Advent Litany: Upside Down Victory

Here’s a litany (or even call to worship) for Advent from Katherine Hawker’s Liturgies Outside website.

Advent Litany
(incorporating Zephaniah 3: 17-18, Jeremiah 33: 15, Baruch 5: 7, Malachi 5: 4-5)

The LORD, your God, is in your midst,
a warrior who gives victory;
he will rejoice over you with gladness,
he will renew you in his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing
as on a day of festival. (Zephaniah 3:17-18)

Yet ours is an upside down victory.

In those days and at that time
I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David;  
and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. (Jeremiah 33:15)

Ours is a story of power in humility.

For God has ordered that every high mountain
and the everlasting hills be made low
and the valleys filled up,to make level ground,
so that Israel may walk safely in the glory of God. (Baruch 5:7)

Ours is a story of strength in vulnerability.

And he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the LORD,
in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God.
And they shall live secure,
for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth;
and he shall be the one of peace. (Micah 5:4-5)

Ours is a story of a baby deemed king,
of a carpenter's son praying alone,
of a Roman execution.

The Lord, our God, is in our midst.
May we have eyes to see and ears to hear.
Amen.

~ written by Katherine Hawker. Posted on Liturgies Outside. http://liturgyoutside.net/