Advent Greetings!
As we enter these days of Advent we invite you to pause in reflection and prayer with the Open Table Community. The four Sundays of Advent we will send a meditative reflection to your inbox (you can sign up here). Use them for your own Advent study, use them in your community of faith or share them around your dinner table. Though we are spread across the country, and around the world, may these weekly reflections connect us to each other and to God.
Blessings,
The Open Table Cooperative Board
Cooperative Reading of Genesis & John Chapter One
For private reflection or public reading with differing voices.
Genesis: Verse one. In the beginning…
John: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was fully God.
Genesis: God created the heavens and the earth.
Verse two. Now the earth was without shape and empty,
and darkness was over the surface of the watery deep,
but the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the water.
John: The Word was with God in the beginning.
Genesis: Verse three. God said, “Let there be light.” And there was light!
John: All things were created by him,
and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created.
Genesis: Verse four, God saw that the light was good,
so God separated the light from the darkness
John: In him was life, and the life was the light of mankind.
Verse five, And the light shines on in the darkness
Reflection:
And the light shines on in the darkness. And the light shines on in the darkness…at least we hope it does. Some days, the darkness seems so pervasive. From the national to the international to the personal, the darkness flies in our faces faster than we can replenish the oil in the lamps of our souls, some days. And even when we feel the warmth of the light, our hearts remain broken for those we know see the light all too dimly. In Advent, we celebrate, not just the light, but we stand in temporarily in the darkness. In Advent, for a moment, we accept and reflect on the dark. For it is only in the darkness that we may experience fully the Genesis text which says, “God said, ‘let there be light.’ And there was light!” It is only from a place of darkness that promise in the Gospel of John can transform us: “in him was life, and the life was the light of mankind. And the light shines on in the darkness.”
Prayer:
As we experience the darkness this Advent or in our lives, let us become the people of advent who see the light anew. Oh Christ, oh light of all living, be born again in us. And may the light shine on in all our darkness. Amen.
Written by Matt Rittle
Leave a Reply