Keep Awake

This Sunday, our 8th-grade confirmation students will learn about the Christian calendar and the different seasons and holidays we honor as a church. Sure, Christmas and Easter are quite familiar. My guess is that most if not all of our youth could give a brief explanation of these holidays. Ordinary Time, (our green season) is that which we spend most of the year in, yet it is less familiar, probably because it is, well, ordinary. Then there are the seasons of Lent and Advent, seasons of waiting and preparation.

The 27th of November is the first Sunday of Advent this year. Along with our regular order of worship, we will light the first candle of our advent wreath in celebration of hope. What brings you hope in this season? How can we be hope in this season? While we celebrate Christmas every single year, sometimes, I think the meaning gets a little lost. Sometimes I think the hope offered in Christ is so large, so expansive that it can be somewhat behind our reach. Advent gives us time to reflect on this, to imagine what hope, offered in Christ, is so big, so necessary, that I struggle to even imagine it.

It seems fitting as we enter this season of preparation and waiting that we begin Advent with communion. Each time we receive communion, we make ourselves available and open to God's grace. We receive nourishment to live out our faith journey in and outside of the sanctuary. We gather together to remember Christ and to re-member Christ's body (the Church) at one table. May this week's service bring us nourishment to enter Advent with intentionality as we seek the Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love of this holiday season.