Get my purple stole
Advent starts this Sunday.
Advent is the first season of the Christian year. It is a 4 week time of preparation for the incarnation of Christ. Historically the church has used these weeks for quiet, reflection, repentance, and fasting. Traditionally, the parties happen AFTER the 25th, during the 12 days between Christmas and Epiphany. (Perhaps you’ve heard a song about this…)
We will be digging in to Matthew 1, the genealogy of Jesus. That’s right… Matthew’s begats. Lots of fun names and who gave birth to who.
Now before you yawn, let me tell you my premise: if you really want to understand the incarnation, then the genealogy tells the stories of how Jesus really ‘gets’ us. Very simply, the junk in your family tree is the same junk that was in Christ’s. That is an encouragement to me.
Hope you had a great Thanksgiving.
I look with great anticipation towards experiencing these next 4 weeks with you.
See ya on Sunday.
November 27, 2010 @ 1:04 pm
One of my brother’s keeps Christmas this way—they don’t even put up their tree until Christmas Eve. I used to think that was crazy (all that work for only 12 days?), but as I get older, the whole Advent idea makes more and more sense. And they sure do feast for those 12 days!!
Matthew’s Begats will be interesting, I think. I am tempted to offer up my eldest child to start us off by singing Andrew Peterson’s song by that name — he’s got it all memorized!
November 27, 2010 @ 10:05 pm
Advent has quickly become my fav. Christian season and is a very cool liturgical inheritance. Learning the full liturgical calendar since being in an Anglican Church has been great. I love the rhythm of returning to the season and seeing some hefty theological concepts broken down into bite-sized pieces.
Looking forward to Adventy Fireside Chats (Tues. 730-845 pm) and finding those moments of quiet to prepare a heart of worship for Christmas celebrations. The only thing I’m not a fan of is holding off on the Christmas songs. If we’ve gotta hold off, then we better have one doozy of a sing come Christmastide!