Advent is Upon Us

I have returned from visiting family for Thanksgiving and am unpacked and settling back into the routine, except that it is not routine. The church calendar year ended on Sunday with Christ the King Sunday and this coming Sunday brings the first Sunday of Advent. I don't know what that means this week is - since we are not yet in Advent, but none the less, Advent has arrived in my house and in my heart. My decorations are up - except that I still need to get an Advent wreath - my Christmas tree is up and decorated in white and gold and the nativity set is displayed prominately.

It wasn't until a few years ago after reading Robert Webber's book Ancient Future Time and reading that "Advent is a time to live in the expectation that God will break through" that I began to understand that Advent is not just about the Christmas preparations but it the spiritual anticipation of the coming of Jesus. You have to remember that I grew up in the evangelical charismatic world and such things as the church calendar year, saying the Doxology and reciting the Lord's Prayer where considered things that "dead" churches do. Now I have come to a greater understanding of what it means to "dumpster dive for the faith traditions of the past" and what a great spiritual blessing it is to know that just as I am participating in the spiritual disciplines, so have generations of faithful Jesus followers, both in the past and in the future.

The modern church threw out all, or most, of the faith traditions in favor of contemporary music, "relevant" preaching and no "decorations" in the church. How I am enjoying my "traditional" church. The stained glass windows that tell the stories of the Bible, the congregational participation as we recite the Lord's Prayer, the Doxology, and the Gloria Patri together, and the hymns written by those long past - it all means a great deal to me. I can see the beauty in it.

As Advent is upon us may we remember and anticipate the coming of Jesus.