Dear Blooming Glen Friends,

Advent is coming … soon. The New Year’s Day on the Christian Church calendar is not January 1.  It is December 3, when we begin a four-week season of preparation for the glorious twelve-day celebration of Christ’s birth (December 25-January 5) and concluded by six-week season of contemplation on the wonderfully surprising revelation of Jesus as he enters the world (Epiphany, January 6 – Shrove Tuesday, February 13).  In a matter of days, we begin a cycle of eleven Sundays designed to seize the joy of the Virgin’s birth. 

Advent, Christmastide, and Epiphany are not seasons of gloomy anticipation – this is a time of a growing momentum into joy.  Beginning with hanging decorations that tell the Jesus story of new life and ending with Pancakes (a feast that even the poor can enjoy), this is season to let go.  This is a time to let of our dour beliefs that somehow God is going to get us if we don’t watch out.  Advent tells a joyful saga of God speaking through His messengers that history is going to bend toward healing, hope, justice, and jubilee.  The twelve days of the Christmastide remind that God’s people are now a global phenomenon.  Everyone, not just the twelve tribes of Israel, is welcome at the table of the King’s great feast.  Epiphany invites us toward self-reflection and confession, not as penitents who are distraught over our bitter sins, but as joyful partakers of the amazing grace of God given to us through Jesus. 

In short, if you are a Grinch at Christmas, it isn’t God’s fault.  These next weeks are set aside for us to discover joy in the gospel story, joy in the fellowship of the household of faith, and joy in the ever-continuing feast of forgiveness. 

Christians come to this time of year aware that there are three advents – three comings of Christ:  The coming of redemption, which is the story we begin to discover over the four Sundays prior to December 25.  The second advent is the coming in glory, the joyful recognition that we now live in the last days before Jesus comes again to fully usher in God’s jubilant Reign.  And there is the third advent, the coming of holiness, that we discover as we worship in Word and the Table.  As Trisha Harrison Warren writes in her little book entitled, “Advent,” It is a deeply paradoxical season, at once past, present, and future.  Ancient yet urgent. 

This Sunday, we end one more church year, and we begin to prepare for another cycle of the gospel proclaimed in Word and symbolized in Bread and Cup, in the waters of baptism, and in the water, towel and basin of servant footwashing.  None of these acts are intended to be sour and acerbic.  They are meant, Sunday in and Sunday out, to feed our souls with the joy that we are redeemed, forgiven, and reconciled. 

As the Reign of Christ is remembered this Sunday, and the season of Advent begins next Sunday, my prayer, for myself, and for each of you, is that we will face this season with the contented smile of one who has surrendered to God’s joy. 

Thanks for being the church,
Pastor Jeff
jeff@bgmc.net 

PS – No coffee date this Friday, November 24, unless you are going to be in Cooperstown, NY, at the Baseball Hall of Fame.  But I’ll be at the A&N Diner on Monday, December 27, 7:30 am.  And, I’ll be at the Broad Street Grind on Friday, December 1 at 3:30 pm. Happy Thanksgiving!