Like Hanukkah lights, the Advent candles are a way of counting down to a special event, in this case, the time of preparation before the remembrance of the birth of Christ. Three blue or purple candles, one pink and a white one in the center of the wreath are traditional and each Sunday until Christmas Eve one more candle is lit. (Sometimes the candles are all white or all red.) On Christmas Eve, all the candles are burning.
The first candle is usually called Hope, and is often linked with the prophets, particularly Isaiah, who foretold and dreamed of the birth of the Messiah.
Pastor Steve's text today was John 1, and his thesis was that the Incarnation, the coming of God "into the flesh", is the fundamental underpinning of Christianity. Without the sweaty, nasty business of the Incarnation, Christmas may be sweet, sentimental and charming, but barely Christian. Without the Incarnation, the life, death and resurrection of Christ would be a fairy tale or a hero story.
The gospel writer, possibly the disciple John, wrote: In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. Through the Word all things were made and without the Word nothing was made. . . [During the ministry of John the Baptist] the real light which enlightens every man (and woman) was even then coming into the world. The Word became flesh; he came to dwell among us and we saw his glory, such glory as befits the Father's only Son, full of grace and truth.
Pastor Steve suggested that as John the Baptist and the disciples didn't at first recognize God present in Jesus but later did, we too could develop the insight to recognize God at work in the world now, and we might want to call into the church office with "God sightings."
Stay with me while I puzzle this out:
God was already in the world in the form of the Creation, i.e., "Through the Word all things that were made were made and without the Word nothing was made." To me it seems that the created world in and of itself argues for a Creator--it's simply too complex and magnificent to happen by accident. Scientific explorations of the subatomic argue that there is no tiniest particle of matter, that it is waves or energy. Basically, nothing that we think is solid is solid, which says to me it's all energy, it's all God.
Pastor Steve says, "The Word took on flesh and moved into the neighborhood." Okay, so far--if God can exist in subatomic particles and in the galaxies and in numbers and colors, mountains and flowers and music and art and in every newborn baby ever born--I could get that God could incarnate in a special, a more conscious, intimate way. Whether that is so different, so distinct, from many other religions, I'm not so sure.
A friend of mine, who claims to be an atheist, refuses to believe in an all-powerful God who would set up a world wherein innocents suffer. This kind and tender-hearted man can't believe that God would be less loving, less merciful, than he himself, an imperfect human. This just stops my friend cold.
It seems to me that the Incarnation of "God with us" does not begin to address the question of why God couldn't or wouldn't or didn't set up the world to have no suffering, or only suffering for those of us that deserve it. Through the Incarnation God wanted us to know that God was willing to suffer through this mortal life with us. To suffer mortal life yet to love its sweetness as we do. Yes, to move into the neighborhood.
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| Advent Wreath & Devotional |
The first candle is usually called Hope, and is often linked with the prophets, particularly Isaiah, who foretold and dreamed of the birth of the Messiah.
Pastor Steve's text today was John 1, and his thesis was that the Incarnation, the coming of God "into the flesh", is the fundamental underpinning of Christianity. Without the sweaty, nasty business of the Incarnation, Christmas may be sweet, sentimental and charming, but barely Christian. Without the Incarnation, the life, death and resurrection of Christ would be a fairy tale or a hero story.
The gospel writer, possibly the disciple John, wrote: In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. Through the Word all things were made and without the Word nothing was made. . . [During the ministry of John the Baptist] the real light which enlightens every man (and woman) was even then coming into the world. The Word became flesh; he came to dwell among us and we saw his glory, such glory as befits the Father's only Son, full of grace and truth.
Pastor Steve suggested that as John the Baptist and the disciples didn't at first recognize God present in Jesus but later did, we too could develop the insight to recognize God at work in the world now, and we might want to call into the church office with "God sightings."
Stay with me while I puzzle this out:
God was already in the world in the form of the Creation, i.e., "Through the Word all things that were made were made and without the Word nothing was made." To me it seems that the created world in and of itself argues for a Creator--it's simply too complex and magnificent to happen by accident. Scientific explorations of the subatomic argue that there is no tiniest particle of matter, that it is waves or energy. Basically, nothing that we think is solid is solid, which says to me it's all energy, it's all God.
Pastor Steve says, "The Word took on flesh and moved into the neighborhood." Okay, so far--if God can exist in subatomic particles and in the galaxies and in numbers and colors, mountains and flowers and music and art and in every newborn baby ever born--I could get that God could incarnate in a special, a more conscious, intimate way. Whether that is so different, so distinct, from many other religions, I'm not so sure.
A friend of mine, who claims to be an atheist, refuses to believe in an all-powerful God who would set up a world wherein innocents suffer. This kind and tender-hearted man can't believe that God would be less loving, less merciful, than he himself, an imperfect human. This just stops my friend cold.
It seems to me that the Incarnation of "God with us" does not begin to address the question of why God couldn't or wouldn't or didn't set up the world to have no suffering, or only suffering for those of us that deserve it. Through the Incarnation God wanted us to know that God was willing to suffer through this mortal life with us. To suffer mortal life yet to love its sweetness as we do. Yes, to move into the neighborhood.