A few weeks ago, seven of us gathered around the conference room table to imagine, brainstorm, create and reflect on the upcoming season of Advent. This season, typically four weeks in length, leads up to our celebration of Christmas, or Jesus’ birth. But we do not merely celebrate an event that is 2,000 some odd years old but also the affirmation that Christ is in the world today, and that Christ will come again. This season reminds us that we live in the “now and not yet” or “between times.” One writer puts it like this, “[A]s the church celebrates God’s inbreaking into history in the Incarnation, and anticipates a future consummation to that history for which ‘all creation is groaning awaiting its redemption,’ it also confesses its own responsibility as a people commissioned to ‘love the Lord your God with all your heart’ and to ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’”
This season is characterized by waiting, longing, preparation and expectancy. We long to be delivered, like our faith ancestors who were slaves in Egypt, from all that oppresses, all that binds, all that keeps us – and our neighbors - from being less than we were created to be. It is from this longing that our hope springs, that God – ever faithful and steadfast – will heal and recreate the world and us along with it. So we wait. And while we wait, we prepare.
This year, our theme for Advent is, Out of the Box: The Gift that Cannot Be Contained.
Those of us gathered around the table were invited to share what that phrase, “out of the box” means to us and what we might imagine to be “the gift that cannot be contained.” Every inch of the board along the wall was filled as our group of seven shared ideas and images that bounced off of each other’s. People shared stories that came to mind, ideas that sprung up, and painted pictures with their words. A gift that cannot be contained isn’t just for one person, the receiver, but for many! Being out of the box means we’ll be uncomfortable because it will involve new things, non-traditional things, maybe even unusual things! A gift that cannot be contained probably isn’t an object but maybe more relational. It can take on a life of its own. Being out of the box means that it will be unexpected.
Having started with so many ideas, the team then heard and reflected on each of the upcoming scripture passages for the season. Finally, we put all of our senses to work – our eyes, our ears, our noses, our hands – to consider how we could embody the theme during the next four weeks. Our hope is that worship will enable us to encounter God anew, invite us into the work of preparing and making a way for the Christ child to arrive, and inviting us to say, “Yes!” – like Mary – once again to a life filled with the Holy Spirit.
You’ll note that our worship order will be different and that new worship elements will be included. You’ll notice some familiar, traditional elements might be missing. All of this might make you a bit uncomfortable. We invite you, nevertheless, to enter with an open mind and an open heart. We trust that God will meet us where we’re at.
May we move into this season ready to receive more than we can imagine…and to give all that we have!
Peace, Pastor Emily