A postcard for the First Sunday of Advent, 11/27/22.
My version of an Advent wreath.
It is hard to believe, but Advent is here.
The next few weeks are likely busy for most of us. Work things to get caught up on before the end of the year. School semesters ending. Holiday travel. Holiday shopping. There is no shortage of things and events to distract us at the end of the year.
The season of Advent breaks into all of our busyness and asks us to focus on God. To remember in all our comings and goings, we are preparing for Christ’s coming in glory and the fullness of the Kingdom of God.
Here is a prayer that I am carrying with me this Advent season:
May the sounds of Advent stir a longing in your people, O God. Come again to set us free from the dullness of routine and the poverty of our imaginations. Break the patterns which bind us to small commitments and to the stale answers we have given to questions of no importance. Let the Advent trumpet blow, let the walls of our defenses crumble, and make a place in our lives for the freshness of your love, well-lived in the Spirit, and still given to all who know their need and dare receive it. Amen.
A Prayer for Advent by Howard Thurman
A sermon for the First Sunday of Advent for the Episcopal Church of the Messiah, Heflin, Alabama, 11/27/22:
Principal texts: Romans 13:11-14 * Matthew 24:36-44
Coming next
- December 4 – St. Barnabas, Roanoke — 2nd Sunday of Advent
- December 11 – Messiah, Heflin — 3rd Sunday of Advent
- December 18 – St. Paul’s, Greensboro — 4th Sunday of Advent
- December 24 – St. Barnabas / Messiah / Holy Spirit, Alabaster — Christmas Eve
Notoriously Episcopalian 