Advent

Welcome to the start of Advent! There are many homes and many churches across
the world which are going to light that first candle and open the first door of that Advent calendar and remember that the coming of Jesus is not too far off. The anticipation and the joy are building day by day! 

Advent is a season of waiting, expecting, and hoping. Beginning four Sundays prior to Christmas and ending on Christmas Eve, Advent helps us prepare for the coming, or “advent” of the Christ child at Christmas. (The word “advent” comes from the Latin word that means “coming.”)

For hundreds of years, Christians have used an Advent wreath to inspire their hopes for the coming of Christ. By lighting candles and reading Bible verses, we are reminded about the meaning of "Emmanuel’s" birth and become more excited about his coming in the past, in the future, and in our own lives. 

Emmanuel means: "God is with us." 

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

1 O come, O come, Immanuel,

and ransom captive Israel

that mourns in lonely exile here

until the Son of God appear.

Refrain:

Rejoice! Rejoice! Immanuel

shall come to you, O Israel.

2 O come, O Wisdom from on high,

who ordered all things mightily;

to us the path of knowledge show

and teach us in its ways to go. 

3 O come, O come, great Lord of might,

who to your tribes on Sinai's height

in ancient times did give the law

in cloud and majesty and awe.  

4 O come, O Branch of Jesse's stem,

unto your own and rescue them!

From depths of hell your people save,

and give them victory o'er the grave.  

5 O come, O Key of David, come

and open wide our heavenly home.

Make safe for us the heavenward road

and bar the way to death's abode.  

6 O come, O Bright and Morning Star,

and bring us comfort from afar!

Dispel the shadows of the night

and turn our darkness into light.  

7 O come, O King of nations, bind

in one the hearts of all mankind.

Bid all our sad divisions cease

and be yourself our King of Peace.  

4TH SUNDAY OF ADVENT | MARY

Traditionally, the 4th Sunday of Advent is Mary Sunday. It is also called Rose Sunday, not only because Mary is associated with roses, but also because the colour of the Advent candle lightens from purple to rose. 

On that day Mary’s song is sung. The Magnificat, (Luke 1:46-55) is perhaps the earliest Advent hymn. In it Mary “magnifies” what God has done and will do. Like an aria in an opera, like a soliloquy in a play, the action almost stops and her message alone is centre stage.

The fourth Sunday of Advent is also called “stir-up Sunday”, the day when Anglicans gathered to stir up the Christmas pudding, which had to sit for several weeks. It also reflects the first two words of the collect (prayer): “STIR UP, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people…” 

The “stir up” theme is so appealing, because it is so easy to resort to predictable pattern of behaviour and thinking at Advent season that keep us in a comfortable but stunted state of spiritual growth.

Mary stirs things up — she is a stirrer!

The first part of the Magnificat is Mary’s joy and praise of God and God’s action in her life:

“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord: my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour…”

But it’s not the first part of the Magnificat that has caused it to be banned in several modern countries. It’s the second part:

      “He has scattered the proud in their conceit

       He has cast down the mighty from their thrones

       And has lifted up the lowly.

       He has filled the hungry with good things,

       And the rich he has sent away empty..."

During the British rule of India, the government prohibited the Magnificat from being publicly recited in churches. In the 1980’s, Guatemala’s government decided that Mary’s words about God’s preferential love for the poor were dangerous and revolutionary, in fact were stirring up the country’s impoverished masses, inspiring them to believe that change was possible. 

In 1983, the military junta of Argentina outlawed any pubic display of Mary’s song after the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo placed the Magnificat’s words on posters throughout the city – the same mothers whose children all had disappeared during the blood-soaked days of the Dirty War. In the 1930’s, Mary’s song was banned in Mexico and in Franco’s Spain.

Before being executed by the Nazis in 1933, the German Lutheran Dietrich Bonhoeffer said this: “The song of Mary is at once the most passionate, the wildest, one might even say the most revolutionary Advent hymn ever sung. This is not the gentle, tender, dreamy Mary whom we sometimes see in paintings. This song has none of the sweet, nostalgic or even playful tones of some of our Christmas carols. It is instead a hard, strong, inexorable song about the power of God and the powerlessness of humankind.” 

Once stirred up, the picture of Mary is far different than it seems first.

The Advent journey of Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem from Nazareth, was probably part of a caravan for safety, walking 112 kilometres miles through rough and dangerous terrain. Mary with a full-term pregnancy may not have had a donkey for her to ride.

The Smithsonian website says: “Some 20 years before the birth of Jesus, King Herod, the Roman-appointed governor of Judea, built a huge palace for himself near Bethlehem. The ruins still exist. It sits atop a slave-made mountain some seven stories, high. It became known as the Herodium and was the largest palatial complex in the Roman world. It is still accessible from any point in Bethlehem and was about three miles across the flat desert from the supposed site of the birthplace of Jesus.”

Mary and Joseph certainly were aware of this imposing structure as they entered Bethlehem. On a clear night, perhaps they could look up and see the light from the torches atop the hill. They would have seen the wealth and arrogance of the aristocracy looming over the poor peasants in the Bethlehem hamlet.

And Jesus Will be Born

Christ Child by Mike Chapman | Outside St Martins-in-the-Fields

This poem was taken from the December 2014 letter by British author Adrian Plass.It can be found in full on his website.

".... Crucially, there always was, always is, always will be Jesus, not just at Christmas time, but at every time and in every place where shadows threaten and sadness falls like a cloak, and failure seems inevitable. Over and over again, from now until the end of time, Jesus will be born...."

On Christmas day, the world will turn again towards its end

But Jesus will be born

A woman who has tried once more in vain to re-create the morning

Will find her spirit crushed at last by failures and defeats

Her grief will trail like tattered ribbons

Through apocalyptic streets

And Jesus will be born

A little child who cannot waste his tiny reservoir of moisture

On a thing as purely pointless as a tear

Will puzzle at the burning skies

Blank and empty as his mother's eyes

And wish beyond the point of fear

That darkness would descend

And Jesus will be born

And in some cold, sad cell a man will dream of blessed ordinariness

A walk, a meal, a smile, a book, the chance to feel

A trusting hand in his

Small and soft and folded like a flower in the night

Devastating innocence that promises redemption and has never lied

But will not save him from the morning and the hour

When heavy boots come marching down the corridor outside

And Jesus will be born

And in a hollow church a hollow priest

Dry and dusty as some jeweled chalice locked away for safety and for ever

Will sit and sigh and gather oddments, scraps of truth

Remnants of an old, forgotten dream

Ideas and words like autumn leaves made brittle by a year of death

And by the scorching summer sun

And feel once more so glad, and oh, so very, very sad

That those who delicately brush his sprinkled fragments from their Sunday-best

Will never hear the distant, panic-stricken scream

And Jesus will be born

At the corner of the street the image of the living God

Will hug herself against the cold

And smoke a friendly cigarette

And be prepared to greet success with weary resignation

Feebly lit by one of yesterday's recycled smiles

And struggle to forget what she was told

When someone was in charge and choices could be made

And there was hope

And Jesus will be born

Jesus will be born, yes he will

Though the night enfolds like a black shroud

And the liar's lies drive us from our peace

And take us from our beds

And bring us to our knees

On the cold stone tiles of the kitchen floor

Jesus will be born, yes he will

Yes, though the skies crack

And the heavens sway

And the heat dies in the earth's core

And the last stitch in the last ditch appears

When all is lost

A child's hand will reach out from the manger

A wounded hand will catch our tears and hold them safe

For Jesus will be born for evermore on Christmas day

ADVENT AT DIAMOND VALLEY BAPTIST CHURCH 2021

Advent speaks of Hope!

Our hope does not lie in the circles of this sad earth - but in a God who breaks through with strong arms to comfort and rescue.

Advent speaks of the first and second comings of Christ.  

We remember the Joy, the Hope, the Love and the Peace that Christmas brings.

And then,  as the New Year births  in summer glory, comes Epiphany and we remember the Light that can lead us all the way to the Saviour of the world.

For Advent there will be three separate opportunities to gather so as to give as many as possible an opportunity to connect through the four weeks of Advent.

The Advent Christmas series starts Sunday 28 November.

• 10am live gathering with NO numbers cap (but with proof of vaccination) 
• 10am Diamo Online for any who want to watch and comment (can also be enjoyed  with your small group through the week)
• 4pm live gathering WITH a numbers cap of of 50 attendees, pre-registered guests (undisclosed vaccination status)

Follow the link at 10am on Sunday to be part of the Diamo On-line Service: https://dvbc.online.church   

To view any of  our past DVBC Videos on Youtube, click on this link: https://bit.ly/2YjdDAh  

Check the weekly Enews-letter and the Diamond Valley Baptist Church Face-book page for updates.

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PLEASE NOTE CONDITIONS OF EACH EVENT

• 10am has NO numbers cap for attendees (With proof of vaccination). No Pre-registration needed.
• 4pm has a cap of 50 attendees (undisclosed vaccination status)
• Pre-register for 4pm gatherings via SMS 0409 667 008 or office@dvbc.net by preceding Friday
• Guests will need to QR Code in
• We will let you know if numbers limits or attendance conditions change
• Follow the link at 10am on Sunday if you wish to be part of the Diamo On-line Service: https://dvbc.online.church   
• To view any of  our past DVBC Videos on Youtube, click on this link: https://bit.ly/2YjdDAh  

Advent: Learning to Squint.

I read this thought provoking article about Advent by Kyle Childress posted on the Ekklesia Project website  HERE...

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Learning to Squint
BY KYLE CHILDRESS

26 NOV 2014   

First Sunday of Advent

Isaiah 64:1-9   Mark 13:24-37

When I was a boy I knew an old rancher whose face was permanently sunburned and lined from decades of living outside. People said he had a “perpetual squint.” Daylight or dark, indoors or out, he always looked like he was squinting, looking across some pasture for a stray cow in the face of glaring sun and blowing wind. Squinting, looking into the distance for so many years had shaped his face; it had shaped the way he looked at everything.

Walker Percy, tells in his novel Love in the Ruins and its sequel novel The Thanatos Syndrome about a small, remnant church out in the woods of Louisiana. They are fragile and exiled from the mainstream, conventional and successful American church. They have a small AIDS clinic where they care for the sick and dying and care for each other.

Their priest, Father Rinaldo Smith, is eccentric and helps pay the bills by hiring out as a fire-watcher. It is his job to climb the fire-tower by night and watch for forest fires below while he also looks “for signs and portents in the skies.” Throughout the two novels he’s always watching, squinting into the distance, looking for portents, looking for something.

Our readings are for the First Sunday of Advent. Advent, which means “coming,” is about the coming of Christ. It is about Christ coming in Bethlehem 2000 years ago but more, Advent is about Christ coming again sometime in the future. At the same time, it is about Christ coming again in renewal in our lives now, and coming into this present status-quo world. ... Rest of the article HERE

What Caravaggio's Unusual Nativity Scene Teaches About Christmas

Caravaggio's painting of the nativity is, in many ways, a familiar scene. Mary and Joseph sit beside the child Jesus, while an angel hovers above them. 

A shepherd leans on his staff, and an ox surveys the scene. But in an interesting twist, the artist also depicts two figures who are not mentioned in the Gospel -- largely because, at the time of Christ's birth, they were not yet born. 

One of the figures, St. Francis of Assisi, is depicted standing behind the holy family. He seems to have arrived in the traditional, brown Franciscan robes, his hands folded. The other figure, St. Lawrence, stands in the forefront in his gold-colored deaconate garb.