Expanding Advent: Assembly Advent Series 2024

This Advent, the Uniting Church Assembly will be sharing a series of reflections under the theme, 'Expanding Advent'. The series has been prepared in recognition that we are living in a time of acute crisis in the Holy Land, the very lands of Jesus' birth. Some communities and worship leaders may be wrestling with the language, themes and ideas of the Advent season in light of the present war in Palestine, Israel and the wider Middle East. Over the next five weeks the Assembly will offer a range of resources including reflections, art and vigil to enrich our journey through this season of the church.

Offerings will be released weekly:

• Week 1 - Introduction and Expanding our Language (released 20 November)
• Week 2 - Expanding our Hearts (released Wednesday 27 November)
• Week 3 - Expanding our Minds (released Wednesday 4 December)
• Week 4 - Expanding our Senses (released Wednesday 11 December)
• Week 5 - Expanding our Hospitality (released Wednesday 18 December)

These will be released on this webpage and through National Update, the Assembly’s weekly newsletter. Make sure you’re subscribed. You'll also be able to find them each week on social media.

An introductory reflection on waiting

written by Matthew Julius, Advocate of the Assembly Transforming Worship Circle

Advent is a season of waiting. At one level it is the season awaiting Christmas: we wait to celebrate again the birth of Jesus. In Advent we prepare ourselves anew to receive the most precious gift of God coming to dwell with humanity. At Christmas God enters our humanity as a precious, vulnerable child. In Advent we ready ourselves for this arrival.

And yet, this season of waiting is not simply about telling the story of Christmas again. During this season we hear some difficult texts from scripture: texts about judgement, yearning for justice, the chaos of the world, and the need to turn back to God. There is an important sense in which Advent invites us into a variety of forms of waiting throughout Scripture. The waiting in the Hebrew Bible / Old Testament for God's Messiah and vindication to come; the waiting of the Jewish people in the time of Jesus for military occupation to end in Palestine and Israel; the waiting of Holy Saturday, hoping that suffering and loss can give way to peace and joy; the waiting for Jesus to come fully and finally in glory.

Each of us know our own share in this deep waiting: for reconciliation and justice in the land; for peace in places of unimaginable suffering and conflict; for the latest news from the doctor; for those we love to pick up the phone and reconnect; for the job we need; for our visa to be approved; for Jesus to be near us as we navigate an uncertain world. Advent invites us into a season of deep waiting, of yearning for Jesus the Prince of Peace to come near to us.

This period of waiting reminds us that Advent relates to Christmas as Lent relates to Easter. This time of waiting is a time of reflection and preparation. It may be a time of deep lament and indignation, not only a time to ready ourselves for joy. Like all people waiting for a new baby to arrive, there is a lot to get ready, there are a range of emotions we must experience and sit with — and we know, tragically, that this journey is not without suffering.

The invitation to Advent, in a time of personal and global crisis, is to sit in the waiting. The invitation is to name the hard truths we carry. The invitation is to move slowly through the prayers and songs at this time which call for ransom, release, and freedom. Around the world, and in our lives, we see people and countries captive to the forces of violence and revenge. We see countries sacrificing innocent lives — children! — in conflict zones in the Middle East, Ukraine, and Africa: justified by the desire for victory through violence.

May Advent renew our calls for release from this captivity to violence. May we renew our calls for all violence to cease and a just and lasting peace to come.

Week 1