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NEW KILPATRICK PARISH CHURCH
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Advent Night
The frost is hard
and the silence deepening
the light shrinks
and the waiting long
it is the advent
and we wait with the prophets
listening and hearing
their ancient whisper
the long echo
of the deepest hope the universe has known
of a promise
coming real
and now you can almost touch it
feel its breath
in this first moment
of advent’s quickening
let us turn towards the sound
of holy restlessness
and in these shortening days
long for the light
Contemporary Reading
A: Wolf and lamb
B: Left and right
A: Asp and child
B: Rich and poor
A: Leopard and kid
B: Remainers and brexiteers
A: Lion and Calf
B: Whitehall and Brussels
A: Cow and bear
B: Protestant and Catholic
A: Toddler and serpent
B: Christian and Muslim
A: Belief and Doubt
B: Belonging and Believing
A: It is the unexpected combinations
that shape the kingdom,
B: that illustrates the grace
that creates a new way of relating and being together
A: Calves and cubs
B: Heaven and Earth
A: Divine and human
B: God and flesh
A: Baby and stable
B: The unexpected combination
that transforms the world
Advent 2019
Prayer
In all the words we use
and the music that holds them
may we find in there
the word that comes alive in us
shaped round this season
yet alive in every season
a word of promise
to resets the world
may we gather round it
and let it shame us
and shake us
into new life
this advent time
a word of hope
to bring new purpose to our world
that we may gather round it
and let is move and us make us
a new relationships with each other
this advent time
a word of love
to hold the world
that we may gather round it
that it might be born in us
and born between us
this advent time
a word that names you O God
as saviour
redeemer
emmanuel:
the promise
the hope
the love
for our time
and we travel with you
among darkening skies
and shifting stars
to be led,
o promised one,
to the place of incarnation
where words becomes flesh
and the darkness dies
Hear us
So be it
Amen
Prayer
Loving God
when we stand in our own wildernesses
when we stand in the midst of our questions
when we stand surrounded by our hurts and darknesses
may we meet you
in the same place
a God not scared to meet us
in that which is liminal
shadowy
uncomfortable
and imagine a God
who dares breathe new life
in the arid moments
God
may we live in such an advent
a moment or life
a place of promise
that takes all we are
the cracks and bruises
and speaks with promise
with vision
reimagining everything we are
and says
you are renewed
you are reborn
you are alive again
In such a place as this
where deserts bloom
and new roadways are made
may we grow again
dare believe in something more
and live into such a way
and that we begin here
this moment
this place
this community
a birthing place
a promise place
an unconditional place
of love
in skin
and among us
May we live within that promise
forever
So be it
Amen