IN THE INTERIM
Since Labor Day, the stores have been preparing for the Christmas Season. On September 27th Patty and I walked into the Lowe’s in Farmville to find all the Christmas decorations on full display. We also took advantage of the lighted displays and took our annual Christmas picture, sending copies to our family.
We are now also seeing, if not already, all the Christmas specials and movies on television. Some are nostalgic. One in particular for me is “A Christmas Story.” Little Ralphie wanted a Red Rider BB Gun. I remember as a child wanting a BB gun. I would spend hours looking at it in the Best Products catalog. Ralphie had a mother that comforted him after he got into a fight with the local bully. I recall my mother comforting me after a bully beat me up across the street. And like Ralphie’s father, mine was always ready to jump in to fix whatever was broken as soon as it happened. This is a time of year when many remember back to their childhood, family gatherings, and Christmas mornings from times that have passed. But we need to sometimes put our minds to what is to come.
We are now in the Season of Advent. According to the New Oxford American Dictionary, the definition of Advent is:
- The first season of the Christian church year, leading up to Christmas and including the four preceding Sundays.
- The coming or second coming of Christ.
Advent is also a time of preparation. We need to take time this season to prepare ourselves spiritually for the arrival of the Christ Child and how our lives will be impacted.
This Advent Season will bring sermons to ready us to receive the Christ child into our hearts and daily lives. All scripture will be read from the King James Version as it is the language of the season, and each sermon will ask a different question:
- First Sunday of Advent Are You Ready?
- Second Sunday of Advent What is Your Favorite Decoration?
- Third Sunday of Advent What Child is This?
- Fourth Sunday of Advent Can You Believe It?
On Christmas Eve we will meet to celebrate the coming of the Christ child with a service of music, meditation, the Lord’s Supper and will conclude with the lighting of candles. The next day we will hold worship and come to realize though Christmas day may be coming to an end, it is not over. Not just on Christmas day, but at all times we know that God gave the best gift of all that keeps on giving the whole year long:
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16 KJV
Yours in Christ,
Rev. John Carey