• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Joint Public Issues Team

Churches working for peace and justice

  • Home Page
  • Who We Are
    • Six hopes for society
  • Issues
    • Economy
      • Tax Justice
      • Reset The Debt
      • Living Wage
    • Environment
      • Net Zero In My Neighbourhood
    • Poverty and Inequality
      • The Cost of Living Crisis
      • Universal Credit
      • Truth and Lies
      • Enough
      • Rethink Sanctions
      • Faith in Foodbanks
      • Housing and Homelessness
    • Asylum and Migration
      • Refugees
      • End Hostility
      • The Asylum System
    • Peacemaking
      • The Arms Trade
      • Nuclear Weapons
      • Drones
      • Peacemaking resources
    • Politics and Elections
      • Elections
      • Meet Your MP
      • Art of the Possible
      • Brexit
    • Other Issues
      • International Development
      • Modern Slavery and Exploitation
        • Forced labour in fashion
  • Get Involved
    • JPIT Conference 2022
    • Newsletter
    • Events
    • Walking with Micah
  • Resources
    • Advent
    • 10 Minutes on… podcast
    • Politics in the Pulpit?
    • Stay and Pray
    • Season of Creation
    • Prayers
    • Public Issues Calendar
    • Poetry
    • Small Group Resources
  • Blog

Advent

You are here: Home / Advent

“God has filled the hungry with good things”

Luke 1:53  

With the cost of living rapidly rising in the UK and a lack of support for those who need it most, millions of people are at risk of being pushed into poverty by a difficult winter. Around the world, the twin challenges of climate change and covid recovery mean that many countries already struggling with high levels of poverty are being held back from development.  

What is the good news of Christ Jesus’ birth in this context? When Mary, mother of Jesus, sings her praises to God in Luke 1, she declares:  

“He has shown strength with his arm; 
    he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. 
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones 
  and lifted up the lowly; 
he has filled the hungry with good things 
and sent the rich away empty.” 

We believe in a God who fills the hungry with good things, even in the darkest of times. How might we share this message as we celebrate the birth of Christ the light this Christmas?  

We’ve invited seven contributors from across JPIT’s denominations to respond to God’s promise to ‘fill the hungry with good things’. Drawing from their context, they’ve produced resources to be used in churches this advent to explore our to share Christ’s light in the darkness.  

How might you use the resources? These resources could be used in a worship service, small group or bible study, to prompt conversation, exploration and prayer. Each is designed to help you dig deeper into the context of poverty in the UK and around the world this advent.  

Could you… 

  • Share a video in a worship service?  
  • Gather as a small group to explore Mary’s words this advent?  
  • Use one of the reflections in a sermon?  

Advent in Palestine – Hear from Angleena, Mission Partner in Jerusalem, and Marah, a young Palestinian Christian, about what they hear from this passage for their context today.  

A liberationist reading of Luke 1: 53 – Kevin, Programme Officer Global Justice and Partnerships at The URC, shares his liberationist reading of Luke 1:53.  

A vision for transformed development – Cameron, Resource Writer at All We Can, explores what it means for our understanding of international development to be transformed by Mary’s vision of God’s kingdom in Luke 1. This video has three parts, with discussion questions throughout.

Wisdom from the food pantry – Eunice, Church at the Margins Office for the Methodist Church in Britain, asked people at her local food pantry what their response to Mary’s words is. Read their wisdom.  

Click here to download the reflection

Prayers of intercession from the margins – Lemia, a Methodist Deacon in North Norfolk, has produced prayers of intercession from the margins, inspired by Mary’s words. They call us into encounter with the challenges many people living on the margins will experience this winter. 

Click here to download the prayers

For more inspiration and ideas, you might wish to take a look at previous reflections and poetry from JPIT for Advent 2018, or our advent candle lighting liturgy from Advent 2021.

Primary Sidebar

Search

Recent Posts

  • JPIT’s Review of 2022
  • What does Government Support for Asylum Seekers really provide?
  • God with Us – the Refugees of Calais and Dunkirk
  • How can we respond to COP27?
  • Statement on the conclusion of the COP27 Climate Conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt
  • COP27 – what should we be looking for?
  • “He has filled the hungry with good things” – What we need from the Autumn Budget
  • What are the stories we should tell about the humanitarian crisis at Manston Airport Asylum centre?
  • How can we be sure that the products we buy are not the result of modern slavery?
  • Why I hate Warm Banks (and why my church is opening one)
  • How does our theology call us to challenge Poverty?
  • Introducing Alfie
  • Biden says nuclear risk is the highest since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis
  • Churches respond to risk to benefit levels
  • Briefing on the ‘Mini Budget’ for the Enough to Live group
  • Introducing Hazel
  • Introducing Hannah
  • An energy cap announcement in three parts: the good, the absent and the ugly
  • Afghanistan and the UK – One Year On from the Fall Of Kabul
  • Inflation, interest rates and the poorest

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter

Footer

Follow us

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Quick links

Stay and Pray
Politics in the Pulpit
Faith in Politics podcast
Public Issues Calendar
Useful Links

Our work

About Us
Meet the Team
Join the Team 
Internship
Our Newsletter

Contact us

25 Marylebone Road
London NW1 5JR

Tel: 020 7916 8632

enquiries@jpit.uk

Copyright © 2023 · Showcase Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in