SBP Advent Day 3 - Saint Benedict Parish

Winter Life

Read Isaiah 11:1-10, 1 Chronicles 17:11-14, & Matthew 1:1-6, 17

Light one candle and say together
Come Root of Jesse, stand and reclaim your people.
(Isaiah 11:10 & 11)

Reflection

There's something so beautiful about experiencing the seasons changing. Spring comes with signs of new life after a long, cold period. Summer is bright and inviting and warm. Autumn paints the world in new colours as the earth prepares for slumber. And then, there is winter with its quiet rest. Nothing seems to grow or thrive in winter. Everything is covered in a blanket of snow and those of us who live in colder climates know how much effort it takes to live our lives in the midst of this snow and ice.

It is interesting to note that in the northern hemisphere, Advent starts in "official" autumn and ends in "official" winter. Similar to what happens in nature during fall, during Advent we are meant to prepare. In our current day, we celebrate festivals of harvest (Thanksgiving) in autumn. Harvest recognizes that the earth will soon become inhospitable to growth, but it also provides for the physical needs of a population during the colder months. Due to less sunshine, the leaves on trees begin to change colour and fall off, making trees stronger for storms and preparing trees for new growth. Many animals eat and find warm places to sleep away a season while others start their migratory journeys to find winter places more suitable to their needs. Naturally, autumn is a time of preparation.

Advent, too, is about preparing. We obviously need to prepare for Christmas, but more importantly, we're invited to prepare for the new life that God promises through Jesus. So while the earth is preparing, we are too.

But then, right at the beginning of winter, after the longest night of the year, we celebrate that Jesus was born. We celebrate this in a season most known for being quiet and cold with few signs of life, yet we celebrate the birth of Life that brings new life to all.

There's a prophecy of Jesus in the Old Testament that refers to Him as a "shoot" growing out of the "stump of Jesse". Jesse refers to King David's father. God made a covenant - an unbreakable promise - with King David to bring a Messiah, a Saviour from one of David's descendants, and that through the lineage of David, there would be a kingdom that would endure forever. When Isaiah was speaking of this “root of Jesse”, he was giving hope to the people that a Messiah was still coming to take over David's kingly throne and rule in a way that would make everything better. At the time, it felt like this promise was just about dead. This promise felt like a big tree that had been cut down. All that was remaining was a stump. But the promise was not dead. Speaking through Isaiah, God was promising that what looked dead was still alive and that a new branch would begin to grow from that cut-down stump.

And now, thousands of years later, we realize that God did in fact send a Saviour into the world who was a descendant of David and who would rule eternally. And so we celebrate the birth of that King in our winter-time; a time when signs of life are hard to find. Yet, even when everything appears dead, we can have hope that God is still working. We can have hope that life is waiting to burst forth under all the snow and from the nearly-dead tree stumps. God’s promises did and still will prevail.

Reflect and Discuss

How are you preparing during Advent? What are you preparing for?
In what parts of your life do you wish for more signs of life? Ask God to bring signs of hope and new life to those places.

Pray
God of Life, may your favour fall on us like rain upon our surrendered lives, like showers reviving the earth. May we see your promises and answered prayers spring forth even among the dead of winter.
Amen.

Advent in Action
Go for a walk. Consider how the world is preparing for winter like you are preparing in Advent. Look for signs of life, even as trees are bare and temperatures are cold.

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