November 17, 2023

The Advent Of Practice

For about three decades now, those studying the Christian faith, and religions in general, have recovered a concept that had faded away in many religious communities. This is the concept of the practices of faith. It seems that since the invention of the printing press, and all the ways of creating and distributing texts since its invention, most spiritual formation has been fairly bookish. Before that, spiritual practices for most people were a balance of oral communication and practices that put that teaching—at the risk of saying the obvious—“into practice.” Studies in education and formation in general, and faith formation in particular, have demonstrated that the most effective way to foster one’s faith life is a regular rhythm of faith practices.

As a community, our most common practices are prayer, scripture reading and study, and worship. I inherited your practices of following the church year and the lessons assigned for each Lord’s Day and Holy Day on which we worship. We often think of worship as a succession of Sundays. But there is more to it than that. Just as our common calendar year is divided into months, weeks, and days, the Church calendar is divided into seasons, weeks, and days. We are just about to end the season of Pentecost, which began at the end of May; Pentecost lasts almost exactly half of the year. It focuses on we, the Church, being Christ’s body in the world. One of the worship practices we have during Pentecost is singing a blessing to each other at the end of our worship service. In this way we embody the belief that we can bestow blessings in Christ's name.This will end as we begin Advent, but will return in mid-May next year.

Advent is a season of anticipation: anticipating the full revelation of Jesus as Lord and the fulfillment of all of the promises of God now made manifest. It is a season of both preparation and waiting. The lessons of this season remind us of how the people of God waited for the first coming of God’s Messiah (or Christ), Jesus, as we await the second coming of Jesus Christ. The language of these texts includes busy-ness, hopeful waiting, and a dash of impatience. It strikes me that the language of Advent is exactly the language we need at this time in the life of our church. We are in between the departure of a pastor and the arrival of another pastor, and we know not when that will happen. I invite you to allow the season of Advent and its practices of worship, to shape and inform your prayers and your reading of scripture. Might it also give you hope knowing that this is a temporary season for our church, and one in which we might continue to grow, preparing for that new thing God will be doing within our church.

So as this church year begins to wind down, might we all listen to the promises of Christ’s return that mark the end of the season of Pentecost, and lead us into a season of waiting for that promise to be fulfilled.

~ Pastor Todd

P.S. Beginning this Sunday, next year’s Church Year calendars will be available for you to take home. Their theme this year is “conversion.” What do you think should be, or will be, the theme of our next year as a church?