A pastor friend of mine recently sent out this note in preparation for his Sunday sermon. It so hits me where I'm at right now. This season and the place and time of life I seem to have arrived at. Waiting. Longing. Anticipating.
Enjoy and happy advent to you.
For those of you fairly new to Grace, you may wonder why we haven’t sung any Christmas carols yet. We are three Sundays into Advent and have yet to sing a single Christmas song. You need to know that this is not an oversight. We do this on purpose.
At Grace, we are worshiping according to the ancient pattern of Advent first, Christmas second. Notice that Advent and Christmas are not the same thing. They are two distinct seasons. Advent is the four-week period immediately preceding Christmas Day. Christmas begins on Christmas Day and lasts until January 6 (Epiphany).
Advent is all about waiting and yearning. It's a time to recognize areas of our lives where we are not presently experiencing fullness. So, during Advent, we sing songs of longing like "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" and "Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus". These are all sung from the context of our present lack. Advent is a time where we sit, at times uncomfortably, in the midst of our unfulfilled longings and unmet expectations.
In our Advent worship, we are trying to learn the very important skill of learning to wait on God. Of course, this can seem very strange and out of step. By and large, our culture doesn't know how to wait. During Advent, we seek to grow each year in our ability to faithfully wait on the Lord.
So, what about those Christmas carols? The good news is they’re coming. In fact, we will begin to enter into the joy of the Christmas season at our Lessons & Carols Service at 5pm on Christmas Eve. That is when our worship transitions from Advent to Christmastide.
Beginning on Christmas Eve and continuing for two weeks, we will enter into a season of worship where we celebrate God’s goodness in sending his son. We will sing “Joy to the World” and “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing.” During the Christmas season, we focus our attention on thanking and praising God for what he has done for us in Christ.
So, if during Advent we learn how to wait, during Christmastide we learn how to celebrate. Both are vital parts of a faithful Christian life.