Christ Our Shepherd Advent Calendar 2019
Daily Advent Reflection from Wes Saunders
Growing up as a Southern Baptist in the deep South in the fifties and sixties and in a small, rural town to boot, I was not particularly caught up in the Advent season. I probably did not even know what Advent was; let’s face it, my version of some kind of universal, ecumenical Christianity was fish sticks on Friday at the school cafeteria, perhaps in deference to our communities’ very small Catholic Church. The Church calendar, as I now know it, was not part of our Baptist calendar. We certainly celebrated Christmas and Easter but without the anticipatory run-up that Advent, Lent and Holy Week provide. We prided ourselves on being a non-liturgical congregation; of course, if we varied from that regular order of service, folks were liable to make their feelings known. I was in my mid thirties, after we joined a Presbyterian church, before I begin to really discover Advent.
And what a blessing that has become for me, particularly here at Christ Our Shepherd. The four Sundays of Advent provide a welcome relief from the glitter and hustle-bustle of the Christmas Season that seems to begin earlier every year. The candle lighting each Sunday by church families, culminating in the joint congregational candle lighting on Christmas Eve helps make the celebration both personal and communal. We are part of the greater Christian Church and Advent helps us prepare for the coming of God Incarnate in His Son, Jesus. Closing with part of Handel’s “Messiah” provides an appropriate climax as we try to simultaneously reach the right notes and remember the right words. That First Coming of Jesus began the process that enables us to live in the light and presence of God’s love and grace.
And so, both Godspell’s Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord and the Advent hymn O Come, O Come, Emmanuel help me know the anticipation and realization of that birth almost two thousand years ago.
