Connected While Apart
Advent/Christmas 2020 — “Awake to Invitation”

Awake to Invitation:  Advent/Christmas 2020

So many invitations we have offered or received this year have ended up in the pile of the postponed or the cancelled.  Even if invitations are still out there, we hesitate to note them in our calendars because the weeks of when the expected does not happen are still underway.  As that continues to occur, we are entering a new church year.  Poet David Whyte has suggested that right now is a time to listen for different invitations.  In the upcoming weeks, we will turn to some of the ancient but ever fresh invitations of our faith story.  In the mystery of incarnation, God-With-Us, those invitations can come to light for us and through us that we might become the gift of an invitational presence in the world.  Living such an invitational presence is a gift for which the world aches.

How silently,
how silently
the wondrous gift is given.

I would be silent now,
Lord,
and expectant…
            that I may receive
                        the gift I need,
                                    so I may become
                                                the gift others need.  (Ted Loder)

Advent Candles
Traditionally in Advent, we light candles in a wreath. This year with a focus on possible faith invitations coming to light within us, I invite you week after week to form a circle of light around wherever you sit with our reflection and worship resources.  Before using the Advent 1 material, position a candle or several candles encircling you from four locations in the room.  As the light grows each week with the flames of more candles lit, you will become the light’s center, embedded in the season’s promise, symbolizing invitations you’ve received, invitations leading you to birth and to join the Christ presence in the world.  Leave your candles in place all season long.

Carols
Beginning with Advent 2, December 6, and continuing through Advent 4, December 20, Jen will record three carols for you to sing with her and virtually with the Mayfield community, a prelude so to speak for the weekly reflection and worship time. You can sing them again and again during the week too.

Advent/Christmas Invitations

Advent 1 — November 29 — The Invitation to Readiness.
Advent 2 — December 6 — The Invitation to Accept the Help That Is Already Ripening for Us.  This is a Communion Sunday.  Remember to have your elements prepared ahead.
Advent 3 — December 13 — The Invitation to Enter the Pattern of the Tides
Advent 4 — December 20 — The Invitation to a Broadened Sense of Self and Reality
Christmas Eve — December 24 — The Invitation to Bring Our Deep Grain of Love to the Surface
First Sunday after Christmas — December 27 — The Invitation to New Horizons with Questions that Enlarge Us

I am indebted to poet David Whyte for much of the language in our invitations.
Peace, Martha