What's Going On? Advent Plans AND Worship Notes - Advent 2024
What’s Going On? Advent Plans – November 27, 2024
When Sunday arrives it will be December and our Advent services begin. Advent is officially the time of preparation for Christmas, but in our culture it is the start of the Christmas season. This makes for a little bit of tension as Advent is a time of preparation and contemplation and Christmas is about celebration. We can blame commercialism again as even Advent Calendars have been stolen as a profitable venture. What used to be a tool for telling the story of Christmas has now become a way to sell 25 retail items at one time with a schedule for consumption. Let me stop this rabbit trail rant here and get back to our Advent Plan.
I have been trying to start a series on the Gospel of Matthew for some time now. All my favourite interpretive friends (BEMA, Tim Mackie/Bible Project, Dallas Willard etc) have wonderful material on Matthew. To that end we are going to use the Genealogy in Matthew 1 as our jumping off point. You may remember that a couple years ago we did a series called Reckless Inclusivity on the women listed there. This time we will look at the broad framework as listed in verse 17 where it shows how it moves from Abraham to David to the Exile to Jesus. Those will be our themes for the first three weeks of Advent and for Christmas Day.
The fourth Sunday of Advent we will have our drama “In the Fullness of Time” which also shapes our theme for the season. When you see the display on the platform you won’t be able to forget that we are thinking about time. The time Abraham waited for a child, the time of greatness under David that quickly dissolved, the long time of exile and dispersion – all of which is the time of waiting for the anointed one, the Messiah, the Saviour, Jesus.
Advent would work better if we made ourselves wait with lights and decorations and celebrations and presents until Christmas and then celebrated the full 12 days of Christmas instead of boxing up Christmas on December 26, but I digress, again. Suffice it to say, we will at least try to rein things in and hold the door closed on all-out celebration even as the anticipated joy seeps under the door and through the windows.
Pensive advent wishes to you all. Pastor Erick
Congregational Participation:
Thank you for all your clocks! Wow - what a response. You will see the visual display on Sunday, beautifully prepared by Tallia.
I've also included a Psalm of waiting/lament/longing each week to indicate the themes of Advent. Thank you to those who have agreed to read.
For the Christmas services, Tallia would love for the kids (and adults!) to colour some stars for her greenery display on the side walls. The star cut-outs will be available for the whole season of Advent, at the welcome center. Hand them in to the office whenever you have some done! Colour them all yellow - or colour a manger scene on the star - or a shepherd - whatever you choose that will tell the Christmas story. Deadline is Friday, Dec. 20.
Advent/Christmas Playlist (click on the links/buttons below) - Enjoy this playlist for your worship preparations this season. A few of these will definitely be in one of the services. For this coming week, it would be good to listen to "Promises" as we think about Abraham and God's promise to him. There will be a number of "waiting" songs as well - have a listen to Shane and Shane's arrangement of "I will Wait for you (Psalm 130)" (by the Getty's) - it's so beautiful. As always, thank you for your preparations for communal worship at Mountainview.
