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Advent - A Time of Waiting

 

Happy New Year!!

Woo-hoo!  It is a new year!  Wait?  You say no, it’s a month away?  You say, Pastor Joyce we haven’t Christmas yet.  Hmm, call the board together, something is wrong with our pastor.  Let me say it again, Happy New Year!

Let me ask you a question, how do you know when the New Year is?  Your answer is probably because the calendar says so.  But there are other new year celebrations.  Probably the one we are most familiar with is Chinese New Year.  There is a Muslim New Year.  The Jewish New Year is celebrated Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur.  Countries like Thailand, Iran, and the Russian Orthodox church all have unique timing for celebrations.

Time is a slave.  We are slaves to our calendars.  We are slaves to the tyranny of the clock.  You know the sayings: Time and tide waits for no man.  Time is money.  Don’t waste your time.  Time is the most valuable thing a person can spend.  And the list goes on.

Advent is the beginning of the liturgical new year.  Yes.  With the first Sunday of Advent we mark the beginning of the new year with a theme of waiting.  While you are familiar with the advent candles and wreaths with their themes of Peace, Hope, Joy, and Love.  You know the readings.  You’ve heard the words all your life.  But really, what does advent really mean?  Why does the church have this marker of time?

Advent is a time of waiting and preparation.  It is a time of expectation.  Remember when you were a child and couldn’t wait for Christmas Day?  As the days passed, perhaps marked by an Advent calendar, you counted off how many days until Christmas.

What are you preparing for this Advent?  Is it all about presents and baking – decorating and buying?  Or is it about Jesus?  Oh, we all know the right answer is Jesus!  That’s an easy question.  But how are your preparing spiritually for the coming of Jesus, not the Jesus in the manger but the Jesus who is coming again.

Christ has Died, Christ is Risen, CHRIST WILL COME AGAIN.  We confess this simple creedal statement at communion.  That’s what the preparation time is for!

How are you preparing?  Happy New Year, it is time to be like the five wise virgins (Matthew 25:1-13) and prepare for CHRIST WILL COME AGAIN.

“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.”  Matthew 25:13

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