Flood of Mercy Advent At-Home 2012
Flood of Mercy Advent At-Home 2012 by Elsie Rempel illustrated by Megan Kamei Flood of Mercy : Advent At Home Resource 2012 Advent - Epiphany Lectionary Cycle B Mennonite Church Canada 600 Shaftesbury Blvd, Winnipeg MB R3P 0M4 Toll-free: 1-866-888-6785 P: 204-888-6781 F: 204-831-5675 E: office@mennonitechurch.ca W: www.mennonitechurch.ca Adapted/compiled/written by Elsie Rempel, Formation Consultant Sources: Advent Writing Team, Mennonite Church Canada & USA Design, Layout: Megan Kamei Proofreader: Lois Bergen Mennonite Church Canada, 2012 This material is not copyrighted and may be reproduced and adapted by Mennonite Church Canada congregations free of charge. Others are expected to request permission. Please add an explanatory note to acknowledge adaptations and name those who have done so. For permissions contact: office@mennonitechurch.ca; 1-866-888-6785. Music Sources and Abbreviations: HWB = Hymnal: A Worship Book STJ = Sing the Journey STS = Sing the Story Borrow or purchase these hymnals through the Mennonite Church Canada Resource Centre, www.mennonitechurch.ca/resources, or at these direct links: Hymnal: A Worship Book www.mennonitechurch.ca/tiny/502, Sing the Journey www.mennonitechurch.ca/tiny/70, Sing the Story www.mennonitechurch.ca/tiny/447, For a listing of Bryan Moyer Suderman s (Small Tall Music) CDs with links to samples and purchase opportunities see www.mennonitechurch.ca/tiny/275, or call 1-866-888-6785. August, 2012 Printed in Canada
Contents Introduction... 2 Creating Holy Space and Time in your Home... 3 Advent 1, Wading in faithfulness... 4 Advent 2, Refined by fire... 6 Advent 3, Repentance and renewal... 8 Advent 4, Carried on a flood of reversal... 10 Christmas 1, Rejoice in his rain... 12 Christmas 2, Illuminating the world... 14 Christmas Home Worship... 16 Your journey through this book, and the season of Advent, will again be accompanied by Chris, his mischievous friend, Selah, and his South African friend, Gloria and her sheep, Imvu. Please tell them how you are using this booklet and celebrating the season, at www.surveymonkey.com/s/floodofmercy or write to them at chrisandselah@mennonitechurch.ca. Download additional copies and colouring pages at www.mennonitechurch.ca/tiny/1764 1
Introduction By Elsie Rempel During the season of Advent, God s children approach Christmas with a unique focus. This year the weeks of Advent invite us to experience the flood of God s mercy. We begin by wading in faithfulness. Then we face, not the flood, but the refining fire of God in week 2, and respond to the flood of God s mercy with repentance, renewal, and restoration in week 3. Week 4 carries us on a flood of reversal which restores right relationships and helps us celebrate Christmas. In week 5, we rejoice in his rain (or is it reign?). Finally, in week 6 God s flood of light illuminates the world as we celebrate Epiphany. May your season be flooded with joy as well as mercy! To help you connect home and congregational worship, the prayers and activities in this booklet are adapted from the worship resources developed by the Advent 2012 writing team for Mennonite Church Canada and Mennonite Church USA s magazine Leader: Equipping the Missional Congregation. This year s team came together at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary as the 2011!Explore group. (!Explore is a theological program for high school youth.) To access Leader and other MennoMedia resources, see www.mennonitechurch.ca/tiny/367 Use the resource in whatever way best fits into your family s routines and life stage realities. The lectionary texts have been divided into seven readings for those who use this book as a daily guide. If your family has younger children, simplify, shorten, and paraphrase the prayers and pondering thoughts. Or, consider using the Early Childhood Birth Narrative Ritual, downloadable at www.mennonitechurch.ca/tiny/364 Usage tips: Call to Worship: The Reader can speak this in phrases that other family members echo. Prayer: Use the echo form again, or ask one person to prepare to read this prayer. Pondering thoughts: These foster a contemplative attitude of openness to the nudging of the Holy Spirit. Feel free to share or ponder these thoughts in your heart as Mary did. 2
Creating Holy Space and Time in your Home The following items can help you make a holy space in your home and your hearts for Christ this Advent and Christmas season. Feel free to adapt them to suit your home. 1. A Theme Poster: This year s poster could function as a backdrop for the Nativity Scene. It could have the theme, Flood of Mercy, written across the top. The rest of the poster design could consist of six different waves moving across it. The theme for each week could be printed across the top of each wave with a white crayon or lip gloss. Each week, a wave could be painted with blue, purple, pink, or gold paint. Advent 3 usually uses pink for joy, and the weeks after Christmas could be shades of gold. As the wave is painted the theme for that week would appear. 2. Advent Lights: Create an advent pond by floating 6 coloured or white candles in a bowl of water, or use an existing wreath of four with a taller Christ candle in the centre. Purple or blue, pink, and white reflect the move from repentant preparation to celebration. 3. A Nativity corner: With boxes, crumpled newsprint, and some sheeting, you can recreate the setting for that first crèche. If you don t have one, create a simple A-frame with rough lumber or bark and add toys or salt dough figures to the scene throughout the season. Add creativity by incorporating water features to the landscape. Small mirrors, tin foil, or other reflective material can symbolize real water. 4. A family Advent journal: The activities section will have a reflective question for each week s theme. If you haven t kept a journal before, consider starting one for this season. Some space has been provided at the back for notes or reflections. 5. A Bible, hymnals, and this booklet. 3
Wading in faithfulness First Advent December 2, 2012 Call to Worship Sing the first verse of the theme song, or ring a chime, to call the worshipers together. Then pray: God, we thank you that waves of your love cover us like water in a wading pool. We want to walk in your love as we wait for Jesus and Christmas. Amen. Candle lighter We light this first Advent candle to remind us that the waves of God s love are coming to cover the land and help us wade in God s faithfulness. Listening to God s Word This week, reflect on how God is making waves of love through these texts: Jeremiah 33:14-16, 17-20; Psalm 25: 1-5, 6-10, 11-15; 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13; Luke 21: 25-28. Pondering thoughts I wonder how we see God making waves of love in today s Scriptures. I wonder what areas of my life need to be washed over by God s love. I wonder how I can help God make waves of love in my neighbourhood. Sing or play HWB 172 O come, O come, Immanuel; Wade in the water (with advent words), see back cover; STJ 40 As rain from the clouds, verse 1. Prayer All God s ways are steadfast love and faithfulness. God s promises are sure. For this we thank you, God. We wait for you. Make us know your ways. Lead us in your truth. Teach us and help us love like you. Amen. Candle snuffer May God s love and truth shine on, in and through us, even as we blow out this candle. Amen. Blessing ritual Use this ritual as part of these devotions or as your supper table grace. Hold hands and send a wave of God s love from the wave leader until it has passed all around the table and returns to the wave leader. Do this by mimicking a wave of water as you raise and lower your joined hands in turn. Different people could serve as wave leader each day. 4
Activities to choose from: 1. Begin your advent poster. Place the words for the overall theme along the top or side of the poster. Draw six large waves in layers from bottom to the top. Along the top of each wave, write the weekly subthemes in white crayon. Then paint the lowest wave with blue or purple paint. 2. Mark the coming of God s waves of love by hosting a New Church Year party on the first Advent where you play co-operative games and gather donations for a project that floods people with love. 3. Read a book about water, such as this story about a girl who loves to play in the water, Shi-Shi-Etko, by: Nicola I. Campbell illust.: Kim LaFave, (Groundwood Books, Toronto, ON, 2005), (www.mennonitechurch.ca/tiny/1765) 4. Start setting up your Nativity Corner. With boxes, crumpled newsprint, and some sheeting, it is not hard to recreate the setting. To connect with this year s water theme, create a brook or a pond with blue play dough, crumpled blue tissue paper or a small mirror as part of the scene. 5. Start out on God s Advent path by looking for signs of God s love and faithfulness right in your home and neighbourhood. Record these God sightings in a Family Advent journal. 6. Pick some favourite verses from Psalm 25 and rewrite them as a poem. 7. Pick parts of the Christmas story to memorize so that you can recite most of it as a family on Christmas day. 5
Refined by fire Second Advent December 9, 2012 Call to Worship Sing a verse of a suitable song or ring a chime to gather the family in worship. Then say: We know that our pure and holy God is coming again. We need to prepare ourselves. Know that God wants to help us be pure and holy, too, as we work and play and pray together. Candle lighter We light this second Advent candle to help us remember God s pure and holy ways. Listening to God s Word This week, reflect on God s call to be like Jesus through these texts: Malachi 3:1-4; Luke 1:68-75, 76-79; Philippians 1:3-6, 7-11; Luke 3:1-6 Pondering thoughts I wonder how you sensed God cleaning things in these texts. I wonder what else you noticed in these texts. I wonder how these texts can help me have a clean heart. Sing HWB 178 Come, thou long-expected Jesus; STJ 82, Water has held us. Prayer In this time of Advent, we long for your coming to free us from hate and other things that keep us from living like Jesus. Help us to walk with you. Thank you for your tender mercy. Candle snuffer May God s purifying peace and love stay with us, even as we blow out this candle. Amen. Blessing ritual Hold hands and send a wave of God s love from the wave leader until it has passed all around the table and returns to the wave leader. Choose a new person to serve as wave leader each day. 6
Activities to choose from: 1. Paint the second wave of your poster in another shade of blue or purple. 2. Add a fireplace to your stable or to the shepherd s field as a reminder of God s refining fire. Simulate the fire with yellow play dough or twist some red and yellow cellophane strips together and tuck them into a cluster of stones. 3. Add to the love sightings in your journal by listing true and loving actions that you notice in others. 4. Read the story about how God purified these people s attitudes In God s Hands, by Lawrence Kushner; Gary Schmidt, illust.; Matthew J. Baek, (Jewish Lights Publishing, Woodstock, VT, 2005) (www.mennonitechurch.ca/tiny/1426) 5. Pray daily for a person with whom you need to start over. Ask God to clean your heart as preparation for that new start. 6. Care for God s creation this Advent by living in the light of God s love without using extra electricity. 7. Try something that is hard. Start over and try again. Think about how God keeps on giving us chances to start over. 7
Repent, renew, restore Third Advent December 16, 2012 Call to Worship Sing a song or ring a chime to gather the family for worship. Then say: Repenting, or being sorry, helps God give us a new spirit to enjoy God s abundance. Come, lift up your hearts and worship our good God who wants to renew us for right living. Candle lighter We light this third Advent candle to remember that God wants to renew us for right living. Listening to God s Word Reflect on how God s renewing mercy can turn our fears to joy through this week s texts: Zephaniah 3:14-18, 19-20; Isaiah 12: 2-4, 5-6; Philippians 4: 4-7, 8-9; Luke 3: 7-18. Pondering thoughts I wonder what made the writers of these texts joyful. I wonder what you noticed about God renewing the world for peace. I wonder what you sensed about trusting God. Sing STS 15 Hope is a candle, verse 3; HWB 177 Creator of the stars of night. Prayer Renewing God, we thank you for coming into our lives, and for your willingness to clean up the dark or confusing parts that keep us from living in praise to you. We rejoice in your loving kindness and might. Help us to trust you, and not be afraid, as we share our heartfelt requests with you. Amen. Candle snuffer May God s mercy stay with us and renew us for right living, even as we blow out these candles. Amen. Blessing ritual Hold hands and send a wave of God s love from the wave leader until it has passed all around the table and returns to the wave leader. Choose a new person to serve as wave leader today. 8
Activities to choose from: 1. Paint this week s wave in pink, the colour of Advent joy. 2. Reflect: How is God renewing people s attitudes and actions toward mercy and peace in your family and congregation? Draw a picture or make up a song about it. 3. Take turns blindfolding each other and spinning each other around. Then lead the blindfolded and dizzy person to an agreed-upon place. Compare this to the way God helps restore us to God s good way. 4. Sing the theme song, Wade in the Water (from the back cover). 5. Plan some conversations between the shepherds in your Nativity set that demonstrate how God renews and restores us after we are sorry for doing wrong things. 6. As you wrap Christmas gifts or bake and share goodies, think about the list of good things in Philippians. 7. In your journal, list tips for finding true happiness or walking on God s path. Then share these ideas with another family. 9
Carried on a flood of reversal Fourth Advent December 23, 2012 Call to Worship: Sing a song or ring a chime to gather the family for worship. Then say: The waves of God s steadfast love want to cover the land, and make things right for those who are suffering. Let us worship this God together. Candle lighter We light this fourth Advent candle to remember the ways God cleans and renews things in and around us. Listening to God s Word Reflect on the ways that God s mercy cleans and renews life through this week s texts: Luke 1: 39-45, 46-55, 56-66; Micah 5: 2-5a; Psalm 80:1-7; Hebrews 10:5-10; Luke 2:1-20 (for Christmas Eve). Pondering thoughts I wonder what Mary and Elizabeth said to each other about the special babies they were delivering. I wonder what these texts are saying to you today. I wonder what it means for us that Mary gave birth to Jesus. I wonder how we will respond to God s desire to reverse suffering in our world. Sing STS 25 A stable lamp is lighted; HWB 181 My soul proclaims with wonder, and your favourites from #189-214. Prayer Merciful God, who wants to flood this world with goodness, we offer you our lives so that you can clean what is dirty and renew what is worn out. Help us partner with you to flood the world with mercy and goodness. Holy is you name. Amen. Candle snuffer May God keep flooding the world with mercy, even as the smoke from this candle spreads out into the world. Amen. Christmas Home Worship Activities for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day on Page 16. 10
Blessing ritual Hold hands and send a wave of God s love from the wave leader until it has passed all around the table and returns to the wave leader. Choose a new person to serve as wave leader each day. Activities to choose from during Christmas Week: 1. Paint this week s wave in another shade of blue or purple. 2. Add a special Jesus stocking to your Christmas decorations. Invite guests and family members to donate money to this stocking. Then deliver the proceeds to your Advent gift project. If you haven t picked one choose www.mennonitechurch.ca/tiny/1811. 3. Bring Mary and Joseph, Jesus (on Christmas Eve), and the shepherds to the stable. 4. Recall and share stories you have learned about God s mercy overflowing in your community this last year. 5. Read Modestita s Gift: A Christmas Story by Inez Torres Davis, for a moving modern parable about a Piñata, of giving your best, even though you know it will get broken (www.mennonitechurch.ca/tiny/850). 6. Spend time with an older person in your life wondering together about God s great mercy. 7. Offer gifts of time, friendship, and a hug to someone who does not have family around, and let God s mercy overflow though you. 11
Rejoice in his rain First week after Christmas Dec 30, 2012 Call to Worship Sing a song or ring a chime to gather the family for worship. Then say: Jesus gives us a picture of how the world should be. God wants a world full of compassion, kindness, patience, and joy. We bow in worship of this amazing, loving God, so glad that you are with us. Candle lighter We light this fifth Advent candle to remind us to rejoice with all God has made. Listening to God s Word This week, reflect on how these texts rejoice about God s goodness: 1 Samuel 2:18-20, 26; Luke 2:33-40, 41-52; Psalm 148:1-6, 7-14;Colossians 3:12-17. Pondering thoughts I wonder what Samuel thought and felt when he wore the robes his mother made for him. I wonder what you noticed about Samuel and Jesus praising God with their lives. I wonder what it means for our family to praise God with our lives. Sing HWB 47 Earth and all stars; HWB 61 Let all creation bless the Lord; STS 23, Gloria, gloria, gloria Prayer Creator God, we thank you for the gift of Creation. We want to praise you with creation by living the way you want us to. Help us be compassionate and patient. Accept our lives as a sacrifice of praise and thankful service. Amen. Candle snuffer May the praise of God and God s ways grow in us, shine in us, and spread out through us, like the candle smoke that spreads out when we snuff this candle. Amen. Blessing ritual Hold hands and send a wave of God s love from the wave leader until it has passed all around the table and returns to the wave leader. Choose a new person to serve as wave leader today. 12
Activities to choose from: 1. Add a wave of gold to your poster. 2. Make robes out of towels or extra fabric. Pin or stitch stars onto the robes. Play in them to help you remember that each of us can be clothed in mantles of praise and God s goodness, just like the stars. 3. Have a robe party with the friends who joined you for the shepherd s party. Label each robe with a characteristic of love from 1 Corinthians 13: 4-7. 4. Write notes to family members, telling them how good things they do remind you of God. Hide these under their dinner plates and share them after the meal is finished and before you share the Blessing ritual. 5. Make a plan for growing some vegetables that you can share with a local food bank, or grow some sprouts that you can share with a neighbour. 6. Make a list of God s wonderful gifts in your life and thank God for them in your prayers. 7. Send notes of thanks to people in your church family who have praised God by sharing their worship gifts during Advent. 13
Illuminating the world Epiphany Sunday Jan 6, 2013 Call to Worship Sing a song or ring a chime to gather the family in worship. Then say: God, we thank you that your light brightens the darkness and floods the world with light. Let us look to God and be radiant, so others can see God s light in our eyes. Amen Candle lighter We light these six candles to remind us that God is coming to flood the darkness with light. Listening to God s Word This week, reflect on how light is shone on the mystery of God through these texts: Matthew 2:1-6, 7-12; Psalm 72:1-7, 10-14; Ephesians 3:1-6, 7-12; Isaiah 60:1-6. Pondering thoughts I wonder how the light of God led the wise men to Jesus. I wonder how reading the Bible is like following God s star. I wonder what it will be like when all people in all nations have found their way to Jesus. Sing STS 30 Arise, your light is come!; HWB 336 When peace, like a river; HWB 215 What child is this Prayer God, we are thankful that the world is bathed in your merciful love and light. We praise you for loving and restoring your creation. We praise Jesus for opening up a new way of life to all. We praise the Holy Spirit for working in our hearts and helping us to radiate your merciful love and light. Amen. Blessing ritual Hold hands and send a wave of God s love from the wave leader until it has passed all around the table and returns to the wave leader. Choose a new person to serve as wave leader today. Candle snuffer May the light of God shine on and in us, and spread through us to our world, like the smoke from this candle does as we blow it out. Amen. God, as we blow out and clean up these candles, give us eyes to see your light shining on in our lives and in our world. Amen. 14
Activities to choose from: 1. Have a Three Kings party. Invite friends and neighbours; dress up with crowns and robes, and read Tomie depaola s The Story of the Three Wise Kings, (G.B. Putnam, New York, 1983) (www.mennonitechurch.ca/tiny/369) or Mary Hoffman s Three Wise Women (Francis Lincoln Children s Books, GB, 2002) (www.mennonitechurch.ca/tiny/851) 2. Make a family plan for listening and responding to God in your daily routines, now that the Christmas season has ended. 3. Invite a foreign student, or a neighbour who may be lonely, into your home. Invite them to teach you something from their country, or their childhood. 4. Respond to the ways God is bursting in and breaking out in our world by supporting a Mennonite Church Canada ministry project. See the world map for ideas at www.mennonitechurch.ca/programs/witness/. 5. Think of and act on one way that God s love has burst in on the life of your family and wants to break out through you. 6. Play your favourite Christmas music while you clean up and put away the objects that have helped you celebrate and worship this Christmas season. 15
Christmas home worship Christmas Eve and Christmas Day Activities for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day As you light the Christ Candle in your worship centre for the first time, sing verse 5 of STS 15, Hope is a candle. Bake a birthday cake for Jesus and light a candle on it for Jesus. Sing Happy Birthday to Jesus, or another appropriate Christmas song. Gently place the baby Jesus into the crèche, then add the angels and bring the shepherds into the stable. Pick an appropriate carol to sing as you carry out each of these actions. On Christmas Eve you may want to sleep near the crèche and the tree, as a way of identifying with Mary and Joseph sleeping in an unusual place this night. 16
Repeat or create your own special rituals and traditions to mark the importance of Emmanuel - God with us. On Christmas Day, consider planning a shepherd s party and invite your extended family, friends, and/or people from your neighbourhood to attend. Dress up like shepherds; gather around your water-themed worship centre, and eat bread, cheese, olives, figs, or dates on a picnic blanket or in a blanket tent. Use the candle lanterns from the worship centre for your only light. 17
Wade in the water Refrain: Wade in the water, wade in the water, children, wade in the water, God s gonna trouble the water. Souls come magnify the Lord... Spirits sing with one accord. Refrain Overturning this world s way... God will bring a brand new day. Refrain Tyrants tumbled from on high... Low ones raised up to the sky. Refrain Hungry people filled with bread... Full ones emptied out instead. Refrain To this promise God is true... mercy s flood for me and you. Refrain Please take a moment to tell Chris and Selah about your Christmas with Flood of Mercy. Visit www.surveymonkey.com/s/floodofmercy 600 Shaftesbury Blvd Winnipeg MB R3P 0M4 Toll-free: 1-866-888-6785 P: 204-888-6781 F: 204-831-5675 E: resources@mennonitechurch.ca W: www.mennonitechurch.ca Resource Centre: Toll free: 1-866-888-6785 resources@mennonitechurch.ca