Advent

I got a special gift in the mail the other day; it was from my mom and was actually shipped from her house in Canada before she came home. What is this gift? Well, I’m glad you asked…it is a chocolate Advent calendar!

The chocolate Advent calendar was an annual tradition in the Jordan household. Mom would always buy the family one toward the end of November so we were ready once December 1st arrived. And what was particularly fun for me, having a December birthday and all, was setting up the order in which my brother, sister, and I got to open the windows and reveal the daily treat. I always got to open it on my birthday, so Greg and Kate got to take turns kicking off the month. As the days would pass, and the calendar would become emptier and emptier, we could literally feel the building anticipation of Christmas! After all, isn’t this the purpose of the Advent calendar, and by virtue, Advent itself?

This past Sunday began the season of Advent. Advent is the season of preparation, including four Sundays, that helps us get ready for Christmas. Many churches hold a service of preparation for Christ's coming, which includes hanging greenery traditionally associated with everlasting life. Greens such as cedar for royalty, fir and pine boughs for everlasting life, holly symbolizing Jesus' death and ivy representing the resurrection are used (from www.umc.org). We had more of a festive approach to the traditional Hanging of the Greens as we gathered last Saturday to decorate our facilities and then shared in a potluck chili lunch. It was a lot of fun transforming our worship spaces and chowing down together!

The term, Advent, comes from the Latin, adventus, which literally means, coming. It is during this season when we commemorate the first coming of the Messiah in the Christ child while looking forward to the second coming of Jesus and the complete institution of the Reign of GOD. It is a season of excitement, anticipation, and focusing on the adventure of a life lived in GOD!

Advent is not Christmas, even though culturally we see a lot of bleed-over. Before the Halloween jack-o-lanterns are even been carved,  Christmas decorations tend to appear in our favorite retail outlets and festive music begins to hit the airwaves. We tend to get so inundated with the approaching holidays, that by the time the Thanksgiving turkeys are ready for dinner, the Christmas season has already begun. Then, once December 26^th arrives, we are so over Christmas that we are ready to put away our decorations and the stores are trying to prepare us for Valentine’s Day. The problem is, by then we have just entered into the Christmas season and are to begin celebrating GOD’s gift of Jesus to us. When you think about it, it really is sad.

The Church really wants us to be more intentional about our preparation for Christmas, hence the season of Advent. Advent is designed to help us strategically connect the miracle of Christmas to our everyday lives. This way, by the time the big day has arrived, the excitement and anticipation has built to a fever pitch that we are so ready for the celebration we do not want it to end! So as we go through these four weeks of Advent, we will focus on the hope, peace, joy, and love of GOD so that we are almost ready to burst with the excitement and anticipation that comes with Christmas. Thinking of it this way, Advent should be much more like an adventure than the motions through which we go to mark off the days of a calendar.

I hope you will make every effort to be part of this adventure as we prepare for the glory of Christmas! We have a bevy of fun and worshipful events to help us prepare for Christmas, culminating in our Christmas Eve Candlelight and Communion services at 7pm (contemporary) and 9pm (traditional).

When GOD came in Jesus, everything else was different forever. It was a miraculous event that still causes miracles today. So come, partake of the sweetness of this special season, and make a point to connect the miracle of Christmas for someone else, introducing them to the love and light of GOD in Christ Jesus this Advent and beyond!