An Advent series based on the notions of simplicity, stability (a Benedictine vow), and sanctuary 

Each week, congregants are offered a liturgy booklet that follows the same format and rituals, with elements like the poem/prayer, Bible reading, and wondering questions changing. The sermons are inspired by the “living stories” method and involve an unfolding visual scene that participants are able to interact with through wondering, touch, and silent reflection after.

Here is the liturgy booklet for week one, which focuses on The Shepherds and the theme “The Night Shift.”

The text for the “living story sermon” is below with wondering questions in bold. People should be encouraged to respond or reflect together. (I will upload photos of setup on Thursday.

The table is set with a stable in the centre and green felt underlays to the left and the right. The doors are open and figures representing Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus stand within.

“Listen to the story with your ears, your eyes, and your heart, 
and if you want to see or hear better, come close 
and help everyone to participate.”

Here is the stable around which a community will gather.
Here is Joseph from a line both noble and humble.
Here is Mary, a symbol of the openness of God’s story 

to the unexpected and the overlooked.

Here is baby Jesus:

the light of God’s goodness enfleshed

where it is needed most: 
in the darkness, 
on the outskirts, 
in a place of rejection and vulnerability ….

Place the nativity figures of shepherd and sheep in the field on the left.

Here is such a place –

a windswept hill outside of Bethlehem,

where darkness wraps around the world,

and watchful shepherds are drawn into the centre of a story 

that we tell year after year after year.

I wonder why the shepherds were the first to receive such a message of peace.

Place four more shepherd figures in a line in the field.

Every story has its beginnings 

and the road to Bethlehem
is lined with memories 
of ancient shepherds
who wandered, 
searching for cool, fresh water,

for wide open pastures, 

and for the whisper of God’s presence.

Abraham, tending his flocks beneath the vast sky, 

uproots his family, his flocks, his tribe

to travel in the direction of a promise

marked by the stars above and the sands below,

trusting that, in every step, the Divine draws near.
(place bottles of sand and stars in front of the first figure)

Moses, wandering with his sheep 
across the rugged slopes of Egypt,

pauses before a bush ablaze yet unconsumed.

In the crackle, he hears a voice calling
—“I am who I am”—

and is compelled into the mystery 

by which his people will be freed

and remember who and whose they are.
(place the burning bush in front of the second figure)

David, just the youngest son of the smallest clan, 

breaks the solitude of the pasture
with songs of lament and praise. 

Far from the courts of power,

he learns from his father’s sheep 

how to shepherd and to serve

as God’s anointing rests on him.
(place the harp and the harp and crown in front of the third figure)

And among the sheep and sycamores south of Jerusalem, 

Amos gives voice against the injustices of the rich

and the complacency of the religious 

to a song that echoes through the hills 
and through even our generation:

“But let justice roll on like a river, 

righteousness like a never-failing stream!” 

(place the fig tree and sheep in front of the fourth figure)

The night is deep, 
and the world feels fragile. 

Like those before them,
the shepherds keep vigil, 

guarding life in a landscape of uncertainty. 



Then, light chooses the unnoticed,

the sky unfolds its secrets,

angel tongue proclaims:
“a child is born”
(light the candle in Bethlehem)
and, even though they are afraid at first,

the good news propels them into action:
they go, 

they search, 

they UNDERSTAND

that Saviours can be born in stables

and Shepherds shelter with their sheep.
(move the nativity shepherd and sheep into the stable)

I wonder how the shepherds felt about their night watch turning into a special mission.

Unpack the elements for World Communion Sunday – sheep, shepherd, gate and pen slowly and set out on the green felt on the right

One day, on a limestone ridge lined by olive trees,

perhaps prompted by a memory of his mother’s stories 

about the unlikely community that gathered around him at his birth,

baby Jesus, now fully grown, will say:

“I am the Good Shepherd.
I know each one of my sheep by name.
When I take them from the sheepfold, they follow me.
I walk in front of the sheep to show them the way.
I show them the way to the good grass,
and I show them the way to the still, cool, fresh water.
When there are dangerous places, 
I show them how to go through them.
I count each one as the sheep go inside.
If one of the sheep is missing, I would go anywhere to find them
—into the grass, into the water, even into the place of great danger.’”

I wonder if this night shift experience changed the way the shepherds saw themselves/their lives afterwards. 
  

Touch the wooden figures.
Feel the felt underlay.
Open and close the doors.

Touch the wooden figures.

Feel the felt underlay. 

Place a sheep upon the pastures. 



What is God inviting you to next? 



May this story shape not just our understanding, 

but our hearts and our actions—

settling our fears and sending us searching

for peace, fullness of life, and the coming of Christ among us.