Advent and Christmas are among my favorite seasons of the year. As the plants die back and the days grow darker, we can contemplate the seasons of our lives.
Though we will all experience dark and trying times, we know that they will not last forever. The light returns. The new life of spring is on the horizon. During these dark days, we keep vigil and watch for the coming of the light.
It’s no accident that we celebrate Christmas near the winter equinox. In previous times, the equinox landed on the 25th, but the calendar has shifted bit since then. We celebrate the birth of Christ, the coming of Christ into the world, on the same day we celebrate the returning of the sun. The longest night marks the turn into brighter days. The coming of Christ is made apparent in our darkest hour.
At the beginning of Advent, we look forward to Christ’s coming. We know that the coming of Christ as a newborn baby on the first Christmas is a sign and symbol of the coming again of Christ in glory, and also of the coming of Christ into our hearts in the here and now. Wherever Christ is coming, the Kingdom of God is near.
On the Second Sunday of Advent, we’ll have a pulpit exchange with our sister church in Hillsboro. While I’m leading worship in Hillsboro, Pastor Jorge will be leading worship with you in Forest Grove.
Then we consider the ministry of John the Baptist, who prepared the way for Jesus. Like the crowds who flocked to him, we are filled with expectations for the arrival of Christ that is to come.
On the Wednesday before Christmas, Hillsboro UMC is hosting a Blue Christmas Service. “Blue? Yes, blue as in the blues. As in ‘I am feeling blue.’ Not everyone is up and cheery for the Christmas holidays. Dealing with the death of a loved one, facing life after divorce or separation, coping with the loss of a job, living with cancer or some other dis-ease that puts a question mark over the future, and a number of other human situations make parties and joviality painful for many people” (UMDM). This service brings Christmas into dialog with our experiences of grief and pain.
On the final Sunday of Advent, we consider two scriptural songs. The first is a Messianic prophecy from the prophet Micah, words that foretell the coming of the Christ. The second is the Song of Mary, the prophetic proclamation of Jesus’s mother about God’s plans for the world and Mary’s own part in
those plans.
Blessings,
Pastor David+