Awaiting The Unknown
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With a new liturgical year we enter Advent, a time defined by active waiting -- both for the nativity of Jesus and for the second coming of the Christ. This week’s Jeremiah passage offers a thumbnail summation of the season: “The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah.” But as Jesus reminds us in our gospel text, these days of waiting can often be troubling: “There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world.”
That might be an apt description of how many people around the world are feeling in the wake of the recent Paris attacks. There is a renewed sense of apprehension as we wait for next terrorist incident -- we don’t know when or where these agents of death and destruction will strike, and though law enforcement and government intelligence agencies are doing as much as possible to prevent them, we can be certain that another assault will occur somewhere in the future. Brussels is still at a standstill this week after authorities received information that the Belgian capital was at risk of a Paris-style attack. And the anxiety was amped up further when the U.S. State Department issued a global travel alert. A climate of fear has prevailed -- and while it’s come to the forefront in the aftermath of the Paris massacre, a survey released prior to those attacks indicates just how much Americans were already worried about Islam, terrorists, and even each other. That fear has manifested itself in the attitudes of many politicians; numerous governors have attempted to block the resettlement of Syrian refugees in their states, while the House of Representatives passed legislation calling for a suspension in the federal the program allowing Syrian and Iraqi refugees into the United States until key national security agencies certify they don’t pose a security risk. Meanwhile, a rising tide of anti-Muslim sentiment was capped by presidential candidate Donald Trump’s call for a national database to register and track Muslims in the U.S.
Yet as team member Mary Austin points out in this installment of The Immediate Word, the Advent waiting we are called to is of a fundamentally different nature than many types of waiting we are used to in our culture. While much of our civic anticipation is grounded in anxiety and fear, Advent waiting is grounded in love and welcoming -- for as Jesus reminded us, when we care for our neighbors we are also caring for him. Thus, as we eagerly anticipate our Lord’s return we need to act in this world in ways that reveal our Christian nature... one defined by love rather than fear.
Team member Dean Feldmeyer shares some additional thoughts in a semi-satirical piece that lampoons our society’s “war on Advent.” With Advent following on the heels of Thanksgiving’s gluttonous feasts and Black Friday’s shopping orgy, Dean wonders if we can maintain a serious attitude of preparation befitting the season. After all, our secular “holiday” season certainly fits to a tee the criteria Jesus warns us against in our gospel text: “Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day catch you unexpectedly.” During a time often characterized by franticness and by excessive consumption of food and drink, Advent calls us to a different sort of preparation -- one that looks outside of our selfish appetites and instead toward spiritual reflection.
Awaiting the Unknown
by Mary Austin
Luke 21:25-36
It’s no secret that most of us are terrible at waiting. Airport gates all have television screens to distract us while we wait for a plane, and even some gas stations now have a chattering television at each pump so we’re distracted while the tank fills. People standing in line at the bank are all on their phones. In fact, we try not to go to the bank at all -- doing everything online, where there’s no waiting.
If we have to wait, we don’t know what to do with ourselves. As we watch without much information for world events to unfold, we fill the space with speculation. We cultivate fear instead of hope. We fill our minds with the worst-case scenarios.
Advent calls us again to the discipline of waiting, and reminds us that there are different ways to wait. There’s fearful waiting; self-protective waiting; circle-the-wagons waiting; hopeful waiting; active waiting; faith-filled waiting. Advent’s candles light our way into a different kind of waiting.
In the World
Since the attacks in Paris, the world has been waiting for more information about the perpetrators, longing to know if more attacks are coming. As we wait, politicians have filled the time with political posturing, saturating the media and our minds with images of future terror.
Here in the U.S., a number of Republican governors have declared that our future safety depends on keeping Syrian refugees out of their states: “Twenty-five Republican governors vowed to block the entry of Syrian refugees into their states, arguing that the safety of Americans was at stake after the Paris attacks by terrorists including a man who entered Europe with a Syrian passport and posed as a migrant. Among the governors were those from Illinois, Massachusetts, Texas and other states that have already resettled relatively large numbers of refugees from among the 1,900 Syrians accepted by the United States in the last four years.” Their comments are the latest in a war of words over immigrants of all kinds, and “some of the fiercest opposition to the refugees came from the Republican presidential candidates who are the sharpest critics of Mr. Obama’s immigration policies. Donald J. Trump, who elevated immigration as a campaign issue with his proposal to build a wall on the border with Mexico, on Monday called for deporting refugees who have already been accepted into the United States and said that federal counterterrorism agents should consider closing some mosques if evidence of ‘absolute hatred’ for Westerners was found.”
In Europe, people are watching for another attack. In Belgium, the city of Brussels has been at the highest alert level since officials received intelligence about another possible attack. The heightened alert has “virtually shut down the Belgian capital, with the subway system, many shops, and schools remaining shut on Monday.” One can imagine the level of fear, as people stay home from work and school. “A series of raids in Belgium began late Sunday, capping a tense weekend that saw hundreds of troops patrolling streets. Frank Foley, a terrorism expert and lecturer in war studies at King’s College London, said it was difficult to know if the operations were justified because authorities have provided so few details. The measures could even be counterproductive if they last too long, he said. ‘If these dramatic measures continue in Brussels, we will be doing the terrorists’ job for them,’ Foley said. ‘The government may be unintentionally contributing to the atmosphere of fear.’ ” Several of the Paris attackers were from Brussels, and officials are seeking to prevent another attack, leaving the people of the city waiting for more news. Officials are taking similar measures in Paris, where “France extended for three months a state of emergency that allows police raids, searches, and house arrest without permission from a judge. On Saturday, it also extended a ban on demonstrations and other gatherings through Nov. 30, when a U.N. climate conference with more than 100 heads of state is scheduled to start.”
Fareed Zakaria writes in an opinion piece in the Washington Post that devolving into fear actually benefits the Islamic State: “In one of the best books on the topic, Hunting in the Shadows, Seth Jones concludes that whenever the United States adopted a ‘light-footprint strategy’ -- Special Operations forces, covert intelligence, and law enforcement -- it did well. Whenever the United States and its allies sent troops into Muslim countries, he notes, ‘al-Qaeda has benefited through increased radicalization and additional recruits.’ This is why from the start, the Islamic State has sought to bait Western countries into sending troops to Syria.” Zakaria adds, “This is not to counsel despair but to suggest ‘strategic patience,’ as President Obama rightly says. The Islamic State is not nearly as strong as the hysteria of the moment suggests. It is surrounded by deadly foes. Many countries are fighting it -- Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran, the United States and Vladimir Putin’s Russia, neighboring Jordan and faraway France. Its territory is shrinking, and its message is deeply unpopular to most in its supposed ‘caliphate’ -- witness the hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees fleeing its barbarism.” Political waiting, like spiritual waiting, can be full of purpose.
Closer to home, people have reacted to American Muslims with fear and prejudice. As Washington Post columnist Petula Dvorak characterized it, “Looks like fear -- not turkey -- is the main course being served in our country this week.” In Fredericksburg, Virginia, she notes, “The Islamic Center of Fredericksburg -- a little brick building that looks like a bank branch office and has been around for 27 years -- was skewered at a community meeting by a handful of seething people who see the center’s expansion plans as a threat to the very fabric of America. ‘Nobody, nobody, nobody wants your evil cult in this county,’ a man said [at the meeting]. ‘I will do everything in my power to make sure that doesn’t happen, because you are terrorists.’... This was said in a public meeting. In front of a large group of Muslims who have lived, worked, and worshiped in this community for years. About a center that has been sponsoring a food pantry, prayers, and subversive events such as ‘Farm Fun Day’ for nearly three decades.” Fear is trumping reason in this season of waiting. Dvorak observes that “the tone is actually worse than it was after the Sept. 11 attacks on our own soil. Registration by religion? Sounds like Nazi Germany, not a country with a First Amendment that enshrines freedom of religion. Why are we degenerating so quickly and so far from our country’s founding values? Because it’s an election year. And political leaders -- egged on by the grandstanding and lies of Donald Trump -- are peddling fear like it’s a miracle drug.” Fear is apparently better than just sitting and waiting to see what happens next -- or befriending a neighbor, and reducing the level of panic by knowing someone personally who’s Muslim.
Putting things in perspective, the mayor of Dallas said he’s actually more fearful of armed Americans than Syrian refugees: “Speaking to MSNBC on Saturday morning, Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings was asked to discuss the growing anxiety over Syrian refugees entering the United States, purportedly over concerns they could be potential agents for militant groups such as ISIS. Rawlings staunchly rejected the assertion that Syrians are somehow uniquely prone to violence, saying he is more concerned with the rise of white supremacy and the recent flurry of mass shootings committed by white men. ‘I am more fearful of large gatherings of white men that come into schools, theaters, and shoot people up, but we don’t isolate young white men on this issue,’ Rawlings said.”
In the Scriptures
Speaking to his friends in the last week of his own life, Jesus highlights the mysterious nature of waiting for something. “People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world,” he says, acknowledging that waiting is difficult. We don’t have any control over the fact that life involves waiting -- but we can manage how we wait. We are not to wait fearfully, Jesus says, but instead we are to “stand up and raise [our] heads.” Our waiting has a different quality.
In contrast to some other governors, the governor of Washington said recently that we have to be guided by our principles, rather than our fears. In an interview with NPR, Jay Inslee was asked about the risks of welcoming Syrian refugees, and he said, “[T]here’s risk getting out of bed in the morning. And we are a nation that has always taken the path of enforcing our freedom, our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our humanity, our relationship with the rest of the world. And we’ve hewed to those values, even in troubled times. And when we haven’t, we’ve regretted it. I’ll give you an example. I live on Bainbridge Island, this little island just west of Seattle. And it was the first place where we succumbed to fear in 1941 after Pearl Harbor. And we locked up Washington and American citizens, and we sent them to camps -- Japanese-Americans.” Fear sucks us away from our deepest values, and is not a reliable guide to the future. We can wait with attention to our deepest calling, rather than our deepest worries.
While awaiting their wedding, a Canadian couple recently changed course, cancelling the wedding they had planned so they could dedicate money to helping Syrian refugee families: “Toronto couple Samantha Jackson and Farzin Yousefian had their wedding set for March 2016 -- the venue, the caterer, everything was lined up. In September, in the midst of their planning, Jackson and Yousefian came across the devastating photo of Aylan Kurdi -- the 3-year-old Syrian boy who drowned when he and his family attempted to make the trip from Turkey to the Greek island of Kos on a flimsy boat. The pair then decided to cancel their wedding and use the money they would have spent to help victims of the Syrian refugee crisis.” They called the caterer and other vendors to cancel, and instead had a low-key wedding at city hall and a simple dinner where they asked guests to contribute to a charity they knew was doing good work with refugees. We can wait with purpose, and compassion.
In the Sermon
The sermon might look at how we cultivate skill in waiting. Clearly, waiting faithfully requires some spiritual expertise -- it doesn’t come naturally. There are spiritual skills we need to develop to await Christ’s coming into our lives, and into the world.
Noticing is one such skill, according to Alyce McKenzie, who says: “To prepare for Jesus’ future Advent, we need to notice and respond to his current presence.” Patience is another. Karl Jacobson says that “Patience in this life is often the key issue for us as well. Patience in the face of promises yet to be kept; patience in the meantime of enduring illness, broken relationships, and unrealized expectations or hopes; patience after all our patience has run out.... As we seek to be raised as children of the Kingdom, patience is key in watching for the signs, in living into the Gospel, and in our daily lives as congregations and as individuals.” The sermon might look at how we develop the skills to set aside panic and wait with an observant patience.
We can also remember to breathe as we wait, knowing that breath is tied with spirit. Blogger John Petty observes that the text says “people will also ‘breathe out life’ from fear and expectation of what is coming upon the inhabited world. NRSV has ‘faint from fear,’ an acceptable translation, though apopsuxontone literally means ‘breathing out life.’ ” We can remember to breathe in the breath of life too. Remembering to take a deep breath or two may be another spiritual skill we need for times of uncertainty.
Or the sermon might look at where we fix our attention as we wait. We can fill our minds with the voices of fear, or look elsewhere. Robert Hoch writes that “mid the rising tide of confusion, we are to look for a familiar face, one we will recognize.” Frederick Buechner says that what we do while we wait is important, realizing “to wait for Christ to come in his fullness is not just a passive thing, a pious, prayerful, churchly thing. On the contrary, to wait for Christ to come in his fullness is above all else to act in Christ’s stead as fully as we know how. To wait for Christ is as best we can to be Christ to those who need us to be Christ to them most and to bring them the most we have of Christ’s healing and hope because unless we bring it, it may never be brought at all.” As we wait, we have the opportunity to act as Jesus would want us to, making his presence alive and full in the waiting.
Advent brings waiting back into our lives, and asks us to just hold the space -- not to fill it with Christmas carols, or distraction, or the hurry of preparing for Christmas. Waiting, as the world sees it, needs to be filled up quickly. Every fearsome possibility should be considered, and fear of the worst should guide our choices.
As people of faith, we see it differently. The work of waiting in Advent reminds us that there is a deeper, wider, more encompassing reality than our fears. We know that the One for whom we wait has already been here, and is here -- even while we wait -- so we don’t need to fear any place of emptiness. Any time or place that feels empty holds an unseen presence. In that certainty, we can stand up, lift up our heads, and turn our gaze toward hope.
ANOTHER VIEW
The War on Advent
by Dean Feldmeyer
Luke 21:25-36
You know what really makes me mad? You know what really gets my goat? You know what just sets me off like a Roman candle with a really short fuse so that when you try to light it there’s a good chance you’ll blow your thumb off, but you light it anyway because it cost like $8 or something and you don’t want to see it go to waste so it’s worth the risk?
It’s when someone says “Merry Christmas” to me -- and it isn’t even Christmas yet! What’s the matter with these people anyway? Don’t they know that this is Advent? It’s like they don’t even want to have an Advent. It’s like they’re trying to ignore Advent, or even get rid of Advent so they can just jump head-first into Christmas.
I’m tellin’ ya, people, there is a war on Advent in this country! It’s like all these Christmas fanatics just want to go from the Fourth of July to Halloween to Thanksgiving to Christmas with nothing in between -- just leapfrogging from one holiday to another with no time to get ready for the next one.
Well, not me! No sir. I’m going to stand up and be counted. I’m going to fight this war on Advent to my dying day, until my last breath, until my Christmas tree turns brown and all the needles fall out and stick in the carpet. As for me and my house, we will observe Advent.
How’s that? You too? You want to join me in this holy war, this war to save Advent? Well, let’s go then.
First, we need a battle plan.
Advent is the four Sundays before Christmas and all the days between those Sundays. This year that’s 26 days, from November 29 to December 24.
Advent is supposed to be a serious time of reflection, confession, and repentance. It is at this time that we cleanse our souls to make room for the coming of Jesus Christ into the world and into our lives. It’s like when we were kids and our grandparents were coming for the holidays, so Mom made us help her clean house for about a week. Well, that’s the way Advent is. Company’s coming! We need to clean house in our moral and religious lives. We need to get our souls all swept and dusted and ready for the arrival of the messiah.
It isn’t supposed to be merry!! It’s supposed to be serious!
Listen to what Luke says about this serious time of preparation: “Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day catch you unexpectedly like a trap” (v. 34).
How do you like that? Wouldn’t that just be a fine thing -- the little baby Jesus comes down to earth, and there we are all dissipating and drinking and worrying like a bunch of fools? (And I don’t even know what “dissipation” means!)
Here it is, I looked it up. Says here that dissipation is “wasteful expenditure” or “intemperate living.” It also says that it can mean excessive drinking.
Well, I don’t know about your house -- but that pretty much describes this whole “Merry Christmas” thing in my neighborhood. They start dissipating just after Halloween, and they don’t stop until the day after the Super Bowl. You can’t walk through the shopping mall without knocking into people who are dissipating all over the place: spending more than they make, eating more than they should of the wrong kinds of foods, and drinking to calm their nerves and get up the gumption to brave the crowds one more time just to make it to the jewelry counter at Macy’s. They’re out there swearing up a storm because they can’t find a parking place, worrying themselves sick because they can’t find the one and only thing that their nine-year-old child has declared is essential for true happiness.
Drunkenness doesn’t have to be the literal kind, you know. It can be figurative drunkenness, like when you get so caught up in the momentum of the season that you lose all good sense and start making bad choices.
Last year I was shopping in a toy store around this time of year and I heard a couple talking. He says, “So, whaddaya think of this? You think he’d like one of these?” And she says, “I don’t know. It’s awfully expensive.” And he says, “Dear, it’s for the grandchildren. There’s no such thing as too expensive.”
I started to laugh, and then I realized that the people I heard talking were me and my wife! We were drunk on Christmas. We were making bad choices, and justifying them by pointing out what season it is.
And worry? My wife can worry Jefferson’s face right off of a nickel. If she spends 50 cents more on one grandchild than on another, we have to go out and find a 50-cent item for child number two -- and of course we can’t, so we spend more which means now we have to go out and... well, you get the picture. Madness! Plain ol’ madness.
We worry about getting just exactly the right gift, then we worry about how much we’re spending, then we worry about if we’re spending enough. And on and on it goes.
So there you have it. Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Super Saturday, and all the days in between in a nutshell: dissipation, drunkenness, and worry.
No wonder people have to go around wishing each other “Merry Christmas” all the time when it isn’t even Christmas yet. They have to do it to remind each other and themselves why they’re behaving this way!
Well, this year you can count me out.
This year I’m gonna observe Advent the way it’s supposed to be observed -- somber, reflective, and repentant.
And just to make sure that everyone gets it, the next time some clueless clerk in a department store or big box discount store wishes me a “Merry Christmas” before it’s even Christmas, I’m going to set them straight. I’m gonna purse my lips, close my eyes, raise an admonishing index finger in the air, shake my head ever so slightly, and say: “No, dear, Christmas doesn’t happen until December 25. This season is Advent, and there’s nothing merry about Advent.”
Wait... What? Oh, okay.
Okay, my wife says I’m not allowed to do that because it would be insensitive and mean. She says that I should say “thank you,” and then return their greeting with grace and kindness because that’s what Jesus would do.
My wife is such a nice person. So I guess I’ll do what she says. And I’ll start with you.
Merry Christmas!
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Chris Keating:
Luke 21:25-36
On Guard
Jesus’ words and the State Department’s travel advisory both warn of distress throughout the world, and call upon those who are listening to be vigilant and alert. The State Department issued a global alert for travelers on Monday, citing increased terror threats. Unlike Jesus, however, who called his believers to increased preparations and spiritual alertness, the U.S. government reminded Americans to take precautions. Meanwhile, despite his harsh rhetoric, GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump seems to be enjoying an uptick in support. According to the New Republic, Trump’s at times questionably accurate statements are strengthening his lead.
*****
Luke 21:25-36
Waiting, Waiting, Waiting
It’s Advent and people are waiting. But this year they may be waiting for Luke, Leia, and Han Solo as much as they are for Mary, Joseph, and Jesus. We might not see any Star Wars-themed characters in the church Christmas pageant, but plenty of people are indeed waiting. There’s a website that is counting down the days (signs in the stars?) until The Force Awakens opens. Depending on your preference, you can read a preview or watch a trailer. Forget about Jesus’ admonition to look at a fig tree -- there are signs of Disney’s carefully crafted marketing plan just about everywhere: video games and novels, action figures, and enough merchandise to populate an asteroid (and aimed at bridging three generations of fans).
Christianity Today editor Katelyn Beaty decries how the consumer madness over Christmas has descended on churches: “God does not enter our world donning bells and whistles, hoping to compete with Luke Skywalker or Love Actually reruns. He doesn’t hope to ‘attract’ more people with his ‘message.’ Instead, he waits for our eyes to adjust to the dim light emanating from the manger, to come, to see, to behold -- and to truly celebrate. This is very good news for church leaders, who experience great pressure at Christmas to increase attendance and giving. It means they need not think up a ‘big idea’ to add to the Incarnation, but rather communicate -- as clearly and plainly as possible -- the big idea that is the Incarnation.”
*****
Luke 21:25-36
Being Alert
Fear of refugees and the threat they pose to national security is not a particularly new phobia, according to a report by NPR. From Cubans in 1980 to Haitians fleeing their earthquake-ruined homeland in 2010, there have been several attempts to “raise the drawbridge” by not welcoming refugees across our borders. Meanwhile, religious leaders such as Gradye Parsons, the Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian Church (USA), have urged Americans to choose “welcome, not fear.” A statement by Parsons said, in part:
Do we choose to abandon our plan to protect these Syrians because the people who have been threatening them are now threatening the West as well? ISIS has taken lives; they have taken our sense of security. Do we now hand over our hope and compassion to them?
*****
Jeremiah 33:14-16
The Joy of ISIS
Jeremiah envisions the promised branch of David that will bring righteousness and justice. The prophet imagines a time when a transcendent vision of God will bring peace and safety. In times of violence and despair, Jeremiah’s words convey hope. Jeremiah’s vision brings enduring joy -- a much-needed word of hope the face of mounting terrorism.
In that vein, writer Ross Douthat reflects on this sardonic tweet from writer Joyce Carol Oates: “All we hear of ISIS is puritanical & punitive; is there nothing celebratory & joyous? Or is query naive?”
Douthat has some fun with Oates’ quirkiness, but then makes a critical observation about “one of the West’s weaknesses in this conflict: Our widespread inability (concentrated in particular among our leadership class) to imagine or understand what else, beyond the pull of sadism and thuggery, our fellow human beings (including quite a few young, Western-raised people) seem to find intoxicating about the Daesh experiment.” In other words, what’s the appeal?
In a word, transcendence. Like those who find hope in Jeremiah’s words, some of ISIS’ young recruits are drawn by a vision of hope and a quest for deeper meaning in life. He quotes an article by Scott Atran and Nafees Hamid:
In France, and in Europe more generally, more than three of every four recruits join the Islamic State together with friends, while only one in five do so with family members and very few through direct recruitment by strangers. Many of these young people identify with neither the country their parents come from nor the country in which they live. Other identities are weak and non-motivating. One woman in the Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois described her conversion as being like that of a transgender person who opts out of the gender assigned at birth: “I was like a Muslim trapped in a Christian body,” she said. She believed she was only able to live fully as a Muslim with dignity in the Islamic State.
For others who have struggled to find meaning in their lives, ISIS is a thrilling cause and call to action that promises glory and esteem in the eyes of friends, and through friends, eternal respect and remembrance in the wider world that many of them will never live to enjoy.
*****
Jeremiah 33:14-16
Keeping Advent Promises
Jeremiah speaks of the promised day of the Lord -- a day that is to come, which is a reason to persevere and to wait in hopeful anticipation. Robert Frost’s acclaimed poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” comes to mind as an example of how hopeful anticipation is mixed with pressing forward. Writer Layla Velasquez muses on the familiar lines from Frost’s poetry. The poem’s final lines are particularly memorable:
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
How easy it would be, she thinks, to avoid the often hard work of pressing forward, especially as a writer. That is the dilemma of faith, however; how is it that we actively anticipate the future? Velasquez says that Frost is her beacon, much the way Jeremiah was a word of encouragement to exiles:
Oh how I would love to stop in the snowy woods. Watch Netflix, and cast off all my cares. How easy it would be to choose mediocrity. Be normal, average, and have what one is supposed to have for my age. Oh, how those woods would be lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep. And miles to go before I sleep. Miles to go before I sleep.
So I press on. While my eyelids grow heavy, and only the yellow lamplight illuminates the deepening night. I press on, on the chance that one day my face will beam with pride, as I tell this with a sigh... I took the road less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.
***************
From team member Ron Love:
Luke 21:25-36
Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney waited all season for the week of the Tigers’ game with Syracuse so he could name Tigers long snapper Jim Brown as a team captain -- thus paying homage to a special guest who once played for Syracuse. Swinney wanted to introduce to his Clemson team the Hall of Fame running back (also named Jim Brown) who was an All-American at Syracuse and played nine seasons in the NFL, leaving as pro football’s all-time rushing leader -- but none of his players knew about that Jim Brown. Swinney said that instead of being a time of celebration, it became a time for a history lesson.
Application: We often have to worry if people are going to forget Jesus’ instructions regarding the final coming.
*****
Luke 21:25-36
Not all signs are good; some signs are foreboding. After nine innocent individuals were murdered in a church in Charleston, South Carolina, the state has been examining its racial history. Changes have been made, with state legislators voting to remove the Confederate flag from the statehouse grounds. But the changes are limited, because under a state law two-thirds of both houses of the legislature must agree to make any change on a historic site or government land -- and South Carolina House Speaker Jay Lucas has refused to bring the matter up for debate. So Greenwood County has been unable to change plaques on a war monument where some soldiers’ names appear in a special column labeled “Negro” or “Colored.” Likewise, The Citadel, that great historic military institution of the South, wants to remove the Confederate flag from Summerall Chapel -- but lacks the authority to do so.
Application: We must look and understand what signs mean.
*****
Luke 21:25-36
Russian Orthodox priest John Kronstadt, who was beloved by his followers, died on December 20, 1908. During the persecution of the church by the communists he said: “The enemy of our salvation especially strives to draw our heart and mind away from God when we are about to serve him, and endeavors to adulterously attach our heart to something irrelevant.”
Application: Jesus cautions us to be aware of the signs of the end times, as if we were to look upon a fig tree or to the sky.
*****
Luke 21:25-36
A Canadian judge threw out a court case because the witness was too boring -- the judge reckoned the witness was the dullest man he’d ever had to listen to -- and even the court reporter fell asleep. The judge said: “Three days of this drone is all I can take. I can’t face the prospect of another 14 indictments. It’s probably unethical, but I don’t care.”
Application: We will never fall asleep listening to the testimony of our Lord.
*****
Luke 21:25-36
An American prisoner sued the government for infringing his religious rights, but because they were secret he couldn’t actually explain how they were being infringed.
Application: There is no secret to our Lord’s pronouncement regarding the end times.
*****
1 Thessalonians 3:9-13
Army Capt. Florent Groberg recently received the Congressional Medal of Honor for his heroic act in Afghanistan. A man wearing a suicide vest approached his fellow soldiers, and Groberg kept pushing the man back away from his troops. The man fell and the bomb exploded. Four soldiers were killed in the attack and several wounded, but without Groberg’s actions all of his platoon would have died. Groberg was badly wounded, and spent three years recovering at Walter Reed Hospital.
Application: We are always to be abounding in love for one another, and that love is expressed in many different ways.
*****
1 Thessalonians 3:9-13
In a The Born Loser comic strip, Brutus and a friend are sitting at a lunch counter. It is Friday the 13th, and the friend tells Brutus that he is always nervous on this superstitious day of bad luck. Brutus replies, “Nah?I’m the Born Loser -- how much worse could things possibly get?”
Application: Many people need to be greeted with the same joy and reassurance that Paul experienced.
*****
1 Thessalonians 3:9-13
The Polynesian double-hulled canoe Hokulea left Hawaii in 2014 for a three-year voyage around the world. The vessel has not been guided by any modern technology, but only by that used by the crew members’ ancestors -- that is, the stars and the sun. At the completion of its journey, the boat will have sailed more than 60,000 nautical miles and anchored in 100 ports in 27 nations. One purpose of the trip is to introduce people to Hawaiian culture; another purpose is to promote peace and acceptance among all nations. When the boat recently reached the halfway point on its journey at Cape Town, the crew was unable to connect with South Africans. Hawaiian students who met up with the voyage began to dance and the African children soon joined them, and there was harmony.
Application: We are to abound in steadfast love for one another.
*****
1 Thessalonians 3:9-13
On December 25, 1909, Japanese evangelist Toyohiko Kagawa crossed the Higurashi Bridge to minister in the slums of Shinkawa. During his work he was quoted as saying, “Theology is but an appendix to love, and an unreliable appendix!”
Application: The scriptures and theology do guide us in the meaning of love.
*****
Jeremiah 33:14-16
In 2004 a German lawyer, Juergen Graefe, acted for an elderly pensioner from St. Augustin (near Bonn) who was sent a tax demand for 287 million euros, even though the woman’s income was only 17,000 euros. Graefe fixed the problem with one standard letter to the authorities -- but since German law entitled him to calculate his fee based on the amount of the reduction he obtained, his fee came to 440,234 euros, which was paid by the state. (There is no evidence that he pushed his luck by writing a thank-you letter.)
Application: Jeremiah proclaims that God will execute justice, but it will be done fairly and not with deception for personal gain.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: Make us to know your ways, O God; teach us your paths.
People: Lead us in your truth, and teach us, for you are the God of our salvation.
Leader: Be mindful of your mercy, O God, and of your steadfast love.
People: All the paths of God are steadfast love and faithfulness.
Leader: Good and upright is God, who instructs sinners in the way.
People: God leads the humble in what is right and teaches them.
OR
Leader: God is coming!
People: When? Where? What will the coming look like?
Leader: We don’t know. We just have to wait.
People: Will it be in terror and destruction or peace and joy?
Leader: Bethlehem was both! Will the next coming be different?
People: We will wait with expectation and hope.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
“Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus”
found in:
UMH: 196
H82: 66
PH: 1, 2
NCH: 122
LBW: 30
ELA: 254
W&P: 153
AMEC: 103
“Hail to the Lord’s Anointed”
found in:
UMH: 203
H82: 616
AAHH: 187
NCH: 104
CH: 140
LBW: 87
ELA: 311
AMEC: 107
Renew: 101
“People, Look East”
found in:
UMH: 202
PH: 12
CH: 142
ELA: 248
W&P: 161
STLT: 226
“I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light”
found in:
UMH: 206
H82: 490
ELA: 815
W&P: 248
Renew: 152
“Lift Up Your Heads, Ye Mighty Gates”
found in:
UMH: 213
H82: 436
PH: 8
NCH: 117
CH: 129
LBW: 32
W&P: 176
AMEC: 94
“Lo, He Comes with Clouds Descending”
found in:
UMH: 718
H82: 57, 58
PH: 6
LBW: 27
ELA: 435
AMEC: 99
“Rejoice, the Lord Is King”
found in:
UMH: 715, 716
H82: 481
PH: 155
NCH: 303
CH: 699
LBW: 171
ELA: 430
W&P: 342
AMEC: 88, 89
“A Charge to Keep I Have”
found in:
UMH: 413
AAHH: 467, 468
NNBH: 436
ELA: 340
AMEC: 242
“Arise, Shine”
found in:
CCB: 2
Renew: 123
“People Need the Lord”
found in:
CCB: 52
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who comes to us in the most unexpected times, places, and ways: Grant us the wisdom to be alert for your coming among us, and give us the insight to see you in the face of the stranger; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, for you come to us in the midst of our everyday lives. You surprise us with your presence in the midst of all the turmoil and craziness around us. Help us to look for you with hope and anticipation every day. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially our lack of faith as we live in fear.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. Our focus is on fear when we see what is happening around us. We see only the convulsions and tremors, and we recoil in horror. We fail to see that these are but birth pangs. We see only the pain, and do not see the promise that is presenting itself. Open our eyes, and help us to see what you are doing in the midst of all the turmoil of this world. Help us see how you are presenting yourself to this world. Amen.
Leader: God is coming with healing and blessing. God has arrived in the past, is here now, and will come in the future. Be alert and receive God’s blessings, which are for all creation.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
We praise you, O God, for you come into our world in all its confusion and terror.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. Our focus is on fear when we see what is happening around us. We see only the convulsions and tremors, and we recoil in horror. We fail to see that these are but birth pangs. We see only the pain, and do not see the promise that is presenting itself. Open our eyes, and help us to see what you are doing in the midst of all the turmoil of this world. Help us see how you are presenting yourself to this world.
We give you thanks for all the ways in which you are breaking into our world and into our lives. We thank you for the blessings, great and small, which present themselves to us each day. Most of all, we thank you that you have not given up on us but keep coming to us in the midst of our lives.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We lift up to you the cares of this world. As you move to bring salvation, healing, wholeness, and blessing in the midst of our distress, help us to be messengers of hope.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father . . . Amen.
(or if the Lord’s Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children’s Sermon Starter
“Have you ever gone to the doctor to get a shot?” “Did you have to wait to see the doctor?” “Was it fun?”
“Have you ever gone to see Santa Claus?” “Did you have to wait?” “Was it fun?”
Waiting is very different, depending on how we do it. Advent is about waiting -- not for Santa, but for Jesus and God’s reign of peace. Advent is about waiting for something good. It may take a long time. There may be unpleasant things that happen while we wait -- but we don’t mind waiting because we know good things are about to happen.
CHILDREN’S SERMON
Wait for It...
by Chris Keating
Luke 21:25-36
Gather in advance:
* Advent wreath (if your congregation does not have one in the sanctuary)
* Search the internet for funny images of people holding their breath, and print out a set to use during the children’s time.
* Make a “things to do list” for every child -- you can either create one and make copies for every child, or purchase inexpensive “to do” lists at a discount store.
* Print the words to “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus” or another Advent hymn familiar to your congregation. If possible, recruit the assistance of your musicians to help teach the hymn you choose to the children.
After greeting the children, be sure to point out your congregation’s Advent candles/wreath. Something fun would be to say “Happy New Year!” to them as they gather -- they’ll truly look confused. Tell them that the first Sunday of Advent is indeed the start of a new year -- not 2016, but the church’s liturgical calendar. It’s a time when we start over again and begin waiting for the hope that God provides in Jesus Christ.
How hard it is to wait! They will resonate with this, especially if you invite them to name places where they wait (in line for recess, at the school cafeteria, at a doctor’s office, for a ride at a theme park, etc.). Waiting is very, very hard -- especially when you know something exciting like Christmas is about to happen. Today we lit one candle -- and now we must wait.
Explain that Advent is the time when we wait for Jesus’ birth. Advent is a time when the church “holds its breath” in expectation of Christmas. Show the children the funny images of people holding their breath -- but be cautious in explaining that this isn’t something we ought to try. It can be dangerous, but it is also a figure of speech that we often use. We say “don’t hold your breath” when we actually mean “I don’t think that will happen.” So, for example, a child might ask a parent for a really expensive Christmas present -- and the parent could say, “Well, don’t hold your breath!” (Be creative -- think of how you can make this sound humorous to the children.)
Well, waiting for Jesus to come is hard. That’s why Luke shares these words of Jesus as he describes the promise of God’s coming again. These images from Luke will be hard for most children (and adults) to fully understand. They could even be scary. Remind the children that sometimes the Bible uses imagery to make its point. Here, of course, Jesus is telling the disciples that they shouldn’t “hold their breath” until he comes again -- but instead ought to be faithful and in prayer.
Pass around the “to do” lists. Sometimes it is helpful to make lists while we wait. We make shopping lists, Christmas lists, Amazon wish lists. Today, we can make a list of “things to do” until Christmas. That way our faith becomes active. What are some things that we can put on our lists (helping at home, visiting a senior residence, singing Christmas carols, and so forth)?
Close by reading or singing “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus.” It’s an Advent song. Many times we are confused why we do not sing Christmas carols during Advent. You can use this as a teaching moment to help the children... (wait for it... wait for it... keep waiting...) know what it means to anticipate Jesus’ birth.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, November 29, 2015, issue.
Copyright 2015 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
That might be an apt description of how many people around the world are feeling in the wake of the recent Paris attacks. There is a renewed sense of apprehension as we wait for next terrorist incident -- we don’t know when or where these agents of death and destruction will strike, and though law enforcement and government intelligence agencies are doing as much as possible to prevent them, we can be certain that another assault will occur somewhere in the future. Brussels is still at a standstill this week after authorities received information that the Belgian capital was at risk of a Paris-style attack. And the anxiety was amped up further when the U.S. State Department issued a global travel alert. A climate of fear has prevailed -- and while it’s come to the forefront in the aftermath of the Paris massacre, a survey released prior to those attacks indicates just how much Americans were already worried about Islam, terrorists, and even each other. That fear has manifested itself in the attitudes of many politicians; numerous governors have attempted to block the resettlement of Syrian refugees in their states, while the House of Representatives passed legislation calling for a suspension in the federal the program allowing Syrian and Iraqi refugees into the United States until key national security agencies certify they don’t pose a security risk. Meanwhile, a rising tide of anti-Muslim sentiment was capped by presidential candidate Donald Trump’s call for a national database to register and track Muslims in the U.S.
Yet as team member Mary Austin points out in this installment of The Immediate Word, the Advent waiting we are called to is of a fundamentally different nature than many types of waiting we are used to in our culture. While much of our civic anticipation is grounded in anxiety and fear, Advent waiting is grounded in love and welcoming -- for as Jesus reminded us, when we care for our neighbors we are also caring for him. Thus, as we eagerly anticipate our Lord’s return we need to act in this world in ways that reveal our Christian nature... one defined by love rather than fear.
Team member Dean Feldmeyer shares some additional thoughts in a semi-satirical piece that lampoons our society’s “war on Advent.” With Advent following on the heels of Thanksgiving’s gluttonous feasts and Black Friday’s shopping orgy, Dean wonders if we can maintain a serious attitude of preparation befitting the season. After all, our secular “holiday” season certainly fits to a tee the criteria Jesus warns us against in our gospel text: “Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day catch you unexpectedly.” During a time often characterized by franticness and by excessive consumption of food and drink, Advent calls us to a different sort of preparation -- one that looks outside of our selfish appetites and instead toward spiritual reflection.
Awaiting the Unknown
by Mary Austin
Luke 21:25-36
It’s no secret that most of us are terrible at waiting. Airport gates all have television screens to distract us while we wait for a plane, and even some gas stations now have a chattering television at each pump so we’re distracted while the tank fills. People standing in line at the bank are all on their phones. In fact, we try not to go to the bank at all -- doing everything online, where there’s no waiting.
If we have to wait, we don’t know what to do with ourselves. As we watch without much information for world events to unfold, we fill the space with speculation. We cultivate fear instead of hope. We fill our minds with the worst-case scenarios.
Advent calls us again to the discipline of waiting, and reminds us that there are different ways to wait. There’s fearful waiting; self-protective waiting; circle-the-wagons waiting; hopeful waiting; active waiting; faith-filled waiting. Advent’s candles light our way into a different kind of waiting.
In the World
Since the attacks in Paris, the world has been waiting for more information about the perpetrators, longing to know if more attacks are coming. As we wait, politicians have filled the time with political posturing, saturating the media and our minds with images of future terror.
Here in the U.S., a number of Republican governors have declared that our future safety depends on keeping Syrian refugees out of their states: “Twenty-five Republican governors vowed to block the entry of Syrian refugees into their states, arguing that the safety of Americans was at stake after the Paris attacks by terrorists including a man who entered Europe with a Syrian passport and posed as a migrant. Among the governors were those from Illinois, Massachusetts, Texas and other states that have already resettled relatively large numbers of refugees from among the 1,900 Syrians accepted by the United States in the last four years.” Their comments are the latest in a war of words over immigrants of all kinds, and “some of the fiercest opposition to the refugees came from the Republican presidential candidates who are the sharpest critics of Mr. Obama’s immigration policies. Donald J. Trump, who elevated immigration as a campaign issue with his proposal to build a wall on the border with Mexico, on Monday called for deporting refugees who have already been accepted into the United States and said that federal counterterrorism agents should consider closing some mosques if evidence of ‘absolute hatred’ for Westerners was found.”
In Europe, people are watching for another attack. In Belgium, the city of Brussels has been at the highest alert level since officials received intelligence about another possible attack. The heightened alert has “virtually shut down the Belgian capital, with the subway system, many shops, and schools remaining shut on Monday.” One can imagine the level of fear, as people stay home from work and school. “A series of raids in Belgium began late Sunday, capping a tense weekend that saw hundreds of troops patrolling streets. Frank Foley, a terrorism expert and lecturer in war studies at King’s College London, said it was difficult to know if the operations were justified because authorities have provided so few details. The measures could even be counterproductive if they last too long, he said. ‘If these dramatic measures continue in Brussels, we will be doing the terrorists’ job for them,’ Foley said. ‘The government may be unintentionally contributing to the atmosphere of fear.’ ” Several of the Paris attackers were from Brussels, and officials are seeking to prevent another attack, leaving the people of the city waiting for more news. Officials are taking similar measures in Paris, where “France extended for three months a state of emergency that allows police raids, searches, and house arrest without permission from a judge. On Saturday, it also extended a ban on demonstrations and other gatherings through Nov. 30, when a U.N. climate conference with more than 100 heads of state is scheduled to start.”
Fareed Zakaria writes in an opinion piece in the Washington Post that devolving into fear actually benefits the Islamic State: “In one of the best books on the topic, Hunting in the Shadows, Seth Jones concludes that whenever the United States adopted a ‘light-footprint strategy’ -- Special Operations forces, covert intelligence, and law enforcement -- it did well. Whenever the United States and its allies sent troops into Muslim countries, he notes, ‘al-Qaeda has benefited through increased radicalization and additional recruits.’ This is why from the start, the Islamic State has sought to bait Western countries into sending troops to Syria.” Zakaria adds, “This is not to counsel despair but to suggest ‘strategic patience,’ as President Obama rightly says. The Islamic State is not nearly as strong as the hysteria of the moment suggests. It is surrounded by deadly foes. Many countries are fighting it -- Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran, the United States and Vladimir Putin’s Russia, neighboring Jordan and faraway France. Its territory is shrinking, and its message is deeply unpopular to most in its supposed ‘caliphate’ -- witness the hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees fleeing its barbarism.” Political waiting, like spiritual waiting, can be full of purpose.
Closer to home, people have reacted to American Muslims with fear and prejudice. As Washington Post columnist Petula Dvorak characterized it, “Looks like fear -- not turkey -- is the main course being served in our country this week.” In Fredericksburg, Virginia, she notes, “The Islamic Center of Fredericksburg -- a little brick building that looks like a bank branch office and has been around for 27 years -- was skewered at a community meeting by a handful of seething people who see the center’s expansion plans as a threat to the very fabric of America. ‘Nobody, nobody, nobody wants your evil cult in this county,’ a man said [at the meeting]. ‘I will do everything in my power to make sure that doesn’t happen, because you are terrorists.’... This was said in a public meeting. In front of a large group of Muslims who have lived, worked, and worshiped in this community for years. About a center that has been sponsoring a food pantry, prayers, and subversive events such as ‘Farm Fun Day’ for nearly three decades.” Fear is trumping reason in this season of waiting. Dvorak observes that “the tone is actually worse than it was after the Sept. 11 attacks on our own soil. Registration by religion? Sounds like Nazi Germany, not a country with a First Amendment that enshrines freedom of religion. Why are we degenerating so quickly and so far from our country’s founding values? Because it’s an election year. And political leaders -- egged on by the grandstanding and lies of Donald Trump -- are peddling fear like it’s a miracle drug.” Fear is apparently better than just sitting and waiting to see what happens next -- or befriending a neighbor, and reducing the level of panic by knowing someone personally who’s Muslim.
Putting things in perspective, the mayor of Dallas said he’s actually more fearful of armed Americans than Syrian refugees: “Speaking to MSNBC on Saturday morning, Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings was asked to discuss the growing anxiety over Syrian refugees entering the United States, purportedly over concerns they could be potential agents for militant groups such as ISIS. Rawlings staunchly rejected the assertion that Syrians are somehow uniquely prone to violence, saying he is more concerned with the rise of white supremacy and the recent flurry of mass shootings committed by white men. ‘I am more fearful of large gatherings of white men that come into schools, theaters, and shoot people up, but we don’t isolate young white men on this issue,’ Rawlings said.”
In the Scriptures
Speaking to his friends in the last week of his own life, Jesus highlights the mysterious nature of waiting for something. “People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world,” he says, acknowledging that waiting is difficult. We don’t have any control over the fact that life involves waiting -- but we can manage how we wait. We are not to wait fearfully, Jesus says, but instead we are to “stand up and raise [our] heads.” Our waiting has a different quality.
In contrast to some other governors, the governor of Washington said recently that we have to be guided by our principles, rather than our fears. In an interview with NPR, Jay Inslee was asked about the risks of welcoming Syrian refugees, and he said, “[T]here’s risk getting out of bed in the morning. And we are a nation that has always taken the path of enforcing our freedom, our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our humanity, our relationship with the rest of the world. And we’ve hewed to those values, even in troubled times. And when we haven’t, we’ve regretted it. I’ll give you an example. I live on Bainbridge Island, this little island just west of Seattle. And it was the first place where we succumbed to fear in 1941 after Pearl Harbor. And we locked up Washington and American citizens, and we sent them to camps -- Japanese-Americans.” Fear sucks us away from our deepest values, and is not a reliable guide to the future. We can wait with attention to our deepest calling, rather than our deepest worries.
While awaiting their wedding, a Canadian couple recently changed course, cancelling the wedding they had planned so they could dedicate money to helping Syrian refugee families: “Toronto couple Samantha Jackson and Farzin Yousefian had their wedding set for March 2016 -- the venue, the caterer, everything was lined up. In September, in the midst of their planning, Jackson and Yousefian came across the devastating photo of Aylan Kurdi -- the 3-year-old Syrian boy who drowned when he and his family attempted to make the trip from Turkey to the Greek island of Kos on a flimsy boat. The pair then decided to cancel their wedding and use the money they would have spent to help victims of the Syrian refugee crisis.” They called the caterer and other vendors to cancel, and instead had a low-key wedding at city hall and a simple dinner where they asked guests to contribute to a charity they knew was doing good work with refugees. We can wait with purpose, and compassion.
In the Sermon
The sermon might look at how we cultivate skill in waiting. Clearly, waiting faithfully requires some spiritual expertise -- it doesn’t come naturally. There are spiritual skills we need to develop to await Christ’s coming into our lives, and into the world.
Noticing is one such skill, according to Alyce McKenzie, who says: “To prepare for Jesus’ future Advent, we need to notice and respond to his current presence.” Patience is another. Karl Jacobson says that “Patience in this life is often the key issue for us as well. Patience in the face of promises yet to be kept; patience in the meantime of enduring illness, broken relationships, and unrealized expectations or hopes; patience after all our patience has run out.... As we seek to be raised as children of the Kingdom, patience is key in watching for the signs, in living into the Gospel, and in our daily lives as congregations and as individuals.” The sermon might look at how we develop the skills to set aside panic and wait with an observant patience.
We can also remember to breathe as we wait, knowing that breath is tied with spirit. Blogger John Petty observes that the text says “people will also ‘breathe out life’ from fear and expectation of what is coming upon the inhabited world. NRSV has ‘faint from fear,’ an acceptable translation, though apopsuxontone literally means ‘breathing out life.’ ” We can remember to breathe in the breath of life too. Remembering to take a deep breath or two may be another spiritual skill we need for times of uncertainty.
Or the sermon might look at where we fix our attention as we wait. We can fill our minds with the voices of fear, or look elsewhere. Robert Hoch writes that “mid the rising tide of confusion, we are to look for a familiar face, one we will recognize.” Frederick Buechner says that what we do while we wait is important, realizing “to wait for Christ to come in his fullness is not just a passive thing, a pious, prayerful, churchly thing. On the contrary, to wait for Christ to come in his fullness is above all else to act in Christ’s stead as fully as we know how. To wait for Christ is as best we can to be Christ to those who need us to be Christ to them most and to bring them the most we have of Christ’s healing and hope because unless we bring it, it may never be brought at all.” As we wait, we have the opportunity to act as Jesus would want us to, making his presence alive and full in the waiting.
Advent brings waiting back into our lives, and asks us to just hold the space -- not to fill it with Christmas carols, or distraction, or the hurry of preparing for Christmas. Waiting, as the world sees it, needs to be filled up quickly. Every fearsome possibility should be considered, and fear of the worst should guide our choices.
As people of faith, we see it differently. The work of waiting in Advent reminds us that there is a deeper, wider, more encompassing reality than our fears. We know that the One for whom we wait has already been here, and is here -- even while we wait -- so we don’t need to fear any place of emptiness. Any time or place that feels empty holds an unseen presence. In that certainty, we can stand up, lift up our heads, and turn our gaze toward hope.
ANOTHER VIEW
The War on Advent
by Dean Feldmeyer
Luke 21:25-36
You know what really makes me mad? You know what really gets my goat? You know what just sets me off like a Roman candle with a really short fuse so that when you try to light it there’s a good chance you’ll blow your thumb off, but you light it anyway because it cost like $8 or something and you don’t want to see it go to waste so it’s worth the risk?
It’s when someone says “Merry Christmas” to me -- and it isn’t even Christmas yet! What’s the matter with these people anyway? Don’t they know that this is Advent? It’s like they don’t even want to have an Advent. It’s like they’re trying to ignore Advent, or even get rid of Advent so they can just jump head-first into Christmas.
I’m tellin’ ya, people, there is a war on Advent in this country! It’s like all these Christmas fanatics just want to go from the Fourth of July to Halloween to Thanksgiving to Christmas with nothing in between -- just leapfrogging from one holiday to another with no time to get ready for the next one.
Well, not me! No sir. I’m going to stand up and be counted. I’m going to fight this war on Advent to my dying day, until my last breath, until my Christmas tree turns brown and all the needles fall out and stick in the carpet. As for me and my house, we will observe Advent.
How’s that? You too? You want to join me in this holy war, this war to save Advent? Well, let’s go then.
First, we need a battle plan.
Advent is the four Sundays before Christmas and all the days between those Sundays. This year that’s 26 days, from November 29 to December 24.
Advent is supposed to be a serious time of reflection, confession, and repentance. It is at this time that we cleanse our souls to make room for the coming of Jesus Christ into the world and into our lives. It’s like when we were kids and our grandparents were coming for the holidays, so Mom made us help her clean house for about a week. Well, that’s the way Advent is. Company’s coming! We need to clean house in our moral and religious lives. We need to get our souls all swept and dusted and ready for the arrival of the messiah.
It isn’t supposed to be merry!! It’s supposed to be serious!
Listen to what Luke says about this serious time of preparation: “Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day catch you unexpectedly like a trap” (v. 34).
How do you like that? Wouldn’t that just be a fine thing -- the little baby Jesus comes down to earth, and there we are all dissipating and drinking and worrying like a bunch of fools? (And I don’t even know what “dissipation” means!)
Here it is, I looked it up. Says here that dissipation is “wasteful expenditure” or “intemperate living.” It also says that it can mean excessive drinking.
Well, I don’t know about your house -- but that pretty much describes this whole “Merry Christmas” thing in my neighborhood. They start dissipating just after Halloween, and they don’t stop until the day after the Super Bowl. You can’t walk through the shopping mall without knocking into people who are dissipating all over the place: spending more than they make, eating more than they should of the wrong kinds of foods, and drinking to calm their nerves and get up the gumption to brave the crowds one more time just to make it to the jewelry counter at Macy’s. They’re out there swearing up a storm because they can’t find a parking place, worrying themselves sick because they can’t find the one and only thing that their nine-year-old child has declared is essential for true happiness.
Drunkenness doesn’t have to be the literal kind, you know. It can be figurative drunkenness, like when you get so caught up in the momentum of the season that you lose all good sense and start making bad choices.
Last year I was shopping in a toy store around this time of year and I heard a couple talking. He says, “So, whaddaya think of this? You think he’d like one of these?” And she says, “I don’t know. It’s awfully expensive.” And he says, “Dear, it’s for the grandchildren. There’s no such thing as too expensive.”
I started to laugh, and then I realized that the people I heard talking were me and my wife! We were drunk on Christmas. We were making bad choices, and justifying them by pointing out what season it is.
And worry? My wife can worry Jefferson’s face right off of a nickel. If she spends 50 cents more on one grandchild than on another, we have to go out and find a 50-cent item for child number two -- and of course we can’t, so we spend more which means now we have to go out and... well, you get the picture. Madness! Plain ol’ madness.
We worry about getting just exactly the right gift, then we worry about how much we’re spending, then we worry about if we’re spending enough. And on and on it goes.
So there you have it. Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Super Saturday, and all the days in between in a nutshell: dissipation, drunkenness, and worry.
No wonder people have to go around wishing each other “Merry Christmas” all the time when it isn’t even Christmas yet. They have to do it to remind each other and themselves why they’re behaving this way!
Well, this year you can count me out.
This year I’m gonna observe Advent the way it’s supposed to be observed -- somber, reflective, and repentant.
And just to make sure that everyone gets it, the next time some clueless clerk in a department store or big box discount store wishes me a “Merry Christmas” before it’s even Christmas, I’m going to set them straight. I’m gonna purse my lips, close my eyes, raise an admonishing index finger in the air, shake my head ever so slightly, and say: “No, dear, Christmas doesn’t happen until December 25. This season is Advent, and there’s nothing merry about Advent.”
Wait... What? Oh, okay.
Okay, my wife says I’m not allowed to do that because it would be insensitive and mean. She says that I should say “thank you,” and then return their greeting with grace and kindness because that’s what Jesus would do.
My wife is such a nice person. So I guess I’ll do what she says. And I’ll start with you.
Merry Christmas!
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Chris Keating:
Luke 21:25-36
On Guard
Jesus’ words and the State Department’s travel advisory both warn of distress throughout the world, and call upon those who are listening to be vigilant and alert. The State Department issued a global alert for travelers on Monday, citing increased terror threats. Unlike Jesus, however, who called his believers to increased preparations and spiritual alertness, the U.S. government reminded Americans to take precautions. Meanwhile, despite his harsh rhetoric, GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump seems to be enjoying an uptick in support. According to the New Republic, Trump’s at times questionably accurate statements are strengthening his lead.
*****
Luke 21:25-36
Waiting, Waiting, Waiting
It’s Advent and people are waiting. But this year they may be waiting for Luke, Leia, and Han Solo as much as they are for Mary, Joseph, and Jesus. We might not see any Star Wars-themed characters in the church Christmas pageant, but plenty of people are indeed waiting. There’s a website that is counting down the days (signs in the stars?) until The Force Awakens opens. Depending on your preference, you can read a preview or watch a trailer. Forget about Jesus’ admonition to look at a fig tree -- there are signs of Disney’s carefully crafted marketing plan just about everywhere: video games and novels, action figures, and enough merchandise to populate an asteroid (and aimed at bridging three generations of fans).
Christianity Today editor Katelyn Beaty decries how the consumer madness over Christmas has descended on churches: “God does not enter our world donning bells and whistles, hoping to compete with Luke Skywalker or Love Actually reruns. He doesn’t hope to ‘attract’ more people with his ‘message.’ Instead, he waits for our eyes to adjust to the dim light emanating from the manger, to come, to see, to behold -- and to truly celebrate. This is very good news for church leaders, who experience great pressure at Christmas to increase attendance and giving. It means they need not think up a ‘big idea’ to add to the Incarnation, but rather communicate -- as clearly and plainly as possible -- the big idea that is the Incarnation.”
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Luke 21:25-36
Being Alert
Fear of refugees and the threat they pose to national security is not a particularly new phobia, according to a report by NPR. From Cubans in 1980 to Haitians fleeing their earthquake-ruined homeland in 2010, there have been several attempts to “raise the drawbridge” by not welcoming refugees across our borders. Meanwhile, religious leaders such as Gradye Parsons, the Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian Church (USA), have urged Americans to choose “welcome, not fear.” A statement by Parsons said, in part:
Do we choose to abandon our plan to protect these Syrians because the people who have been threatening them are now threatening the West as well? ISIS has taken lives; they have taken our sense of security. Do we now hand over our hope and compassion to them?
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Jeremiah 33:14-16
The Joy of ISIS
Jeremiah envisions the promised branch of David that will bring righteousness and justice. The prophet imagines a time when a transcendent vision of God will bring peace and safety. In times of violence and despair, Jeremiah’s words convey hope. Jeremiah’s vision brings enduring joy -- a much-needed word of hope the face of mounting terrorism.
In that vein, writer Ross Douthat reflects on this sardonic tweet from writer Joyce Carol Oates: “All we hear of ISIS is puritanical & punitive; is there nothing celebratory & joyous? Or is query naive?”
Douthat has some fun with Oates’ quirkiness, but then makes a critical observation about “one of the West’s weaknesses in this conflict: Our widespread inability (concentrated in particular among our leadership class) to imagine or understand what else, beyond the pull of sadism and thuggery, our fellow human beings (including quite a few young, Western-raised people) seem to find intoxicating about the Daesh experiment.” In other words, what’s the appeal?
In a word, transcendence. Like those who find hope in Jeremiah’s words, some of ISIS’ young recruits are drawn by a vision of hope and a quest for deeper meaning in life. He quotes an article by Scott Atran and Nafees Hamid:
In France, and in Europe more generally, more than three of every four recruits join the Islamic State together with friends, while only one in five do so with family members and very few through direct recruitment by strangers. Many of these young people identify with neither the country their parents come from nor the country in which they live. Other identities are weak and non-motivating. One woman in the Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois described her conversion as being like that of a transgender person who opts out of the gender assigned at birth: “I was like a Muslim trapped in a Christian body,” she said. She believed she was only able to live fully as a Muslim with dignity in the Islamic State.
For others who have struggled to find meaning in their lives, ISIS is a thrilling cause and call to action that promises glory and esteem in the eyes of friends, and through friends, eternal respect and remembrance in the wider world that many of them will never live to enjoy.
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Jeremiah 33:14-16
Keeping Advent Promises
Jeremiah speaks of the promised day of the Lord -- a day that is to come, which is a reason to persevere and to wait in hopeful anticipation. Robert Frost’s acclaimed poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” comes to mind as an example of how hopeful anticipation is mixed with pressing forward. Writer Layla Velasquez muses on the familiar lines from Frost’s poetry. The poem’s final lines are particularly memorable:
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
How easy it would be, she thinks, to avoid the often hard work of pressing forward, especially as a writer. That is the dilemma of faith, however; how is it that we actively anticipate the future? Velasquez says that Frost is her beacon, much the way Jeremiah was a word of encouragement to exiles:
Oh how I would love to stop in the snowy woods. Watch Netflix, and cast off all my cares. How easy it would be to choose mediocrity. Be normal, average, and have what one is supposed to have for my age. Oh, how those woods would be lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep. And miles to go before I sleep. Miles to go before I sleep.
So I press on. While my eyelids grow heavy, and only the yellow lamplight illuminates the deepening night. I press on, on the chance that one day my face will beam with pride, as I tell this with a sigh... I took the road less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.
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From team member Ron Love:
Luke 21:25-36
Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney waited all season for the week of the Tigers’ game with Syracuse so he could name Tigers long snapper Jim Brown as a team captain -- thus paying homage to a special guest who once played for Syracuse. Swinney wanted to introduce to his Clemson team the Hall of Fame running back (also named Jim Brown) who was an All-American at Syracuse and played nine seasons in the NFL, leaving as pro football’s all-time rushing leader -- but none of his players knew about that Jim Brown. Swinney said that instead of being a time of celebration, it became a time for a history lesson.
Application: We often have to worry if people are going to forget Jesus’ instructions regarding the final coming.
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Luke 21:25-36
Not all signs are good; some signs are foreboding. After nine innocent individuals were murdered in a church in Charleston, South Carolina, the state has been examining its racial history. Changes have been made, with state legislators voting to remove the Confederate flag from the statehouse grounds. But the changes are limited, because under a state law two-thirds of both houses of the legislature must agree to make any change on a historic site or government land -- and South Carolina House Speaker Jay Lucas has refused to bring the matter up for debate. So Greenwood County has been unable to change plaques on a war monument where some soldiers’ names appear in a special column labeled “Negro” or “Colored.” Likewise, The Citadel, that great historic military institution of the South, wants to remove the Confederate flag from Summerall Chapel -- but lacks the authority to do so.
Application: We must look and understand what signs mean.
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Luke 21:25-36
Russian Orthodox priest John Kronstadt, who was beloved by his followers, died on December 20, 1908. During the persecution of the church by the communists he said: “The enemy of our salvation especially strives to draw our heart and mind away from God when we are about to serve him, and endeavors to adulterously attach our heart to something irrelevant.”
Application: Jesus cautions us to be aware of the signs of the end times, as if we were to look upon a fig tree or to the sky.
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Luke 21:25-36
A Canadian judge threw out a court case because the witness was too boring -- the judge reckoned the witness was the dullest man he’d ever had to listen to -- and even the court reporter fell asleep. The judge said: “Three days of this drone is all I can take. I can’t face the prospect of another 14 indictments. It’s probably unethical, but I don’t care.”
Application: We will never fall asleep listening to the testimony of our Lord.
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Luke 21:25-36
An American prisoner sued the government for infringing his religious rights, but because they were secret he couldn’t actually explain how they were being infringed.
Application: There is no secret to our Lord’s pronouncement regarding the end times.
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1 Thessalonians 3:9-13
Army Capt. Florent Groberg recently received the Congressional Medal of Honor for his heroic act in Afghanistan. A man wearing a suicide vest approached his fellow soldiers, and Groberg kept pushing the man back away from his troops. The man fell and the bomb exploded. Four soldiers were killed in the attack and several wounded, but without Groberg’s actions all of his platoon would have died. Groberg was badly wounded, and spent three years recovering at Walter Reed Hospital.
Application: We are always to be abounding in love for one another, and that love is expressed in many different ways.
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1 Thessalonians 3:9-13
In a The Born Loser comic strip, Brutus and a friend are sitting at a lunch counter. It is Friday the 13th, and the friend tells Brutus that he is always nervous on this superstitious day of bad luck. Brutus replies, “Nah?I’m the Born Loser -- how much worse could things possibly get?”
Application: Many people need to be greeted with the same joy and reassurance that Paul experienced.
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1 Thessalonians 3:9-13
The Polynesian double-hulled canoe Hokulea left Hawaii in 2014 for a three-year voyage around the world. The vessel has not been guided by any modern technology, but only by that used by the crew members’ ancestors -- that is, the stars and the sun. At the completion of its journey, the boat will have sailed more than 60,000 nautical miles and anchored in 100 ports in 27 nations. One purpose of the trip is to introduce people to Hawaiian culture; another purpose is to promote peace and acceptance among all nations. When the boat recently reached the halfway point on its journey at Cape Town, the crew was unable to connect with South Africans. Hawaiian students who met up with the voyage began to dance and the African children soon joined them, and there was harmony.
Application: We are to abound in steadfast love for one another.
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1 Thessalonians 3:9-13
On December 25, 1909, Japanese evangelist Toyohiko Kagawa crossed the Higurashi Bridge to minister in the slums of Shinkawa. During his work he was quoted as saying, “Theology is but an appendix to love, and an unreliable appendix!”
Application: The scriptures and theology do guide us in the meaning of love.
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Jeremiah 33:14-16
In 2004 a German lawyer, Juergen Graefe, acted for an elderly pensioner from St. Augustin (near Bonn) who was sent a tax demand for 287 million euros, even though the woman’s income was only 17,000 euros. Graefe fixed the problem with one standard letter to the authorities -- but since German law entitled him to calculate his fee based on the amount of the reduction he obtained, his fee came to 440,234 euros, which was paid by the state. (There is no evidence that he pushed his luck by writing a thank-you letter.)
Application: Jeremiah proclaims that God will execute justice, but it will be done fairly and not with deception for personal gain.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: Make us to know your ways, O God; teach us your paths.
People: Lead us in your truth, and teach us, for you are the God of our salvation.
Leader: Be mindful of your mercy, O God, and of your steadfast love.
People: All the paths of God are steadfast love and faithfulness.
Leader: Good and upright is God, who instructs sinners in the way.
People: God leads the humble in what is right and teaches them.
OR
Leader: God is coming!
People: When? Where? What will the coming look like?
Leader: We don’t know. We just have to wait.
People: Will it be in terror and destruction or peace and joy?
Leader: Bethlehem was both! Will the next coming be different?
People: We will wait with expectation and hope.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
“Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus”
found in:
UMH: 196
H82: 66
PH: 1, 2
NCH: 122
LBW: 30
ELA: 254
W&P: 153
AMEC: 103
“Hail to the Lord’s Anointed”
found in:
UMH: 203
H82: 616
AAHH: 187
NCH: 104
CH: 140
LBW: 87
ELA: 311
AMEC: 107
Renew: 101
“People, Look East”
found in:
UMH: 202
PH: 12
CH: 142
ELA: 248
W&P: 161
STLT: 226
“I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light”
found in:
UMH: 206
H82: 490
ELA: 815
W&P: 248
Renew: 152
“Lift Up Your Heads, Ye Mighty Gates”
found in:
UMH: 213
H82: 436
PH: 8
NCH: 117
CH: 129
LBW: 32
W&P: 176
AMEC: 94
“Lo, He Comes with Clouds Descending”
found in:
UMH: 718
H82: 57, 58
PH: 6
LBW: 27
ELA: 435
AMEC: 99
“Rejoice, the Lord Is King”
found in:
UMH: 715, 716
H82: 481
PH: 155
NCH: 303
CH: 699
LBW: 171
ELA: 430
W&P: 342
AMEC: 88, 89
“A Charge to Keep I Have”
found in:
UMH: 413
AAHH: 467, 468
NNBH: 436
ELA: 340
AMEC: 242
“Arise, Shine”
found in:
CCB: 2
Renew: 123
“People Need the Lord”
found in:
CCB: 52
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who comes to us in the most unexpected times, places, and ways: Grant us the wisdom to be alert for your coming among us, and give us the insight to see you in the face of the stranger; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, for you come to us in the midst of our everyday lives. You surprise us with your presence in the midst of all the turmoil and craziness around us. Help us to look for you with hope and anticipation every day. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially our lack of faith as we live in fear.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. Our focus is on fear when we see what is happening around us. We see only the convulsions and tremors, and we recoil in horror. We fail to see that these are but birth pangs. We see only the pain, and do not see the promise that is presenting itself. Open our eyes, and help us to see what you are doing in the midst of all the turmoil of this world. Help us see how you are presenting yourself to this world. Amen.
Leader: God is coming with healing and blessing. God has arrived in the past, is here now, and will come in the future. Be alert and receive God’s blessings, which are for all creation.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
We praise you, O God, for you come into our world in all its confusion and terror.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. Our focus is on fear when we see what is happening around us. We see only the convulsions and tremors, and we recoil in horror. We fail to see that these are but birth pangs. We see only the pain, and do not see the promise that is presenting itself. Open our eyes, and help us to see what you are doing in the midst of all the turmoil of this world. Help us see how you are presenting yourself to this world.
We give you thanks for all the ways in which you are breaking into our world and into our lives. We thank you for the blessings, great and small, which present themselves to us each day. Most of all, we thank you that you have not given up on us but keep coming to us in the midst of our lives.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We lift up to you the cares of this world. As you move to bring salvation, healing, wholeness, and blessing in the midst of our distress, help us to be messengers of hope.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father . . . Amen.
(or if the Lord’s Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children’s Sermon Starter
“Have you ever gone to the doctor to get a shot?” “Did you have to wait to see the doctor?” “Was it fun?”
“Have you ever gone to see Santa Claus?” “Did you have to wait?” “Was it fun?”
Waiting is very different, depending on how we do it. Advent is about waiting -- not for Santa, but for Jesus and God’s reign of peace. Advent is about waiting for something good. It may take a long time. There may be unpleasant things that happen while we wait -- but we don’t mind waiting because we know good things are about to happen.
CHILDREN’S SERMON
Wait for It...
by Chris Keating
Luke 21:25-36
Gather in advance:
* Advent wreath (if your congregation does not have one in the sanctuary)
* Search the internet for funny images of people holding their breath, and print out a set to use during the children’s time.
* Make a “things to do list” for every child -- you can either create one and make copies for every child, or purchase inexpensive “to do” lists at a discount store.
* Print the words to “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus” or another Advent hymn familiar to your congregation. If possible, recruit the assistance of your musicians to help teach the hymn you choose to the children.
After greeting the children, be sure to point out your congregation’s Advent candles/wreath. Something fun would be to say “Happy New Year!” to them as they gather -- they’ll truly look confused. Tell them that the first Sunday of Advent is indeed the start of a new year -- not 2016, but the church’s liturgical calendar. It’s a time when we start over again and begin waiting for the hope that God provides in Jesus Christ.
How hard it is to wait! They will resonate with this, especially if you invite them to name places where they wait (in line for recess, at the school cafeteria, at a doctor’s office, for a ride at a theme park, etc.). Waiting is very, very hard -- especially when you know something exciting like Christmas is about to happen. Today we lit one candle -- and now we must wait.
Explain that Advent is the time when we wait for Jesus’ birth. Advent is a time when the church “holds its breath” in expectation of Christmas. Show the children the funny images of people holding their breath -- but be cautious in explaining that this isn’t something we ought to try. It can be dangerous, but it is also a figure of speech that we often use. We say “don’t hold your breath” when we actually mean “I don’t think that will happen.” So, for example, a child might ask a parent for a really expensive Christmas present -- and the parent could say, “Well, don’t hold your breath!” (Be creative -- think of how you can make this sound humorous to the children.)
Well, waiting for Jesus to come is hard. That’s why Luke shares these words of Jesus as he describes the promise of God’s coming again. These images from Luke will be hard for most children (and adults) to fully understand. They could even be scary. Remind the children that sometimes the Bible uses imagery to make its point. Here, of course, Jesus is telling the disciples that they shouldn’t “hold their breath” until he comes again -- but instead ought to be faithful and in prayer.
Pass around the “to do” lists. Sometimes it is helpful to make lists while we wait. We make shopping lists, Christmas lists, Amazon wish lists. Today, we can make a list of “things to do” until Christmas. That way our faith becomes active. What are some things that we can put on our lists (helping at home, visiting a senior residence, singing Christmas carols, and so forth)?
Close by reading or singing “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus.” It’s an Advent song. Many times we are confused why we do not sing Christmas carols during Advent. You can use this as a teaching moment to help the children... (wait for it... wait for it... keep waiting...) know what it means to anticipate Jesus’ birth.
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The Immediate Word, November 29, 2015, issue.
Copyright 2015 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
