The Work of Waiting
Advent is a season of waiting, and a reminder that the church lives as a people in waiting. We anticipate Jesus’ arrival and the fullness of His reign, with all the goodness, peace, justice, and healing that entails. We live in expectancy, in a posture of trust, humility, and heightened readiness. This does not come naturally to us. We are not very good at waiting. Adopting a posture of waiting takes intention and practice. As we begin the seek to be an embassy of God’s goodness, blessing, and peace in Austin, and especially this season, my hope is that we can practice this posture, as Church of the Cross, both personally and corporately.
Happily our Anglican heritage provides us with resources that can help us to wait upon the Lord. Here are two you might consider stepping into this season:
Compline
Compline is in many ways the easiest of the prayer services in the Book of Common Prayer to engage in. It done at the close of the day, right before one goes to bed, and provides space for confession, praying a Psalm, and has space for silence or extemporaneous prayers. It is perfect for waiting upon God, listening for His voice and presence, let’s do this together this season! We’ve done compline a few times together over the past months, and I wanted to encourage us to use every Monday evening to pray this service in our homes as we bed down. This way, even as we are alone, we can be waiting together, across Austin, leaning into expectancy of Christ.
Quiet Day
On Saturday, December 19th space at 2011 Singing Brook, 78723 will be open from 9am to Noon for prayer, stillness and silence in the midst of this busy season. We’ll do morning and noonday prayer together, and the rest of our time will be spent in stillness and rest.
In the Advent devotional I’ve been using I came across this prayer, it captures so much of what I want for myself and for us as we begin, as we wait upon the Lord.
“Enlarge our vision, strengthen our resolve, and increase our sense of Your all-sufficient grace, that we might be used mightily for Your glory and for the serving of Your world; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”
Yes! Come Lord Jesus.
Peter+