On Wednesday, December 4th Yale Divinity School gathered in Marquand Chapel for a highly creative liturgy. This year’s Advent Service was entitled “A New Heaven and a New Earth,” and it rooted in scriptural images of Christ coming again in glory to judge the living and the dead. Through scripture, song, spoken word, drama, and dance we anticipated the second coming of Christ.
Students Maddie Hill and Mahogany Thomas greeted us saying,
MADDIE: Well, here we are….
MAHOGANY: Tonight, on this long-expected evening, we gather together standing on the edge of a mystery
MADDIE: to prepare for the One who came among us as a child and who promises to come among us again bringing with him a new heaven and a new earth.
MAHOGANY: When Christ bursts into human history, we are guaranteed one thing: the world as it is, is not the way it is going to be. Everything is about to change.
MADDIE: Happy Apocalypse, everybody!
Maddie and Mahogany went on to describe how God promises to turn the world upside-down. Advent is a season where we anticipate Christ coming again to shine light into the darkness.
Throughout the service we read from Luke 21:25-26; Romans 8:19, 21-23; Isaiah 35: 1-2, 6b-7; and Revelation 21:1, 3-6a. We also drew on William Butler Yeats’ “The Second Coming,” James Weldon Johnson’s “The Judgement Day,” Lucille Clifton’s “Spring Song,” texts from the 1975 Nicaraguan Peasant Mass. We sang classic Advent Hymns like Wesley’s “Lo, He Comes on Clouds Descending,” as well as more thematically apocalyptic choices like Andraé Edward Crouch’s “Soon and Very Soon.”
There was so much more about this year’s Advent Service that we can’t possibly sum up here, but we hope these photos might inspire you as you interpret what Advent means for your own worshipping communities:
