Time for Advent

What is time? Is it something humans have invented or does it exist apart from us?

Astronomers tell us that the earth moves around the sun in a repeating and fixed pattern. The interaction between the sun and the earth give us the seasons which repeat in a regular and predictable fashion. The earth rotates and the sun appears and disappears in a regular and predictable manor, day and night. Ancient peoples, based on what they saw in the sky, possessed a cyclical view of the world.

Thomas Cahill, in his book The Gifts of the Jews: How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed the Way Everyone Thinks and Feels (Nan A. Talese,Doubleday:1998) makes the case that the Jews were the first people to break out of this cyclical worldview and think about time and history as linear. Their view of the world gave humanity our future.

Cyclical religion goes nowhere because, within its comprehension, there is
no future as we have come to understand it, only the next revolution of the
Wheel.

Since time is no longer cyclical but one-way and irreversible, personal
history is now possible and an individual life can have value.

(Cahill, 94)

Physicists tell us the universe has a beginning and will have an end. The idea that "time is an arrow" moving in one direction is now how most of us think about time.

Of course our current calendars, while moving forward also acknowledge the cyclical nature of things. The years change, but January comes every year. There is, as far as we know, no one calendar that expresses time more accurately than another. Jews have their calendar, Muslims have theirs, the Chinese have theirs. The secular world and most Christians follow the the Gregorian calendar (which replaced the Julian calendar in the late 1500s)

All this talk about calendars and time, brings us to Advent and the church year.

What is interesting about the church year is that it is not based on the sun or the moon or the seasons.* The church calendar is based on the life of Christ. His birth, his death, his resurrection and his future coming. The liturgical calendar disconnects us from the world's reckonings. Our time is measured, not by the sun nor the moon, nor the dictates of society. Our time finds its orientation and focus in the incarnation and resurrection, events that transcend and disrupt material time and space.

So if you feel, as I often do, somewhat disoriented and at odds with the secular world during Advent take heart. Advent is doing what it is supposed to do. Advent grabs us by the shoulders, spins us us out of secular time and turns us, off balance and a little dizzy, to face the coming era when

He shall judge between the nations,

and shall arbitrate for many peoples;
they shall beat their swords into plowshares,

and their spears into pruning hooks;

nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn
war any more (Isaiah 2:4)

...with righteousness he shall judge the poor,

and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;

he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,

and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.

Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist,

and faithfulness the belt around his loins.

The wolf shall live with the lamb,

the leopard shall lie down with the kid,

the calf and the lion and the fatling together,

and a little child shall lead them.

The cow and the bear shall graze,

their young shall lie down together;

and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,

and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder's den.

They will not hurt of destroy on all my holy mountain;

for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. (Isaiah 11:4-9)

A blessed Advent to you all.


* I know that the date of Easter is calculated is based on the lunar cycle but the moon is a tool to fix a date, the event is what is important.

To read more about calendars, see Calendars Thought the Ages.
To read more about Advent and the church year, see here, and here.

Go Fish!: ADVENT-ures in Christmas Outreach and Evangelism

In just nine days we will start Advent (or as I heard one radio DJ say, “the Christmas gift buying season.” Ouch!). What is your church doing to leverage opportunities for reaching out to non-believers in your community during the season? Do you have a plan? And does that plan look beyond Christmas into the next year?

Don’t panic. My questions aren’t meant to create angst for you as you head into the holidays. But I do hope that if your church does not have a plan, you will shift your thinking just enough to find a few ways to reach out.

I also hope that you’ll think about more than just Christmas. It’s great if guests come to your church for Christmas Eve candle lighting services, but it’s a missed opportunity if you’re not engaging those guests with an invitation to events in January and beyond.

Here are several ideas that might be of help to your church.

1) Is your “home” ready for guests?

If you’ve got houseguests coming next week for Thanksgiving, you’ve already made plans to clean the house, get the bed linens ready, buy extra food, etc. Have you done the same thing for your church home? Is everything spiffied up around the grounds and the sanctuary? Have all the brochures and fliers been updated? Bulletin boards refreshed? Is there a plan for providing fresh coffee and maybe some Christmas cookies? Could the church afford some sort of guest gift?

2) Are you showing off your best face to the community?

If you have a website, has it been updated for Advent? Is all information on the site current? Is there advice to guests about what to expect? Where to park? What the childcare arrangements are?

What does the front of the church and the parking lot look like? Any quick-fixes or weeding that needs to be done? Do you have a professional-looking banner inviting the community to Advent or Christmas services?

3) Do your members have tools to invite friends to services?

For a reasonable cost and in a short amount of time, you can have business cards or postcards made up so that members have an easy-to-carry invitation to holiday services at the ready. I have used an on-line printing service with great success. Encourage members to carry a few cards with them, and to be thinking and praying about people they could invite.

4) How is your congregation blessing the community during the holidays?

Could your congregation collect food for the local food pantry? Are members helping out at non-profits that distribute food and presents during the holidays? Those organizations would be thrilled if a team came from your church to work various shifts throughout the season. Is there an organization in your community in need that your church could adopt, one that wouldn’t normally get a lot of attention at this time of year? And, how could you partner with other organizations, churches, community members to serve? For example, could members invite friends and neighbors to donate food to the food drive, or sign-up to volunteer with the group at a non-profit?

5) Do you have something to invite guests to beyond the holidays when they visit on Christmas Eve?

Is there something happening in January, or in the next quarter, that might be of interest to them? A special event? An interesting class or a class that gives a beginning look at Christianity or discipleship? A meet-the-pastor event? New Members class? A get-together for young families? A luncheon for older adults? What about offering a way to accept prayer requests?

6) Do you have a way to collect information about your guests?

If you have guest pad, remember to ask people to fill it out during worship. Not everyone is going to want to identify themselves, but give them the opportunity and then follow up with a letter from the pastor, or some other kind of welcoming note.

7) Who is praying for the church and the community throughout Advent?

Do you have a prayer team, or small group, that could hold the church, the pastor(s), and most importantly, the surrounding community, in prayer?

One note: don’t get so caught up in the details of reaching out to the community and welcoming guests that you forget to focus on what Advent is all about. Take time to pray, to worship, to enjoy God’s presence. Invite the Holy Spirit into the planning and into all your church does this season. Your church and the community will be richly blessed.

What does your church do to reach out to the community/welcome guests during Advent? Share with us in the Comments section so we can learn new ideas from each other!

Question for the Community: Congregational Traditions

A lot of focus this time of year is put on traditions inside of people's homes, or family traditions outside of the home. My wife and I are currently wrestling with ideas for how we will begin traditions, and what to begin, within our family of three. We realize that we will never be a family unto ourselves on Christmas as we will spend time with either my family or hers. (Hi Paul and Sarahlynn!) I'm not indicating that this is a bad thing. On the contrary, it's a wonderful thing to be able to spend time with our families whom we value very highly in our lives. We are struggling with how to set up traditions for our three that are meaningful for us as a unit without affecting others. Anyway, that's my story.

We live just north of Washington, DC.  One of the jobs that I am tasked with in the Presbytery office is to collect special worship information from our congregations for Lent and Advent.  It's really neat for me to see what different churches do to celebrate together while inviting others to join them.  We have one church that does a brief service and bag lunch on Wednesdays for Advent.  A couple of churches do live Nativities.  One church that does a really big Christmas Dinner.  It really makes me want to worship with a different church once or twice - if I only had the time!

So - my question for this month (and based on my posting, question to encompass the whole fall!) is:
What traditions happen in your congregation for the Advent Season?
Have you heard of traditions in other congregations that you want to try?
Do you go to another church to celebrate some of their traditions?

Advent Prayers 2009: Call to Worship & Themes

November 29, 2009 - First Sunday of Advent  (purple candle, theme is Hope)
• December 6, 2009 - Second Sunday of Advent  (purple candle, theme is Love)
• December 13, 2009 - Third Sunday of Advent  (purple or pink candle, theme is Joy)
• December 20, 2009 - Fourth Sunday of Advent (purple candle, theme is Peace)

First in Advent: HOPE

Call to Worship

Advent Guide:              Lord Jesus Christ, You are the Hope Bringer of the Universe, whose gracious promises strengthen our faith and brighten the spirits of our people.

All:                  You bring justice and righteousness to the Earth. You save the world from sin and free us from our fears.

(Lighting of First Purple Advent Candle)

Advent Guide:              Lord Jesus, Your Everlasting Light restores our eternal hopes. You are our Righteousness and Redeemer forever. Amen.

Second in Advent: LOVE

Advent Guide:              Lord Jesus Christ, You are the Almighty Messenger, sent from heaven to proclaim God’s Gracious Love to the people of this planet.

All:                  You have freely come among us to lovingly challenge our beliefs and change our ways.

(Lighting of Two Purple Advent Candles)

Advent Guide:              Lord Jesus, sanctify our people and make us acceptable to You. Reclaim and restore us to God’s Everlasting Love. Amen.

Third in Advent: JOY

Advent Guide: Lord Jesus Christ, You are the Everlasting Joy of God’s Heart and the Holy Savior of the nations.

All:      You come among us to release us from our burdens and take great delight in our eternal happiness.

(Lighting of Two Purple candles and the Pink Joy Candle)

Advent Guide:              Lord Jesus, quieten us with Your Precious Love and fill our spirits with heavenly joy. Amen.

Fourth in Advent: PEACE

Advent Guide:  Lord Jesus Christ, You are the Strength of God and the Sacred Shepherd of our souls.

All:      Your greatness is amongst us and Your power reaches out to the ends of the Earth.

(Lighting of Three Purple Candles & Pink Candle)

Advent Guide:              Lord Jesus, let us live securely in Your peace and be blessed forever by Your Holy Name. Amen.

Question to the Community: Lenten Advertising

A few years ago, shortly after I strated working in the Presbytery office, I was asked to give advice on our annual Lenten Advertising.  Twice a year our office places ads on the radio (WTOP, for you locals!), Advent and Lent.  We have been using the audio files from the Here and Now Campaign, which now appears to be defunct.  We used to do print ads in the local paper as well.  We ask that people go to our website where we list all 108 of our congregations by city, making it easier to locate a church in the area that might suit their desires for worship.

It's actually a neat program that we have put together - we ask our churches to send us a listing of any worship service, regularly scheduled Sunday morning services or special ones, as well as any other open-to-the-public events.  We then can list them out so that people could even choose to go to worship at several of our churches over the course of the season! 

We get about 80% participation from our churches, which is a good turnout for anything that's not mandated GA Statistics.  We have also gotten feedback from our churches that they apreciate our efforts on their behalf, but I have to admit that it's hard to track real, numerical effectiveness.  Still, it's an important part of our service to our churches, and theirs to their community!

So, in the full knowledge that there are only two times a year that you will see a lot of families and visitors, what do you do to promote your programs and services?  What do you wish you could do?  Do you team up with other congregations (or Presbytery as a whole) to save on advertising while getting out the same message?

Sunday Devotions: Advent Adventure

As Christians, we sometimes believe that God will do things our way, when we want it, and however it suits us.

Take for instance the Pilgrims Fathers, or the Mayflower People, whatever you want to call them. On this day, in 1620, they landed at Plymouth Rock. They were a bunch of impractical Christians, who believed that God was telling them to go to the New World, to escape religious persecution in England, and plant a new colony where they could freely practice their faith.

Can you imagine what happened in Heaven when their prayers were being said? Let’s say an angel takes their prayers to St. Peter.

Angel: Sorry to bother you, St. Peter, but we’re just receiving prayers from a religious group who are looking for God to bless them on a special journey.

Peter: Why do they want to do this?

Angel: They feel that they’re being persecuted and need to find a new place where they can start their own community.

Peter: Oh, so they’re Separationists. They don’t want to remain in the Established Church that we’ve been working on for over 1600 years. Okay, where do these troublemakers want to go?

Angel: To the New World, sir. They think that it will give them a new start.

Peter: A New World? Has God created a New World? Why wasn’t I told about this?

Angel: No, sir. It’s what they call America – all the Europeans think it’s a New World.

Peter: But that’s across the Atlantic Ocean. How are they going to get there?

Angel: On two boats. One is called the Speedwell and the other is the Mayflower.

Peter: Well, if it’s journeying mercies that they need, you should take this over to St. Christopher. He handles all the travel arrangements.

Angel: We tried that, sir, but he says that this is bigger than he can handle.

Peter: Oh I understand, you need me to get involved because they’re traveling on the sea. Being a fisherman, I know what it’s like to sail through choppy waters. Did I ever tell you about the night the Lord invited me to walk on the water during a storm?

Angel: Yes sir, many times. But I’m afraid that this group is going to need more than you or St. Christopher to help them out.

Peter: Why?

Angel: Well you see, sir. They want to set up a community, build their own cabins, grow their own food, make their own laws, and remain healthy, become wealthy, and stay strong.

Peter: That sounds reasonable. When do they want to do this?

Angel: About December 21st.

Peter: IN THE MIDDLE OF WINTER! OY VEY! You’d better take this one all the way to the top!

(c) John Stuart 2008

Stushie is the writer of the four minute daily devotional, Heaven's Highway.

Seminary Reflections

As the semester draws to a close, final exams are written, and papers turned-in (or clicked-in, as is the case when one submits a paper online), I’m aware of the inherent beauty of the academic calendar.

Work twelve weeks, HARD. Big push at the end for finals. Then, rest. Sabbath. It’s almost Biblical, even, since from time to time we all need take a break to reconnect with God, with others, with ourselves, (and yes, with those non-academic to-do lists).

One of the differences between my full-time church internship last year, and my full-time student life at seminary this year, is that last year I actually had time to read for fun, to come home from a day at work and not have to worry about homework or studying. I enjoyed an almost nightly sabbath from work, a feeling very difficult to achieve during the school year. It helped me break and connect with Megan, with friends online, with God.

Advent, to some extent at least, is about sabbath, a sabbath from our normal secular-driven holiday thoughts to another a focus on something else entirely. A sabbath to ponder Christ having come, a sabbath to hope for Christ’s coming again. A time to wait, to be allowed to rest, to reconnect with God, with others, with ourselves.

Maybe these feelings are more intense for one who has just finished a semester’s work, but I hope that we all might use our sabbath time whenever it’s each night after work, or a Sunday afternoon, or early in the morning to rest, to wait with God, to hope for the time when all will be well, for Christ is surely coming.

image by yunior

Advent!

The season of advent is begun! I hope that we all find time over the next four weeks to rest our minds, prepare our hearts, and open to the joy of the Christmas season. I feel a desire to prepare myself, this year perhaps more than most.

Life gets so busy, and December can be a ridiculously over-scheduled month. But this year I plan to be deliberate and intentional about my commitments and my preparation for Christmas in more ways than just decorating, baking, and shopping.

I have advent questions for you. Does your church use purple or blue to mark the season? Is the pink candle for the third Sunday or the fourth? And what do your four candles represent?