s state of readiness. The division made by God betwen the ready and the unready cuts across all human categories. The eternal choice may occur at any moment, therefore constant watchfulness is needed.

While we typically live with a fairly linear view of time — one event coming after another — the church’s liturgical and lectionary calendar is cyclical — patterns of events repeating themselves. For this reason, the church year that begins in Advent puts in front of us passages about the end of history before moving in later weeks to prepare us for the coming of the Christ child and the dawn of a new age.

There are many ways to group the lectionary. Here we look at it as a form of invitation to await the Christ child

Another way is to group it around the 5 candles on the Advent wreath.

1. God’s people -The Candle of Hope.

Hope is like a light shining in a dark place. As we look at the light of this candle we celebrate the hope we have in Jesus Christ.
As the theologian Richard Rohr puts it, long after Christmas is past, our “assured shout of cosmic hope—‘Come, Lord Jesus’ is “a leap into the kind of freedom and surrender that is rightly called the virtue of hope.”

Rohr says that “the theological virtue of hope is the patient and trustful willingness to live without closure, without resolution, and still be content and even happy because our Satisfaction is now at another level, and our Source is beyond ourselves.”

2. The old testament prophets – The Candle of Peace
Peace is like a light shining in a dark place. As we look at this candle we celebrate the peace we find in Jesus Christ.
John the Baptist

3. The Candle of Love
Love is like a candle shining in a dark place. As we look at the light of this candle we celebrate the love we have in Christ.

4. Mary the mother of Jesus – The Candle of Joy
Joy is like a light shining in a dark place. As we look at this candle we celebrate the joy we find in Jesus Christ.

The fifth candle represents the birth of Christ.

The flame of this candle remind us that He is the light of the world and that if we follow Him, we will never walk in darkness, but will have the true light of life.

Some conclusions to the readings of Advent 1:

Know what time it is!
Put on the armor of light!
Get up the nerve to use that ticket and go on that journey to the house of the Lord!
Walk in God’s paths!
Stay awake and alert and be ok with the mystery of God’s timing!
But most of all, carry the light of Christ with you at all times, the light that shines in the darkness –and the darkness cannot overcome it.
One last thing—now that Advent is finally here, let’s give a shout out to this season of hope—“our assured shout of cosmic hope…” “Come, Lord Jesus!”

Last Pentecost, Nov. 20 – Return to the Crucifixion – the Penitent Thief

From Trinity Church, NY

“On this last Sunday in Pentecost we return to the crucifixion in the worst of days. “But Luke suddenly injects this most harrowing of moments with a glimmer of unexpected hope. Even here, before a hint of Easter, one thief — dying on his own cross — experiences revelation. Here, at the eleventh hour, he recognizes something powerful — both about himself and about Jesus.

From the Catholic Register

“His story has caused many believers to feel drawn to the one some early Christians named Dismas (Greek for “dying”).

“Dismas became quite sobered during his crucifixion. As he considered his situation, while up on his own cross, he became awash with humility and regret. This newfound attitude seemed to spur on a new hope, trust, faith and love. After Gestas (the name given to the criminal hung on the other side of Jesus) reviled Jesus, demanding that Jesus do something about their precarious situation, it was Dismas who admonished him, who stepped in and defended Jesus. It was Dismas who reminded him that they had done wrong. They deserved their punishments. Dismas was clear in pointing out to Gestas that Jesus was an innocent man and did not deserve to be the recipient of such loathsome abuse, much less subjected to a crucifixion.

“As the heart and mind of Dismas transformed, he came to know that he was next to a man of overwhelming love and power, and he decided to risk asking Jesus for an undeserved, glorious favor: that Jesus would remember him when Jesus arrived at his kingdom. Jesus’ response was striking―he promised they would be together that very day in Paradise! This phenomenal pledge probably made the pain of Dismas’s crucifixion seem less horrific, perhaps even joyful, on that traumatic day. Jesus forgiving Dismas with such ease, even though he had been a great sinner, is a wonderful sign of hope and encouragement for all.

“In his awareness of personal culpability, and Jesus’s innocence, the thief “comes to himself” like the prodigal son of Jesus’s famous parable (Luke 15:17). His identity is reframed in the light of Jesus’s identity, and what that means for all of humanity. The “penitent” thief therefore asks Jesus to “remember” him, a word that here connotes a true re-membering; the thief is aware of his once divided self and sees that Jesus — in his kingdom — can make all things whole.

From “Small Simple Ways by Vinita Hampton Wright”

“We can safely say that this thief beside Jesus was in desolation—dying and afraid. We don’t know if he made this request of Jesus out of desperation or if he experienced true faith and recognized Jesus for who he was. But the man turned to Jesus. And Jesus, dying himself, answered with generosity.

When going through desolation, we come up with all kinds of reasons not to turn to Jesus. We feel guilty—surely we brought this on ourselves, we think. Or we feel that Jesus doesn’t really care. Or we assert that many other people suffer more than we do, so we should just be quiet. At these times, we need to remember the thief on the cross and how Jesus responded to him.”

From “Crucifying the King: The Penitent Thief”

The promise is that the criminal would be “with Jesus” in paradise. Jesus’ close association with sinners and tax collectors that was part of his life, is also part of his death and his life beyond death. The word “paradise” (originally from Persia) meant “garden,” “park” or “forest”. The Greek paradeisos was used in the LXX for the “garden” in Eden, the idyllic place in the beginning where the humans walked and talked with God. Isaiah presents the “garden/paradise” of Eden as part of the future salvation (53:3). Later, some groups within Judaism considered paradise to be the place where the righteous went after death. Paul considered paradise to be in the “third heaven” (2Cor 12:4). Revelation has the tree of life in the “paradise of God” (2:7). In later chapters the tree of life seems to be located in the new Jerusalem that has come down from heaven (22:2,14,19). Perhaps as with basileia, we should think of paradeisos as something other than just a place – perhaps as a restored relationship with God.