This week Advent began. I used an Advent calendar with the children’s time. They had fun opening the little windows, although most of them were too young to understand the Bible verses inside. Of course, it is best done one each day, but we had to cover the whole week. The first few Bible verses are
Day 1 “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.” (Isaiah 9.2)
Day 2 “But you, O Bethlehem, from you shall come forth a ruler.” (Micah 5.2-4)
Day 3 “Gabriel was sent from God to a virgin named Mary.” (Luke 1.28-33)
Day 4 “The Holy Spirit will come upon you.” (Luke 1.35)
Day 5 “Mary said, ‘My soul magnifies the Lord.’” (Luke 1.46-48)
Day 6 “Mary went with haste into the hill country to Elizabeth.” (Luke 1.39-45)
Day 7 “Come into his presence with singing!” (Psalm 100)
They are Bible verses that help follow how Christ’s birth was promised and foreshadowed in the Old Testament and fulfilled in the New.
Following the reading I was doing last week, the basic idea for Sunday was that this time of the year is the time for telling the story of Jesus. Children’s time matched the sermon “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.” In it, I compared the way we celebrate holidays nowadays to their original and true meaning. It always strikes me as interesting how outrageous we make the holidays. I also think it is interesting that Advent usually begins with the reminder that Christ will return. It places our whole history between a beginning and an end, a promise and a fulfillment. This is true of our lives as well. One of my parishioners showed me a short article a few years ago that said that what happens in the dash matters. It is the sum of your whole life, referring to the dates on both sides of the dash on a cemetery marker. It is also amazing that we live our lives fully only when we believe that what we do each day matters and that the big picture is many times completely out of our control. So Christ’s disciples to wait for him and do not get bogged down in distractions (Luke 21.34) and seek to live lives of greater holiness (1 Thessalonians 3.13).

Be good, Tim