Advent is a season of hope and expectation. It is a season in which we “prepare the way of the Lord” (Mark 1:3). Advent candles, wreaths and calendars are joined with as-yet unfinished nativity scenes to mark our preparations for the birth of Jesus Christ. This year, ELCA World Hunger’s Advent Study celebrates this season with reflections focused on the preparation of the people of God for the work of the new year – the work of feeding, clothing, accompanying and advocating with our neighbors for a just world in which all are fed.

The four sessions of this Advent Study and the accompanying Advent calendar are based on the Scripture readings for each week of Advent. Each week includes a meditation on the theme, reflection questions, a prayer and hymn suggestions.

May you, your family and your community be blessed this season to see the important role the people of God are called to play in God’s transformation of the world – as individuals, as families and as the church together.

We begin at the end, and we will end at the beginning. What an odd way to go through Advent! We enter this season of expectation of Jesus’ birth and the advent of his ministry, only to start by hearing the words of Jesus describing the end of days. In a few weeks, we will celebrate the beginning of Jesus’ incarnate life among us.

We begin at the end, and we will end at the beginning.

The heavy thumb of Roman rule, high taxes and widespread vulnerability to poverty were all part of everyday life in first century Palestine. The people among whom Jesus would be born were eager for the Messiah who would deliver them. And there was no shortage of “false messiahs” (Mark 13:22) claiming to offer salvation. Some promised military victory over the Romans. Others claimed gifts of magical power and prophesied re-taking the temple.

And yet, here, in the Gospel of Mark, the true Messiah comes offering a very different story. The people of God will not ride triumphantly into Jerusalem – they will “flee to the mountains” (13:14). They will not re-take Jerusalem and its temple – “all will be thrown down” (13:2b).

But “after that suffering” (13:24)…

In the end…

Of all the Gospels, Mark is perhaps the most honest about suffering. Facing persecution at the hands of Rome, early Christians needed a message that was honest about suffering. More than that, they needed to know that God was honest about their suffering. In Mark, Jesus does not hold back in naming that suffering. The Messiah is born into suffering. The people will face suffering. He himself will suffer.

This wasn’t a newsflash to first century Jews any more than it is to the millions of people today for whom suffering is a mournful part of life – those who know the pangs of food insecurity, those who long for clean water, those who grieve the loss of their homes or their jobs. The idea that suffering is a part of life is sadly nothing new to so many of us. But Jesus makes clear two things that transform how we understand suffering. First, God knows our suffering. And, second – God rejects it.

The “great buildings” (13:2) in Jerusalem, which occasioned the beginning of Jesus’ long speech in Mark 13, were not merely beautiful examples of architecture. They were symbols of the powers and principalities that maintained systems of oppression and marginalization and would eventually carry Jesus to the cross. They seem imperishable, unshakable, overwhelming.

But the world is about to turn. And those walls are coming down.

Advent is a season of hope and expectation, but with Jesus’ exhortation in Mark 13:33 (“Beware, keep alert”), we move from “Advent as anticipation” to “Advent as active alert.” As we await the birth of the Messiah, let Advent be a season not of patience but impatience, not of passivity but activity, seeking out those places where God is already at work undoing systems of suffering and living in the daring confidence founded on faith in the promised end of suffering, sin and death.

Reflection questions

1. How has God been present with you in your suffering?
2. Where do you see suffering in the world today? How are people of faith actively working to end it?
3. As people of faith who believe God rejects suffering, how are we called to respond to suffering in the world?
4. What is the difference between patient anticipation and being on “active alert” during Advent?

Prayer

Loving God, in your incarnation, you took on to yourself our humanity and our suffering. Be present with us today as we face the pain of hunger, thirst, war, disease and neglect. Keep fresh in our hearts your promise of an end to suffering and an eternity of well-being with you. Send us out among our neighbors, that we may share with them your promise and share with you in the transformation of our world. In the name of your son, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Hymn suggestions

Canticle of the Turning ELW 723

The People Walk (Un pueblo que camina) ELW 706

Each Winter as the Year Grows Older ELW 252

To download this entire study, or to see some of our other congregational resources, please visit www.elca.org/Resources/ELCA-World-Hunger.

This Advent season is an opportunity to reflect on what faithful advocacy means. Join the ELCA Advocacy in our Advent Devotions Series. Please share with friends and family.

This weeks devotional is given by Tammy Walhof. She works at Lutheran Advocacy – Minnesota.

The lectionary readings for this Sunday are:

1. Isaiah 2:1-5
2. Psalm 122
3. Romans 13:11-14
4. Matthew 24:36-44

Blessings

The story of Advent is a story of hunger—a people’s hunger for salvation, the fleeing holy family’s hunger for safety, and the world’s hunger for a new day. It is a season when we await the one who will “give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death” (Luke 1:79a).  Advent hope draws us into the world as people of promise, people for whom the “shadow of death” cast by deep hunger and poverty around the world is not God’s final word to God’s people. In Advent, we reflect on how far the Lord has led us and how far we have yet to go toward a world in which all are fed.  As we prepare for the arrival of God’s Son, this season offers an important opportunity to reflect on the mystery and excitement of the promise from God.

This Advent, we invite you to journey with ELCA World Hunger through the scripture readings for this season. This study takes us through each week of Advent with devotions based on the lectionary, questions for reflection, prayers and hymn suggestions. The study can be used as a guide for worship, adult study forums or personal devotions at home. Blessings related to our church’s response to hunger and poverty are also included.

Each week’s theme:

• Shared vulnerability (Matthew 24)
• The “good fruit” of repentance (Matthew 3)
• Care for creation (Matthew 11; Isaiah 35)
• Finding God in unexpected places (Matthew 1)

The Advent study is available for download in English here (http://download.elca.org/ELCA%20Resource%20Repository/WH_Advent%20Study.pdf?_ga=1.241313474.1341912399.1476461047).

Questions, comments or feedback on the resource can be directed to hunger@ELCA.org. For more ELCA World Hunger resources, visit ELCA.org/Hunger/Resources.

May you and your community be blessed, enriched and challenged by this Advent resource, and may the stirrings of the season take root within you.

La historia del Adviento es una historia de hambre—el hambre de salvación de un pueblo, el hambre de seguridad de la sagrada familia y el hambre de un nuevo amanecer del mundo. Es una época en la que esperamos a aquél que dará “luz a los que viven en tinieblas, en la más terrible oscuridad” (Lucas 1:79a). La esperanza del Adviento nos introduce en el mundo como un pueblo de promesa, para el que “la más terrible oscuridad” proyectada por el hambre y la pobreza profunda en todo el mundo no es la última palabra de Dios para su pueblo. En el Adviento reflexionamos sobre qué tan lejos nos ha guiado el Señor y qué tan lejos nos queda aún por avanzar hacia un mundo en el que todos sean alimentados. Mientras nos preparamos para la llegada del Hijo do Dios, esta temporada ofrece una importante oportunidad para reflexionar sobre el misterio y emoción de la promesa de Dios.

Este Adviento, te invitamos a un recorrido junto con el Programa de la ELCA para Aliviar el Hambre Mundial a través de las lecturas de las Escrituras para esta temporada. Este estudio nos lleva por cada una de las semanas del Adviento con devocionales basados en el leccionario, preguntas para la reflexión, oraciones y sugerencias de himnos. El estudio puede servir como guía para la adoración, en foros de estudio para adultos o para devocionales personales en el hogar. También se incluyen las bendiciones relacionadas con la respuesta de nuestra iglesia al hambre y la pobreza.

El tema de cada semana:

• Vulnerabilidad compartida (Mateo 24)
• El “buen fruto” del arrepentimiento (Mateo 3)
• El cuidado de la creación (Mateo 11; Isaías 35)
• Dios en lugares inesperados (Mateo 1)

Este estudio está disponible en español. Puedes descargar la versión en español aquí (http://download.elca.org/ELCA%20Resource%20Repository/WH_Advent_Study_esp.pdf?_ga=1.241435074.1341912399.1476461047).

Las preguntas, comentarios o sugerencias sobre el recurso se pueden dirgir a Hunger@ELCA.org. Para consultar más recursos sobre el Programa de la ELCA para Aliviar el Hambre Mundial, visita ELCA.org/Hunger/Resources.

Que tú y tu comunidad sean bendecidos, enriquecidos y desafiados por este recurso de Adviento, y que el espíritu de esta época se arraigue en sus corazones.