Advent

Today is the first Sunday of Advent. When the ancestors in my fellowship decided to rid most religious traditions from their practice of Christianity, they sometimes shot themselves in the foot. Such a time came when they forsook the celebration of the Christian or liturgical year which begins today with Advent.

Advent comes from the Latin word for arrival or coming and is a period of preparation for the birth of Jesus. It always begins four Sundays before Christmas.
It is a period of waiting in joyful hope in which the participant is given scriptures to read which not only look forward to the birth of Jesus, but which are about the importance of that birth and how it changed the world. It is a time in which we can rid ourselves of the hurry and anxiety of the season and slow down to meditate on the gift of God.

For example, tomorrow's readings include Is. 4: 2-6 in which Isaiah envisions a time of peace brought by the coming Jesus. And Mt. 8:5-11 in which a Roman centurion risks all to come to Jesus for the sake of his servant. Tuesday's verses are Is. 11:1-10, a beautiful and glorious prophecy about the coming of Jesus and Luke 10:21-24 as Jesus tells the disciples how blessed they are for seeing what they see as they watch him.

How about it? Could we slow down enough to spend 20 minutes every day until Christmas thinking about other things than presents, food and decorations?