A Star Wars Advent Candle Liturgy

Advent Candle Lighting Year A

A Star Wars-referencing (though subtle enough that non-Star Wars fans won’t feel anything is
amiss) set of Advent Candle lighting litanies for Year A in the Revised Common Lectionary.
Each week has 2 or 3 references – can you find them?

First Sunday in Advent

*Advent Candle Lighting

Reader 1: Today is the first Sunday of Advent, so we light the first candle on our Advent
wreath: the candle of Hope.

Reader 2: Twenty-five centuries ago, in a time not much different than our own, when the
Israelites had little hope for the future of their country or their people, the Jewish
prophets called to God to come to the people and make things right. They told the
people—and us—that a messiah would come as a new hope in the midst of
suffering.

Reader 1: Their prayers were answered with the birth of Jesus, also called Emmanuel, a
Hebrew word which means “God is with us.”

Reader 2: Today begins our Advent journey of waiting for the birth of the one who is called
the Light of the World and the Hope of the Nations.

Reader 1: As we light the candle of Hope we give thanks for the prophets of today who dare
to speak words of hope for liberation, who say “No” to the evil in the world, and
who call us to overcome our comfortable fears so we may let go of faulty ways of
thinking and doing, and explore new realms of unimagined visions of how things
could be.

Reader 2: Let us pray.
All: So many in your world, Holy God, have lost hope or put their hope in false
promises. Sometimes it feels you aren’t with us but are far, far away. We pray
that you come into our world again. Be Emmanuel for us so we may notice
where you are already present. Enter our hearts to see in new ways the
creative power of hope. Help us live into your hope so we may be your light
shining in the dark places of our world. We pray this in the name of the one
who was born in Bethlehem and whose return we await. Amen.

*Opening Hymn 116 Verse 1 “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”

Second Sunday in Advent
*Advent Candle Lighting

Reader 1: We began Advent last Sunday by lighting the first candle, the candle of Hope. We
light it again today to remind us that Christ is coming to fulfill God’s promises.

Reader 2: Today we light the second candle, the candle of Peace. The prophet Isaiah said,
“Comfort, comfort my people” to a nation anxious about invasion and exile, as he
foretold the coming of the Prince of Peace. Our world is still filled with violence
and abuse, where families are torn apart by war and children are used as soldiers.
Isaiah’s words continue to speak to us that Jesus will bring us to an everlasting
peace.

Reader 1: Mary and Joseph found no room in the inn to give birth to Jesus, but we can heed
John the Baptist’s command to make room in our hearts. Wherever there is war or
mistrust between peoples, families, or our own hearts, God is present and leading
us to imagine new ways of living in peace.

Reader 2: Christ is our only hope, and our peace is found through him. We light this candle
to remind us of Jesus’ life-giving peace to all who trust in him. We light it in honor
of those who live the Gospel truth that war does not make one great: the peace
workers who risk much so that others may live free of fear.

Reader 1: Let us pray:
All: We’re in trouble, Holy God. So many in the world do not know peace in their

countries or in their hearts. We use weapons of steel and barbed words to
wound one another. We seek balm for our restless hearts in things that only
make us more wounded. Open our hearts to Jesus so we may have the peace
of his holy presence and live it in our unpeaceful world. Save us from outside
violence and inner turmoil. We need you. Come, peaceful God, come. Amen.

*Opening Hymn 116 Verse 1 & 2 “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”

Third Sunday in Advent
*Advent Candle Lighting

Reader 1: We have lit the candles of Hope and Peace, and relight them now to remind us that
our hope is in Christ and that he will come again to bring peace to the world.

Reader 2: Today begins the third week in our Advent journey, and so we light the third
candle, the candle of Joy. In ancient times, the prophet Isaiah said, “The people
who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep
darkness—on them light has shined.” Many suffer from despair, anxiety, or holiday
blues. Others experience only the dark side of human nature. Christ’s light has
power to overcome all dark places in our society and our souls.

Reader 1: The Psalmist tells us to “make a joyful noise to the LORD, for the Lord is God
who made us and whose we are, whose steadfast loves endures forever and
faithfulness to all generations.”

Reader 2: Now we light the third candle, the candle of Joy, as we remember the angel’s
words to the shepherds, “Do not be afraid. I am bringing you good news of great
joy for all people.” We light it so that all who reap blue harvests from seeds of
sadness may know the joy of Jesus Christ. We light it in honor of those who show
us the joy of following Christ.

Reader 1: Let us pray:
All: God of Good News, as we await your coming we give you thanks for the joy
we have in Christ Jesus. May all who seek such joy find it. For all who have
ceased to believe in its possibility, may you work through us to show your joy
already present. Come, God of Joy, come. Amen.

*Opening Hymn 116 Verses 1, 2, 6 “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”

Fourth Sunday in Advent
*Advent Candle Lighting

Reader 1: On our journey to Christmas we have lit the candles of Hope, Peace, and Joy on
our Advent Wreath. We relight them now to remind us of the hope that Christ will
come again, bringing everlasting peace and joy.

Reader 2: This is the fourth Sunday of Advent so we light the last candle, the candle of Love.
To a world of empires and despots, war and greed, grief and apathy, we proclaim
that love is strong enough to overcome all evil and that compassion is more
powerful than fear.

Reader 1: The angel Gabriel reassured Mary that “nothing will be impossible with God.” The
power of love is the power to overcome what we think is impossible. Love tells us
God doesn’t want our excuses for why we dare not try, but our faithfulness to do.

Reader 2: As we light the candle of Love, we remember that God so loves this world that he
sent his only son, Jesus, to save us. We do so in honor of those who have shown us
how to love even when doing so is not convenient or sensible. We remember those
who show us that compassion— unconditional love— is central to a Christian’s
life.

Reader 2: Let us pray:
All: All-loving God, break into our world and our hearts again. Magnify your love
in us until it overflows to our neighbors. Renew our faith to relive the wonder
of your love. Prepare our hearts to be transformed by you that we may shine
the light of your compassionate love. Come, God of Love, come. Amen.

*Opening Hymn 116 Verses 1, 2, 6, 7 “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”

Christmas Eve
Advent Wreath Lighting

For Christmas Eve, we did snippets from a music/narration piece called “Candles and Carols”
by Pamela Martin that is a 20-or so minute long piece for choir, musicians, and narrators that
guides through lighting the four Advent candles and then the Christ candle. Available at
http://www.cokesbury.com/forms/ProductDetail.aspx?pid=692659. To hear our version of it, go
to http://www.pcucc.com/sermons/mp3/111224_christmas_eve.mp3 . This is a recording of the
whole Christmas Eve worship, that begins with a short opening prayer and then the “Candles and
Carols”, which ends about 10:07. The rest of the service is lesson and carols.

This liturgy is © 2011 by David J. Huber, all rights reserved. Permission is granted for use in
churches or other non-profit worship settings so long as copyright, author name, and link to
this blog is included in all printings. As a courtesy, please also let David know when, where, and how you are using this. I've enjoyed seeing the far flung places - including New Zealand and somewhere in Africa (I wish I could remember where!) - that this has been used.

Prayer from tonight's Interfaith Vigil in Solidarity with Migrants

 Aloha! 

Tonight I had my first moment of public theological agitation in Honolulu. I was asked to offer a prayer at an Interfaith Vigil in Solidarity with Migrants, organized by Faith Action Hawai'i. 

I offered a little speech to introduce myself, and my UCC tradition, and then offered a prayer for those who are helping migrants. For the sake of tonight's vigil, "migrants" includes also refugees and COFA residents (COFA = Compacts of Free Association, an agreement with the US and Micronesia that people from Micronesia can come and go, and live in the US, at will - which Compacts the Trump administration is very much disregarding, putting yet another nail in the coffin for the trustability of the US). We had a decent-sized gathering - maybe 80-100 people. We were on a main boulevard (outside the ICE offices at Waterfront Plaza which is on Ala Moana Boulevard), and in the 1.5 hours we were there, we had a LOT of honks - LOTS of them! - in support, and only one pro-Trump protestor against us.

Here is what I said: 

Aloha!

I am Pastor David Huber, 

    ordained clergy in the United Church of Christ,

    thank you for allowing me to be part of this vigil.

     The way we treat migrants is one of the most significant

        indicators of our morality, and we as a nation are doing very poorly.

     I like to be a public witness for a brand of Christianity 

          that does not fear, demean, or dehumanize others.

          There really are churches and Christians in this country

               who are on the side of the poor and the oppressed.

[I went off script here to mention that I'd recently moved here from Wisconsin, and talked about the WI Conference UCC repudiating the Doctrine of Discovery and that WI has started doing land acknowledgments and trying to heal wounds with the first nation peoples, and also that in the city of Eau Claire, where I have just come from, we have a large Hmong population - people who helped the US during the Vietnam War and were offered refuge in the US - and how scared that community became as soon as Trump's anti-immigrant policies came into being. Then I went back on script:]

In the United Church of Christ, 

   we just had our national gathering that we do every two years,

    and one of our resolutions includes this:

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Thirty-Fifth General Synod of the United Church of Christ calls upon all settings of the Church to oppose the 2025 Trump Administration’s immigration policies and condemn and reject ANY policies or actions that deny sanctuary, access to services, or human dignity to migrants, immigrants, refugees, and BIPOC individuals. 

And another line a little later mentioning also support of Micronesia and speaking out against how the Compacts of Free Association are being violated. We have Micronesian youth in our churches who could lose their parents. What the hell? This is an abomination, and more of the antichrist than of Jesus. 

It's impossible to be illegal on stolen land.

Let us now pray for those who work to support migrants:

   Holy One, God of all people, with a special preference

     for the poor and the migrants, 

      for your own family were refugees once,

          we lift up in prayer all of your people 

          who struggle to change our bad migration policies,

            and all those who work with the people 

               those policies have hurt and are hurting;

       we pray for the lawyers, the justice workers, the fundraisers,

           the chaplains, the prophets, the government workers,

         who are helping to ensure that migrants are treated fairly,

          who ensure that migrants know their rights

                and ensure the government protects those rights;

           the supporters who do this work even 

              at the risk of their own safety

             as they face backlash from neighbors, or employers,

               or even our own government.

         Protect them and their families, watch over them,  

           as they work to protect those who have little power;

          Protect and strengthen all who have joined the struggle

                on behalf of the least of these,

                for by helping them, they are helping you.

    And may their dedication to justice and to what is right

      inspire us all to similar selfless acts of courage and love

        on behalf of our neighbors. Amen.

My September 11 letter to friends and family letting them know I was safe

[I'm writing this paragraph on Sept. 11, 2024] I don't think I've ever shared this since I first sent it to friends and family the evening of Sept. 11, 2001, after I'd finally made it home and we had some dinner. I was living in NYC at the time, working for Lehman Brothers at World Financial Building #3 (directly across from the north tower of the WTC, and that tower fell into my building, taking out a corner of it for about 15 floors, including the office of one of my coworkers). I lived at 139th St., so about 8 miles away. I walked all the way home, stopping at Union Seminary on the way, because after this kind of experience, I needed to spend time in a holy place. 

The following is the letter I sent - I fixed a couple typos, and clarified one spot, but otherwise I kept it just as I wrote it, even though I had a difficult time resisting the need to edit it - it's clearly written by someone was very tired after a traumatic day, so the grammar is all over the place.

---begin letter---

To all my friends who have inquired already, and those who might be wondering about the events in NYC this terrible day, I send this note.

I thank you for the many messages and phone calls you have offered to me and to my sister and to Yuki to find out if I was safe. Coming home from the World Trade Center and finding so many emails and phone messages was a real delight, although as we know, the circumstances were not good. But rest assured, I did escape without injury. I had always wondered just how long it would take to walk between work and 139th street where I live, and now I know: about 4 hours. Work is *not* within walking distance.

I began work as normal this morning about 8:00 am in World Financial Center Building 3, which is across the street from the World Trade Center Tower 2, the first building to be hit by terrorists.

As we watched from our office window the flames and smoke pour out from that first strike in Tower 2, our thought was simply that a very unfortunate - but possible - accident had taken place. Fairly unworried, we sort of went back to be about our work, though many of us continued to watch CNBC on the many monitors that are placed around the trading floor, and which some people have on their TVs on their desks. After the second plane hit, we realized it was intentional, and called for the evacuation of our building. Though we could see the damage fairly well through our windows, we still did not have a good sense of just how terrible it was.

I left our building and headed north a block or two. As I was walking through a group people watching the towers, I heard the sudden intake of breath and horrified gasps. I turned around, and witnessed a person - a fellow human being - jumping out of a window from near the top of the tower. That was just the first jumper I was to see. It was a sickening feeling, knowing that for those people, jumping was probably the most painless and hopeful way to die, as they were certainly trapped at the top with no hope of getting out. I think of those people's families, and shudder and recoil at this senseless murdering. I do not wish to ever be witness to such a thing again. I soon came across Claire, a woman with whom I work, who needed to take the ferry across the river to get to New Jersey. We walked back to the Ferry, which is located on the other side of the building I work in, and has a full - and close - view of both towers. Thankfully, she managed to get onto the ferry and it left the dock just as the first building collapsed. It was an incredible sight - though it is difficult to describe something which is, ultimately, such a horrible thing. It was loud, it was scary, and created a cloud of debris and dust that went much higher than the 45 story building I work in. The crowd who were gathered there, including me, once we realized what was happening, ran like hell, and I don’t mind saying that to you all. Though after a couple seconds, rational brain kicked in and I realized running blindly with the crowd was more dangerous than staying put, so I stopped and stood off to the side until the crowd was gone. 

I followed the advice of the police who were shouting constantly “Don't look, just go North!!!!!” I went North, and didn't look back, until I hit about 20th street. Being more than a mile away, I felt safe turning around to look. After a few seconds I was witness to the destruction of the second tower. That tower came down in two parts - first the top slid down, and when the dust cleared just enough to see an angled portion of the tower left, broken beams and metal sticking up like a building you might see in an “end of the world” movie, the angled part also slid down, with a mighty roar and another fantastic plume of smoke. I continued walking north, and did not rest too easy until I was north of the Empire State Building. Beginning at about 50th street (or as we New Yorkers would say, beginning in the 50s), life around me became more normal. People were gathered in parks, mothers and fathers were pushing their children in strollers, people ate at outside cafes. Of course, it only makes sense, but after coming from the chaos of the World Trade Center, it was surreal. As I walked through the 60s and then the 70s, the amount of “normal life” increased, until perhaps about the high 70s, when one would have no idea, in watching people, that something had happened, though many people carried radios with them, and did have stunned looks about them. But there was no panic, no running, no crying, no police officials like I had been immersed in earlier in the morning. Still shaken, and occasioanlly realizing that I had just watched two buildings be destroyed, I moved into Riverside Park, to enjoy some quiet and some nature along the river.

It was a horrible thing what happened today, and though I wasn’t totally at ground zero, and managed to avoid any of the smoke and dust, watching those magnificent towers, those giant, tall, admittedly eye-stain-ugly late-60s architecture towers go down was stunning. Not stunning like a diamond, but stunning as in “I was stunned”. I still am stunned. I can barely comprehend these towers, which I have linked with NYC for so many years, are gone. And not just gone, but actually attacked with intent to destroy by people who have no value for life. To think of the loss of life, which must be in the thousands between the innocents on the airplanes, the innocents in the towers, and the fireman who were in the buildings trying to help people out when they collapsed.

I am not quite sure what to think of this event, or how to feel about it. It is one thing to watch disaster strike from afar; quite another to be in it, and to realize that it happened here in the US, where such things have not happened before. Random bombing and exloding is something for Isreal or Palestine, or London, Afghanistan, Africa or Europe. But not here. Not in the US. And certainly not in my workplace.

I am confused and still in shock, and have finally turned off the radio, as I couldn't take listening to the news any more.

My prayers go out to those who were trapped in the buildings, and trapped in the airplanes. My prayers go out to their families. My prayers also go out to those who did this, and those who would like to have done this. Though their act was evil incarnate, and they must be brought to justice swiftly and surely, and though we must do what is necessary to guarantee to the best of our ability that this not happen again, still our prayers must be with them, and especially with the rest of their cabal. Jesus certainly taught us to pray for our enemies and those who would do us harm. Pray for them, that they might come to know truth and peace. And of course I pray for all of us, those of us who will spend much time wondering if we are safe, wherever we are. Always wondering. I pray that you are all angry about this, but I pray that our anger be the anger of good toward evil, the anger that serves as our energy to drive us into constructive action, and not the senseless anger that cries merely for revenge and offers no real solution. Let us be angry! I'm angry as hell - they almost killed me, and they did kill a lot of innocents! Senselessly, brutally, for no reason that any human could comprehend. let us be outraged! Let us be righteously shocked! let us call for our leaders to swiftly destroy this evil wherever it is, and to eliminate it forever. But let us also do so with hearts and mind open, and not be a mob that does not reflect on its actions, and that quashes evil with only more evil in the name of “good”. Be a force for good, and pray for us and for our country that our actions will be done in mindfulness, with full understanding of what we are about to do, and not out of the mindlessness of a berserker who simply smashes and hacks at anything that gets in his way.

I do not know when I will be able to return to work. I do not even know how much, if any, damage my building suffered, though I imagine it lost the windows and is filled with with a thick coating of dust at the least. I heard on the radio that later this afternoon another building went down, though I doubt it was mine, since the Towers, if you look at one of the good cnn.com maps, has numerous smaller buildings immediately next to them. But who knows how much collateral damage might still happen in the next couple days.

I am praying for you all, and for us, and for this country, and for our world at this time. Let us give thanks for what we have, and for those who escaped the clutches of violence. I am grateful - very grateful - that I was led out of the violence unhurt and unscathed. And let us pray for God's presence to heal and to strengthen us, to unite us, and to bind us together in love and peace like the children of God that we all are, that war may no longer be known by any child or adult.

I leave you all with a fitting quote from a good friend of mine that my random quote generator popped up when I opened this email.

“In a land where ignorance is a virtue, the blind man is king” - Joe Raposo, Statesman and composer, August 27, 2001

2023 Star Wars Advent Calendar - Day 23

Hah! This was good - I opened the little door and saw the diagram and thought "What is this?" Then I built it, and said, "What is this?" 

Partly because I was thinking the ewok would show up today to have whatever the big special thing is tomorrow; and partly because I just couldn't figure out what this is.

So I thought for a few moments and then it came to me - it's the flying wings used by the Ewoks!

23 days in - just one more day to go!

2023 Star Wars Advent Calendar - Day 22

Today's build is an Imperial Star Destroyer. I'm assuming this is to be one of the Destroyers as seen in ROTJ, though I don't think there was any difference between those and the ones we saw in Episodes IV and V. 

It's not a bad build - take a look:

Given the detail of other builds in this calendar, it's a bit of a letdown - it's very few parts. But that's a complaint based more on "Other builds had so much more this time!" than it is based on any objective reason to be disappointed in this one. In previous years' calendars, this would get a high rating. I'm totally cool with it, but it also feels like being at a restaurant and after 21 courses of exceptionally creative and tasty dishes, they brought out some of Aunt Martha's meatloaf warmed up from yesterday. At any other time, Aunt Martha's meatloaf - even warmed up in a microwave - would be an excellent meal, but in this context, it's like a conductor deciding that halfway through the Urlicht from Mahler's Symphony No. 2 a couple measures of "Louie, Louie" is a necessity. [side note: there are times I have seriously wondered if Mahler was actually an angel or demigod or other divine or semi-divine being, and not just a mere human; it seems to me that no mere human could have written such utterly sublime and soul-destroyingly beautiful music]. Yeah, Louie Louie is an awesome song; but it would come as a disappointment in the midst of the Urlicht. 

[[double side-note: Zappa, of course, included a modified "Louie, Louie" in a lot of his music, and so the hypothetical inclusion of "Louie, Louie" in the Urlilcht that I mentioned would definitely not be the Zappa form of it, because such an inclusion would make it even cooler and say to me "Oh, that conductor is a freaking genius if he knows Zappa that well!"]]

So, anyway, I'm still very happy with this year's Star Wars LEGO Advent Calendar! The destroyers are my second favorite of the interstellar ships, exceeded only by the far larger and more powerful Super Star Destroyers, such as the one that Darth Vader got to ride, and which was forced to crash into the Death Star II, the Executor. 

2023 Star Wars Advent Calendar - Day 21

 Yippeee!

Today the calendar delivers... The Imperial Throne!

That upon which the magnificent (long may he reign!) Emperor Palpatine sits in the Imperial Throne Room on the Imperial Death Star II and from which he controls the entire Empire, including the entire fleet, and even his sith apprentice. At least, for most of the movie he controls his apprentice.

Look at this beauty! 

And of course, Palpatine fits great on it! Look at this menace, with his force lightning, his Christmas sweater, and his cup of coffee. Or hot chocolate. Or maybe it's some liquified ewok jerky. I could see Palpatine liking that, just for the cruelty: "Less taste, but more cruel than other beverage choices - try to new liquified Ewok Jerky(tm)!"

For my money, one of the greatest sets in all the Star Wars movies is the throne room in Return of the Jedi. It's all metal and sharp edges - even the throne is all sharp edges - exceedingly minimalist. The room only has metal stairways (with lots of openings) and metal walkways (with lots of openings), and a bunch of computer console areas that don't get used because the Emperor doesn't need computers - he has the Force!

I gotta say, best Star Wars LEGO Advent Calendar so far, and I think this is my tenth one. 

A Quick Meditation on the Holy Family and other refugees

It's important for those of us who follow Jesus to not think of the nativity as a once-and-done moment in time about which we can be angry at the innkeeper for not having enough room, or be angry at Herod for killing the children, and sit back and say "I would have made room for them" or "I would have helped". Through Jesus' incarnation, we ought now to see this situation wherever it occurs, and to consider our own actions toward the holy family when we're being the ones who say "no room" or "they are a threat, let them die" or similar.

If one is so sure that one would have helped the holy family, then why not help those in similar fate right now? Helping those now is the only way to help the family back then.

We have refugees who will be resettled in my home area of Eau Claire, WI, through the help of World Relief. Oddly, even in this pre-Christmas time, many locals (and I'm sure many of them would very much proclaim themselves Christian) have been fighting the city and county to try to keep this from happening, and doing so with some fairly weak arguments based mostly on fear: economic, racial, cultural, and some out of sheer ignorance of the process itself. As they place the baby Jesus in their mangers at home all snug and lovely, they are actively trying to prevent other very real people, who are in very real danger, from placing their babies in safe beds - to set up a nativity while basically supporting Herod is a significant failure to understand the nativity and its implications for us.

Without going into the details that any refugees being resettled have years of vetting behind them, and federal law prohibits communities from choosing who gets to live there, and other legal issues, or economic or social ones, from a theological standpoint there is no excuse not to help the stranger, the foreigner, or the refugee. The requirement to do so is right there in the law in the Bible, and using that very language of "foreigner" and "refugee", and right there in the words of Jesus, and right there in the Holy Family's status as refugees when they were forced to flee the violence of the state (Herod killing the children) by going to Egypt for a few years.

As I said at a press conference recently that World Relief, JONAH, and the Eau Claire Hmong Alliance held, as a voice of our moral responsibility to take care of refugees, "The question should never be, 'Can we help?' or 'Can we afford to help?', but, 'We must help, so, How are we going to make this happen, How are we going to make sure that they're safe and taken care of?'" Love for neighbor is an integral part of all the major religions.

Helping those who are currently in the same situation as the Holy Family were 2000 years ago is the way to show that we would indeed have helped them back then. But if we create roadblocks to keep those who are currently in the same situation from finding relief, or if we straight out deny them relief, then we're putting up roadblocks for the Holy Family. "Whatever you do to the least of these, you do to me." Until we see Christ in our neighbor, are we really able to see Christ at all?