This Sunday is the third Sunday of Advent. Over half of Advent is over, and we are quickly coming upon Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
What were your hopes and dreams for this Advent season? Was there a practice you wanted to try? Did you stick with the tried and true of the lighting of the Advent wreath, or opening the windows of an Advent calendar?
I confess to you that with the multiple funeral services in the past two weeks, my Advent practices have fallen to the wayside. Truthfully, they never even started. My poor children never got an Advent calendar. Our Advent wreath is still packed away with the Christmas decorations. My dining room table still has my very limited Thanksgiving decor on it.
Some of you reading this are horrified on my behalf, I’m sure. Maybe not so much about the Advent things, but certainly over the idea that we don’t have a single Christmas light hung, or the tree up, or decorations at least unpacked! Perhaps there are others of you reading this sighing in relief and solidarity. Or perhaps you’re only half-way there: some good intentions for Advent that fell along the wayside, the Christmas decorations almost but not quite complete, more things left undone than done.
“Fear not!” says the angel. In the words of the ’80’s poets from New Jersey, we are “halfway there, whoa-oh, livin’ on a prayer.”
What I will remember from this Advent season is not how unsuccessful my Advent practices were, or the limited time I had to enjoy my holiday decorations. I will remember this Advent season as a time when I was sad, and it was okay to be sad because I was not alone. I will remember this Advent as a time when we as a church community deepened our connections with one another as we were sad together. I will cherish it as a time when I saw the community reach out to one another, and when asked, the community showed up, with prayer, with music, with casseroles and brownies, with joy and sadness held tightly together.
The remainder of this Advent, may you feel the prayers of our community around you. If you are feeling disconnected from community, I encourage you and welcome you to recommit, reach out, and re-engage once again. May you continue to pray for your fellow Nativity members, and may you rest in the knowledge that they are praying for you. Keep living in those prayers.