Pastor's Pen // December 2019
Carly Simon touched many of our hearts when she wrote:
We can never know about the days to come,
But we think about them anyway. Anticipation, Anticipation...
Is keepin’ me waiting!
Advent comes from a Latin word Adventus which means ‘to come.’ It is a time of waiting and anticipation. We begin with a carol or two and build to- ward Christmas Eve, candles, and the celebration of Jesus’ birth.
This Advent we are building around anticipation as we revisit Christ’s birth by hearing something of those days and that time through the eyes of those who experienced it: Mary, Joseph, and Elizabeth in the days that led up to that Bethlehem birth. We will be ‘kept waiting’ as new decora- tions are added to our worship space each week.
My hope is that as we are kept waiting this Advent the message and meaning of Christmas will grow even stronger within us...That we will embrace the anticipation. That we will begin to lean into new possibility, renewed faith, stronger love the way the earliest church did in Acts chapter 2.
“The believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the commu- nity, to their shared meals, and to their prayers...and a sense of awe and won- der came over everyone...” Acts 2:42- 43. To be devoted literally means to ‘lean in.’ So let’s lean in this Advent. Lean into the carols, the decorations, the excitement and anticipation as we prepare to celebrate an event that changed the world and continues to change people like you and me.
See you in church.
-Pastor Ben
