Advent Season Week One • A Lament to Hope
LOOKING TO THE SECOND ADVENT
Traditionally, the first two weeks of advent are for lament and looking to the second coming of Christ, and the last two weeks are looking to the first advent, the incarnation and birth of our Savior. This year, we will follow this pattern. Lament is a prayer of grief expressed toward God. It can be confessional or a way of expressing grief, sadness or confusion to the Lord. We will include prayers of lament and rejoicing we invite you to participate in this advent season.
“In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his resting place will be glorious. In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the surviving remnant of his people…” — Isaiah 11:10-11a
As the days grow darker, it seems to echo the realities that we live in. We wake to darkness, we leave our homes in darkness, by dinnertime, the darkness has fallen again. The darkness is all around us. We see it as we turn on the news and the light from the TV glares hopelessness through news of nuclear threats, children being torn from their homes, women oppressed and abused. We see it in our families, children walking away from Christ in the name of love, marriages broken. You don’t have to look far to see the despair and hopelessness that could so easily take root in all of our hearts.
The invitation at the beginning of this advent season is to lament the brokenness of the world around us. Scripture tells us that all of creation is groaning as in the pains of childbirth (Romans 8:22). Labor groans are deep. They’re guttural and almost unstoppable. There is actual research that shows the deeper and more guttural the groans of a laboring woman, the more relaxed and smooth the birthing process can be. The hope of a woman laboring is as she feels each painful contraction, there is life on the other side. So it is fitting for Paul to use this as an example. As followers of Christ we grieve, we groan with creation, but through those groans, deep and guttural as they may be, when we use them to draw us to lament, we are lead to our one, unshakable Hope (Ps. 102:27). And as we pilgrim on this side of heaven, our hope is that, as Isaiah 11 states, “The Lord will reach out his hand a second time and reclaim the surviving remnant.” Our hope is that our Savior came once into darkness and he will come again into our darkness. This time to gather his remnant and bring them to his glorious resting place where the lion and the lamb rest peacefully, where the present suffering we face pales in comparison to the glory that awaits, and into all eternity he will wipe away every tear and his dwelling place will be with his people. This is our resolute hope in the darkness:
He has come and he will come again.
A PRAYER OF LAMENT:
Lord God, we long for the coming of your kingdom in Jesus Christ, our Lord. We lament before you the signs that your kingdom has not come in fullness.
We lament signs of brokenness in the community of nations and the wars breaking out across our world.
[silence]
We lament that Christians are persecuted because they profess the name of Jesus.
[silence]
Sing: "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.”
We lament the divorce and breakdown of marriage in so many we know.
[silence]
We lament that many of our family, friends and coworkers have chosen to ignore or disown the gospel of Christ.
[silence]
Sing: "O come, O Come, Immanuel, and ransom captive Israel that mourns in lonely exile here until the Son of God appear."
We lament racism.
[silence]
We lament the physical and emotional abuse of children and spouses in homes.
[silence]
We lament loss of innocent lives.
[silence]
Sing: "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."
With resolute hope, despite our sadness, we sing with the angels and all the people of God:
Sing: "Rejoice! Rejoice! Immanuel shall come to you, O Israel. Amen.”
*Adapted from Reformed Worship’s Advent Prayer