Christmas Day

On Christmas morning, we lit the white candle, placed baby Jesus in the manger, read Psalm 111, and celebrated communion.

The bread of life (Jesus) has come to the house of bread (Bethlehem), and we ate that bread and drank from the cup in remembrance of him.

Then we journeyed to the local cineplex to see The Nativity Story.

Christmas Eve

After the sun went down, we gathered around the advent wreath, replaced the flour and vinegar with wedding cookies and sparkling cider, and read Luke 2.

Advent IV, Interlude

While waiting for the sun to go down so we could celebrate Christmas eve, we watched a modern parable of advent, Ralph Hamner's The Homecoming: A Christmas Story.

This movie is the pilot for the long-running series The Walton's. It debuted in 1971. I was around the age of Elizabeth, the youngest Walton, when the series premiered.

The Homecoming is the story of a depression-era family, waiting on husband and father to return home for Christmas. The radio reports a snowstorm, and a bus wreck, and a frantic yet stoic wife tries to occupy her brood during the wait.

It painted exactly the picture I wanted to paint about advent. It was tough to watch this year, having just lost my grandmother, but it was a perfect interlude between advent and Christmas eve.

Good night, John Boy.

Advent IV

Theme: Peace

Hebrew Scripture: Micah 5.2-5

Gospel: Luke 1.39-55

Psalm: Psalm 113

Today we talked about peace, using this definition:

When we hear the word peace we usually associate this to mean an absence of war or strife but the Hebrew meaning of the word shalom has a very different meaning. The verb form of the root word is shalam and is usually used in the context of making restitution. When a person has caused another to become deficient in some way, such as a loss of livestock, it is the responsibility of the person who created the deficiency to restore what has been taken, lost or stolen. The verb shalam literally means to make whole or complete. The noun shalom has the more literal meaning of being in a state of wholeness or with no deficiency. The common phrase shalu shalom yerushalayim (pray for the peace of Jerusalem) is not speaking about an absence of war (though that is part of it) but that Jerusalem (and by extension all of Israel) is complete and whole and goes far beyond the idea of "peace".

To say that Jesus is God's peace is to say that he is God's fullness, God's completeness. "It is finished."

O come, desire of nations, bind
In one the hearts of all mankind.
O, bid our sad divisions cease,
And be yourself our King of Peace.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee O Israel!

Advent III

Theme: Joy

Hebrew Scripture: Zephaniah 3.14-20, Isaiah 12.2-6

Psalm: Psalm 126

Gospel: Luke 3.7-18

We discussed how God's people are people of joy, a deep contentment that has no regard for circumstance.

O come, our dayspring from on high,
And cheer us by your drawing nigh,
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death's dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee O Israel!

Advent II

Theme: Love

Hebrew Scripture: Malachi 3.1-4

Gospel: Luke 1.68-79

Psalm: Psalm 136

We defined love, thanks to C.S. Lewis:

1. Storge: an affectionate love as between a grandmother and grandchild
2. Philia: a friendship as between schoolmates
3. Eros: an erotic love as between lovers (try explaining that between a fourteen-year-old and a six-year-old)
4. Agape: a willful love most powerfully expressed when the object is unlovely

We talked about God's love for us in sending Messiah. We redefined Psalm 136's "his steadfast love endures forever" as "his faithful love never quits" just because it was easier for us to grasp. We read the psalm responsively with this substitution. Try it!

Advent I

Theme: Hope

Hebrew Scripture: Jeremiah 33.14-16

Psalm: Psalm 25.1-10

Gospel: Luke 21.25-36

We talked about the meaning of advent, what it means to wait. I shared this quotation with Joan and the kids:

Most of us think of waiting as something very passive, a hopeless state determined by events totally out of our hands. The bus is late? You cannot do anything about it, so you have to sit there and just wait. It is not difficult to understand the irritation people feel when somebody says, 'Just wait.' Words like that seem to push us into passivity.

But there is none of that passivity in scripture. Those who are waiting are waiting very actively...Active waiting means to be present fully to the moment in the conviction that something is happening where you are and that you want to be present to it. A waiting person is someone who is present to the moment, who believes that this moment is the moment. Henri Nouwen

We then talked about hope. Hope means not a wishful thought, but a confident faith, that something promised will happen. As we wait for Messiah, we wait with confident faith because of the Faithful One who promised him.

O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee O Israel!

The table is set

Greenery woven into an advent wreath, holly leaves emerging from clusters of pretty red berries because God is alive, and he is fruitful.

Three purple candles and a pink candle surround one tall white one, all unlit because we live in darkness.

A ramekin of flour and a cup of vinegar on the table because we live in bitterness.

A small creche, its manger empty because Emmanuel has yet to arrive.

The Word of God opened to the Old Covenant because the prophets promise us a Messiah.

A hymnal opened to "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" because that is the song on our lips.

The table is set. Advent is here. We await you, Lord Jesus.