During the Advent Season, many church attendees are confronted with the idea that Christmas is more than a single day holiday celebration: like Independence Day, Memorial Day, and Labor Day to name a few, and more than an extended buffet of shopping excursions into the commercial establishments screaming, "stuff, stuff, stuff your home with our stuff". Instead these attendants to Christian Church worship services are encouraged to anticipate, to actually expect the coming of the Christ Mass, the celebration of incarnation. Thus in one fashion or another a local congregation accentuates the regularly scheduled worship with something more, the Advent reading and Advent candle lighting.
The most popular quad-diurnal theme focuses on Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love. However, the website faithandworship.com provides an additional fourteen possible combinations. I remember vaguely from my childhood three from a fourplex of Prophets, Angels, and Shepherds. The churchofengland.org website states that the Four Last Things, Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell are traditional themes. What to make of the variety? That is the real questions.
Does the celebration of advent and the selected themes speak to our human condition? Does the selection from the CoE speak about the focus of our celebration differently from the selection of Hope-Love? I would say that the choice does speak about our human condition, but even more it speaks about our human focus.
Take for example the popular Hope-Love advent topics. Are these something we possess already or something we look to receive at this time of year? Is our focus on receiving from God? Then shift to those from my memory, Prophets-Shepherds. These represent those who proclaimed the coming of the messiah. Does our selection reflect an emphasis on proclamation?
Symbolism is powerful. It not only reflects our thinking, it in turn shapes our thinking. Be careful what you wish for, you may actually receive the same!
Showing posts with label Advent. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Advent. Show all posts
Monday, December 10, 2012
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
What to say on the Sunday between Thanksgiving and Advent?
The Liturgical Calendar is, on occasion, a blessing for non-liturgical folk like myself. So often the Sunday after Thanksgiving coincides with the First Sunday of Advent so selecting a sermon topic is in a sense uncomplicated. However, every so often the American holiday calendar and the Christian Church Holiday calendar fail to cooperate and a minister is left with a Sunday that is an enigma. You can't be thankful two weeks in a row, can you?
So the so named "Last Sunday after Pentecost" (officially the 26th one) suggests the topic of Christ the King in one form or another (Catholic: The Solemnity of, NCCCUSA: Christ the King). The Scripture readings are Dan 7, Ps 93, Rev 1, and John 18.33-37.
But in the midst of Pentecost (and the 6 months with no major Christian Holiday) and Advent (Yes, one can prepare for Christmas is ways other than shopping), the most important figure in the four gospels beyond Jesus is forgotten: John. Very few incidents are included in all four gospels, but John the one who baptizes is included. Indeed, no one else in the Christian testament links Jesus to the Hebrew testament quite like John. The Lucan account of his birth comes in the midst of 2nd Temple Worship activities and links both in a way that is distinct from the other three. Luke ties the Christian story to the Hebrew story and the Christian deity (God) to the Hebrew deity (God), indeed there is no way to read about JB and miss the connection.
The key idea from JB's birth in 2012 deals with the inconvenient provision of this Hebrew Deity to prepare a messenger for the people of the Hebrew deity. But, come to think of it, when does God ever provide what we truly need at the time we think we truly need to receive it? Doesn't God usually provide for us at the time and place when we don't expect, or have stopped expecting, his provision?
So here is a brief synopsis of "God's Inconvenient Provision"
1. God's Provision Appears When and Where We Least Expect It: Luke 1.8-12
2. God's Provision Meets Our True Needs and Exceeds Our Expectations: Luke 1.5-7, 13-17, 25
3. God's Provision Necessitates Our Faithfulness: Luke 1.6, 18-22
4. God's Provision Results in Praise: Luke 1.67-75
There you have an opportunity to connect Thanksgiving and Advent!
So the so named "Last Sunday after Pentecost" (officially the 26th one) suggests the topic of Christ the King in one form or another (Catholic: The Solemnity of, NCCCUSA: Christ the King). The Scripture readings are Dan 7, Ps 93, Rev 1, and John 18.33-37.
But in the midst of Pentecost (and the 6 months with no major Christian Holiday) and Advent (Yes, one can prepare for Christmas is ways other than shopping), the most important figure in the four gospels beyond Jesus is forgotten: John. Very few incidents are included in all four gospels, but John the one who baptizes is included. Indeed, no one else in the Christian testament links Jesus to the Hebrew testament quite like John. The Lucan account of his birth comes in the midst of 2nd Temple Worship activities and links both in a way that is distinct from the other three. Luke ties the Christian story to the Hebrew story and the Christian deity (God) to the Hebrew deity (God), indeed there is no way to read about JB and miss the connection.
The key idea from JB's birth in 2012 deals with the inconvenient provision of this Hebrew Deity to prepare a messenger for the people of the Hebrew deity. But, come to think of it, when does God ever provide what we truly need at the time we think we truly need to receive it? Doesn't God usually provide for us at the time and place when we don't expect, or have stopped expecting, his provision?
So here is a brief synopsis of "God's Inconvenient Provision"
1. God's Provision Appears When and Where We Least Expect It: Luke 1.8-12
2. God's Provision Meets Our True Needs and Exceeds Our Expectations: Luke 1.5-7, 13-17, 25
3. God's Provision Necessitates Our Faithfulness: Luke 1.6, 18-22
4. God's Provision Results in Praise: Luke 1.67-75
There you have an opportunity to connect Thanksgiving and Advent!
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