The Christian Calendar on God's Absence

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Where Is Jesus? A Question at the Heart of Advent
Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.
Keywords
Scripture

Matthew 11:3
“Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” It’s a simple question. It’s also a question on everyone’s minds in the gospels. But it hits differently when you remember who asks i...
liturgy

Almighty God, you have surprised us
Author

Scott B. Bullock
Keywords
Scripture

Isaiah 55:8-9, Matthew 13:44, Lamentations 3:22-23, Psalm 139:7-10, 1 John 1:9, 2 Corinthians 3:18, Luke 2:1-20, John 4:7-26, John 21:1-14, Luke 24:13-35, Matthew 17:1-8, Luke 2:25-38, Luke 1:35-38, Hebrews 13:2, Isaiah 43:19
Almighty God, you have surprised us with your presence in unexpected ways. In the expectations of our routine, we have missed the treasure that you place before us. We come to worship you in community...
Quote
Author

Michael Joseph Brown
Keywords
- Advent
- God's Work
God's movement is often abrupt and unsettling rather than predictable and settling.
liturgy

Call to Confession: The prophet asks
Author

Austin D. Hill
Keywords
Scripture

Malachi 3:2
Call to Confession: The prophet asks the Lord’s people, “But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap.” ...
blog

Good Friday | Psalm 22 | Forsaken and Alone
Author

Scott B. Bullock
Keywords
Scripture

Psalm 22:
Reflection The television series Alone follows ten individuals who are left to fend for themselves and by themselves in the wilderness. Now, these aren’t everyday individuals plucked from Main St...
liturgy

Good morning, Father
Author

Richard Herman
Keywords
Scripture

Philippians 4:6-7, Luke 15:11-32, Matthew 6:19-21, Psalm 51:10-12, James 4:8, 1 John 1:9
Prayer of Adoration Good morning, Father. While we slept last night – You were awake, sustaining our world, protecting us and readying a new day. Jesus – You hold us in the palms of Your hands: str...
liturgy

Do not lose heart in your waiting
Author

Austin D. Hill
Keywords
Do not lose heart in your waiting. We do not wait in vain. God is in our midst through Jesus Christ, our Messiah. God is at work. And God is restoring all creation. And may the love of God, the grace...
liturgy

Adapted from John 3:17 and Psalm 46:1-3
Author

Dustin Ray
Keywords
Scripture

John 3:17, Psalm 46:1-3
Pastor: "For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him." (Jn 3:17) All: His love endures forever Pastor: "...
liturgy

Lord God, we adore you because you have
Author

Caryl Mickelm
Keywords
Lord God, we adore you because you have come to us in the past. You have spoken to us in the Law of Israel. You have challenged us in the words of the prophets. You have shown us in Jesus what you ...
illustration

Something Strange is Happening
Author

Epiphanius of Cyprus
Keywords
- Holy Saturday
Something strange is happening – there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still becau...
Quote
Author

Epiphanius of Cyprus
Keywords
- Holy Saturday
- Tomb
Something strange is happening—there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. God has died in the flesh and hell trem...
illustration

A Light in the Darkness
Author

Caroline Cobb
Keywords
Scripture

John 1:1-13
“They will look toward the earth and see only distress, darkness, and the gloom of affliction, and they will be driven into thick darkness.” (Isa. 8:22) In The Two Towers , the second novel in Tolki...
liturgy

God, we come with hesitant steps and
Author

Christine Sine
Keywords
Scripture

Psalm 139:23-24, Psalm 51:, Romans 8:9-17, 2 Corinthians 3:7-18, John 10:1-10, Job 15:31-32
God, we come with hesitant steps and uncertain motives to sweep out the corners where sin has accumulated, and uncover the ways we have strayed from Your truth. Expose the empty and barren places wher...
Quote
Author

Philip Clayton and J. Warren Smith
Keywords
- Holy Saturday
When I recite this in church [Jesus’ decent into Hell], I think there is just no place where the encompassing love of God can’t be present. There is no place where God is afraid to go.
illustration

Where Are You?
Author

Ann Voskamp
Keywords
Scripture

Genesis 3:8-9, Jeremiah 2:13, Psalm 139:7-10, Psalm 16:11, Luke 15:4-6, Isaiah 53:6
For all the wandering, this is the first question of the Old Testament—God coming to ask after you, “Where are you?” Where are you in your life? Where are you—from Me? To get where you want to go, t...
illustration

Advent is God Coming to Us
Author

Austin Farrar
Keywords
Advent is a coming, not our coming to God, but his to us. We cannot come to God, he is beyond our reach; but he can come to us, for we are not beneath his mercy. Even in another life, as St. John sees...
illustration

Longing for Eden
Author

Caroline Cobb
Keywords
In a letter to his son, J. R. R. Tolkien famously wrote, “We all long for [Eden], and we are constantly glimpsing it: our whole nature at its best and least corrupted, its gentlest and most humane, is...
liturgy

Good Father, we thank you for inviting
Author

Austin D. Hill
Keywords
Good Father, we thank you for inviting us to your table. You invite us to your heavenly feast, but we don’t show up to the party. Rather, we ignore your invitation, we get distracted by other work we ...
liturgy

Adapted from Isaiah 40
Author

Austin D. Hill
Keywords
Scripture

Isaiah 40:1-5
“Comfort, comfort my people,” says your God. A voice cries: “In the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord. Make straight in the desert a highway for our God Every valley shall be lifted up, ...
Quote
Author

Walter Wangerin Jr.
Keywords
- Advent
Scripture

Revelation 22:12-13, Isaiah 40:3-5, Colossians 3:5-6
God is coming! God is coming! All the element we swim in, this existence, echoes ahead the advent. God is coming! Can you feel it?
Quote
Author

Michelle Blake
Keywords
- Advent
- Waiting
Scripture

John 14:16-17, Matthew 1:23, Isaiah 40:31
One of the essential paradoxes of Advent: that while we wait for God, we are with God all along, that while we need to be reassured of God’s arrival, or the arrival of our homecoming, we are already a...
Quote
Author

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Keywords
Scripture

John 1:1-15, Isaiah 9:2, Luke 1:78-79, Philippians 2:6-7, 2 Corinthians 8:9, Micah 5:2, Matthew 1:23
Just when everything is bearing down on us to such an extent that we can scarcely withstand it, the Christmas message comes to tell us that all our ideas are wrong, and that what we take to be evil an...
liturgy

Loving God, whose glory it is always to have mercy
Author

Trinity Lutheran Church, Lisle, Illinois
Keywords
Scripture

Psalm 103:8, Isaiah 55:7, Joel 2:13, Hosea 6:1, 1 Peter 2:24, James 4:8, 2 Chronicles 7:14
Pastor: Loving God, whose glory it is always to have mercy: Be gracious to us who have gone astray from Your ways, and bring us again with penitent hearts and steadfast faith to embrace and hold fas...
liturgy

Based on Psalm 57 and Wisdom 11
Author

Trinity Lutheran Church, Lisle, Illinois
Keywords
Scripture

Psalm 57:1-3
Pastor: Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, People: for in you my soul takes refuge; Pastor: in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, People: till the storms...
liturgy

Our God, as we stand before the empty
Author

John E. Skoglund
Keywords
Scripture

1 Peter 1:3, Luke 24:1-12, Mark 16:1-8, Matthew 28:1-10, John 11:25-26, John 20:1-18, 1 Corinthians 15:3-8, 1 Corinthians 15:54-55
Our God, as we stand before the empty tomb, like Mary and the disciples we find it hard to believe that Christ rose from the dead. Forgive our unbelief. Take from our minds the shadows of doubt and he...
liturgy

Prayer for Holy Saturday
Author

Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia
Keywords
Scripture

Psalm 46:10, 2 Corinthians 4:17-18, Romans 8:24-25, Hebrews 11:1, Psalm 27:14, Isaiah 40:31
There are so many things we do not understand⁠ So many ways we long for change and closure⁠ Help us to trust you⁠ even when the situation is desperate and out of control⁠ Help us to follow you⁠ even...
Quote
Author

Walter Brueggemann
Keywords
- Advent
In our secret yearnings we wait for your coming, and in our grinding despair we doubt that you will. And in this privileged place we are surrounded by witnesses who yearn more than do we and by those ...
liturgy

Christianity began in a culture where
Author

Ann Siddall
Keywords
Christianity began in a culture where “desert” and “wilderness” were familiar environments, both respected and feared as the place where angels and demons might be found. In wild, desolate places God’...
liturgy

Heavenly Father, let it not be said
Author

Gabe Fung
Keywords
Heavenly Father, let it not be said that we are disunified as a people. We are unified by our grumbling. We grumble against you for what you have done or left undone, according to our misplaced commun...
liturgy

Loving God ~ Father, Son and Holy (A)
Author

Richard Herman
Keywords
Loving God ~ Father, Son and Holy Spirit: We are a people who are waiting: waiting to celebrate Messiah’s birth; waiting to see what this day – and every day – holds as Your blessings for us; and wait...