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ADVENT 2011: Expect the Unexpected
For Advent, we’re looking at where we see God in the unexpected, a “God in the cracks” look places the advent texts in dialogue with the Houston landscape of God’s mission. Each week I’ll be asking the lectionary texts, “What does God do in our world and lives?” And asking Houston, “What God is up to and where?” So often God is acting differently than expected, and present in places we didn’t think to look. (ie, not in church, it’s in school-support initiatives, trailer parks, etc…).
November 27: Learning to Pay Attention We long for dramatic revelations of God, but God often enters our lives in unexpected ways that catch us unaware if we aren’t alert and watching. Even small moments can be vessels of God’s awesome deeds. God is near, God is in Houston, God is in the neighborhood – so keep awake and pay attention!
(This entire Advent series we’ll be looking for God in unexpected places, who comes to us in unexpected ways.
Texts: Psalm 80, Isaiah 64: 1-9; Mark 13:24-27.
December 4: Changing the Landscape Repentance raises valleys, lowers hills, and challenges the ways we’re accustomed to living. God’s mission of justice and human flourishing changes the landscape of our world. Are we ready for things to be different, to let God’s coming alter the landscape of our lives?
Texts: Psalm 85, Isaiah 40:1-11; Mark 1:1-8
December 11: Transforming the Brokenness We have been promised a day when tears of sorrow will be transformed to shouts of joy, when “ruined cities” will spring to life. But we live in a “meantime” still marked by oppression, broken hearts, and loss of freedom. We are invited to hold fast to what is good, even while we wait for God’s intervention. Texts : Psalm 126, Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11; John 1:6-8, 19-28.
December 18: Reordering our World We serve a God who lifts the lowly, fills the hungry, and chooses an unwed teenage girl for a role of greatest honor. God’s shalom overturns the world’s assumptions about what matters and what doesn’t. How do we begin to evince this new kingdom reordering now?
Texts: Isaiah 58:6-12; Luke 1:26-38; Luke 1:46-55.
December 25: Celebrating the Savior God showed up in our world in the least expected way, in the form of an infant. This is how God comes, what God’s awesome deeds look like – a small shoot springing up and changing everything. Christ has come, and the world is being transformed. So let’s celebrate!
January 1: Epiphany: Embracing a Wide Body God came into the world to bring life to all humankind. When the light of God shines through us, people will be drawn – from all sorts of backgrounds and places. How do we prepare to welcome and embrace a “body” that is wider than we’d dared to imagine?
Click here for a sample Bulletin and order of worship.
