ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHING
November 26, 2021
Spoiler Alert!! This Sunday (just a couple days away) is the first Sunday of Advent. Advent, for those asking, is the four week period before Christmas. It is a recognition of how the story of Christmas is more than just Bethlehem and a baby whose birth is celebrated on December 25. There is a backstory, a sort of necessary backstory. It also pushes the point that Christmas, if it is truly to be honored, needs preparation. We’ve already got our home decorated, and so we are immersed in the Christmas story (alongside the silly mythology of the season like Rudolph and Frosty, but I love that stuff) with stars and angels, shepherds and even prophetic words of a Coming King who will bring peace. We have decorations that play Christmas music with the press of a button. We have a couple different Advent Calendars we will use to mark the journey to Christmas. There are activities we have already participated in, including the purchase of items for a few NAM Christmas Bags – a tradition we always enjoy. Apart from sermon preparation, I will spend time reading scripture, and I have a new Advent Devotional put out by the faculty and staff of Phillips Seminary. Advent is like so many things – you get from it what you put into it. The love and joy-inspired kindness from God are always present in their full intensity, but our preparation makes space available to receive the gifts of this season. At the beginning of Luke’s Gospel, we read how the author decided to write a carefully ordered account after having investigated everything with great vigilance. That was someone who spent quality time with the rich oral tradition of the early Jesus movement, doing the hard work of digging, discovery and discernment. The author must have made room for whatever new gift emerged.
Holy God, let me seize the opportunities of this season. I must do more than simply push through to Christmas Day. Instead, I seek to live in the moment and learn from the moment, taking in the sustenance of hope and joy wherever it is to be found. Amen.
