Shining Light, Enfolding Dark
Advent is a season not only to prepare for the coming of Christ, but also to become more aware of God’s incarnate presence in the world.
That is also the story of the Eucharist, where we encounter the Holy in ways that we can see, touch, and taste. As Christians, our faith lives revolve around the body of Christ: a body born, a body destroyed and raised again, a body taken, blessed, broken, and given.
For Advent this year, our Sunday liturgies feature Eucharistic prayers that you may be experiencing for the first time. At the 9:00 AM Abundant Table liturgy we are using Eucharistic Prayers written by the Rev. Sam Wells, Rector of St. Martin’s in the Fields, London. In them we set our communion feast in the context of a salvation that is ever unfolding, woven through the future, past and present:
God of the future and the past, you promised that all flesh shall see your salvation: show us the salvation you bring through the flesh and blood of your only Son. As your prophets heralded his saving glory, sanctify your church for his promised coming.
For our 8:00 AM and 11:15 AMM services we are using, for the first time at Trinity, a version of Eucharistic Prayer C that was approved for use at last summer’s General Convention. Well-loved (or in some cases, not so much) as the “star wars prayer” for its references to “galaxies and planets in their courses”, and “this fragile earth, our island home,” Prayer C is offered with both inclusive language and a dialogic setting:
At your command all things came to be: shining light and enfolding dark; the vast expanse of interstellar space, galaxies, suns, and this fragile earth, our island home. By your will they were created and have their being.
You may notice that “shining light and enfolding dark” is a new phrase. In recognizing that light and dark are both gifts from God, we repent of our tendency to equate “dark” with evil or bad in a way that sadly aligns with racial bias. In ‘cleaning it up,’ we now have something even more beautiful.
Though the Advent wreath and a visit from St. Nicholas may be what you’re most excited about in church this Advent, I invite you, through the drama of the liturgy told in songs and prayers like these, into the deeper story of this holy season.
Faithfully,
The Very Rev. Bernard J. Owens