WILD BIRTH: Advent 2021 Reflection Guide
In a time of unprecedented death, chaos, transition, and turmoil, many of us have recognized that we cannot go back to “normal.” We are longing for the birth of something new. Yet birth never happens the way that we would expect. It is messy and disruptive, it is full of surprises and surrender. Birthing new life means giving up control.
Birth is wild.
This Advent, our church will be exploring the mystery of Incarnation through the Gospel of Luke, making room for the wild birth of Jesus while also anticipating the new world that comes alive through him.
Each week, we will meditate on various encounters that prepared the way for Jesus’ birth, and explore how the coming of Jesus reveals invites us to the emergence of newness in our own lives, particularly in disruptive, surprising, and messy ways. These themes include:
- WEEK 1: Birthed in Disruption
- WEEK 2: Birthed in Surrender
- WEEK 3: Birthed in Community
- WEEK 4: Birthed in Mess
To go along with our series, our church has created a multivalent Advent experience that explores the themes of WILD BIRTH, including interactive Advent boxes that will help individuals create a “sacred spot” at home for the Advent season and explore the themes of in a holistic and embodied way.
The boxes are for mainly for church use, but if you’d like to access the reflections, prayers, and suggested activities for each week of Advent, you can access the guide for free online here.
May you be blessed richly in this Advent season! Here’s one of the prayers from our Advent guide, from our first week’s reflection on Elizabeth and Zechariah.
A PRAYER FOR DISRUPTION THIS ADVENT:
God of disruption, You are always doing new things, stretching our capacity for the unexpected. Just as you stretched Elizabeth’s womb to bear a New Way, teach us to pay attention to where new life grows. Turn our attention to the margins- unexpected people and hidden places- as we watch what society deems as infertile be transformed into sites of new life. Remind us of your upside down kin-dom, so we do not miss out on your work in this world.
Amen.
