Dear friend:

We enter this Advent season with uncertainty. In this time of economic crisis and ongoing war, many of our church members are experiencing a darkness into which they hope God’s light will shine. The election of a new president and Congress invites hope for some and apprehension for others. And the perceived need for financial restraint may mean that this Christmas will be defined by something other than what we buy or receive.

Perhaps this uncertainty will invite a new attentiveness to the themes of Advent. Perhaps we will be more prepared to identify with those who yearn for hope and deliverance. Perhaps we will even be ready to be surprised and overwhelmed by the extravagant love of the One who is God-With-Us.

We offer to you this month’s edition of Bread for the Preacher in hopes of providing you a few opportunities to make the connection between Advent hope and the needs of a hungry world. And we pray that you, too, will be surprised by the great joy that accompanies the news of Jesus’ coming.



Advent and Christmas blessings,

Gary Cook
Director of Church Relations

Lectionary Reflections 

• November 30, First Sunday of Advent
  ...Isaiah’s desperate cry for God’s intervention in the life of the world seems harsh amidst the promises of beauty and peace of the Advent/Christmas season. It is not what congregations want to hear. Sweet babies and caring shepherds are more to their liking. Yet the Advent season begins in lament, in pain, in feelings of abandonment, in longing. (read more)

• December 7, Second Sunday of Advent
  ...Those of us who seek to follow Jesus Christ can easily become assimilated to our culture. How easy to be caught up in the need for financial security, for power, and prestige. Advertising creates consumerism. But our challenge is to live “in” but not “of” the culture, seeking to live God’s way, not the more comfortable way the culture offers. (read more)

• December 14, Third Sunday of Advent
  ...The Jubilee tradition that Isaiah and Jesus re-appropriate is a clear call to mission for the Church today. It contains the vision for being and doing. Just as Jesus incarnates the Jubilee tradition, the same words challenge today’s Church, as Christ's Body, to re-appropriate this radical understanding of life in community. (read more)

• December 21, Fourth Sunday of Advent
  ...Those engaged in ministries of social justice often wrestle with tension. The desire for justice is a healthy response to a biblical understanding of God’s desire for justice, but can there be self-serving elements there too? Government officials take office with intentions of working for justice but are soon co-opted by the demands of their constituency. Congregations find giving charity much easier than advocating for systemic change. (read more)

• December 24, Christmas Eve
  ...What “the kingdom of God” means has been a mystery to many people, but these are the five, and perhaps seven, scriptural marks of the kingdom: salvation/deliverance, justice/righteousness, light/spirit, joy and peace... healing and return from exile. (read more)

• December 25, Christmas Day
  ...Christmas is not a sentimental story. It is the historical drama of God’s coming and being present to those oppressed and depressed, those poor and marginalized, those who need justice and righteousness and peace and who need God’s presence and God’s deliverance. The joy is real; it is presence in the midst of humble reality. (read more)

• December 28, First Sunday after Christmas
  ...The ways in which parents bless their children and what they bless them for are so utterly important to the children and to their contribution to the lives of others whom they touch. (read more)

• December 31, New Year’s Eve
  Here it is-the premier text for Christians concerned about hunger! It hardly requires exposition, only faithfulness. What is it doing here amidst the revelry of New Year’s Eve and the sleepiness of New Year’s Day? (read more)

Praying Together

God of patience and love, we yearn for you; we long for your justice. Grant us patience and perseverance as we work among your people, as we seek justice for the hungry and oppressed. Be with those who are treated unjustly, those who are often the forgotten among us, give them hope of your promise and presence. In name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, amen.

Bulletin Inserts

Every year in the days leading up to Christmas there is an air of joy and a spirit of giving that permeates the United States. However, this spirit associated with Advent and Christmas is not something we should do for just one month out of the year. As Christians we are called to remember the oppressed and marginalized, to help the hungry and poor, to continue Christ’s work in the world. This month’s bulletin insert incorporates the themes of Advent with hunger and poverty awareness, providing opportunities for learning and reflection, as well as giving. This bulletin insert can be viewed and printed online. (read more) 

Intergenerational Activity

One way to involve your whole congregation is to make your own Christmas cards this year! Plan a card-making party that includes children/youth as well as adults. Involve your own family, a Sunday School class, a youth group, a women's or men's group. The cards can be as simple as using cut outs from last year's cards arranged and mounted on new paper with a little sprinkle of glitter. Or you might try a simple silk screen or block print. Whichever design is selected, use this opportunity to encourage the card-makers to send a greeting to their newly elected (or re-elected) members of Congress. Adults can write notes to insert in the cards, reminding senators and representatives that anti-hunger and poverty legislation is important to you.

Resources for Your Ministry

Visit www.bread.org for additional liturgical resources for the Advent and Christmas seasons.
Bread for the World Institute has issued the web version of its 2009 Hunger Report: Global Development, Charting a New Course. Learn about progress toward meeting the Millennium Development Goals, the challenges of the global hunger crisis, and the changes needed in U.S. Foreign Assistance at www.hungerreport.org.