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Expanding our language in Advent

Part of the 2024 Advent series from the Assembly, a range of resources to enrich our reflection, worship, singing and prayer this Advent season

November 20, 2024

This resource is part of the Assembly's 2024 Advent series,'Expanding Advent'. In the context of the devastating war in Palestine and Israel and the broader Middle East, this offers a range of resources to enrich our reflection, worship, singing, and prayer during this season.

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

Expanding our language in Advent worship

During Advent many of the prayers and songs which resource our common worship draw heavily on biblical themes of the captivity of Israel, and the restoration of Jerusalem. The ancient texts of scripture from which these prayers and songs draw were written in a time when the ancient Jewish people were a disempowered, often occupied people. The Jewish people of the Bible were not strong allies of the largest and most powerful militaries in the world.

In expanding our language we might set new language alongside more traditional language, or we might sit with traditional language and be challenged to explore new meanings in a time of crisis, or we might find new language a necessary alternative.

We are living in a time of acute crisis in the Middle East, when countries bearing biblical names are hurting so much, where innocent lives are being lost, children are maimed and killed, humanitarian aid is not accessible, and what little medical infrastructure exists is being destroyed. Advent is an important time to have the church's prayers shaped by disempowered, occupied people.

With this in mind, the Assembly is offering a range of resources for enriching our reflection, worship, singing, and prayer during this season.

The language of Israel and Jerusalem in the Christian tradition are never simply about particular places and people. The language of prayer and song helps us to know God. In Christian texts, within and beyond the New Testament, the language of Israel and Jerusalem are honoured as ways of talking about God’s redemptive work for all of creation.

Christians should be wary of supersessionism: the idea that God’s promises to the Jewish people have been replaced by God's promises to all of creation in Jesus Christ. The consequences of supersessionism have been severe, and contributed to centuries of violence and discrimination towards Jewish people. Supersessionism also undermines our commitment to a faithful God who keeps promises with all God’s beloved people.

At the same time, the encouragement is to see in prayers shaped by the language of ancient Israel and Jerusalem an invitation to pray with disempowered and oppressed people. It can be helpful to expand and enrich our language at times to remain faithful to this commitment to disempowered and oppressed people in our own time.

"Advent is an important time to have the church's prayers shaped by disempowered, occupied people."

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Language in prayers and songs

Here are some suggestions for enriching our language when we speak of ‘Israel’ and ‘Jerusalem’.  These suggestions might lead to reshaping prayers, and even songs, using alternative language that helps us speak with fresh reminders of ancient meanings, particularly when familiar words are being spoken today in very different contexts:

Expanding the language of ‘Israel’ we could say:

  • ‘Those who wrestle with God’
  • ‘Those whom God loves’
  • ‘People of promise’
  • ‘Those who yearn for vindication’
  • ‘God’s people set apart to be a blessing to the world’

Expanding the language of ‘Jerusalem’ we could say:

  • ‘Place of abiding peace’
  • ‘Dwelling place of God’
  • ‘City of promise’
  • ‘Where peace is given’
  • ‘God's Holy City’
  • ‘Capital of Mercy’

Expanding the language of ‘God of Israel’ we could say:

  • 'God of Promise'
  • 'God of Redemption'
  • 'God of Liberation'

Expanding on the words of ‘O Come O Come Emmanuel…and ransom captive Israel’ we could sing:

O come, o come compassionate Divine,
And ransom captive Palestine
That mourns with tears that will not be soothed
Till empires fall and nations’ hearts are moved.

Rejoice! Rejoice! God’s justice is at hand
To liberate the people and the land.

O come, o bright and ever-burning star;
Bring Gaza comfort from afar!
Dispel from her the shadow of death
That murders dignity and chokes out breath.

Rejoice! Rejoice! God’s justice is at hand
To liberate the people and the land.

O come, o Wisdom from on high,
Take up the outcast’s cause, the captive’s cry.
Guide us to build your kingdom on earth
Where all faiths flourish, and the last are first.

Rejoice! Rejoice! God’s justice is at hand
To liberate the people and the land.

O come, o King of Peace and Justice, break
All weapons down, and from them ploughshares make.
Let all tears dry, all peoples respond:
“We are each other’s magnitude and bond.”

Rejoice! Rejoice! God’s justice is at hand
To liberate the people and the land.

Credit: https://binarybreakingworship.com/2023/12/07/o-come-emmanuel-revised-for-palestines-plight/
(used with permission from Avery Arden)

Language in liturgy and holy communion

Language in Advent Candle litanies

It is common in many congregations to light candles in each week of Advent, marking the journey through the four weeks of Advent with four Christian virtues: Faith, Hope, Love, and Peace. This can be an important reminder of the central place of these virtues within our Christian communities, and our yearning that they may be evident throughout the world.

For many centuries, however, the season of Advent was not marked by these virtues, but what have been called “The Four Last Things”: Death, Judgement, Heaven, and Hell. As we journey through Advent in a world in crisis perhaps this stark reminder of the Four Last Things might remind us that our gathered worship is not ‘time out’ from the world, rather “liturgy and mission are integrally related.” (Uniting in Worship 2, p. 131)

How might our prayers be reshaped by connecting God’s work in a broken world with our gathered worship?

This brief resource for candle lighting does not suggest replacing the Four Virtues with the Four Last Things on your Advent wreath (although your local community might consider this), but does encourage you to maintain the connection between God’s work in the world and our gathered worship: Advent Candle Liturgy

Language in Advent studies (from Amy-Jill Levine, Rabbi Stanley M. Kessler Distinguished Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies at Hartford International University for Religion and Peace and University Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies Emerita, Mary Jane Werthan Professor of Jewish Studies Emerita, and Professor of New Testament Studies Emerita at Vanderbilt University)

Expanding our understanding of ‘Israel’ in the Advent Season

Assembly 2024 Advent series

Expanding our language at Advent

Expanding our language in Advent Part of the 2024 Advent series from the Assembly, a range of resources to enrich our reflection, worship, singing and prayer this Advent season This resource is part of the Assembly’s 2024 Advent series,’Expanding Advent’. In the context of the devastating war in Palestine and Israel and the broader Middle…

Expanding Advent

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…