Living as Advent People

We have the world we have because we live the way we live. 

If we want a different world, we need to live differently. And that means we have to change—because the only place where we have the power to create a different world is within ourselves. 

Many of us feel powerless to make any difference to the fragmentation within ourselves and in our families, friendships, neighbourhoods, and world. We just can’t seem to interact with one another, publicly and personally, without fighting. It has become easier to demonise one another than to seek understanding. And as systems of negotiation and collaboration break down globally and locally, our anxiety grows stronger and more manic. Under the weight of all this chaos, we may fear that any chance of a meaningful, full, and connected life is out of reach.

But the quality of our lives does not have to be defined by what is happening around us. We may not be able to change the world, but we certainly can change our world. 

We have the power to choose how we will show up in our lives and relationships.

We can choose to be deliberate about noticing and embracing the signs of hope, peace, joy, and love within us and around us. We can choose to be proactive in creating moments of beauty, connection, creativity, listening, and laughter. And when we do this, we not only protect and care for ourselves and our loved ones, but we are also choosing to defy the forces of hatred, violence, and destruction.

In ourselves, even these small subversive acts may seem beyond us. But the message of Advent is that we are not alone. In Christ, God has come into our broken world. But this is not just a past event. Christ is still constantly arriving here and now. That’s the empowering, inspiring, transforming message of Advent and Christmas, and we need it now as much as ever.

Advent is not just a season of preparing for Christmas, and Christmas is not just a time to celebrate a supernatural birth two thousand years ago. These twin seasons reveal to us a truth about our lives—that God’s presence and Spirit, God’s life and love, are not just with us, but are always within us. And that means that as we move through Advent and Christmas, we can remember how to draw on the divine strength, courage, and creativity within us. We can learn to live as Advent people—people of hope, peace, joy, and love in this beautiful world that is being disfigured by merchants of despair, conflict, grief, and hatred.

The Advent and Christmas invitation is for us to do more than just celebrate a holiday. It is a call to enter mindfully into a journey of remembering who we really are, what kind of world we want, and how Christ can teach and empower us to become what we long for. 

Because when we change the world within us, everything changes in the world around us, even if nothing changes.

This promise is the motivation for this new Advent and Christmas Guide from Sacredise: Living as Advent People: Learning a Richer Way of Being from Christ’s Arrival.

Based on the Lectionary readings for Year A, Living as Advent People explores the gifts of hope, peace, joy, love, incarnation, and awareness that Advent and Christmas seek to give us. And it helps us to use the power of these gifts to navigate our turbulent lives and world creatively and compassionately. 

The LIVING AS ADVENT PEOPLE Liturgical Guide Includes:

● Reflection chapters as a springboard for your sermons for every service of the series based on the Lectionary readings for Year A;

● Purpose-written prayers and liturgies for all four Advent Sundays, Christmas Day, and the First Sunday after Christmas;

● Ideas and suggestions for decorating your sanctuary and for creating visual elements to enhance your worship.

● A ‘Hanging of the Greens’ liturgy as part of the Advent Sunday service and Advent Candle lighting liturgies for all services from Advent Sunday to Christmas Day (with an Advent candle reflection for the Sunday after Christmas);

● A theme-based Table Liturgy that can be used at any service in the series;

● A scripted, purpose-written Nine Lessons and Carols Liturgy;

● Theme-based graphics for your projection software, including welcome screens and backgrounds for song lyrics, liturgies, and sermon notes.

The LIVING AS ADVENT PEOPLE Devotional Guide Includes:

● Preparing, Responding, and Integrating practices for every day of the series to ensure that people can easily apply the message of each day to their own lives. 

● Copies of the Reflection chapters for each week for quick reference in daily devotional practice. 

● Daily reflection questions to enable people to listen more deeply to the message of the Scriptures and apply it to their lives and relationships.

● Suggestions for preparing and decorating a devotional space to make it more conducive to the Advent and Christmas journey.

The LIVING AS ADVENT PEOPLE Bundle Includes:

Designed for communities that want to journey together, while also providing a meaningful personal journey for congregation members, the Bundle includes both the Liturgical and the Devotional Guides. It also includes a license to share the Devotional Guide through any or all of the following channels: 

● Printed handouts to distribute to congregation members; 

● Digital copies sent to members via email; 

● Posted on your church's social media channels; 

● Posted on your church's website.

Living as Advent People includes the following chapters:

Advent 1: People of Hope

The Advent season teaches us to stay awake, alert, and attuned to the signs of God’s reign that can help us to nurture our capacity for hope. And it transforms us into hopeful people who embody Christ’s hope-bearing way in this troubling time in our lives and world.

Advent 2: People of Peace

The Advent Season, with its reminder of Christ’s peacemaking presence within us and around us, helps us to find peace even when our world is in turmoil. And it empowers us to create shalom within us so that we can contribute to creating shalom around us. 

Advent 3: People of Joy

Joy connects and heals. Everything about us, our bodies, minds, hearts, and souls, is strengthened and renewed by joy. Advent shows us how to nurture and cultivate joy within us so that we can be joy-bearers to our corner of the world. 

Advent 4: People of Love

Ultimately, Advent leaves us with a choice: to live by love or by fear. If we are willing to risk loving as indiscriminately and passionately as possible, and to learn to become a little more loving every day, our love really can change our world creatively and positively.

Christmas Day: People of Incarnation

Christmas is not a celebration about a strange, supernatural once-off event that happened thousands of years ago. It’s a celebration of the truth about our universe and about every single one of us—that God is incarnated in the universe and in us. And when that truth sinks in, it changes everything. 

Christmas 1: People of Awareness

Authentic spirituality teaches us to recognise Christ in ourselves and others—including in those we wouldn’t expect. With this awareness, we can navigate the world with care, wisdom, and truth, and in alignment with our best selves, no matter what may lie ahead of us in the unpredictable future.