Advent Letters — So it begins!

Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! That part is easy, but it isn’t Christmas yet. So how do we best greet one another during this season of Advent? Blessed Advent? Adventurous Advent? Bemused Advent? Whatever salutation you prefer, I’m glad you’re here as we begin this Minooka UMC blog. I hope it will be a fun, interactive addition to the ways we relate and communicate as pastor, congregation, and community. To begin, the letters I write for our weekly email newsletter will also live here. That way if you miss an email or want to revisit something from them it will be easy to locate. I’ll also offer some prayers in this space along with interesting or inspirational ideas I encounter plus some of my own musings. If something here moves you or engenders a question, I hope you’ll comment. I also hope this caveat is unnecessary, but we live in the real world even as we are attempting to partner with God’s Holy Spirit as She invites us to bring about the world as it should be, so….comments that belittle or insult anyone will not be tolerated.

The following letter is from December 1, so I know it’s a couple weeks old, but let’s begin at the beginning, shall we? I’ve heard that is a very good place to start.

Have you noticed that there seems to be a special name for, like, every single day this week? Thanksgiving Thursday, Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, First Sunday of Advent, Cyber Monday, Giving Tuesday…all we’re missing is Taco Tuesday, Wacky Wednesday, and Thank God it’s Friday! Throw in the fact that some radio stations have been playing Christmas music since Halloween, it’s no wonder we feel a bit discombobulated!

While it is true that every day is a good day to be thankful, so in that sense Thanksgiving continues, when you enter our worship space this Sunday it will be unmistakable that we have gone all-in on transitioning to the Advent-Christmas season. The warm browns and oranges of autumn have been replaced by the cool blues, whites, and silvers of winter…and Advent. The main liturgical color for Advent is blue. I think you’ll be blown away by how beautiful the sanctuary looks—I know I was. One member had a vision for how to transform our space, another member did the sowing, and the Worship Committee put it all together. My deepest thanks to all of them!

Why are we so intentional about what we add to the sanctuary and where we add it? These are not mere decorations. In addition to looking really good, trees and wreaths and Chrismon ornaments and stars and lights and ivy all also offer symbolic meaning. They help us tell the story of God’s incredible love for us all. Our hope, our intent, is to engage all your senses in telling that much-needed story. 

Another new experiment you will find waiting for you in the sanctuary this Sunday is our Advent Devotional. There is one for every person. (Of course, if couples or families want to share one, that’s totally fine too.) I really hope you will take one as they explore the texts and themes of the season through scripture, poetry, music, and art. Too often, Western White Protestant Christianity is all about head knowledge. This Advent Devotional is one attempt to move us beyond that one-track approach to living our faith in Jesus.

Plotting Goodness,
Pastor Dave

Image credit: A Sanctified Art LLC sanctifiedart.org