Rani Jha Sandhya - Traveling with Our Ancestors: An Advent Devotional

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Copyright 2021 by Sandhya Rani Jha

Bible quotations, unless marked otherwise, are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible , copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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A note from the author and a little plea for seven weeks of Advent

Im a member of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), but one of my favorite churches in this country is University Lutheran Chapel in Berkeley, California. They do justice right, and they do liturgy right. And I say that as someone who believes there are a million ways to do both justice and liturgy.

One of the reasons I fell in love with them is that as they deepened their relationship with refugees in their neighborhood, including undocumented refugees, they decided that to be more Christ-like, theyd need to turn one of the offices in their building into a mini-apartment of last refuge as ICE raids became more brutal and more prevalent. They worked out a plan with their local police, who were sympathetic to their mission. And throughout the process they studied scripture and prayed and worshiped as they sought guidance for their path forward.

I know, that story has nothing to do with Adventother than the fact that the holy family were refugees, and some of our spiritual ancestors in Egypt kept them safe until they could return home.

University Lutheran Chapel and their dynamic pastor, Rev. Jeff Johnson, also helped me fall in love with the ancient practice of seven weeks of Advent instead of four.

See, youve felt the same strain I have, I know it. The sense that secular Christmas and commercialism have crowded out the experience of Advent we long for: meditative, preparatory, mindful, and hopefully a little slowed down.

Back in the old days, Pastor Jeff explained to me, Advent was seven weeks long, just like Lent. The seasons mirrored each other, and they were both times of fasting, penitence, self-reflection, and preparationfor birth or for resurrection.

This is why there are seven verses in the often-sung O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, Pastor Jeff explainedone for the theme of each week of Advent.

According to my mother, thats why Advent includes Gaudete Sunday (also known as Rose Sunday or Joy Sunday) in the middle of Advent; for the practical reason that people were passing out from all the fasting and needed a snack to make it through the last two weeks of Advent. I mean, anyone can fast for four weeks, right? But seven weeks is too much. (That was a little joke. I do not encourage you to fast for four straight weeks, much less seven.)

For the liturgically-rich explanation, you can visit www.theadventproject.org , but University Lutheran Churchs learnings are enough for me:

• Instead of being limited to the story of a baby arriving, seven weeks allowed them to prepare for the Incarnation of Christ in a bigger wayGod already made manifest, God on Gods way, and the eschatalogical Second Coming that is actually in the lectionary during the last three weeks of Ordinary Time (the weeks before Advent).
• They added some apocalyptic texts into worship that they usually ignore, which allowed them to connect with the Cosmic Christ who we see manifest in the baby Jesus.
• Im going to quote Pastor Jeff directly here because its so good: We found it incredibly helpful because of late-stage capitalism. Seven weeks gives us a chance to get out in front of that. In other words, toy commercials cant drown out the spirit quite as easily.
• Congregants got to engage in the spiritual practice of waiting and anticipating, which is what we want Advent to be but rarely get to experience.

I told you why I fell in love with University Lutheran: the deep intersection between liturgy and justice. As Pastor Jeff says, Liturgical practice without activism can be deadly, or nostalgic. We see liturgical practice as a way into contextual engagementfalling in love with your neighborhood, with the street. The combination of comfort and challenge is essential.

As an example of this, in 2020 the church did a digital pilgrimage using the teachings of the African American mystic Howard Thurman as part of their practice. Congregants followed a virtual route in their neighborhood to walk from Howard Thurmans house to the Lands End lookout point in San Francisco. Journeying with a spiritual ancestor such as Thurman, even virtually, helped them feel less alone during the COVID mandate to shelter in place.

This year we may need a little more spiritual support to get us ready for Jesus birth. We have been through some really hard times. The experience of fear, isolation, uncertainty, loss, and griefits all still pumping through our veins. And my friends at University Lutheran understand that our ancestors have some tools we could use. They knew we deserved seven weeks of Advent as well as Lenthitting the reset button twice a year, in community, with prayers and songs to accompany us on the journey.

This Advent devotional is designed to introduce or reconnect you with some spiritual ancestors who will give you a hug of encouragement or a nudge out of complacency. They know something about how to get ready for new life. I hope they can help you on the way.

Maybe a seven-week Advent devotional is in our future, but for now this devotional only has devotions for the new tradition of four weeks of Advent...plus the twelve days of Christmas.

So here are the ancestors well get to hang out with during Advent and the twelve days of Christmas.

• On Sundays in Advent, well connect with a spiritual ancestor from the time when Jesus was getting ready to be born.
• On Mondays, well meet a more contemporary spiritual ancestor from somewhere else on the globe.
• On Tuesdays, well receive guidance from the monastics who lived in the deserts of northern Africa, the Middle East, and southern Europe, known as the Desert Mothers and Fathers.
• On Wednesdays, a spiritual ancestor from before the time of Jesus will offer some wisdom.
• On Thursdays, well encounter a more recent spiritual ancestor from the United States.
• On Fridays, well encounter our spiritual ancestors who helped start the church almost 2,000 years ago.
• On Saturdays well meet a spiritual companion whos not yet an ancestorbecause were also figuring out how to be better spiritual ancestors for our childrens children, and they might help us on our way.
• Then, during the twelve days of Christmas, well spend time connecting with spiritual ancestors who helped create greater inclusion and justice within my denomination, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Even if youre not a Disciple, these folks are your ancestors, too, because they worked for the sake of Jesus gospel message here in the United States.

In a year when we need a Prince of Peace more than ever, I hope our spiritual ancestors will help us prepare and ground ourselves.

Now go look up those seven antiphons of O Come, O Come, Emmanuel so our ancestors can start their work on our souls!

Here are some thoughts on how you could practice the three weeks of Advent before November 28.