Grateful Longing
Dear Church,
Thanksgiving and Advent — how do we wrap both arms around these things?
There is the American holiday of harvest, organized around our recognition of God’s blessing and the most reasonable human response. And then there is the beginning of Advent, the season before Christmas, the season of waiting, when we recognize that we dwell in a land of deep darkness.
On Thursday we lead our hearts to take in the wonders of God’s provision, and then on Sunday we posture our hearts to pine, to detest this fallen world of death and to desperately long for Jesus’s return. We have more right now than what we could ever deserve, simply in being alive, and at the same time nothing about life in this sin-tainted world is the way it’s supposed to be. Not yet.
Put altogether, this means we possess a grateful longing.
We are truly thankful for God’s wondrous grace to us, and that same grace leads us to ask for more — for more of Jesus’s realness and glory in our lives, and for Jesus to just come back here, making all things new.
Our Worship This Advent
To mark this season, alongside decorations in the sanctuary there are a few changes you’ll notice in our Sunday liturgy. First, after the welcome and before the Call to Worship, we will light the Advent candles, one for each Sunday of Advent, to count down to Christmas. Everyone will remain seated, and the candle-lighter will proceed from the back doors to the front. This will be a longer-than-comfortable time of silence and waiting, which is the point.
Next, after the candle is lit, the congregation will stand for the Call to Worship, which has also changed. The pastor will say: “Christ has come!” And the congregation responds: “Christ will come again!”
A new feature this year is the recognition of our tithes and offerings. A couple months ago I had mentioned the pastors’ plans to incorporate a giving moment into our liturgy, and Advent seems like an appropriate time for this addition. Giving to God is the most ancient expression of worship in the Bible (see Genesis 4). We don’t give because God needs anything from us — he certainly doesn’t — but we give because “our stuff” is so closely tied to our hearts, and it’s our hearts that God wants! To represent this important element of worship, the brother leading the congregational prayer will simply place a small box at the center of the Lord’s Table and then begin his prayer in thanksgiving for God’s provision. The box is a reminder of our resources, generously given to us by God, and which we return to him in adoration.
The Advent sermon series this year will focus on the theme of light shining into the darkness. The Leviticus series has reminded us that we live in a fallen world of death, and that we are too acclimated to its darkness. Jesus is the light that shines upon us and set our eyes aright — toward “Eden,” in hope.
Our Advent worship will conclude with a special Christmas Eve service on Saturday, December 24, beginning at 4:00pm. And then, in God’s good providence, in the year of our Lord two thousand and twenty two, Christmas Day is on Sunday again. We’ll gather as families on Sunday morning to sing “Joy to the World!”, to greet one another with gladness, to worship Jesus, our Lord, Savior, and Treasure!
Grateful longing.
In Christ,
Pastor Jonathan
