Advent 1
Waiting and Hope:
God with us in expectation
Readings
- Isaiah 2:1–5
- Psalm 122
- Romans 13:11–14
- Matthew 24:36–44
Suggested Hymns
O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
Rejoice and Sing 126 / Complete Mission Praise 493
Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus
Rejoice and Sing 138 / Complete Mission Praise 102
Opening Prayer
God of promise and of presence,
In the shadows and silences You come to us.
Awaken our hearts to Your coming light;
Teach us to wait with hope and to trust Your timing.
May our expectation make room for Your grace.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Reflection
Advent begins in the darkness of longing — a season of waiting for light, justice, and deliverance. Isaiah’s vision invites us to long for peace and justice, imagining nations streaming to the mountain of the Lord. Psalm 122 continues the hope of peace and harmony. In Romans, Paul urges wakefulness — recognising that God’s kingdom is both coming and present. Matthew’s Gospel underscores the unpredictability of God’s appearing: “Keep awake, for you do not know the day or the hour.”
This wakefulness is not anxious vigilance but active hope — a posture of attention to God’s movement in the world. Waiting on God is not idle; it is choosing to live as though God’s future is already dawning.
Hope is not optimism; it is faith stretched toward what is not yet visible. To wait for Emmanuel is to trust that even in uncertainty, God is already near — hidden, gestating, coming to birth in unexpected and ordinary places. Advent invites us to cultivate this readiness, allowing expectation to shape how we live in the now.
Discussion Questions
- What does “waiting on God” mean in your own life?
- How does hope shape the way we live day to day?
- In what ways are we tempted to live as though God is not with us?
Artwork Meditation
Artwork: The Annunciation – Henry Ossawa Tanner (1898)
Tanner’s The Annunciation reimagines one of Christianity’s most familiar scenes with striking humanity. The Archangel Gabriel appears not as a winged figure but as a column of radiant light before Mary — a young woman seated in a modest, shadowed room. Tanner’s realism, shaped by his Paris training and African-American heritage, lends the scene an immediacy that transcends sentimentality.
Painted at the turn of the twentieth century, the work reflects Tanner’s deep faith and his subtle challenge to cultural norms. In an era when religious art was often idealised and European, Tanner portrays Mary as Middle Eastern, humble, and real — a young woman holding the tension between fear and courageous consent.
The muted palette and confined setting evoke a world poised between darkness and dawn. The angel’s light — diffuse yet commanding — suggests divine presence not as spectacle but as gentle intrusion into ordinary life. Holiness is shown woven through the small and familiar: the textures of Mary’s robe, the simplicity of the room, the quiet pause before her “yes.”
Tanner’s composition becomes a theology of hope. God’s coming breaks into the everyday, meeting us within our limits and longing. In a society marked by race, empire, and the upheavals of modernity, Tanner boldly proclaims that divine encounter comes to ordinary people in ordinary rooms. Faith is portrayed not as certainty but as readiness. Mary’s quiet attentiveness becomes our model for Advent waiting.
Spiritual Practice
Exercise: “Waiting in the Light”
Preparation (2–3 minutes):
You are Invited to sit in silence before this image of Tanner’s Annunciation.
Begin with deep breaths. Notice the contrasts: the ordinary room, the extraordinary light, Mary poised between the two.
Guided Contemplation (5–7 minutes):
Focus on the space between the angel’s light and Mary’s stillness. Notice the gentleness of the light. Attend to Mary’s posture — not retreating, but open.
Pause between these questions:
- What feelings arise as you gaze at this moment of waiting? Consider resistance, longing, fear, or hope.
- Where might God’s light be quietly entering your own ordinary places?
- What makes it difficult to remain attentive to God’s presence in the everyday?
- In silence, imagine saying with Mary, “Let it be to me according to your word.” What would this consent mean today?
Personal Response (3–5 minutes):
Please be encouraged to journal or sit with one word or image that emerged.
Optional Weeklong Practice — Advent Attentiveness:
Each day, choose one ordinary moment — having coffee, commuting, folding laundry — and approach it as a space where God might meet you. Notice what shifts when the mundane becomes expectant.
Closing Prayer
Light a single candle and pray:
O God of the dawn,
In our waiting, kindle Your light.
May hope rise in us like morning,
Until we see Your promise fulfilled
In Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, God with us.
Amen.
Invitation
You are invited to carry one insight or question into the week.
Advent waiting does not end here — it infuses each moment with watchfulness and hope.