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GraceWorks: Banners Explanation
Advent 1 - Luke 21:25-36 – The Returning Christ Banner
The season of Advent looks in two directions. It looks back on the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem and looks forward to his second coming when he will return to set up his kingdom on earth. This time will be preceded by cosmic cataclysms, “and then they shall see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.” Something is about to happen. We know that even now something is happening, but are we ready?
The banner’s dark and foreboding colours show the chaos and evil of the present world as “the heavenly bodies darkened” and of “the roaring of the sea and waves”. Only the golden light emerging through the clouds shows the promise of the coming of the Son of man.
Yellow representing the Trinity and bright red for the passion of our Lord will be carried throughout the five banners of Advent.
Advent 2 - John the Baptist Banner
John was the son of Zechariah and Elizabeth. He was a preacher’s kid, raised in a priestly house, highly educated and fluent in the Holy Scriptures. John was filled with the Holy Spirit even from before birth.
Somehow John came to live in the wilderness, dressed in camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist and eating locusts and wild honey. He traveled throughout Jordan, proclaiming a baptism for the repentance of sins. He preached the words of the prophet Isaiah, “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight’” ( Luke 3:4).
The “John the Baptist” banner is an abstract representation of the message from John to the people who came to be baptised by him, and to us today as we worship in the season of Advent, the season of expectation and preparation for the Christ Child and the full coming of God’s kingdom.
John tells us to “Prepare the way of the Lord.” After the death of Christ, early followers of Jesus were called “The People of the Way.” The yellow curved path with the textured look to it represents the Way, the path that we are asked to “make straight” both individually and corporately in preparation for the Christ Child and the Returning Christ. Numerous other paths are evidence of the choices that are available to us in life as we try to discern the Way, the Truth and the Light that is Jesus’ Way.
The purple colour containing figure-like forms at the bottom of the banner indicates the mood of repentance and a sense of what it feels like to hear John’s social gospel message. There is a sense of urgency in the banner, of confusion, of people scattering like snakes, of busyness, yet the background colour of deep blue has within it a movement downwards from God to the people through John. This movement of the Holy Spirit in John points with red passion to the next banner; Mary.
Advent 3 - The Angel Gabriel – Terrifying Good News
The angel Gabriel was the messenger sent by God to both Zechariah to tell him that his wife Elizabeth would bear him a son, John, and to Mary to announce that she had been chosen to give birth to a son, Jesus. When Zechariah saw Gabriel at the altar, he was upset and fearful. He questioned Gabriel about this prophecy and was rendered speechless until the birth of John. When Mary saw Gabriel she was troubled and questioned how this prophecy would come true; however, she accepted the news and said “I am the Lord’s servant, may it happen to me as you have said.” Luke 1:38
How would you react if you were confronted by an angel – terrified? excited? joyous? amazed? curious? afraid? awed? dubious? Gabriel’s words bring God’s blessing and hope into our lives after we overcome the initial fear and mystery of an angel’s appearance.
The Gabriel hanging is a mixture of colour and emotions but always looking toward the star. The yellow represents the Trinity; the green is the new life promised within Elizabeth and Mary; the purple the strength of Gabriel’s faith; the blue the calming and peacefulness of the angel’s words. All this is silhouetted against the dark background of Gabriel’s coming at night, but leading us toward the light as the background lightens at the bottom
Advent 4 - Mary
Mary was an ordinary young Jewish girl who would have been working and playing like others her age. Imagine her shock and panic when Gabriel told her that she would become pregnant by the Holy Spirit and bear the Son of God! How would you react?
Imagine the change in Mary when she chose to surrender her whole life to God and to obey him; “Yes, I see it all now: I’m the Lord’s maid, ready to serve. Let it be with me just as you say” (Luke 1:38). How would that affect your life? What God has done for Mary anticipates and models what God will do for us, for the poor, for the powerless, and for the oppressed, and Mary sings her Magnificat as if it were a battle cry.
The ‘Mary Magnificat’ hanging portrays the transformed Mary and the possibility of our transformation. Absent are the neutral, earthy, grey browns (colours created when all the primary colours are muddied or when our lives are muddied) typical of garments of the ordinary Jewish peasant. The bright yellow represents the Trinity; accepting God’s interruption brings this brilliance which then can be separated into other distinct colours: green represents new life, creative possibilities; red refers to Mary’s passion; purple, her strength of conviction that comes with faith; blue is the peace and cleansing of the Holy Spirit at work within and around Mary and within us; white is the symbol of purity, God’s truth within us.
The Christ Child - The Light arrives in surprising ways!
During Advent the GraceWorks pods have explored four biblical characters and have discerned four themes: The Returning Christ, “Every moment is already alive with God's Future. See the beauty. Receive the light.” John the Baptizer, “Prepare a way for the Lord. The shadowed places are gradually illuminated.” The Angel Gabriel, “Reactions to angelic confrontations.” Mary, “Mary believes. The Holy Spirit changes her. The Light increases.”
We look back into the past and forward as we wait with anticipation in this in-between time, this time of Advent. Tonight we celebrate the arrival of the Christ Child and the message that “The Light arrives in surprising ways!”
As the five banners hang together, notice the continuous thread of colours and symbols. The yellow star in each banner represents The Christ Child. Red is for passion and the Holy Spirit. Blue is God the Father. Repentance is represented by purple. Each banner is alive with movement and life, movement from the top of the banner to the bottom (God reaching to his people), from the bottom to the top (the people reaching for God), and the sideways movement from left to centre and right to centre (movement towards The Christ Child). The story of Advent is told in this frieze in increasing expectancy as tonight The Christ Child is revealed.
In this final banner, God’s most treasured gift is given and received. The yellow star, The Christ Child, is sent to us by the pure blue of God the Father and with the red passion of the Holy Spirit. The mixed colours in the bottom part of the banner indicate the surprising ways in which the light arrives and our reactions to that light. God gives us this colour and light and now we take it into the world. “Do not be afraid; for see- I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the Messiah, the Lord” (Luke 2:10,11).