Tableau 2 for Advent Studies 2

We are studying Advent at St Petroc's Bible Study, meeting in the Parish Centre on a Thursday evening from 7pm to 8.30pm. Everyone is welcome.

The Tableau explained:

Candle - John the Baptist; Prayer Book - Zechariah, who lived a life of prayer; Kneeling figure - Elizabeth, who prayed all her life to have a child; Card - Mary who obey God; Angel with flute - Gabriel who visited Zechariah and Mary; Sheep on a dark blue scarf with moons - Shepherds who heard about the goodness of the birth of Jesus, at night; Circle of angels - Messengers of God who spoke to the shepherds; Brown pod - Nativity scene; Cross - Jesus the baby will be the crucified saviour; Candle - hope of the resurrection beyond death for Jesus and all who believe; Shoes - Showing our Advent Journey.

Luke is a descriptive writer who draws the reader into the story through our senses.

He records three songs in chapters 1 & 2 of his Gospel.

We discussed songs and what they mean to us. We came up with - songs:

reflect your mood; bring out emotions; help us think; encourage worship and strengthen your faith in God; show what you could do; remind us of things as we associated it with different times in our life.

Maybe Luke includes the three "songs" to do all this for the reader.

Song 1 - to Zechariah - Luke 1:14-17.

Song 2 - from Mary - Luke 1:47-55. Mary's song is in two parts. Part 1 (47-49) is Mary praising God for what he's done for her. Part 2 (50-55) is Mary glorifying God for who he is, how mighty he is and for the great things he has done.

Song 3 - from the angels - Luke 2:14. The messengers of God are rejoicing at the birth of Jesus.

At the end of the study Marion played a small part of Handel's Messiah where the story of the angels and the shepherds is expressed in song, followed by the prayer written for the 28th November, from the ancient prayer book on the tableau.

Next week we look at Advent from Matthew's Gospel.