Journaling Group redux

on sunday nights the thinplace journaling group gathers for lectio divina and dessert. this past sunday night was week 2 of advent (see sunday's post) and we listened to and journaled from luke 1:26-38. the annunciation passage...gabriel telling mary she will be the mother of jesus. the hand out is below...

prior to thanksgiving, we each drew a name from the stable...a name of one of the "characters"/participants in the story of jesus birth. we carried this name around with us and pondered
how jesus birth affected this person. we were asked to see the story from this person's perspective even if we thought we knew it already.  i had joseph and i've posted about joseph before. rob and kyle both had elizabeth (john the baptist's mom).  in our discussion before and after the lectio we realized just how important elizabeth is to the story of jesus birth. she enables mary to receive the news from gabriel and she confirms its validity and most likely helped mary embrace the reality of all the details of pregnancy and motherhood.  elizabeth and her baby first acknowledge mary as the mother of our lord!

after listening to the luke passage, i had many, many thoughts while journaling, first i realized how few questions mary asked gabriel and how many more i would have asked. i always want or seem to need more clarity when God speaks to me or asks me to do something. i want all the details and not just the general stuff! the words that the holy spirit highlighted for me were "You will conceive and give birth"  that's powerful to me because God promised to bring the birth to completion, to fruition...not just conception and a miscarriage or a death...but a birth and a new life!  that's a big deal considering how many babies and mothers died in child birth back then.

for me this is powerful because it's God's promise that he will birth the dreams he's conceived in me. they are not just seeds or hopes, they will have life! and HE DID this! he conceived these dreams and he will make them come alive!  that's something i needed to hear.

after journaling we had an amazingly open discussion about mary, everything from the reality or not of the virgin birth to the fact that in reading this passage i had actually thought about my friends who'd experienced rape and how this holy event might be heard in a very different way if one had been sexually abused. 

we talked about how jesus birth changed everything in mary's world and how God gives us unexpected gifts.  some we didn't expect and some we really didnt' want, yet they are all gifts from our Lord.

we closed our time by each receiving a small red gift box with a bow on it. this gift box was to remind us of the gifts God wants to give us. we are to keep these out this week and throughout advent to remind us of all the gifts God has given us and all the ones we need to receive from Him.  Are we willing to thank him and are we really willing to receive from God this Advent?

our closing prayer is below.

Week 2: the Candle of Faith…the Candle of Preparation…the
Bethlehem Candle

The entire Christmas story is about Interruptions….and how people
Responded to these God gifts of interruption.
Think about the interruptions you’ve had in your life ….Today, This Week, This Month, This Year….

LUKE 1
 26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee, 27 to a virgin named Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David. 28 Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you![d]”
 29 Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean. 30 “Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God! 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. 32 He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. 33 And he will reign over Israel[e] forever; his Kingdom will never end!”
 34 Mary asked the angel, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin.”
 35 The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God. 36 What’s more, your relative Elizabeth has become pregnant in her old age! People used to say she was barren, but she’s now in her sixth month. 37 For nothing is impossible with God.[f]”
 38 Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” And then the angel left her.


Are you willing to receive the gift of interruption?
Are we wiling to allow Go d to interrupt our plans, our ways, our hopes
And even our dreams?
Are we willing to be willing?



Closing prayer (prayed together)
Prepare us Lord God for your coming.
Open our Hearts
Open our Minds
Help us to prepare a place for you.
Open us to the gifts you have for us.
Even the gifts we don’t expect.
In your name. AMEN