Advent Introduced

This year has already been drastically different, so it seemed fitting that we should try something new for the Advent and Christmas seasons.

I am wanting to celebrate a simplified Christmas this year. Less travelling, less trappings, less non-religious traditions. I am also wanting to celebrate a more meaningful Christmas. More reflection, more generosity, more worship.

So I hope that we can travel through this Advent season together. May this be a year where we are free from the busyness that normally plagues us and open to a simple, more meaningful celebration. 8 years ago, I did an Advent series, so it seemed good to revisit ways to celebrate Advent in a non-typical year.

There is a fluidity to Advent. Different churches assign different meanings to the candles and shift their Scripture readings accordingly. For this Advent season, I will be choosing the themes from among the traditional set that seem to best fit for this year and selecting my own Scriptures for these devotionals. There are plenty of resources that will convey the traditional Advent and Christmas readings and Scriptures, so this series will be a little non-traditional.

Each week will have a Scripture, a devotional thought by yours truly, and an Advent song. It is surprisingly difficult to find Advent songs. We have plenty of Christmas songs celebrating the birth of Jesus and the announcements reaching the shepherds, magi, and others, but we have a smaller collection of songs about the longing, anticipation, and waiting of Advent. 

I challenge us to slowly decorate throughout Advent for Christmas. One of my favorite traditions is a "progressive nativity". As Advent progresses, more people come out until finally on Christmas Eve, Jesus is placed in the manger. 

Our culture isn't fond of waiting; many people bow at the altar of quick, convenient, and cheap. To choose to wait is to reject the lure of immediate gratification. We can reclaim religious Christmas traditions from the highly commercialized and secularized influences by taking the season of Advent to rest, reflect, and wait.

The animals are in the fields/stable